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LTE not available on LTE enabled network in Belgium (Belgacom)

I was very excited about the opening of the first public LTE network in Belgium by the carrier Belgacom.

This carrier runs LTE on 1800MHz which is supported by my european iPhone 5.


Apparently Apple blocks access or is not willing to provide a carrier settings update for us to access this LTE network?

iPhone 5, iOS 6.0.1

Posted on Nov 6, 2012 3:08 AM

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529 replies

Nov 6, 2012 1:37 PM in response to XofM

For the moment the only compatible Apple devices that have the correct frequency are the iPhone5, iPad4 and iPad mini.

At last an accurate statement from Belgium

This also applies to the rest of Europe including the UK

If the APPROVED CARRIERS do not have access the the Apple

supported frequencies in the above products

then no LTE as applies to most of the UK carriers .

Nov 6, 2012 1:46 PM in response to wegras

Belgium twelve points, la Belgique douze points ;-)


What Pieter tells, sounds to me to be the most logical way the device should work. If it detects LTE then the switch should be shown. Unfortunately that's not the case yet.


It would be great to get an official statement from apple or apple belgium about this.

But I guess they won't bother.

Nov 6, 2012 1:48 PM in response to Pieter J.

This is not just about the frequency (which has more variables than simply wave length) as some carriers support hotspot, visual voicemail, and other options that will appear or not on the iPhone depending on the information recieved from the carriers tower. For example, tap on the cellular optio in setings and you will see information provided to the iPhone directly from the supported carrier. If your carrier is not sending the iPhone this information, there is nothing you can do to make that happen

Nov 7, 2012 3:09 AM in response to Pieter J.

Hello Everybody


To answer at proximus user and others, i'm working for Proximus. I have tested the 4G network of proximus since many weeks. We have a 4g cell here in our building

With a USB key of vodafone, no problem to connect on the 4g network but with an iphone 5, impossible, only 3G

The same iphone 5 with a SFR sim card from France in roaming in France, no problem, connected on the 4G network


We have contact with Apple and Apple blocked well the 4g chip with a proximus sim card


Also, with an Ipad 3, impossible to connect on 4g in europe. the frequence is not compatible with europe. The americans think to be the center of the world and think that their frequence is worldwide... But they use a different frequence of the rest of the world

Europe use the same frequence than asia, oceania, africa... but not in USA and canada...

Nov 7, 2012 3:21 AM in response to Auka

Thanks Auka for the heads up.


You said that you have contact with Apple.


Can you be more specific on what has been communicated?

Did you get a response?

What will be done about this?

A. Proximus will become a partner?

B. Apple is going to provide a carrier update and fix incompatibilty?


P.S. I bought an iPhone 5 after Belgacom/Proxiums stated that iPhone 5 will work on their LTE network.

So I'm not only looking and blaming Apple who's not allowing Proximus clients to connect to LTE but also Belgacom/Proximus who should have contacted Apple a few weeks ago already to make sure this would work.

Nov 7, 2012 5:27 AM in response to XofM

I hope so

We have contacted Apple since many days


but an other important think, to have acces to 4g with every phones (or modem), the LTE option need to be activate on the number

This option should directly be activate on all number but for some number, the system didn't activate it

so when apple 'll unlock the 4g chip, if you haven't this option, impossible to surf in 4g


I can check yours numbers if you want (my email is in my profile I think (if you can see it)

Nov 7, 2012 7:48 AM in response to Auka

I live in Antwerp and I also have an iPhone 5, so Belgacom 4G should be accesable for me. I believe if Apple says the reason why they didn't activate the 4G network yet is that it wasn't officially launched, they will probably include the necessary update in a new release of the ios 6.1 Beta. Ios 6.1 Beta was released before 4G went public, so I think that's the reason. It just isn't worth it to push an update only for Proximus.

I also don't see why Apple wouldn't activate it, we all bought an expensive unlocked phone, it should be able to work with any network. I also don't believe that Apple will not unlock it because Proximus is not a partner, if we get to use 3G, why not 4G?


Thanks Auka for the information, Belgacom obviously did their job. It's apple that didn't.

LTE not available on LTE enabled network in Belgium (Belgacom)

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