TmoNews reports that T-Mobile USA has issued an internal memo announcing that it will release a new carrier update on April 5 that will add LTE support for unlocked iPhones running on its network. The update will also bring Visual Voicemail and other features to the devices.
The T-Mobile Carrier Update is a minor iOS software update that enables official iPhone support by T-Mobile. When installed, the software update enables a handful of capabilities like Visual Voicemail, MMS Settings and Network/Device optimizations that customers do not have access to today.
On April 5, the software update will begin being pushed via OTA to all iPhone devices on the T-Mobile network with iOS 6.1.x or higher.
The software update for existing handsets will come one week before T-Mobile officially begins offering the iPhone, although it has for a number of years catered to iPhone users seeking to bring their unlocked devices to the carrier.
While existing T-Mobile customers using unlocked iPhones will be able to access LTE speeds in just a handful of cities, the carrier is working on rapidly building out its LTE network. Existing users will also continue to have some limitations on network access, as Apple will be releasing a tweaked iPhone 5 as part of the T-Mobile launch, with the new hardware providing full compatibility with T-Mobile's network including AWS Band 4 frequencies that are unsupported by iPhone devices sold to date.
Band 4 is where much of T-Mobile's 3G network is housed, an issue that has long forced iPhone users on the carrier to fall back to slower EDGE networks on Band 2. T-Mobile has been working hard to shift its 3G network over to Band 2 to provide greater 3G compatibility for existing customers, but the transition is not yet complete.
Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below.
Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker.
According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found.
Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports.
In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
Monday December 1, 2025 2:40 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
One thing worth...
Monday December 8, 2025 9:23 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's chipmaking chief Johny Srouji has reportedly indicated that he plans to continue working for the company for the foreseeable future.
"I love my team, and I love my job at Apple, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon," said Srouji, in a memo obtained by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Here is Srouji's full memo, as shared by Bloomberg:I know you've been reading all kind of rumors and...
Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji could be the next leading executive to leave the company amid an alarming exodus of leading employees, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.
Srouji apparently recently told CEO Tim Cook that he is "seriously considering leaving" in the near future. He intends to join another company if he departs. Srouji leads Apple's chip design ...
Monday December 8, 2025 11:10 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple and Google are teaming up to make it easier for users to switch between iPhone and Android smartphones, according to 9to5Google. There is a new Android Canary build available today that simplifies data transfer between two smartphones, and Apple is going to implement the functionality in an upcoming iOS 26 beta.
Apple already has a Move to iOS app for transferring data from an Android...
Friday December 5, 2025 10:08 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Intel is expected to begin supplying some Mac and iPad chips in a few years, and the latest rumor claims the partnership might extend to the iPhone.
In a research note with investment firm GF Securities this week, obtained by MacRumors, analyst Jeff Pu said he and his colleagues "now expect" Intel to reach a supply deal with Apple for at least some non-pro iPhone chips starting in 2028....
Apple today announced that Fitness+ is expanding to 28 new markets on December 15 in the service's largest international rollout since launch, accompanied by new language dubbing and a K-Pop music genre.
Apple Fitness+ will become available in Chile, Hong Kong, India, the Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, and additional regions on December 15, with Japan scheduled to follow early next year....
Always found it weird that more carriers didn't/haven't jump on the Visual Voicemail train. Such a useful feature. Ditto for HD Voice.
Apple requires carriers to include it at no additional cost. Others, like Android devices, don't, so companies like Verizon charge for Visual Voicemail. Apple also doesn't allow carrier bloatware or branding on their phones unlike Android which is festooned with logos and a crazy amount of bloatware. Verizon even put their logo on the home button of the Note 2
----------
5s is probably right around the corner in June...probably waiting before I make the switch over to TM.
Not sure how people can live with T-Mobile coverage unless its great where you live and you don't travel much. Whatever Verizon's faults are coverage isn't one of them. Especially LTE which nobody is even close to them on including AT&T.
Obviously speed does not concern you. Maybe Verizon hits more markets (for now), but AT&T is much faster. And if you aren't on LTE, look out. Data speeds drop off considerably on Verizon. In fact, Verizon is the slowest of the four major US carriers in non-LTE markets.
I haven't done a direct comparison, but I can't believe it's slower than Sprint's non-LTE (assuming no Wi-Max, which iPhone doesn't support and which Sprint is killing off). Sprint's 3G is slower than AT&T's Edge.
So this https://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/26/t-mobiles-iphone-5-is-a-tweaked-model-a1428-phone-with-aws-support/ isn't a new hardware revision, just software tweaks? Great, else people who bought an unlocked 5 before this would've been burned.
EDIT: Or well, reading carefully, the T-Mobile note doesn't mention it'll add LTE support. Guess I'm wrong and it is new hardware.
The new hardware adds WCDMA 1700 (what T-Mobile calls "4G"). The existing hardware already supports LTE Band 4 and just needs the update.
