China Unicom Executive Leaks iPhone 5 HSPA+ '4G' Support

[shawn o]

2011 = Iphone 4S

2012 = Iphone 5.

[feidhlim1986]

Yep.. typical consumers with stars in their eyes and drool coming out the side of their mouth when they see "4G LTE" all over the TV without any regard to thinking critically about actual consumption vs restrictions. Mobile video and gaming and browsing would not benefit in the least over current 3G speeds. The only time you'd want 4G is to tether and download large file to a laptop... but at 2GB per month it's worthless... so what's the point as you said.

If/when true 4G becomes the norm and download caps disappear then I can see the appeal of ditching your fixed line DSL/cable broadband and only having a mobile broadband service either tethering your laptop or having a 4G card in the laptop. But all the speed in the world is pointless if you have a low data cap. I'd prefer 3-5Mbps speeds and no cap than 21Mbps and a crappy cap. And lets face it, how often do you actually get the full potential 3G speed from your carrier? Do you think that just because your device is HSPA+ that you'll get a massive increase? Or that an increase in speed will be widespread? Sure your phone will be future proofed to some degree, but aren't you just gonna buy a new phone next year?

At the end of the day, your phones internet speed is only as good as your mobile carrier provides.

[btw when I say the word 'you' I'm not directing it at Poseidon79, but at anyone who is gaga for "4G']

[Megaorange]

I doubt data cap will disappear. You know how greedy these companies are.

[Anthony Bouchard]

I hope Apple has found a way around the horrible battery life of 4G.

[Bassvictim]

This speed lust is ridiculous. "Standard" 3G is already plenty fast. If we get HSPA+, great. If not, it won't sway my decision in any way. With all of the data limitations being placed on us I almost feel like increasing speeds is a moot point.

+ 1 million to this!

[Poseidon79]

2011 = Iphone 4S

2012 = Iphone 5.

That wouldn't make sense b/c the iPhone 4S is the 5th generation phone and so the next iPhone would have to be the iPhone 6 OR the iPhone 4G if it's LTE capable.

[z6joker9]

I beg to differ. HSPA+ has always and will always be simply 3.5G at the most.


...Sigh

By that chart, LTE and WiMax are also sub-4G.

The ITU, which defines network generations, considers HSPA+ as 4G. I think their opinion matters more than yours.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/ITU-s...lly-4G_id15435

[hunterw]

Is this picture even accurate, Its states that the iphone 3g, 3gs uses WCDMA for its 3g technology, apple didn't make a wcdma version of the iphone till they released iphone 4. Also I never heard of a company that uses both CDMA (what verzion uses) and Hspa (What at&t uses). It may be dif in other countries.

[feidhlim1986]

By that chart, LTE and WiMax are also sub-4G.

The ITU, which defines network generations, considers HSPA+ as 4G. I think their opinion matters more than yours.

ITU says LTE, WiMax and HSPA+ are now officially 4G

Yes, LTE and WiMax are sub 4G, but WiMax 2 and LTE Advance are 4G (as the "ITU" previous acknowledged)

The International Telecommunications Union has expanded its definition of 4G service to include WiMax, LTE and HSPA+. This decision comes a couple of months after T-Mobile and Sprint had started calling their respective HSPA+ and WiMax offerings 4G in advertisements.

Under the old definition, only WiMax2 and LTE-Advanced were qualified to be called 4G networks. It is possible that the ITU took notice of the bickering amonst the top U.S. carriers and decided to make the change.

So basically the "ITU" changed their specifications of 4G because the U.S. mobile carriers wanted to market something as 4G to wow customers.

[GrandMstrBud]

Why can't I reply without quoting someone? I'm sure no love for AWS will come.

[z6joker9]

Calling HSPA+ 4G is like if we had called EDGE, 3G ,compared with GPRS.

I missed this the first time around, but EDGE is considered 3G by the ITU, even if it was not marketed as such by US companies.

EDGE meets the International Telecommunications Union's requirement for a 3G network, and has been accepted by the ITU as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards.

So basically the "ITU" changed their specifications of 4G because the U.S. mobile carriers wanted to market something as 4G to wow customers.

Yes. But also because these new pre-4G technologies were still over 10x faster than the 3G standard and should rightly have their own generation. The ITU defines the standard, so they can change it if they want. If we waited around for their original definition of a 4G network (1Gb transfer stationary, 100Mb mobile), we'd be on 3G for a long time (none of the existing networks would qualify as 4G)... but some companies would offer "3G" speeds that were outrageously faster than what other companies were calling 3G. This would have led to lots of consumer confusion, which was the ITU's primary factor in adjusting the definition.

On a side note, my relatively small town has rolled out HSPA+ so I really, really hope that the next iPhone supports it.

[feidhlim1986]

Frankly I wouldn't take much notice of what the ITU says. They don't actually define the standards in question. It's the 3GPP and IEEE that created and defined the standards we're talking about going all the way back to GSM. I don't see where the ITU actually have come up with any standards, they just seem to label things what they feel like.So like I've said already, EDGE is a 2G tech as stated by those who created and defined the standard, and HSPA+ is a 3G tech as stated by those who created and defined the standard.I'll go with the authority that actually came up, with and defined the standards rather than the ITU

[z6joker9]

Just so anyone else reading this understands what we're referring to:

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations, known as the Organizational Partners. The initial scope of 3GPP was to make a globally applicable third-generation (3G) mobile phone system specification based on evolved Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) specifications within the scope of the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 project of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Long story short, 3GPP standardized LTE and LTE Advanced, and IEEE standardized WiMAX. The ITU-R (a division of the ITU) defines 3G, 4G, etc. ITU defines 3G and 4G, under the IMT-2000 (from the mid 90s) and the IMT-Advanced (2008) respectively.

ITU gives a recommendation on technology, and relies on standardizing bodies such as 3GPP to create a standard (in this case, the standard is LTE Advanced, not 4G). The ITU then approves certain candidates for inclusion as a 4G technology. 3GPP, for instance, submitted their proposal for the LTE Advanced to the ITU for inclusion as a defined 4G candidate.

While HSPA+, LTE, and WiMAX do not fit the IMT-Advanced definition of 4G, ITU still accepted them as part of the 4G standard for reasons discussed previously. Just because they were not formally submitted for inclusion by their standardizing bodies doesn't mean they aren't 4G. But I see what you're saying.

[Pepsolman]

HSPA+ is plenty fast for mobile use. I mean come on... even HD video from Hulu PLus and Netflix is only 3 Mb max with 1 Mb/sec standard. I am getting 4.98Mb/sec right now so double this on HSPA+ is actually faster than most people get on DSL or a base tier cable modem. Additionally I like my battery life and all phones tested on LTE last less than 8 hours under moderate use. Apple is not going to make this sacrifice until CPU/battery technology catch up to compensate.

With HSPA+ at 10Mb/sec you realize you can eat up your 2GB data cap in less than 30 minutes right? People who want LTE... WHY?! What could you POSSIBLY do with 25Mb+/sec for 10 minutes before you blow through your data cap?!

2GB = 2000MB = 16,000Mbits. 16,000Mbits/10Mb per second = 1600 seconds = 26.6 minutes (in case anyone was wondering where I got my figures)

That's exactly what I'm screaming' man! And that's why the networks are bailing on the unlimited plans because they realize how much they will be able to rape everyone's wallets when such speeds are capable. It's like driving a Ferrari and getting a speeding ticket every time you drive down the block... the speed will cost you big time.