Deutsche Telekom Announcement Fuels Renewed Talk of Possible LTE-Advanced Support for iPhone 5S

Thursday September 5, 2013 8:19 am PDT by Eric Slivka
lte_advanced_logoLeading German carrier Deutsche Telekom today announced (via Macerkopf) the launch of its new LTE-Advanced or LTE+ network offering data speeds of up to a theoretical maximum 150 Mbps, with the network going live immediately in over 100 towns and cities in the country.

In the press release, Deutsche Telekom notes that Samsung is launching a new version of the Galaxy S4 with support for LTE-Advanced, and word that other LTE-Advanced devices are coming "at the end of September" is renewing speculation that the iPhone 5S might be one of those devices.
Samsung will be offering an upgrade of its Galaxy S4 with LTE+. Comparable devices from other vendors will follow at the end of September. Deutsche Telekom's latest data products, including Speedstick LTE III, Speedbox LTE II and Speedbox LTE mini, will also support LTE+ in September, following a software update.
Two months ago, a report surfaced claiming that Apple was in talks with Korea's SK Telecom about supporting LTE-Advanced on the iPhone 5S. At the time, we noted that it seemed unlikely Apple would be willing and able to add support to the iPhone 5S given the rarity of LTE-Advanced networks and that the company was only in the negotiation stages roughly two months before the device's debut.

With another leading carrier in a major market for Apple now launching LTE-Advanced, it seems that momentum is starting to build behind the technology and handset manufacturers are clearly lining up to support the standard. Apple has, however, traditionally been somewhat conservative in adopting new cellular technologies before they have widespread adoption, and so it remains to be seen whether Apple has plans to bring the latest LTE-Advanced support to the iPhone 5S later this month.

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jonnyb
83 months ago

Doubt we won't see this until iPhone 6 at least.


You doubt we won't? Or doubt we will?
Rating: 7 Votes
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macs4nw
83 months ago
I'm guessing, no LTE-Advanced this year, but I'll happily eat my words, if I'm wrong.
Rating: 4 Votes
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madsci954
83 months ago
Doubt we won't see this until iPhone 6 at least.
Rating: 3 Votes
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Nicky G
83 months ago
LTE Advanced is the first TRUE 4G cellular technology. This is exciting! In the next few years our mobile data connections may be faster than our wired connections! Can't wait for AT&T to roll this out, as well as the other US carriers.
Rating: 3 Votes
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AustinIllini
83 months ago

How many people need that kind of speed? You pretty much have to have an unlimited data plan so that you can watch shows all the time.


This argument is tired and drawn out. If the capability is there, we should be able to do it.
Rating: 2 Votes
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HobeSoundDarryl
83 months ago

Given that the plans are for a fixed amount of data, faster speeds can only make it easier for consumers to easily go over their data limits and pay exorbitant prices. We need to get back to the unlimited plans....


This guy gets it. I think it's stupid (or maybe just very naive) to get excited about much faster data burn rates in an environment in which hard caps exist... unless the added speed provides some special need for some users. All the bulk of us are celebrating here is how much faster we can re-up on monthly data tolls because we were able to get one of the tier limits faster than ever.

Progress is very good. But this progress is about pulling more money out of our pockets rather than actually giving most of us some noticeably tangible benefit. Complete (business) genius to make the whole country swallow the pill of hard tier limits so small that streaming one HD movie could burn all of tier 1 AND then have us frothing at speeding up how fast we can consume data to get those limits.

Another version of focusing on "next big things" with big dependencies on burning data to help cell phone service providers make even more money: you know, like iRadio, Facetime, Maps, iCloud, etc. Give us data-hungry apps on tier-capped feeds at faster-than-ever data (burn) rates and AT&T, Verizon, etc are very happy. :rolleyes:
Rating: 2 Votes
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cmichaelb
83 months ago
If Apple follows their usual pattern...

We will not see LTE+/Advanced until iPhone 6 at least.

-They held off on 3G at first.
-The held off on LTE until lower power, smaller LTE chips were available.

They don't seem to rush into the new cellular technology until it's had some time to mature and become more widespread.

Hope I'm wrong though... :cool:
Rating: 2 Votes
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aDRock1154
83 months ago
Nope. Not for the 5S anyways...
Rating: 2 Votes
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D-Dave
83 months ago

I'm not sure what he's referring to.

Maybe he means that LTE hasn't reached the speeds that were proposed when the tech was being developed?

But that effects all phones, not just the iPhone 5.


Or maybe he is (like me) from Germany which currently means Apple's implementation of LTE will work only on one carriers Network (T-Mobile) and only on one of the used frequencies (1800MHz...only used in very densely populated areas).
So the vast Difference is that Apple has chosen somewhat odd Bands to support for the GSM Versions (or they just don't care that much about the european market?) and this results in being stuck on 3G or EDGE rather frequently with the iPhone and iPad while that other Guy using his Nokia or Samsung Phone is happily using LTE...
Rating: 1 Votes
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Menel
83 months ago

And link != actual data rate. The average consumer is going to hear the big number and assume that's what they actually get. That's the misguided expectation I was trying to dispel.


The avg consumer. My mother, my sister, grandmother doesn't even have a speedtest app and don't care about those numbers. Don't have a clue what mbps even relates to. Their facebook photos load fast and that's all they care about.

The nerds comparing speed test numbers should understand link bandwidth and the overhead required for a robust and reliably network; the OSI layers of network topology.
Rating: 1 Votes

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