Verizon iPhone Carries World-Mode 'Gobi' Chip From Qualcomm

[Martyimac]

They already do, the Blackberry Tour supports both CDMA and GSM (via SIM slot) the SIM isn't required for pure CDMA operation. It was used to allow CDMA devices to roam in Europe where there was no CDMA.

My Verizon BB 9650 also has the capability and the sim.

 

[milan03]

They already do, the Blackberry Tour supports both CDMA and GSM (via SIM slot) the SIM isn't required for pure CDMA operation. It was used to allow CDMA devices to roam in Europe where there was no CDMA.

As far as frequencies go, 850 is standard for North America, and infact is the same frequency Verizon is using for CDMA, they are both the old A band (ATT) and B band (Verizon) that was used in analog in North America for years, as far as the antenna goes, both support 850 and 1.9 which are the same frequencies used in most carriers in North America today. AWS is the new one that isn't supported yet, actually when I was at CTIA last year and asked Qualcomm, they expect AWS support sometime this year (2011).

Actually AWS is supported on MDM6600:

 

[vincenz]

Quick, someone make a poll for people who are planning to switch to Verizon for the "improved" vibrator.

 

[liavman]

Apple has zero incentive to offer a single phone that could be used on either network. The reason is simple. .... If you hate Verizon's inability to take a call and use the Internet at the same time, you'll not only pay through the nose to get out of your contract, but you'll need to buy another iPhone to boot. .

Well, you can always sell your verizon iPhone for a profit...I am sure there will be a huge grey market for it

 

[twoodcc]

looking forward to one phone that can work on any network

 

[ilovemyibook]

They want the vibration to be softer?! I cant feel my 3GS vibrate at all, this is the first phone that I've actually had to use sound notifactions. EVERY other phone I would keep on vibrate only 100% of the time. Who agrees with me?

 

[Rot'nApple]

When ATT & Verizon LTE is implemented, whatever year that happens to be, are we still going to have two technologies like GSM and CDMA of today?

And with LTE, doesn't that mean a Verizon phone with voice and Data and what of ATT? Will their reception improve? Thus muting both argument that are burning up these forum posts.

 

[smithrh]

Noticed the REV B EVDO capability on CDMA 😉

Technically capable of a top speeds of 14.7mbps vs REV A's 3.1mpbps(real world 1mbps average). I would expect speeds in the 4-5mbps range with REV B(similar to GSM).

Blackberries have similar chips in them and i would not be surprised if most of the other major devices do as well.

Now if only Verizon/Sprint would roll out REV B data across the 3G networks which from what i understand requires mostly a software update on the towers.

Most assuredly going from RevA to RevB is not "mostly a software update." I cringe whenever I see this; there is so so so much that has to go on in such an upgrade... testing, configuration, new hardware installs, optimization, software upgrades, re-configurations based on field testing, etc etc etc. Software is certainly a big part, but still just one part of the picture.

of the CDMA carriers in China, Indonesia have begun doing just that. I doubt it will ever happen here though as Verizon/Sprint are now focused on rolling out new 4G networks.

Ah, but that's good. Don't focus on the slow 3G, put your energies and investment into 4G. 4G technologies are not only faster for us, the users, but actually cheaper for the operators too. I haven't heard of too many real deployments of either RevB or RevC; I'm sure there are some press releases out there but not a lot of real activity is out there yet.

sad part is 3G will still have a bigger footprint for quite some time to come.

Verizon has an especially aggressive LTE rollout going on right now. Their stated goal is to have coverage parity with 3G by 2013. Seeing as how they've done the same with 3G, I believe they'll do it before 2013, with most of the population centers and interstates being covered sometime in 2012. But yes, things could change.

 

[smithrh]

When ATT & Verizon LTE is implemented, whatever year that happens to be, are we still going to have two technologies like GSM and CDMA of today?

Verizon has LTE up and running today. We're in 2011. Just checking, CDMA and GSM are still around.

CDMA (IS-2000 and RevA) will be around for another 10-15 years, same for GSM (GSM and UMTS). Those networks are up, running, and in some cases, paid for. No reason to bring them down - yet.

with LTE, doesn't that mean a Verizon phone with voice and Data and what of ATT? Will their reception improve? Thus muting both argument that are burning up these forum posts.

Well, here's where things get sticky. There's currently no voice standard for LTE, so all "LTE" phones will either have to have GSM or CDMA for voice calls, unless the operator runs a VOIP service (which could happen). But for sure there will be concurrent voice and data on LTE phones.

 

[CFreymarc]

Which makes me wonder, why not put a sim slot in it? 🙁

That is the iPhone 4G or iPhone 5 with the new multi-mode antenna. I am sure a super computer is spending months on all the proper angles and impressions to get the RF lobs just right for this to happen.

 

[Skika]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Lol @ people not knowing what vibration is for. Jealous of other people's phones becouse you can hear them vibrating from across the room? Vibration is meant to discretely alert you and only you about something.

 

[dampfnudel]

iphone 5 will be. Cant see any design change for iphone 5 now either, they even fixed the vibrator and the battery is slightly different.

Apple made some nice, minor improvements on the Verizon version of the iPhone 4. You may be right about the design/body staying the same. Perhaps the home button will go away and the display may get a little bigger. A faster CPU/GPU, NFC, slightly better battery life and a 8MP camera. LTE and new design/body comes in 2012.

 

[rajid]

I'm guessing they're using the Qualcomm chip now because they negotiated a good price on them going forward. Ultimately, this allows them to have one iPhone design internally, regardless of network. For CDMA, they simply leave out the SIM slot and fix the chip to do CDMA only. For GSM, they include the SIM slot and fix the chip to do GSM only. There's no real reason to make it truly universal just because it uses the same internal parts. Apple has a long history of not using all of the capabilities of chips in their designs.

 

[hohohong]

Apple tries very hard to minimize the number of SKUs they manufacture, except to cover different sales price points. No reason to do the latter for two similar products at the same price point. It just creates a bigger inventory risk problem, and current CEO Tim Cook hates those kinds of supply chain management issues.

Yep!! I’m into manufacturing business and all my clients want as less SKU as possible. Less inventories headache! High efficiency in production line = higher profit margin.

Heck, Apple is even thinking of selling all Mac Software online, eliminating those DVD rom!

 

[yodaxl7]

My theory: Verizon did not want apple to have sim card holder for the Verizon iPhone. Profit! I think Verizon and China want Apple to support TD-LTE. One reason Verizon iPhone has this: large volume lowers the cost per unit. Another reason: it may later work on Verizon LTE. So, I guess there will be some ATT iphone 4 users would be envy. A little here. I think both iPad 2 and iPhone 5 will support TD-LTE.

 

[yodaxl7]

When ATT & Verizon LTE is implemented, whatever year that happens to be, are we still going to have two technologies like GSM and CDMA of today?

And with LTE, doesn't that mean a Verizon phone with voice and Data and what of ATT? Will their reception improve? Thus muting both argument that are burning up these forum posts.

LTE is big everywhere else, except US. China is a new market apple wants. Its biggest carrier is a cdma base and has LTE there. I suspect apple will do LTE this year per world, not just here. There's enough of a market for it.

 

[icyfire]

My theory: Verizon did not want apple to have sim card holder for the Verizon iPhone. Profit! I think Verizon and China want Apple to support TD-LTE. One reason Verizon iPhone has this: large volume lowers the cost per unit. Another reason: it may later work on Verizon LTE. So, I guess there will be some ATT iphone 4 users would be envy. A little here. I think both iPad 2 and iPhone 5 will support TD-LTE.

Except that Apple doesn't take marching orders from anyone. Highly doubt that Verizon had any real authority over whether the SIM slot was put in or not. In fact, they might have wanted it in order to market the iPhone as a world phone.

 

[rdlink]

so this solidifies that iphone 5 will launch for at&t and Verizon at the same time in june

And perhaps a real phone company, too. Come on TMO compatibility...

 

[DELLsFan]

I feel bad for people getting a verizon iPhone now, only to have it updated in 3 months to run on every possible network out there.

Don't cry for them, Argentina. You, me, and others have brought up this general point and other compelling reasons to wait until the summer to get a Verizon iPhone.

Some folks just have the cash to burn and must have their precious now! I can see if this was the very first iPhone Apple released, but come on ... most people know the upgrade cycle and time line of release of the next gen iPhone by now. If you Verizon iPhone early adopters get burned and come back here with buyer's remorse, I can't promise you that you won't be mocked. 😎

 

[kdarling]

I feel bad for people getting a verizon iPhone now, only to have it updated in 3 months to run on every possible network out there.

You mean early Verizon adopters will only have to wait four months for an update, while early ATT iPhone 4 buyers had to wait a whole year?

Cool. Lucky Verizon people!

😉

Seriously, the once-a-year thing is both a blessing and a curse. Early buyers can enjoy their phone without fear of Apple bringing out a better model right away (although they have to watch other companies' new phones show up), but anyone who buys an iPhone after around Christmas is usually looked upon as foolish for not waiting for that next better model.

Somebody should do a psych analysis of the whole twiste smartphone market.

 

[BenRoethig]

Is there any other reason to use the Qualcomm "Gobi" MDM6600 chip in the iPhone other than a step toward a CDMA/GSM phone?

Economics of scale. You get a better price if you order them now as opposed to getting a CDMA rev.a only chip and buying this later. Apple used to use USB2.0 in USB 1 mode for the same reason.

YES t-mobile
and nothing stopping sprint too (except wimax! lol. if only the qcomm supported that, and the iphone could have a real future on sprint)
but what if apple does the integrated sim? sounds much better, and would solve the problem of needing a sim. plus it wakes up less space

There's been indications that sprint is looking at LTE to replace or supplement wimax.

 

[Thunderhawks]

They want the vibration to be softer?! I cant feel my 3GS vibrate at all, this is the first phone that I've actually had to use sound notifactions. EVERY other phone I would keep on vibrate only 100% of the time. Who agrees with me?

The vibration feature should only be for the iphone's white Lady's model🙂

 

[kromix]

Hi all, registered just for this question...

Based on this matrix, the MDM6600 is cable of supporting a **** load of bands, including AWS.


On the bottom of the matrix it specifically states:

NOTE Table 1-2 lists all the bands supports by the MDM6x00 device, but only specific band combinations are supports by each software build.

Questions:

• Are these "software builds" sky the limit or restricted by something (ie: Qualcomm or hardware)?
  
• Would it be possible to configure the chip via this "software build" to support Verizon CDMA , ATT's 850/1900, and throw in T-Mo USA's AWS 1700/2100 ?
  
• I am assuming if it were possible it would require 2 antennas, one for CDMA and one shared for 850/1900 and AWS 1700/2100 is that correct or would it in theory be forced to need 3 seperate antennas?

Trying to figure out and learn the actually technology behind it and what the options truly are, anyone who is actually educated in this **** and can clear it up thanks x1000....

 

[speedriff]

Exactly! This is yet another among numerous examples of Apple prioritizing form factor over functionality. For those of us who actually travel overseas for work (because we have to put food on our table), it is a huge deal to be able to insert a local SIM card in every country we travel to. But Apple thinks it is more important to keep the iPhone as thin as possible so non-professionals will be able to view it as a fashion accessory.

Really? You think this is Apples doing? Not!! That my friend, is one of the hallmarks of Verizon. They don't have SIM slots on their phones. You have to buy one of their "special" World Phones to get that SIM slot. I am quite sure that was one of the requirements set forth from Big Red. They love to cripple everything. Don't get me wrong, I hate AT&T and their crappy voice service but at least I can take my iPhone out of the country and it will work, and probably work better. Verizon is more of a control freak than Apple. Such a shame to cripple such a beautiful device right from the get-go.

 

[Zeos]

iPhone 5 this summer will likely be dual mode and available for AT&T and Verizon. I'm waiting for the 5 on Verizon this summer.