The iPhone 5's confusing international LTE support
One of the iPhone 5's most exciting new features is LTE support -- cell phone junkies have been waiting for an iPhone that supports high-speed LTE networks for a while now, and the latest iPhone, coming this Friday, will do exactly that. But unfortunately for international users, the LTE support may end up being a little spotty, according to The Mac Observer. There are actually three different models of the iPhone 5 being sold, and each of them, due to various technological limitations and bandwidth separations, will only support some of the networks around the world.
Verizon and Sprint customers of the iPhone 5 will likely get a phone with the A1429 chip inside, which will allow access to LTE networks in the US and Japan, but not anywhere else. AT&T customers will get the A1428, which only supports two LTE bands, and so won't be extremely useful around the world. And international customers will get a third model, which will be able to access high-speed networks internationally, but might have a problem here in the US.
It is confusing for sure, and the honest truth is that there is no internationally usable LTE iPhone -- you'll have to make compromises no matter which phone you buy. But that's the reality of modern cell phone networks as they exist today.
