Priorities phone with LTE?

[mattcremerband]

Hi guys

I'm in the process of looking for a new phone, I'll leave the details of the phone out, lest all the haters start to hate.

My question however is this...
Do I prioritize a phone that has LTE support?

I realize that LTE hasn't been launched officially in SA, but with MTN and Vodacom stating that they're releasing LTE in some of the major cities by the end of the year, I don't want to get 6 or 12 months into a 24 month contract, and boom, LTE is now widespread and I'm stuck on 3G.

Any thoughts, insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[kingrob]

I wont.

LTE phone battery life is terrible & you won't find a lot of LTE towers. Still waiting for govirmint to switch off analog TV.

But the 3G towers won't be switched off.

 

[SteveO]

Hi guys

I'm in the process of looking for a new phone, I'll leave the details of the phone out, lest all the haters start to hate.

My question however is this...
Do I prioritize a phone that has LTE support?

I realize that LTE hasn't been launched officially in SA, but with MTN and Vodacom stating that they're releasing LTE in some of the major cities by the end of the year, I don't want to get 6 or 12 months into a 24 month contract, and boom, LTE is now widespread and I'm stuck on 3G.

Any thoughts, insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

If you are with MTN or VC and you live in JHB then yes, but ensure it supports LTE on 1800mhz (Band 3) and has GSM and WCDMA radios as well.

This is the strategy for all the big phone vendors, so it should not be a problem to find one. I know samsung has the S2,S3 and Tab with LTE (2600,800 and 1800) WCDMA (2100 and 900) and GSM(900 and 1800)

My advice though would be to wait for MTN and VC to offer specific phones, as they would have tested it and all the fallback features needed to operate optimally.

 

[FNfal]

Seems telkom switch on is 1st November for trials ,this should be interesting.
http://www.telkom.co.za/about_us/mediacentre/press_release/articles/2012/article_1104.html
AFAIK the s3 is LTE enabled http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III

 

[mattcremerband]

Sweet guys, thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated.

 

[MrMocs]

Seems telkom switch on is 1st November for trials ,this should be interesting.
http://www.telkom.co.za/about_us/mediacentre/press_release/articles/2012/article_1104.html
AFAIK the s3 is LTE enabled http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III

Not all S3 are LTE enabled but you can get a mate in those countries which get the LTE version to get one 4U