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Nexus 4 Includes Support For LTE
slashchuck writes "One of the drawbacks of Google's Nexus 4 was its lack of support for 4G LTE. Now comes a report from AnandTech that it's possible to enable partial LTE support on the device. It seems that a simple software update can allow the Nexus 4 smartphone to run on LTE Band 4. All users have to do is dial *#*#4636#*#* (INFO) or launch the Phone Info app. After that, choosing to connect to AWS networks should allow the Nexus 4 to run on LTE networks on Band 4. The AnandTech report states explicitly that the LG Nexus 4 only works on LTE Band 4, on 1700/2100MHz frequencies, and supports bandwidths of 5,10, and 20MHz."
Because maybe when Sprint gets it's 12th LTE tower up and running everyone else will be doing quantum teleportation.
1700/2100 is T-Mobile USA's LTE, so does this get LTE on T-Mobile or not?
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
I'm surprised the shift to LTE is still under discussion. I (and millions of others) have had Verizon LTE for nearly two years now using a Samsung phone. That is a dog's age in the tech world.
The context is the price of the phone. I have a Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 4. The 4 is a moderate (though certainly noticeable) improvement over the latter, but costs less than half what my Galaxy Nexus cost. In less than a year, the price dropping more than 50% for a BETTER product is pretty ridiculous. This "hack" gets around one of the bigger drawbacks that people were complaining about, albeit for a small segment of phone owners.
I assume there is a reason Google does not enable this by default.
Are the patents licensed? Does their FCC certification cover LTE?
Maybe they just didn't think it was worth the potential confusion, given the limited frequency support. (Compare Apple's "4G" support in Australia.)
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.
I understand why the plebs are so anxious for LTE, but I don't understand why nerds are. For a moderate speed boost in most cases (+/-5Mbps in real world) there's such a drastic (6+ hour) cut in battery life.
Does anyone really need to prove they're right about who did the original voice for Boba Fett that quickly?
Keep on knockin'
https://robbiecrash.me
I agree. also, if they make the next nexus device 2mm thicker but give all that space to battery I'd be happy too. Although the "charge it every" thing works ok overall, having to constantly worry about my battery if I've browsed heavily or whatnot is annoying more than an extra 2mm and 50gr of weight. That being said I have a galaxy nexus, and I own 2 spare batteries for it and I use those instead when I need to. not possible with the new nexus 4, though.
In the real world, LTE rocks. I get faster connections on LTE than any wired connection I've ever had. Granted, they don't allow me outside of the dungeon much, so sharing the connection with the others in the cube farm doesn't give me much speed personally. When I'm on LTE, I get like 30 Mbps to myself.
If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
My data speeds went from 1Mbps to around 16 Mbps when switching from 3G on Verizon. I top out around 22 Mbps. It makes a huge difference. Even a 5 Mbps jump is very significant when your starting point is about 1 Mbps, a pretty normal speed for me on 3G. LTE makes my phone a suitable backup for my landline and for traveling. 3G didn't cut it, too slow in comparison.
I guess that's probably the real issue, 3G saturation I mean. Where I am I get 7-10Mbps on 3G, the LTE phones I've seen are 12-15; 1 vs 6 is huge for sure, so I can see it being huge in very crowded markets; 10 vs 15 isn't so important when Instagramming or watching a YouTube video on the bus to justify the battery drain, in my eyes.
Keep on knockin'
https://robbiecrash.me
Read this article: LG: LTE in the Nexus 4 is an evolutionary leftover.
Quoting:
"The modem contains 4G LTE capabilities but is only effective when combined with other essential hardware parts such as a signal amplifier and filter in order for it to work" the LG spokesperson explained. "It therefore cannot be upgraded to 4G LTE capability through software."
You're comparing 3G EVDO on Verizon (which was barely 3G) to LTE. The Nexus 4 supports 4G HSPA+ which is WAY faster than Verizon's 3G service (as is HSPA, which my 2 year old android phone has). LTE is a bit faster than HSPA+, but not by much.
LTE is important on Verizon as it is the only 4G service they offer, and their 3G service was fairly slow. This is due to the fact that Verizon rolled out EVDO ages ago, when it was new.
So, yes, if you're on Verizon not having LTE is a non-starter, but the Nexus 4 won't run on Verizon anyway - it is GSM only. On ATT HSPA(+) isn't quite as fast as on T-Mobile so LTE is helpful there. On T-Mobile there isn't LTE, but their HSPA+ service is about as fast as LTE is on the other networks.
Bottom line, in practice the lack of LTE doesn't matter much, any more than Verizon phones lacking HSPA+ matters.
Besides bandwidth, LTE also has broadband-like latency. This is important for multiplayer gaming and real-time communication (i.e. skype, gtalk video chat).
It's not so much the direct lack of LTE that's a problem for me, but the fact that not having LTE means it won't run on Verizon or Sprint's network. I was anxiously waiting for the new Android phones so that I could switch to Ting (which runs over Sprint).
Verizon and Sprint had no choice but to upgrade (to LTE or Wimax), because EVDO rev.A hits a brick wall at ~2mbps. They COULD have upgraded to EVDO.revB, but the capital cost would have been almost the same, and they would have ended up locked in to Qualcomm as a single-source vendor forever, and paid premium prices for everything they bought going forward.
For AT&T and T-Mobile, the benefits of LTE aren't nearly as big. They're real, and they exist, but they aren't earth-shaking for 80% or so of their real-world users -- the 80% for whom HSPA+ already gives 16-20mbps, or for whom 1700MHz LTE would be unusable anyway. Remember, real-world HSPA is ~4-6mbps, and most HSPA+ is 10-16mbps. LTE might start at 16mbps and creep up to 26-30mbps (limited mainly by backhaul fiber capacity), but LTE's brick wall is signal strength -- below a certain point that's ~10dBm higher than the minimum needed by HSPA(+), LTE doesn't work *at all*.
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that in a moving vehicle on a freeway (or a train), HSPA+ through urban areas might even work better and more consistently than LTE, simply because the phone can (theoretically) maintain at least one active tower connection at all times while leapfrogging between alternating streams. So... you might have tower 1 and 2 actively connected, lose tower 2, connect to tower 3, lose tower 1, connect to tower 4, lose tower 3, connect to tower 5, and so on... falling to 4-6mbps, bursting to 10-12mbps, and repeating over and over again, but always remaining connected by at least one or the other. In contrast, with LTE, you'd have periods of time with no connection at all when it broke the current connection to establish a new one with the next tower.
It has an LTE chip: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus%204%20Teardown/11781/3
It's probably a holdover from the Optimus G.
No, the lack of CDMA is what keeps it from running on VerIzon and Sprint. When Verizon and Sprint finally send voice and provisioning over LTE like competent mobile providers, then you'll have a complaint, but I wouldn't hold your breath.
I suppose it's a stupid question but is there a chance such a hack exist for the Nexus 7 tablet ?
Is Nexus 7 a cheaper version of another tablet which would use LTE ?
I just typed this into a Sony-Ericsson Android 3G handset.
The backlight went out and the network branding now says "It is pitch black.You ar". I Think there's a max 24 character limit.
And there's something in the room with me. WTF?
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Mobile data plans in the UK have always been a running joke with me (too little data for far too much), but Everything Everywhere in the UK have taken this to a new art form recently. They have a monopoly on 4G/LTE for a while and have decided to *start* their data plans at 36 pounds ($57) for 500 MB (yes, that's megabytes folks) per month. Yep, that's lower data and a much higher price than most 3G data plans.
So let me see, if say I get a 10Mbits/sec connection on 4G (and that's pretty conservative) and use it for a large download or a continuous stream at that rate, I will exhaust my expensive monthly 4G plan in under 7 minutes. Way to go, EE - let's make 4G utterly useless in the UK by underquotaing and overpricing it. Geniuses!
Makes sense, analysis when the LTE capable chip was first found was that the chipset could support LTE but the phone lacked the required antennas for it, I guess band 4 is the one band that can be picked up by the 3G antenna?
Maybe where you are, but LTE comes with substantial infrastructure issues. The main issue is usually availability of the radio spectrum. Here it was being used for other things until recently, my understanding is that in North America it was not, leaving the much lesser but still significant matter of putting equipment on towers.
Cellphones require global economies of scale. Some have minor variants to adapt global models to national or even carrier-specific requirements, but the rest of the phone wouldn't be an option (at that price) if there wasn't global scale economics substantially involved. Hence there are relatively few phones with LTE and for nearly all of them it is effectively a variant of the main SKU. The Nexus is a niche handset sold directly without knowing the carrier.
I suspect some of your surprise with your being at the forefront is due to novelty. It so happens many places in North America were well positioned for the LTE infrastructure to roll out. When it comes to how far behind NA is compared to many other countries with broadband on the other hand, a two year gap suddenly seems rather brief.
I try to tell my American compatriots this exact thing when they get on the american cellular providers suck bandwagon, but it usually goes in one ear and out the other. As much as I hate American Telco's I'd take them any day over many of the European ones.
This "hack" gets around one of the bigger drawbacks that people were complaining about, albeit for a small segment of phone owners.
Personally, I wish people would keep on complaining about it -- that way I stand a better chance of getting one myself if it ever comes back into stock :( Given how quickly the phone sold out around the world, I'm not sure too many people cared about the LTE thing in the first place (well, either that or Google had ridiculously low stock levels ...)
The UK providers don't count as European. In that matter as in so many others, the UK prefers to look at what the European countries do and what the US does, and combine the bad things from each.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
In YOUR real world it rocks. LTE is such a beast that depends very heavily in the configuration of towers and the signal strengths you get from them. For me where I live LTE is painfully slow. HSDPA+ is rock solid and fast. Where I work it's exactly the opposite, but then having only one tower near I can't get HSDPA+ there.
LTE unfortunately is more flaky in consistently great coverage than HSDPA which doesn't bode well for the way many of our networks are rolled out.
Agreed. Sometimes I have a situation where my MiFi device connects to LTE but there is no Internet connection at the tower. Sometimes it can't decide whether it should choose LTE or 3G.
But most of the time, it just rocks.
If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?