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

I just called again for the 3th time this week ;-)

So for people calling in for the first time don't be surprised if the helpdesk has never heard of the problem. I just had a person on the telephone who never heard of the problem.

But then when asking for my serial number he saw a trace of the phones that I had already made.

No news so far about the subject. All we can do is sit, wait and call them every day.

Hello everyone,

maybe a stupid question: but what about driving/going to germany/london, connect to t-mobile/EE (supported i presume ;-) :-) to enable LTE switch.

Won't it still be available in belgium??

as there are already 7 people on 4G @proximus (probably with carrier 13.1), there must be a difference somewhere!

still hoping...

I'm afraid that won't help. The presence of the LTE-switch depends on your carrier bundle (.ipcc file), and this matches with your SIM card, not with the network you are connected to. This is logical, because your APN settings (e.g. internet.proximus.be for Proximus) and other features (personal hotspot, visual voicemail, etc.) should stay the same when you are abroad. Inserting a (prepaid) SIM card of Deutsche Telekom will probably enable the switch, but if you re-insert your Proximus SIM card afterwards, the switch will most likely disappear again.

There are 7 people on carrier 13.1? How did they get that bundle?

Please note that there *is* another possibility for apple to fix this, other than approving Belgacom's .ipcc. As there is no specific iphone Proximus/Belgacom ipcc (there is one for the ipad!), it falls back to the general "carrier" ipcc, which is used by all carriers for who there is no specific ipcc bundle.

If Apple would want to fix this, they could enable the LTE switch in the general Carrier bundle and push that update.

How do you know that they are on carrier bundle 13.1? Auka told that he saw 7 people with an iPhone 5 on the LTE network of Proximus. Maybe those are roaming customers from Deutsche Telekom, Everything Everywhere or another (by Apple enabled) LTE carrier.

I suppose Apple doesn't want to enable the LTE switch for everyone in Belgium, because when enabling the LTE switch, the 3G switch disappears, which may then lead to complains from people who are on a network/subscription without LTE. A solution could be to enable both a 3G and a LTE switch in iOS 6.0.2/6.1 for everyone in the world, like it would be on a normal smartphone.

Probably, in the mean of presumption. if these people are not roaming (i asked auka, no reply yet) customers, the only logical deduction is another carrier. Wright ?

As for my concern, three escalations (a lot more of calls...😁) @apple already!!

Patrickfromhasselt's message with the modified ipcc-file has already been removed. Looks like Apple is closely monitoring this topic to make sure we don't succeed in enabling the LTE-switch ourselves 🙂

I wouldn't recommend to use this ipcc-file however, as it is made for iPad and it disables mms and internet tethering, and it's very difficult to remove the carrier bundle again.

I noticed as well.

Instead of monitoring us, they'd better hurry up and release us an update.

I installed the IPCC file from Patricfromhasselt but it didn't work. Did a whole restore to get it back to normal :-)

But thanks for trying Patrick.

Maybe we should continue our attempts on another blog where Apple can not spy on us ;-)

Who says it's the best phone on the market? You?

The best selling phone is the SGS3. There are are phones having more functionality, better hardware, less problems etc. As I said, the iPhone is a nice phone, just not a great phone. Too limited and too restrictive, especially for the money. And for those people who say "Apple stuff just works", I would refer them to this discussions area where there is a long list of people complaining about stuff that doesn't work.

Nope reviewers are saying the same thing. The iPhone 5 is the king of smartphones whilst the S3 was called the best of Android phones when it came out. Saying that the S3 is the best selling phone is stupid when you are talking about the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 was about to be launched when S3 outsold the iPhone so people were buying less iPhones in anticipation of the iPhone5. Using those numbers shows you are not so well informed about tech news. I have Android as part of the LTE testing from Mobistar at home and it really surprised me too see that it was more restrictive than iOS. Can't update the stupid thing, can't install most of the new apps. it even took me more than a day to set up basic features. I've given up on that Samsung crap product because even Fandroids™ couldn't help me out with it. So don't come and tell here that the iPhone is too restrictive or limited because I know first hand that this is not the case.

Yes one thing is not working and we are complaining about it but we can also put the blame on Belgacom if you want. Belgacom said in 2011 they could enable 4G with the flick of a switch. Well they turned on that switch much too late. The iPhone 5 was already out when they turned the switch that's why we have too wait till Apple acknowledges their network is good enough for the iPhone. Because that's what it all boils down to. Apple wants to guarantee quality. Something you don't have to expect from Google or Android manufacturers. Look at Apple maps. I have no problem with it but a lot of people seem to have problems with it so the big boss sends out an appology for that feature not being up to Apple standards. If I look at the samsung crap device I got I wonder why there was no appology for the entire device.

I just called the Apple Support for making a ticket about the problem.

He tried some little things with me like:

- Restoring the iPhone and the iPhones Network

- Telling me to contact Proximus

- Telling me that all the iPhones are not compatible with the Proximus Network

At least, at the end, he told me that he's gonna give my conversation to an advisor of level 2 and triying to understand the problem..

I hope they will...

I already did my good deed to boycot Apple.

Last weekend a friend of me wanted to buy a new phone and asked me if I could recommend the iPhone5.

I said no. Buy something else. And so he did :-) Way to go Apple.

I just had someone from Proximus on the phone.

They investigate about the problem BUT he told me that some iPhone 5 are indeed connected to the LTE Network of Proximus AND these iPhones are from Belgium! (they contacted the buyer to know that ).

They gave the Serial of the iPhone concerned to Apple and are waiting for the result..

I know. I have the same issue and that's what I told to the guy. He know the problems but he don't figure how some devices can connect and how others cannot. They are working with Apple on the problem..