Apple's new 5C and 5S models won't support the 2.5 GHz spectrum Sprint plans to use for the company's TD-LTE network, company executives confirmed this week. While Apple claims the new iPhones support more bands "than any other smartphone in the world" (you can see their full band support here), they don't support Band 41. Sprint's currently using spectrum obtained by Clearwire to deploy TD-LTE on some 5,500 cell towers by year's end, delivering users significantly faster speeds than the 8 Mbps most see now. "We don't control their product roadmap," Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer stated at this week's Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference. "I wish we did."
Lack of simultaneous voice and data is a Sprint/Verizon limitation, because they run voice over CDMA. Works great on AT&T (and probably T-mobile, but I can't verify).
Did you read the article you linked? They were only able to do what you described by tricking the phone...doesn't exactly sound like an inbuilt feature.
My Motorola handset can do simul. voice and data as well. From what I have been reading though this feature is going away over time in many of the new handsets for sprint and i assume verizon.
Lack of simultaneous voice and data is a Sprint/Verizon limitation, because they run voice over CDMA.
That only applies in CDMA-only areas. My Galaxy Nexus can maintain an active LTE connection while in the midst of a phone call. So can the LTE-enabled Motorola phones I have access to.
No reason why the iPhone can't do simultanous LTE data and CDMA voice, unless Steve Jobs decided you didn't "need" that functionality, ya know, like you don't "need" cut and paste, Flash, a right mouse button, or any of the other useful features Apple declines to include with their products.
It's a good writeup. But it still doesn't excuse it. It's technically possible, even if Apple doesn't want to do it. Clearly, this isn't a priority for Apple. I think it's ridiculous to have half the product line support a feature and the other half not. Blaming it on carriers doesn't excuse it.
Totally irrelevant, since we were not talking about SvD on 3G but rather how pathetic the iPhone is for not supporting an LTE(data only) connection while on a call over CDMA(1x or EvDO) since Verizon/Sprint do not support VoLTE. It was a design decision by Apple to have 1 less radio in the handset, which is rather pathetic with these iToys as any other LTE handset ever made can support a voice call over CDMA while connected to LTE data. But then again, the original iPhone didn't support MMS or 3G when feature phones supported both. What's next, Crapple? Are you going to reduce it down to 1 radio so we can't be on wifi and call at the same time and call it a design feature as well? Ultra light and thin, just don't expect to do shit with it. But hey, it's pretty and shiny!!!! Btw, the reason it can support SvD on ATT/T-Mo is the fact it does not need to tune 2 frequencies(and have 2 radios like everyone else) to do so, as those companies support WCDMA for voice. Apple: Pay more, do less.
It's a size and battery life thing. Why should I, as an AT&T user, be forced to deal with a bigger less sleek iPhone so people on Verizon's primitive network can get a hack to get a feature a modernized network would support on any phone?
No, Apple wasn't willing to sacrifice battery life and phone size to create a Verizon/Sprint specific model that could do this but be thicker and have shorter battery life. Good choice. Verizon and Sprint COULD have modernised their network years ago, but no. They chose to be one of the very few (along with Au/KDDI in Japan) to not move from CDMA to UMTS. Almost all CDMA carriers did.
What incentive did VZW or Sprint have to move to UMTS when LTE was on the horizon? It offered no advantage over CDMA for voice and precious little advantage over EVDO for data. They would have spent billions of dollars to move to a new system that would be obsolete in a few years. Doing so would have required them to waste a good chunk of the spectrum they are now devoting to LTE, compelled tens of millions of customers to replace their perfectly functional CDMA devices, and saddled them with yet another legacy network they'd have to maintain.
VZW and Sprint made the right call in staying away from UMTS.
I think it's a stupid design compromise on the part of Apple, but on the bright side I now have another arrow in the quiver when it comes time to rain on the Apple fanboy parade.
I think he's referring to years ago when networks were first launching 3G. Most CDMA carriers, instead of investing in EvDO, revamped their network with UMTS.
What American CDMA provider(s) opted for UMTS instead of EvDO? The rest of the world may have gone in that direction, but not in the United States or Canada.
What American CDMA provider(s) opted for UMTS instead of EvDO? The rest of the world may have gone in that direction, but not in the United States or Canada.
None. MTPCS moved CDMA to GSM, but no one here moved CDMA to UMTS. Most of the world did (except, also, Au/KDDI and one in China forced by license to be CDMA).
Verizon never use any CDMA spectrum for LTE build out and Sprint only use a partial of its CDMA spectrum for LTE build out because they didn't bid for any new spectrum for LTE build out like AT&T and Verizon. The Canadian networks Telus and Bell are good examples for transiting from CDMA2000/EVDO to UMTS/HSPA network. I personally tried the Telus HSPA network while travelling to Canada and found its network is superior. I used my AT&T Galaxy S2 LTE and I got HSPA signal everywhere and even LTE signal. The big 3 carriers in Canada, Rogers, Telus, and Bell, carries the same version of same phones, unlike we have different versions of same phones for each carrier in US. What's the benefit of it? You can switch to another carrier easily if you want to keep using the same phone!
No, Apple wasn't willing to sacrifice battery life and phone size to create a Verizon/Sprint specific model that could do this but be thicker and have shorter battery life. Good choice. Verizon and Sprint COULD have modernised their network years ago, but no. They chose to be one of the very few (along with Au/KDDI in Japan) to not move from CDMA to UMTS. Almost all CDMA carriers did.
There was little incentive to overlay their networks with UMTS just to have another costly upgrade to LTE a couple of years later. It's also amusing that to this day the CDMA networks of Bell and Telus up in Canada are still larger than their UMTS networks.
If there is an entity to be upset with, it's Verizon since they effectively killed EV-DV (which would have allowed for simultaneous voice and data) in favor of EV-DO.
The reason why iPhone doesn't support simultanous LTE data and CDMA voice is Apple chose not to build a second antenna for LTE radio in the iPhone. Other Sprint/Verizon Android phones can do simultanous LTE data and CDMA voice because these phones have the second antenna to support both LTE and CDMA connections at the same time. The disadvantage to have simultanous LTE data and CDMA voice is shorten battery life which Apple doesn't want to sacrifice, and also VoLTE is on the way soon so it shouldn't be a problem anymore when Sprint/Verizon rolls out VoLTE
Lack of simultaneous voice and data is a Sprint/Verizon limitation, because they run voice over CDMA. Works great on AT&T (and probably T-mobile, but I can't verify).
hate to break it to you but Android phones have been doing voice and data together for years. Its not a Verizon issue it's an APPLE issue.
It's the fact that it requires an additional antenna inside the device. UMTS doesn't require anything additional to do simultaneous data and voice, so yes, it is a CDMA issue. The fact that the iPhone doesn't support this mode isn't Apple being lazy, it's them not wanting to sacrifice space and/or weight for it.
I bet the new 5c and 5s iPhones support the LTE roadmaps of AT&T and Verizon. Maybe Sprint has to promise Apple a new boatload of money to get a new iPhone that supports Sprint's LTE plans.
What other major Sprint handset is ready to support all three LTE bands?
Joe Euteneuer saying, "we don't control their roadmap" means little when they're able to control their own. Why would a manufacturer build towards uncertainty?
Does this mean that if I stay with Sprint, get an iPhone 5s, and when LTE is rolled out to my city, I won't be able to read any LTE bands? Would I still be stuck on 3G?
Steve Elfman, president of network operations at Sprint, noted during the company's second-quarter earnings conference call that Sprint now plans to deploy Clearwire's 2.5 GHz spectrum on all 38,000 of its planned Network Vision cell sites and even more sites than that in a nationwide rollout. Previously, Sprint had said it would use Clearwire's spectrum as a "hotspot" LTE network to offload traffic in urban markets.
In an interview with FierceWireless, Euteneuer said SoftBank's $21.6 billion acquisition--which includes $5 billion in new capital and allowed Sprint to buy Clearwire--spurred Sprint to make the shift in strategy. The move will let Sprint add more capacity to its own FDD-LTE network, which it is still in the process of being built out. Euteneuer noted that Sprint and Clearwire originally planned to deploy Clearwire's spectrum on around 5,000 cell sites as an offload network in urban markets. Those plans are still proceeding this year, but Sprint now wants to expand that to improve the customer experience.
-----> Makes this even more ridiculous, especially when combined with China Mobile's requirement.
They don't support wireless AC or nfc either. Apple wouldn't support technology that is just emerging or going to emerge, or what a company plans to use, they'll support it when it's used for 6 months plus so you have a reason to buy their newest iPhone!
The device was more than likely designed and close to production when Sprint was inking the deal with Softbank and Clearwire over this past summer. Would be foolish for them to stop everything to make this change. All of this was ironed out on apples side quite awhile ago i am sure long before sprint figured out its recent game plan.
although apple is partly to blame for having omitted support for 2.5GHz TD-LTE (Sprint), but what about the fact that there's too much fragmentation about LTE Frequency bands? I mean already we're in 700/1700 and now 2.5GHz. Also, one thing to note, 2.5GHz would have a very short wavelength and would make is susceptible to signal loss indoors. People making decisions about cell radio networks need to have their brains flushed and adjusted to make sane decisions. Frequency band fragmentation only hurts service providers because they would need to wait for device manufacturers to include said frequencies in their manufacturing efforts. And that needs incentive. A device manufacturer would be out of their mind to not support 700MHz LTE because it is widely deployed. However, they wouldn't think twice about omitting 2.5GHz TD-LTE support if that means the device gets produced quicker (less testing and development), and still be marketed to major players.
On top of the already wide list of frequencies utilized for GSM/HSPA/CDMA, we now have more fragmentation in LTE. The purpose of LTE and LTE-A was to unify the cellular communication globally. I think its failing miserably. And even if it starts to work in that direction, we're years away from being truly global in cell radio communications because we still need to shut down legacy CDMA and GSM network and that aint happening fast enough.
The bands are a problem, the propagation is not because Sprint can fall back on PCS and SMR, and offloading users close to the tower onto the higher-bandwidth, higher-frequency connection leaves more bandwidth on the lower frequencies for users far away or deep into buildings.