Will Verizon finally get talk/data

I was thinking that, WWDC might just have this as a feature in the 5S

 

Give it another 2-3 years.

 

That's on Verizon's end not apple.

 

Literally EVERY other LTE phone on Verizon can do simultaneous voice and data while on LTE, and several can do it on 3G (Thunderbolt, S3, Incredible 4G). The iPhone 5 has the correct radio parts for both SVDO and SVLTE. Apple chose not to implement either feature.

 

There are already VZW phones that do voice and data, hey have an additional antenna, but true, it is also a network limitation..

 

I am not sure I can call it a network limitation anymore, when over 90% of the models of LTE phones Verizon has carried have that feature. You are technically correct, but it doesn't feel right, given the context.

 

The iphone is sold to 100's of GSM networks that have been able to do that for years. Just for 2 CDMA carriers to sacrifice size and battery life maybe is not worth it to Apple until voice over LTE is implemented.

 

Yep verzion VoLTE should have been completed by now. Mabey by the end of the summer.

 

Verizon (and Sprint, and Cricket, and soon US Cellular) already sell iPhones that differ a bit from those sold elsewhere. Why not add a third antenna like Samsung, HTC, Motorola, LG, and Pantech have done? It wouldn't effect the many GSM versions.

I've posted on this topic before. I understand why Apple wouldn't go out of their way to support either SVLTE or SVDO, but the correct radio is ALREADY THERE. 90% of the work was done just by picking the Qualcomm SOC they picked. Qualcomm already engineered around the network limitation.

 

A third antenna would decrease battery life. Plus the carriers had planed to have a VoLTE network completed by 2013.

 

Yes, it would likely decrease battery life, but solely on this iPhone 5's that come with that third antenna...

 

VZW has stated VoLTE won't be up for another year or so. This is because all sites don't have LTE up. To rival the reliability of their 1x voice network now, VZW has to deploy LTE antennas on many more towers. This isn't happening in a few months. Plus lets not forget the current generation of Snapdragon SoCs don't support VoLTE yet.

MetroPCS has VoLTE up in some areas, but early reports said poor battery life on working devices.

 

I suspect one major "feature" of the 5S is that there will be less hardware fragmentation on the RF end, i.e. one model for all networks, like on the 4S.

Again, with VoLTE so close, it makes no sense no to add more radios. Nor does it make sense to sacrifice battery life or size to make up for inherent flaws in a minority-use, obsolete cellular network because the carrier didn't invest in advances until the last minute.