Rumor: Apple's 'iPhone 6' may include faster 150Mbps LTE Advanced modem
The latest component claimed to be from Apple's next-generation iPhone is a Qualcomm MDM9625 modem, which would boost cellular download speeds to 150 megabits per second, which would be 50 percent faster than the modem found in the iPhone 5s.
The Qualcomm third-generation LTE chipset was first announced by the company in February of 2012 and began shipping later that year. And now a post from GeekBar, spotlighted Tuesday by G for Games, alleges that the LTE Advanced modem is bound for Apple's so-called "iPhone 6."
If true, the new modem would boost speeds by 50 megabits over the 100-Mbps speeds offered by the iPhone 5s. The rumor does have some merit, as Apple has opted to use older and more readily available LTE chips in its latest iPhone models.
Regardless, the legitimacy of the report does come with some question, as GeekBar mixed up traditional RAM and DRAM in a leaked schematic the repair site posted on Monday. The same publication also showed a document claiming the next iPhone will sport a near-field communications chip --?technology that Apple has never adopted despite continued rumors.
But it would make sense for Apple to choose a slightly older chip with support for LTE Advanced, as most carriers around the world have yet to support even that specification. There are newer "Category 6" LTE chips from vendors like Qualcomm that are capable of 300 Mbps download speeds, but support for that technology is even more rare.
Qualcomm's third-generation "Gobi" chipsets utilize a 28-nanometer manufacturing process that improve performance and power consumption over previous-generation chips, like those found in the iPhone 5s. The 2012 chips are defined as "Category 4" LTE.
Apple is expected to hold a media event on Sept. 9 to introduce its next-generation "iPhone 6." If the company follows its usual release schedule, the handset will first become available to customers the following Friday, Sept. 19.
The next iPhone is widely expected to come in two screen sizes of 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches. Some reports have claimed the 5.5-inch model faces production issues that could result in a slight delay versus the 4.7-inch model.
The Qualcomm third-generation LTE chipset was first announced by the company in February of 2012 and began shipping later that year. And now a post from GeekBar, spotlighted Tuesday by G for Games, alleges that the LTE Advanced modem is bound for Apple's so-called "iPhone 6."
If true, the new modem would boost speeds by 50 megabits over the 100-Mbps speeds offered by the iPhone 5s. The rumor does have some merit, as Apple has opted to use older and more readily available LTE chips in its latest iPhone models.
Regardless, the legitimacy of the report does come with some question, as GeekBar mixed up traditional RAM and DRAM in a leaked schematic the repair site posted on Monday. The same publication also showed a document claiming the next iPhone will sport a near-field communications chip --?technology that Apple has never adopted despite continued rumors.
But it would make sense for Apple to choose a slightly older chip with support for LTE Advanced, as most carriers around the world have yet to support even that specification. There are newer "Category 6" LTE chips from vendors like Qualcomm that are capable of 300 Mbps download speeds, but support for that technology is even more rare.
Qualcomm's third-generation "Gobi" chipsets utilize a 28-nanometer manufacturing process that improve performance and power consumption over previous-generation chips, like those found in the iPhone 5s. The 2012 chips are defined as "Category 4" LTE.
Apple is expected to hold a media event on Sept. 9 to introduce its next-generation "iPhone 6." If the company follows its usual release schedule, the handset will first become available to customers the following Friday, Sept. 19.
The next iPhone is widely expected to come in two screen sizes of 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches. Some reports have claimed the 5.5-inch model faces production issues that could result in a slight delay versus the 4.7-inch model.
Comments
The latest component claimed to be from Apple's next-generation iPhone is a Qualcomm MDM9625 modem, which would boost cellular download speeds to 150 megabits per second, which would be 50 percent faster than the modem found in the iPhone 5s.
Would be 50 percent faster if and only if the carrier supports LTE Advanced.
i hope they do. here in korea lta is FAST. and data is not the rip off that it is in the states.
I envy you Koreans, along with those elsewhere that data isn't a rip-off. Here I am, only a third of the month into my billing cycle in the USA, and I've somehow used 1.2 GB of data, and I've done NO streaming, NO music. All this data is coming from advertising banners, streaming advertisements and unwanted autoplay videos on news sites. Using up all MY data. It's insulting that not only do I have to be faced with endless advertising, but that I have to pay for an egregious data plan to subsidize it! I'm almost at the point where I'm ready to jump off this ship of extortion, and go back to a simple, pre-paid, dumb phone. I'll be off-contract in 4 months.
Personally I don't use mobile data myself, except on a couple occasions where domestic broadband wasn't available and I used it as a substitute, but even then, the speeds you could get didn't even begin to approach the theoretical capabilities of 3G, let alone 4G/LTE.
It would be interesting to see world-wide figures for actual real-world mobile data speeds. I doubt that more than 10% of mobile users have access to real speeds in excess of 10 mbps. I only have experience of Ireland and Australia, and in both cases sub 6 mbps was the reality.
Sorry OT: The very words mobile data give me a shiver after a recent cruise in Alaska. Here is a cautionary tale for anyone going cruising. If it had not been for a friend I made who worked on the ship we were on I'd have been caught. He told me, when at sea the iPhone and iPad's AT&T services were being automatically switched to a Maritime version seamlessly. No options or permissions required. The snag was it was prohibitively expensive and an unlimited data plan was irrelevant. The guy that warned me had suffered a $2000 bill simply due to leaving his iPhone on with his social media web pages updating as the ship cruised up and down the area of Glacier Bay National Park for several weeks (as I say he worked on the ship so it may have been a month). I seriously doubted his story until I saw my own iPhone connected, without asking me, to the Maritime icon and showing five bars while we were well out to sea. The reason I had left it on was because each time we passed close to land where there were homes we often got genuine AT&T for a short time and our mail updated. I stopped that practice, I have never switched my cellular off so fast before!
Personally I don't use mobile data myself, except on a couple occasions where domestic broadband wasn't available and I used it as a substitute, but even then, the speeds you could get didn't even begin to approach the theoretical capabilities of 3G, let alone 4G/LTE.
It would be interesting to see world-wide figures for actual real-world mobile data speeds. I doubt that more than 10% of mobile users have access to real speeds in excess of 10 mbps. I only have experience of Ireland and Australia, and in both cases sub 6 mbps was the reality.
Australia here, the most I got was this many:-
Maybe you should have chosen the fastest network.
Turn off data roaming.
Those were the days
Ah that simple eh? So I would still have connected to shore towers that were genuine AT&T OK and downloaded data , just not the Marine service? I know my OS X inside out but not much about iOS.
Thanks.
Turn off data roaming.
Ah that simple eh? So I would still have connected to shore towers that were genuine AT&T OK and downloaded data , just not the Marine service? I know my OS X inside out but not much about iOS.
Thanks.
Maritime Wireless has roaming agreements with AT&T. With data roaming off you would still have Maritime for important phone calls. Data roaming off should be the default but it is not.
But would I still have connected to the shore towers, when in range, and been able to download data with roaming off?
Maritime Wireless has roaming agreements with AT&T. With data roaming off you would still have Maritime for important phone calls. Data roaming off should be the default but it is not.
Pretty sure data roaming was turned off by default on my iOS devices.
Also pretty sure than when roaming, you will recieve a SMS message stating exactly what the roaming charges will be per minute for voice and per MB for data. Not sure how someone can get "surprised" by this.
Also pretty sure than when roaming, you will recieve a SMS message stating exactly what the roaming charges will be per minute for voice and per MB for data. Not sure how someone can get "surprised" by this.
I thought it was on by default but I could be wrong. I use mine a few times a year but I don't recall seeing any SMS. Perhaps an onscreen message. But I haven't seen those for a long time, not lately. When I take it off Airplane mode the massage asks me if I want to enable data roaming but that is about it. AT&T has some new international roaming agreements in different countries where I think it goes into roaming automatically without any message if roaming is on.
Weren't there similar nightmare stories when the iPhone first came out with overseas travelers?
i hope they do. here in korea lta is FAST. and data is not the rip off that it is in the states.
In Switzerland as well, nutty fast and cheap, I pay about 55 a month for unlimited, 150mbps, more like 110, but still, no cap and I always have at least 20GB+ downloaded a month. U.S. is years behind us.
I seem to recall some.
The thing here was I was in US waters and I thought I needed roaming on for connecting and updating mail during the night as we passed by local towers on islands. I have unlimited data so what did I care? I was careful to wait until we were off Alaska, I had my Phone's roaming off when off the coast of BC as otherwise Rogers latched onto me. I did get an SMS from them in Vancouver and declined to connect. But the Marine service that only came on when the ship was a certain distance from shore didn't send any message, it just connected. Luckily I saw it and switched it off, but the guy I had talked to and warned me to watch for this told me he had not seen this and got stuck with a large bill. However, mstone wrote above if i had turned off roaming all my problems would have been over so i assume I would have still been able to collect mail from land towers as we passed and avoided the Marine service, I didn't know that. As I said to him iOS / roaming etc. is a bit of a mystery to me to this day.
I think a light just went on ... So ... is 'roaming' to allow connections to carriers other than your own that have agreements with your own? I thought it meant to look for cell towers from your own carrier. /slaps forehead
Quote:
Australia here, the most I got was this many:-
Maybe you should have chosen the fastest network.
Ireland here. This is what I can get, also on Vodafone:
Don't know how I put up with it...