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Nexus 4 Includes Support For LTE

Posted by Soulskill on from the also-supports-other-letters-of-the-alphabet dept.

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."

20 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. If you're a Sprint customer, it doesn't matter by gelfling · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because maybe when Sprint gets it's 12th LTE tower up and running everyone else will be doing quantum teleportation.

    1. Re:If you're a Sprint customer, it doesn't matter by Tontoman · · Score: 3, Informative

      Band 4. This will benefit T-Mobile and Cricket. Verison and Sprint are still out of luck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Wireless_Services

    2. Re:If you're a Sprint customer, it doesn't matter by Relayman · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you read the article, the answer is "No." Despite what the summary says, AnandTech was not able to actually connect to any cellular provider. They're just saying that the radio is there for LTE on Band 4.

      --
      If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
  2. T-mobile by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

    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.
    1. Re:T-mobile by BinaryTB · · Score: 4, Informative

      It does, here's a quote from the article regarding T-Mobile and AT&T:

      "For example, in the USA, AT&T previously discussed plans for LTE on Band 4 but has only rolled out LTE on Band 17 to date, and is rumored to be turning to refarming its PCS (1900 Band 2) and Cellular (850 Band 5) holdings for additional LTE capacity, perhaps in the stead of AWS. T-Mobile US however will use AWS for LTE."

    2. Re:T-mobile by Miamicanes · · Score: 5, Informative

      T-Mobile is deploying LTE, but in all honesty, the distinction between them is moot for probably 70-80% of their customers.

      HSPA+, when it works properly, is basically as fast as LTE. The catch is, HSPA+ only gets its fastest rates if the user has solid connections to two or more towers, because it works the same way a dialup shotgun modem worked -- the phone independently connects to two or more towers, then splits the bitstream and sends part to each tower. Upstream, the bits are recombined into a single bitstream by T-Mobile's network.

      Where LTE makes a difference is suburbia. Specifically, suburban locations where the user can only see one tower well, but has a rock-solid signal from that one tower. THEN, the user might get 16-20mbps from LTE, but only 4-6mbps from HSPA.

      Here's the catch: if the user has a mediocre signal from two towers, but a strong signal from NONE, he might discover that T-Mobile's 1700MHz LTE doesn't work at all, and he's still limited to 10-12mbps HSPA+. If the user has a mediocre signal from ONE tower, he'll probably be lucky to see 1-2mbps, just like he does now, and LTE won't work either.

      Why? LTE's throughput is kind of like 8-VSB TV transmissions. When it's strong enough, it's flawless and full-speed, even when other radio modes are degrading badly. But the moment your signal gets even a tiny bit weaker than the minimum (roughly 10dBm stronger than the minimum for viable HSPA), you fall off the cliff and lose it entirely. You don't get slower LTE... you have no LTE *whatsoever*.

      So... one strong tower == LTE faster than HSPA(+)

      Two mediocre towers == HSPA+ mostly works, LTE doesn't work reliably.

      One mediocre tower == HSPA limps along, LTE doesn't work at all.

      Two or more strong towers == LTE slightly faster than HSPA+ in theory, and might use less power, but looking at speed alone, you'd be hard-pressed to tell with any real certainty whether the user was using LTE or HSPA+. LTE has better latency (no need to demux, split, buffer, and recombine bitstreams, and the symbol rate itself is faster), but the difference isn't all that huge.

    3. Re:T-mobile by Fuzi719 · · Score: 2

      New unlimited data plans are completely unlimited, no throttling. Try to keep up with current info. :-)

  3. Re:LTE is very old news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  4. So what's the catch? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.)

    1. Re:So what's the catch? by osssmkatz · · Score: 2

      It supports LTE, but not on any networks used in the US.

  5. Re:LTE Cheat Code by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    This didn't work for me. Still no LTE - but 30 phones appeared out of nowhere.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  6. Re:LTE is very old news by RobbieCrash · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
  7. Re:LTE Cheat Code by game+kid · · Score: 2

    All 30 are free and probably enough to get you to the end, but the draconian 2y contract keeps you from using spread, laser, or fire attacks. Also, the data caps mean you'll be fighting through to it in monochrome vector glory or with heavy sprite limits.

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
  8. Is the story correct? LG says no. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 2

    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."

    1. Re:Is the story correct? LG says no. by DA-MAN · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Apple's cheapest phone is $650. Google's is $299. You'd have to be a fool to expect that they would be treated the same with that price delta. Also just how much is Apple paying for their goddamn radio that a 32GB iPod Touch is $299, but it's $650 for 16GB iPod Touch + Phone capabilities (iPhone)?

      --
      Can I get an eye poke?
      Dog House Forum
  9. Re:LTE is very old news by Rich0 · · Score: 2

    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.

  10. Re:LTE is very old news by Miamicanes · · Score: 2

    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.

  11. What about the Nexus 7 ? by lord_rob+the+only+on · · Score: 2

    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 ?

    1. Re:What about the Nexus 7 ? by lord_rob+the+only+on · · Score: 2

      I was talking of the the Nexus 7 3G HSPA+ edition ...

  12. In the UK, it's $57 for 500 MB 4G data per month! by rklrkl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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!