Four month old iPhone 5 not fully compatible with T-Mobile ???

Question

Level 1

14 points

Four month old iPhone 5 not fully compatible with T-Mobile ???

I bought a brand new, un-locked iPhone 5 in December directly from Apple.. It is now only partially compatible with the T-Mobile network it's been on since it's original power on. *** ?????

In T-Mobile's announcement today, they indicated that Apple was building a 'special' version just for them. They also said I would have to go buy a brand new iPhone 5 to get the new 1700 band... NOT!!!

Can the existing, iPhone 5 be updated via firmware, to be compatible with he T-Mobile 1700 band network ????

Thanks in advance...

iPhone 5, iOS 6, TRYING TO FIND UN-LOCKED VERSION

Posted on Mar 26, 2013 4:30 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 26, 2013 4:34 PM in response to Winski

Apple has not announced anything about possible upgrades to existing iPhones to extend the frequency coveage. Until such time as they do all we, as fellow users and not Apple employees, can say is wait and see what Apple says.

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Answer 2

Mar 26, 2013 5:00 PM in response to Winski

Unfortunately the frequencies used by any phone are determined by hardware, not by software. So a software update cannot add a new frequency band.

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Answer 3

Mar 26, 2013 5:05 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

I'm not sure about that, Lawrence...digital oscilators, unlike crystal oscilators, can be stimulated to oscilate at particular frequencies by soft/firmware. Frequencies are not as fixed as with crystal oscilators. Of course, that is in general and perhaps Apple is using fixed frequency digital oscilators, which is also possible. Still have to wait and see what Apple does, if anything about this.

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Answer 4

deggie

Level 10

167,177 points

Mar 26, 2013 5:09 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

The radio chips that Apple uses cannot be changed through a software update and they have no plans to "update" any iPhones to the AWS. They are going to phase out the current A1428 model and replace it with a newer 1428 that has AWS support. In the future if you have to replace your iPhone for service you will receive the newer model.

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Answer 5

Mar 26, 2013 5:22 PM in response to deggie

Ok, thanks for that, deggie.

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Answer 6

deggie

Level 10

167,177 points

Mar 26, 2013 5:25 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

I don't think there is anything that Apple can do that doesn't get this type of post. Since T-Mobile USA is new to LTE and it has been rumored for over 6 months they would get the iPhone in April I would have just waited. Already had another one like this where the guy said he felt ripped off.

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Answer 7

Mar 26, 2013 5:27 PM in response to deggie

Yes, thanks, good information. Might be worth posting over the water cooler.

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Answer 8

Winski Author

Level 1

14 points

Mar 27, 2013 5:08 PM in response to deggie

I DO feel like I've been ripped off. T-Mumble AND Apple knew this was going to be an issue and when T-Mumble ran their campaign over the last 90-odd days to move over to T-Mumble with the un-locked iPhone , there was a deliberate deception...

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Answer 9

deggie

Level 10

167,177 points

Mar 27, 2013 5:18 PM in response to Winski

It was well known in the business pages of any newspaper, evening news, computer trades, online, etc., that T-Mobile would get the iPhone, probably around April. It was also known that after the merger fell through that T-Mobile would have to put together an LTE network in order to compete in the US marker. It was also known that T-Mobile used different frequencies than AT&T and would have to use a different band/frequency for their LTE network.

So how were you "ripped off"? As I said before who put a gun to your head and made you buy an unlocked iPhone to use on T-Mobile before T-Mobile was an official carrier?

The only person who ripped you off was you.

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