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.
As we wait for WWDC to kick off next Monday, Apple today announced the winners of its annual Apple Design Awards, recognizing apps and games for their innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement.
The 2025 Apple Design Award winners are listed below, with one app and one game selected per category:
Delight and Fun - CapWords (App) and Balatro (Game)
Innovation - Play (App) and PBJ -...
Saturday April 11, 2026 9:14 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly a year later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon.
In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.
CarPlay Ultra...
Tuesday April 14, 2026 4:39 am PDT 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...
As we wait for WWDC to kick off next Monday, Apple today announced the winners of its annual Apple Design Awards, recognizing apps and games for their innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement.
The 2025 Apple Design Award winners are listed below, with one app and one game selected per category:
Delight and Fun - CapWords (App) and Balatro (Game)
Innovation - Play (App) and PBJ -...
Saturday April 11, 2026 9:14 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Last year, Apple launched CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. Nearly a year later, CarPlay Ultra is still limited to Aston Martin's latest luxury vehicles, but that should change fairly soon.
In May 2025, Apple said many other vehicle brands planned to offer CarPlay Ultra, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.
CarPlay Ultra...
Tuesday April 14, 2026 4:39 am PDT 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...
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
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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.
