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T-Mobile USA Rolling Out Software Update for Existing Unlocked iPhone Customers

aristotle said:
No, the carrier update will unlock it. Read the article. It mentions unlocked AT&T iPhone 5 unit getting AWS LTE. HSPA+ AWS will only be for new units going forward.
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It was updated to say "new AT&T iPhone". And a carrier bundle isn't going to unlock AWS HSPA anyways. I really don't even know why T-mobile is stating that the carrier bundle allows this.

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hexonxonx said:
I'm surprised we haven't seen the carrier file posted here in these forums like we did when AT&T enabled MMS.

This makes me think very few people have it right now.
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No one has it yet since it isn't live. It will not be a long rollout. Once it is available, everyone should be able to get it.

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Demonofelru said:
surprised this hasn't been posted yet but just go to www.tmobile.com/isetup
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That is an old configuration file and it doesn't even work correctly on the iPhone 5 anyways.

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rafkong said:
My understanding was that Tmobile was refarming their entire network. In other words, eliminate 1700 and replace it with 1900.
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Sure, but they haven't yet.
 
aristotle said:
No, the carrier update will unlock it. Read the article. It mentions unlocked AT&T iPhone 5 unit getting AWS LTE. HSPA+ AWS will only be for new units going forward.

Technically software can unlock the HSPA+ AWS band as well but Apple decided to not do it. There is a jaiblreak tweak to enable HSPA+ AWS so the hardware does support it and all that is missing is a driver in the install.

I would suspect that Apple might unlock the functionality in iOS 7 for even older iPhone 5 models.
Click to expand...

Show us the 3G/4G jailbreak tweak for the iPhone 5 that will enable the 1700 Mhz band. I know there is a tweak for LTE access. We know that the chipset itself is able to support the 1700 band, but from what I understand it's disabled at the factory. Much like an nvidia 660 Ti is the same as a 680, but has several CUDA cores disabled and can't be re-enabled by software.
 
ghostface147 said:
No. The 3G/4G AWS band is hardware enabled at the factory. Software can't unlock it. However if you're in an area where AWS LTE is available...have at it.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure apple is going to take all the old A1428 iPhones back to the their "Factory" and enable 1700MHz on them.

Also I feel apple isnt doing anything about this until it gets hit with a class action lawsuit (which I have a feeling some people will at least give it a try - would be the only fair way to go as they should have just added the support...I mean Samsung, HTC n other manufacturers have been doing it for a long time...they didnt need to be told - the reason it hurts more for the iPhone 5 is because apple is basically replacing it with their "Improved" one.) as they most probably don't want to look stupid for not allowing 1700MHz (AWS) Support for 3G...I think people would have put apple in the spotlight if all of a sudden they started selling a iPhone 5 with 1700MHz 3G Support without saying something along the lines of "it is enabled on hardware at the factory" etc.
 
any way this will work with 5.x?

My wife's iPhone 3GS is still on the last version of iOS 5. I imagine I won't see this carrier update automatically, but will there be a way for me to manually install it so she can get Visual Voicemail? Or is my only option to bite the bullet and upgrade her to iOS 6? Not the end of the world, she just doesn't like it when stuff changes (her Mac's still on Snow Leopard).
 
usmankhan90 said:
Does anybody have an idea whether the carrier update will work for iphone 5 verizon version?
Click to expand...

No because the LTE bands necessary aren't physically on the Verizon version. You will not get 3G/4G AWS access either unless T-Mobile completed their re-farming from AWS to 1900 Mhz. Once they do complete it, the best you will get is 3G/4G, but never LTE.
 
Satnam1989 said:
Pretty sure apple is going to take all the old A1428 iPhones back to the their "Factory" and enable 1700MHz on them.

Also I feel apple isnt doing anything about this until it gets hit with a class action lawsuit (which I have a feeling some people will at least give it a try - would be the only fair way to go as they should have just added the support...I mean Samsung, HTC n other manufacturers have been doing it for a long time...they didnt need to be told - the reason it hurts more for the iPhone 5 is because apple is basically replacing it with their "Improved" one.) as they most probably don't want to look stupid for not allowing 1700MHz (AWS) Support for 3G...I think people would have put apple in the spotlight if all of a sudden they started selling a iPhone 5 with 1700MHz 3G Support without saying something along the lines of "it is enabled on hardware at the factory" etc.
Click to expand...
While it is entirely possible that this is a way to boost hardware sales of iPhones, it's also possible they legally cannot update the old A1428 devices to support frequencies they weren't certified for by the FCC (in this case, the AWS HSPA+ band. AWS LTE was certified for use on at&t.) I'm expecting a teardown of the new model to show no differences other than a reprogrammed modem.
 
usmankhan90 said:
Does anybody have an idea whether the carrier update will work for iphone 5 verizon version?
Click to expand...

Yes, it should.
But the only thing it will do is enable APN settings for MMS and tethering, visual voicemail, and add the account shortcuts. It will not enable LTE or 42 Mbps HSPA+.
 
oj in compton said:
While it is entirely possible that this is a way to boost hardware sales of iPhones, it's also possible they legally cannot update the old A1428 devices to support frequencies they weren't certified for by the FCC (in this case, the AWS HSPA+ band. AWS LTE was certified for use on at&t.) I'm expecting a teardown of the new model to show no differences other than a reprogrammed modem.
Click to expand...

You can re-certify hardware with the FCC. Since Apple certified the same exact hardware instead of doing a re-certification, it means it is likely a software update is not possible.
 
I did the LTE "hack" that has been talked about, I have MMS working already.


Besides Visual Voicemail would I get anything different by actually doing a carrier update?
 
beverson said:
My wife's iPhone 3GS is still on the last version of iOS 5. I imagine I won't see this carrier update automatically, but will there be a way for me to manually install it so she can get Visual Voicemail? Or is my only option to bite the bullet and upgrade her to iOS 6? Not the end of the world, she just doesn't like it when stuff changes (her Mac's still on Snow Leopard).
Click to expand...

You could try plugging the phone into iTunes.
 
bozzykid said:
You can re-certify hardware with the FCC. Since Apple certified the same exact hardware instead of doing a re-certification, it means it is likely a software update is not possible.
Click to expand...
Interesting, none of my previous searches on the topic yielded any results. I'm very interested to see a teardown of the new model.
 
Apple told the FCC that the addition of 1700mhz band did not require a hardware change...


Screen%20Shot%202013-03-26%20at%204.00.16%20PM_575px.png


Source: Anandtech, Anandtech 2
 
Haven't gotten anything on my iPhone 4 6.1.2 either OTA in settings > general > about or in iTunes.

I'm jailbroken and on 6.1.2, not sure if you have to be on 6.1.3 and unjailbroken or not... can anyone comment?
 
oj in compton said:
While it is entirely possible that this is a way to boost hardware sales of iPhones, it's also possible they legally cannot update the old A1428 devices to support frequencies they weren't certified for by the FCC (in this case, the AWS HSPA+ band. AWS LTE was certified for use on at&t.) I'm expecting a teardown of the new model to show no differences other than a reprogrammed modem.
Click to expand...
I believe there was already an article a little bit ago (from a reputable hardware/software review site) that stated the new version is identical in terms of hardware to the "old" version, based on FCC documentation.
 
Still haven't been able to get this update. Just restored my iPhone 5 (using iTunes to the latest 6.1.3 software), did not restore settings or anything. Went to Settings -> General -> About. No dice. Checked for update software updates from the iPhone and in iTunes, didn't come up with anything. This is a factory unlocked iPhone 5 I bought at the Apple Store in December.
 
Last edited:
SCIONTX said:
Someone posted this in another thread:
Click to expand...

That is not a carrier bundle. And it is old. It will setup the wrong APN settings for the iPhone 5 and it will not enable LTE and Visual Voicemail. But you are welcome to install it. :)

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desimaniac said:
Apple told the FCC that the addition of 1700mhz band did not require a hardware change...
Click to expand...

Sure. The hardware is the same but the firmware on the chip is obviously different. Apparently the firmware is not able to be updated with a software update. Otherwise Apple wouldn't spend resources on updating their entire supply chain with the new version.
 
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