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发帖数: 20761 | 1 The iPhone 5s and 5c take a big step toward global LTE coverage with up to
13 LTE bands, but a handful more bands are still needed
By Mikael Rickna$?s, IDG News Service
September 12, 2013 11:05 AM ET
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IDG News Service - Apple's new iPhones show how smartphone vendors are
overcoming the technical hurdles that have limited roaming using LTE.
This week Apple launched the iPhone 5s and the 5c, which are compatible with
"more LTE bands than any other smartphone in the world," the company said.
Depending on the model, they can handle up to 13 bands. That compares to up
to five bands on the iPhone 5.
"That is significant for roaming," said Kester Mann, principal analyst for
operators at CCS Insight. "There are a lot of bands when it comes to LTE,
and that has complicated the issue."
Some important additions to the spectrum line-up include 800MHz and 2600HMz
bands as well as three bands for LTE-TDD, which helps improve coverage
across Europe, Latin America and Asia.
But that doesn't mean Apple's choice of bands is without fault. The U.S.
iPhones lack support for 2600MHz, for example. The 2600MHz and 1800MHz
slices of spectrum are the two most popular bands in the world. The U.S.
phones also lack support for LTE-TDD. Meanwhile, the iPhone versions that
will go on sale in France, Germany and the U.K. lack U.S. bands.
Also, the availability of a band does not guarantee LTE support by all
carriers that use it, according to some fine print on Apple's LTE website.
LTE wireless service availability may be limited even where bands are
supported, it said.
The addition of the 800MHz and 2600MHz bands, however, helps to level the
smartphone playing field in Europe, according to Mann.
"That is critical in terms of the European take-up. Operators that were able
to offer the iPhone 5 on the 1800MHz band had an advantage, but now the
majority of European operators will have the opportunity to sell LTE
subscriptions with the iPhone 5s and 5c," Mann said.
Apple isn't the only manufacturer that's adding more LTE bands to mobile
phones. Sony's latest flagship -- the Xperia Z1, which was announced last
week -- isn't too far behind with nine bands, according to a spec sheet on
the company's U.K. website.
But for LTE roaming to work, operators will first have sign roaming deals
with each other and offer services. This year has seen a handful of pioneers
-- including Swisscom, TeliaSonera and Telstra -- start offering their
subscribers the ability to access the Internet using their LTE smartphone
abroad, but only on a very limited basis.
In the U.S., Verizon Wireless has said it would start offering international
roaming in the beginning of next year. Sprint and its new owner, Softbank,
will sell the same models of the iPhone 5c and 5s, which makes it easier for
the two to offer roaming for users travelling between the U.S, and Japan
and vice versa.
For operators, offering LTE roaming comes with both potential risks and
rewards. That services have been slow to materialize has more to do with
commercial considerations rather than network complexities, Mark Newman,
chief research officer at Informa Telecoms & Media, said earlier this year.
"Operators are concerned that if they don't get the retail pricing structure
right, LTE roaming could end up cannibalizing their revenue from voice and
SMS roaming," he said. | h**b
发帖数: 5635 | | g******z
发帖数: 5809 | 3 GSM的iPhone 5CS支持11个频点，只支持了1/3的LTE Band
1 (2100 MHz)
2 (1900 MHz)
3 (1800 MHz)
4 (AWS)
5 (850 MHz)
8 (900 MHz)
13 (700c MHz)
17 (700b MHz)
19 (800 MHz)
20 (800 DD)
25 (1900 MHz)
不支持的FDD Band:
12 700
14 700
28 700
29 700
6 800
27 800
18 850
26 850
11 1500
21 1500
24 1600
9 1700
10 1700
23 2000
30 2300
7 2600
22 3500 |
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