New iPad 4G LTE incompatible with networks outside North America
Despite being labeled a '4G LTE-capable' device, Apple's third generation iPad will likely be incompatible with the radio frequencies supporting the wireless technology outside of the U.S. and Canada.
When Apple took the wraps off the new iPad on Wednesday, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller announced that the company is currently working with North American telecoms that support the LTE standard, meaning that upon launch the device may not be compatible with other countries' 4G frequencies.
On Apple's international websites, the iPad Wi-Fi + 4G model is advertised as being LTE-capable, though reading the fine print reveals that the radio bands supported by the device are not the same as those used outside of North America.
As noted in the footnotes of the iPad's tech specs page:
4G LTE supported on AT&T and Verizon networks in the US; Bell, Rogers and Telus networks in Canada. 4G data plan is sold separately.
The iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G model you purchase is configured to work with a particular mobile network technology. Check with your carrier for compatibility and 4G data plan availability.
According to Apple U.K.'s info page, the new iPad will support the 700MHz and 2100MHz LTE bands found in the stateside AT&T version, which don't match the 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz LTE bands being rolled out across Europe.
iPad tech specs from Apple's U.K. webpage. | Source: Apple
In a recent report, AnandTech discovered that the new iPad uses Qualcomm's MDM9600 baseband chip which supports UE Category 3 LTE, CDMA2000 1x/EVDO Rev.A (and
, GSM/EDGE, and WCDMA/HSPA+ to DC-HSPA+ 42 Mbps. If Apple decides to stick with the Qualcomm part over the lifetime of the new iPad, European users hoping to use LTE will likely be relegated to roam on AT&T's LTE network during trips.
Interestingly, Japan's iPad Wi-Fi + 4G model doesn't even have LTE support, with bands only going up to DC-HSDPA.
Apple exec Phil Schiller speaks about the new iPad's LTE capabilities. | Source: Apple
Making the situation more confusing is Apple's description of what qualifies as 3G. On its U.K. page, the company lists HSPA, HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA as 3G technologies, however the recent iOS 5.1 rollout changed the "3G" icon on iPhone 4S units operating on AT&T's HSDPA network to read "4G."
Schiller noted during Wednesday's special event that while 4G LTE bands differ from country to country, they will likely follow the path of 3G and unify at some point. Until that time, however, Apple will be forced to make separate models to support the different LTE frequencies, which is why the AT&T version is incompatible with Verizon's. This holds true for LTE bands worldwide.
It is unclear whether new partnerships will result in the deployment of new international LTE-capable versions of the iPad, though Apple is said to be working on deals with a number of telecoms to get the ball rolling.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
On to a better topic: Who else thinks that the Apple TV 3 and iPad 3 both have 802.11ac chips with that protocol currently disabled? I certainly do.
And here I thought LTE would help unify things. Silly me.
I have a new iPad coming, and will take the sim from my grandfathered unlimited iPad (ATT service). Now how will i know if i am really 4G, when my current 4S says 4G, but my current ipad 2 is still 3G? Will my new iPad say 3G or 4G if i use grandfathered plan?
I have a new iPad coming, and will take the sim from my grandfathered unlimited iPad (ATT service). Now how will i know if i am really 4G, when my current 4S says 4G, but my current ipad 2 is still 3G? Will my new iPad say 3G or 4G if i use grandfathered plan?
I'd just use the SpeedTest.net app. >10Mbps = likely LTE.
However, the 3G-GSM supported by AT&T in USA is the same as GSM in Europe, Australia, etc and that is supported by both the Verizon and AT&T versions. So you won't be able to run LTE, but you will be able to pick up a SIM in any AT&T compatible country and run off a short-term data plan while you are traveling.
Spoken from a live-in-America perspective.
Jim
This makes me so furious, I can't even express it. Of all the things that? No, no, I'm not.
On to a better topic: Who else thinks that the Apple TV 3 and iPad 3 both have 802.11ac chips with that protocol currently disabled? I certainly do.
Welcome to signal fragmentation. We went from 3-4 primary 2G frequencies, to 4-5 primary 3G frequencies, to at least 5 and likely 7 or more primary LTE/4G frequencies.
I'm guessing that's why Apple added DC-HSDPA support (the iPhone 4S has only basic 14.4 HSPA+ support). That is what is being rolled out in most of Europe first, and it can be just as fast or faster than early LTE implementations.
North American telcos are a bit ahead of the game in terms of LTE (unlike with 3G last decade), primarily out of necessity.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
('Wireless and Cellular" section)
There only seems to be one 4G model sold in Canada, same as the AT&T one:
http://www.apple.com/ca/ipad/specs/
So I'd guess that either some of the Canadian networks use the 2100 band, or that Apple are mostly making the non-CDMA version to be sold globally.
Speculation: the shortages of the AT&T version might be more to do with that model's worldwide popularity than AT&T outselling Verizon in the US ;-)
I have a new iPad coming, and will take the sim from my grandfathered unlimited iPad (ATT service). Now how will i know if i am really 4G, when my current 4S says 4G, but my current ipad 2 is still 3G? Will my new iPad say 3G or 4G if i use grandfathered plan?
You're 4G if the carrier says your 4G. It's a marketing term, nothing else.
How will you know you're using LTE and not HSPA+? You can check the throughput and latency but this just tells you if you're not on HSPA+, not if you're on LTE as your LTE might be crap for a variety of reasons.
But I wonder why one has to know. WCDMA is 3G. That's 384Kbps. Should HSPA+ (which is define by the ITU as 4G) still register as 3G when it's Category 10 at 14.4Mbps? That's a huge jump in performance. It's much larger percentage jump than 14.4Mps to 73Mbps for LTE.
And to make matters worse, despite what the ITU defined people are still holding onto the ITU's old definition like a German U-boat thinking the war isn't over. Does calling 384Kbps and 73MBps all within the realm of 3G makes sense? I don't see how.
The bottom line is customers don't care about some underlying technology, they only care about the user experience which in this case is the speed of the network. At 14.4MBps HSPA+'s max theoretical speed is at least a one generation bump over the previous generation from the user's perspective... and the ITU's as of 2010.
As I understand it, the article is correct in that there are different LTE standards in Europe/Asia that are not compatible with N American standards.
Isn't the issue that there are different standards in N America which aren't compatible with those used anywhere else in the world?
Welcome to signal fragmentation. We went from 3-4 primary 2G frequencies, to 4-5 primary 3G frequencies, to at least 5 and likely 7 or more primary LTE/4G frequencies.
This might get worse. I know AT&T is starting to prepare for GSM-only devices to be removed from their network so they can snag the spectrum. I think that is 800 and 1900MHz.
You're 4G is the carrier says your 4G. It's a marketing term, nothing else.
Reminds me of the whole time Verizon didn?t have the iPhone, and bombarded us with ads saying they had had better ?3G? coverage than AT&T... even though Verizon?s ?3G? at the time was more equivalent to AT&T?s ?2G?/EDGE (in speed, coverage area, and lack of simultaneous voice and data).
Yet Verizon marketing could call it ?3G? because technically it was ?third generation.? Very misleading.
At least calling non-LTE ?4G? can be both true technically AND offer better speeds than 3G! Not quite as misleading, especially when the iPhone 4S has been getting speeds equal to many LTE phones (and without LTE battery drain).
Apple also needs to do a better job of communicating the limitations of the products sold in each country. Why in the world would they be selling a LTE version in the UK that won't work on their home LTE network. This makes no sense and the lack of clarity opens them up to consumer confusion and disappointment.
I have a new iPad coming, and will take the sim from my grandfathered unlimited iPad (ATT service). Now how will i know if i am really 4G, when my current 4S says 4G, but my current ipad 2 is still 3G? Will my new iPad say 3G or 4G if i use grandfathered plan?
Based on the pictures on Apple.com, it would seem that "3G" or "4G" next to the signal meter will show "LTE" when appropriate.
(There are screen-pics on the site showing "LTE" as the signal type.)
Reminds me of the whole time Verizon didn’t have the iPhone, and bombarded us with ads saying they had had better “3G” coverage than AT&T... even though Verizon’s “3G” at the time was more equivalent to AT&T’s “2G”/EDGE (in speed, coverage area, and lack of simultaneous voice and data).
Verizon's largest 3G network v. AT&T's fastest 3G network. I guess the reason no one throw a fit over Verizon's 3G starting with "data speeds of up to 153 kbit/s with real world data transmission averaging 60–100 kbit/s" when AT&T's EDGE maxing out at 473.6 kbps is because there was no iDevice involved for people to care about it. If a Zune falls in a warehouse and there is no one around to give a damn does it make a sound?
Based on the pictures on Apple.com, it would seem that "3G" or "4G" next to the signal meter will show "LTE" when appropriate.
(There are screen-pics on the site showing "LTE" as the signal type.)
Yep, you're right. About halfway down on this page: http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/
edit: On the UK page that same image makes no mention of LTE. It even replaces LTE in the menu bar with 3G: http://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/features/
Based on the pictures on Apple.com, it would seem that "3G" or "4G" next to the signal meter will show "LTE" when appropriate.
(There are screen-pics on the site showing "LTE" as the signal type.)
Thank you, hope that's a what happens.
Note also that while the AT&T model lists both 700 and 2100MHz frequencies, the Verizon one only lists 700:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
('Wireless and Cellular" section)
Interestingly, the Verizon model supports the 2100 MHz frequency, just not for LTE.
Isn't the issue that there are different standards in N America which aren't compatible with those used anywhere else in the world?
It's not so much the standards which are different as it is the available frequencies in various parts of the world are different. This was even the case for GSM back in the day, even though many people think GSM is the same world-wide. I used to have a GSM phone from a US carrier which wasn't compatible with GSM networks anywhere else in the world because they were on different frequencies. The phone manufacturers "solved" this by building quad-band phones which had the two frequencies used by Cingular/ATT in the US and the two used by the rest of the world (note the 4 GSM frequencies listed on the iPad specs page).
This is a total cluster - government regulatory bodies need to get their heads out of their butts and get this mess straightened out quickly as they have screwed consumers with their moronic greedy and over-priced auctions of various bandwidths without consideration of final costs to consumers as well as the cluster fk of incompatible frequencies.
Apple also needs to do a better job of communicating the limitations of the products sold in each country. Why in the world would they be selling a LTE version in the UK that won't work on their home LTE network. This makes no sense and the lack of clarity opens them up to consumer confusion and disappointment.
Where's the like button n this thing?
This is a total cluster - government regulatory bodies need to get their heads out of their butts and get this mess straightened out quickly as they have screwed consumers with their moronic greedy and over-priced auctions of various bandwidths without consideration of final costs to consumers as well as the cluster fk of incompatible frequencies.
Apple also needs to do a better job of communicating the limitations of the products sold in each country. Why in the world would they be selling a LTE version in the UK that won't work on their home LTE network. This makes no sense and the lack of clarity opens them up to consumer confusion and disappointment.
I'm with you. Ordered mine WiFi + 4G yesterday thinking it would be compatible with EverythingEverywhere? (or whatever, those silly T-Mobile/Orange name) planned aggresive rollout of LTE but
They all think their standard/tech is superior than everyone else, don't they? Why don't they get it unified. Those regulator need to pull their head of their
btw: On an OT comment. It's a shame that AI thinks it need 10 tracking companies, 3 marketing tracking companies, and 3 social networking tracking elements on this article's page. I wonder what else of our data is AI making money from.