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Unfortunately even the (supposedly international) GSM iPhone 5 is mostly tuned to LTE frequencies commonly used in the USA. In Germany we have multiple 4G frequencies and the new iPhone 5 supports exactly one of them (by T-Mobile, the other carriers have zero of their spectrum supported by the iPhone 5). In other European countries it's even worse.

Especially the 800 MHz LTE band would have been useful. This band is used in rural Germany to provide LTE based broadband to homes where DSL or cable based internet is unavailable. If the iPhone had supported it you could suddenly have really high bandwidth connections in rural areas where you now only find some crappy EDGE connections.




But then carriers would feel offended for being turned into dumb pipes. Even though it'd be better for everyone.


I don't understand, they aren't meant to be a dumb pipe? Paying purely for data means we don't pay for the marked up services like texts and calls.


I'd love them to be a dumb pipe, but they wouldn't. Obviously they want us to pay extra.




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