iPhone on Sprint

[Deval]

 

Apple does not guarantee each operator that it will cover every one of their frequencies they support. This is an issue with several wireless carriers around the world. They have to "beef up" certain Apple supported spectrums, because their other frequencies were not supported by the iPhone. Look what Tmo is doing with PCS for the iPhone.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

Yep but they are doing it regardless of carrying the device or not. I give them credit, the thousands of existing jailbroken iPhones on their network will work better.

[djmiro83]

"I don't understand why people think Sprint holds any cards in this deal. "

 

You're right, but Apple is also conscious of the fact that a poor experience on any of the networks reflects poorly on Apple as well. For example, Apple took a lot of heat in regards to AT&T's 3G network problems.

 

This. Despite a carrier not giving the best support for the iPhone on certain spectrums, look at other forums/sites today and see how many people complain how their "iPhone sucks on Sprint!". Granted, some devices are marginally better than others in terms of data/voice performance, but don't think for one second that Apple isn't concerned about this. I'm pretty confident that Apple will support 1900 LTE and 800 1x Advanced in the next iPhone.

[xenadu]

Just FYI: the new Qualcomm chip supports any tech on any of the frequencies so if it supports 800 SMR then it should support GSM, CDMA 1X, EVDO, and LTE.

 

It all comes down to ports. The new chip adds a couple of extra ports. So Apple just has to decide what frequencies to hook up to those ports. If it came down to needing an extra antenna, etc for 1700 but they can re-use the existing 800 antenna for Sprint then maybe that leads to SMR support. Someone told me some Japanese carriers use SMR so maybe that factors into it.

 

Or maybe Apple tells Qualcomm to sell them a specialized package with the MDM9615 and a port switch on one chip for the same price and Apple adds 10 new frequency bands because they need to support China and since they'll need to spend the money/power/engineering on it anyway why not just support everything?

 

We have no way of knowing at this point - its all just speculation.