Apple’s fifth-gen iPhone will have the capacity to run on networks that are based on two of the world’s popular 3G wireless standards. This capacity will forfeit the chances of support for the faster 4G networks that are currently available. This is according a latest report.
Already many rumors are indicating that the Apple’s next iPhone revision will target to run on both CDMA and GSM networks. This is currently possible through a dual-mode Qualcomm baseband chip. But, these capabilities will not let the iPhone to support the LTE (long Term Evolution) networks and this is other name for the 4G networks.
This kind of situation is indicating that the Apple will bypass the first generation of power-hungry and potentially problematic LTE based controllers in favor of boosting its efforts around proprietary technologies like FaceTime. Also, the situation will keep the 4G network support waiting until 2012.
This kind of approach from Apple will permit the iPhone to run on AT&T’s robust 2.5G EDGE network rather than the available faster 3G networks.
In this context a report says that “Apple simply doesn’t want to be the guinea pig on new LTE networks that aren’t ready for primetime, and Steve Jobs knows not to trust the hype that’s spewed by the carriers on 4G. The truth is that 3G networks have many more years of life, and the transition to LTE will be much slower than the carrier want you to believe (LTE doesn’t even have its voice standard fleshed out yet)”.
It’s for these reasons, the report adds as “AT&T has been upgrading its network for broader support of the faster, HSPA+–or so called 3.5G—standard while Verizon has been working to implement an enhancement to the CDMA standard that will let future devices transmit both data and voice communications simultaneously”.
Via appleinsider