iPhone 5 LTE support in South Africa

cozinsky said:
Why can't we just have one LTE that works everywhere the same?
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The short and somewhat undescriptive answer is "spectrum allocations and assignments".

Or: "the same reason GSM networks aren't the same everywhere"
 
Haldex said:
SA is using the 1800 band.
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MTN is, and 8ta might be, but operators are also fighting to get the 800 and 2600 bands assigned in SA.

I see Reuters have just put up an article that feed nicely into mine, even though it's from a European perspective: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/gadgets/59927-iphone-5-puts-europe-4g-on-backburner.html

The point might be moot as there's still no indication of when the Minister will publish her policy direction so that the assignment of 2.6GHz and 800MHz can go ahead. In the case of 800MHz we'll also have to wait for the analogue TV signals to be switched off, of course.
 
Haldex said:
SA is using the 1800 band.
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Not quite...

Along with Europe, South Africa has identified 800 MHz (broadcasting digital dividend) and 2600 MHz as the target bands for LTE rollout. However, just like in Europe, some (OK, all in the SA case) operators have none of this spectrum assigned to them with the right band plans for LTE (yet, one hopes...). Hence, those operators have chosen to use 1800 MHz spectrum that they already have (e.g. MTN, with its pre-commercial LTE network using re-farmed GSM1800 spectrum, and Neotel, with its 1800 MHz LTE trial). The trend is so strong in Europe that a number of operators are launching commercial 1800 MHz networks (e.g. Everything Everywhere in the UK) while the 800/2600 MHz guys catch up. (FYI Apart from Neotel, no operator here yet has an 800 MHz LTE assignment in South Africa, and the 2600 MHz is still tied up in the endless spectrum process at ICASA).

Apple (or rather, Qualcomm, who make the radio chipset in the iPhone 5, the MDM9615) has been smart, and is supporting the most likely bands to be used for LTE for the next few years. Presumably for practical radio design reasons, there are three models of the iPhone 5:
  • A1428: 700 and 1700/2100 (AWS) alongside GSM/UMTS 1900, AWS for North American GSM carriers (e.g. AT&T)
  • A1429 CDMA: 700, 800, 1800, 1900, and 2100 alongside CDMA 800 and 1900 for CDMA carriers (e.g. Verizon)
  • A1429 GSM: 800, 1800, 2100 alongside GSM/UMTS 900, 1800 and 2100 for various other GSM carriers
The second two will presumably work in South Africa, including on the 1800 LTE networks (like MTN and Neotel). For 3G, the CDMA version should theoretically work on Neotel, and the GSM version on the other carriers.
 
Check this out! [video=youtube;rdIWKytq_q4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdIWKytq_q4[/video]
 
falcon786 said:
LTE utopia ftw...lol the problem is actually from the days of gsm with everyone choosing what bands they wanted.
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The only "choosing" that went on was the trade protectionism across the Atlantic, where manufacturers on each side wanted to make sure they kept their foreign competitors out. The South African government was even worse, and specified a standard for car phones that was identical to the German C system, but with reversed transmit and receive, so that no imported phones would work on the system, and local manufacturers could charge what they liked.

Strictly speaking, it dates from long before mobile phones, and you can see the origins in the TV standards and bands used.
 
ads said:
The only "choosing" that went on was the trade protectionism across the Atlantic, where manufacturers on each side wanted to make sure they kept their foreign competitors out. The South African government was even worse, and specified a standard for car phones that was identical to the German C system, but with reversed transmit and receive, so that no imported phones would work on the system, and local manufacturers could charge what they liked.

Strictly speaking, it dates from long before mobile phones, and you can see the origins in the TV standards and bands used.
Click to expand...

Interesting,yeah car phones were pretty darn expensive here back in the day.
 
Before all the hype of LTE come mainstream here at least operators should at least reduce the data rates or offer proper uncapped products with decent Fair Usage Caps
 
kaaskop said:
http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/09/14/iphone-5-lte-uk-o2-and-vodafone-miss-the-boat/

Vodafone and O2 in UK gonna miss the boat as well.
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Their own fault to a large extent, if they hadn't messed around threatening legal action the spectrum allocation might have been done by now and they might have been in a position for Apple to have considered whatever frequency they were allocated (there is spectrum around 800 and 2600 up for auction, and the auction is well over a year late).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/24/4g-superfast-internet-auction-ofcom
 
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