Purchasing ipad 4G lte for use in UK?

Unfortunately not. The new iPad has LTE 700 & 2100 MHz. These bands are not going to be used for LTE in the UK or EU, at least initially.

There is some benefit however as the new iPad has HSPA+ which is being implemented by UK networks at present.

Hopefully the 2013 iPad will support LTE in European bands - LTE won't become widely available in Europe until then anyway.

That should not matter. Even I am planning to get one from US. Even if you buy it from UK, LTE would not work currently anway. Currently they have 2 models.

AT&T model: LTE (700, 2100 MHz)

Verizon model: LTE (700 MHz)

But according to news in UK, telcos will make use of 800MHz for LTE.

So when you buy a LTE model (be it in UK or in US), it will not work in UK when it is launched eventually. I think it is by end of this year.

Apple need to come up with a fix (either a chip or a firmare upgrade or both) for LTE to work in UK eventually.

You can use 3G however and HSPA+ which is currently being implemented in UK.

My only question(out of curiosity) is which model they are planning to release in UK. The AT&T or Verizon. Though it is irrelavent. The UK AppStore spec doesnot mention anything.

But then, even if you buy it in UK there is no guarentee that when LTE is available, it is going to work.

LTE will not work on our ipads (in it current form) in UK, irrespective of where you buy it from. US or UK.

So it should not matter really.

The AT&T model in the USA is the international model since it's the one that supports GSM and HSPA+... these same specs are what they are publishing on the Canada and UK Apple websites. So if you buy one stateside, this is the one to get.

The Verizon model is only separate because it requries support for EV-DO and CDMA.

I am a Brit living in Sweden and have been really waiting for the New Ipad. I prefer to buy English stuff in case one day I come back. Even though it would have been about 100 pounds cheaper for me to order from the US - I was concerned about the 4G issue, even before it became so public. So, I pre-orderred from the UK.

Here in Sweden we have probably the most extensive 4G networks in the world - so 4G really would be nice (even though it is still very expensive (30 pounds per month).

I personally find it hard to believe that Apple did not know about the European frequency standard - so I think it is possible the whole thing has been some way to generate maketing hype. One thing that makes me think it might not be hype and that the New IPAD will not work with the European standard is that when you go the Swedish apple website and click on tarrif options from Telia - the highest speed package they are promoting is iMellen (which means Medium speed). If it had worked with European 4G, I think Telia would be promoting their Large option.

Anyway - I think I will have my New Ipad this week - so i will take it to a Telia shop and see what speed I can get.

Stay tuned

The only two contries that support Apple's 4G is the U.S. and Canada. I dought very much that the EU and in fact any other telco will be changing their standards for 4G just for Apple.