Without LTE, iPhone 5 will be ‘run over by the others’ carrier exec says

By on Oct 20, 2011 at 2:30 PM
mobile October 20, 2011

Swedish carrier TeliaSonera SVP Tommy Ljunggren thinks the iPhone 5 may be outdone by the competition if it does not offer support for 4G LTE networks. Ljunggren even took jabs at the current iPhone 4S  and said that Apple may be losing its superiority in the mobile space as Android picks up its pace. “Apple [is] not unique enough and there is disappointment over the 4S — it was too small [of a] step for them,” he told Telecoms. “If you asked me two years ago I would have said Apple would be very important. But now it will be a bad mistake not to include LTE in the iPhone 5 as otherwise they will really be run over by the others.” TeliaSoneria does not yet offer LTE smartphones, and Ljunggren explains that is because the carrier wants devices with a single radio, not two, so that the battery doesn’t drain as quickly. Ljunggren thinks LTE smartphones will “mature” in the coming years and, until then, we won’t see large volumes of the devices. BGR exclusively reported in August that carriers were already testing 4G LTE versions of the iPhone, so it is possible we’ll still see the company’s next-generation iPhone packing support for LTE networks in the near future. 

[Via 9to5 Mac]

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  • http://twitter.com/funkyfried Funky Fried

    Apple may be the last to the LTE party, but they are going to do it “right”. Their LTE will be super “magical”. LTE reinvented. LTE like nobody has done before.  LTE that even the blind and deaf can use.

  • Anonymous

    But Tommy, they don’t need LTE!!!!
    Just like they didn’t need 3G;
    just like they didn’t need “Copy & Paste”;
    just like they didn’t need “Notifications”;
    just like they didn’t need “Swiping Down Status Bar”;
    just like they don’t need a larger screen;
    just like they don’t need more RAM;
    just like they don’t need a better FaceGriMeâ„¢ camera!

    There’s alot iPhone 4S doesn’t have and doesn’t need. But, at least they do have the all new “Winnie the Pooh Puzzle Book” game!

    • Anonymous

      Why am I such a pretentious douchebag?

  • Ulysses Grant

    Some good things never last….

  • JMD

    It’s one thing for the iPhone 5 or any other device to have LTE, but as for AT&T,…it’s another thing when the carrier doesnt have an LTE footprint!  C’mon AT&T,…either crap or get off the pot!  JMD

  • Anonymous

    Iphone 5 won’t have Lte, guaranteed. Apple won’t do it! They will make the screen bigger before they put Lte on their phone. Or it will have Lte and no bigger screen, they won’t do both!

    Apple doesn’t want you to have your cake and eat it too!

    • utercen

      Exactly !!! What would they add to iPhone 6 if they put 2 upgrades into iPhone 5? Pico projector?

  • Anonymous

    This article is about as relevent as a third nipple.

  • Fastwalking

    Yeah, I would agree – 4s was too small a step.  Even iOS 5 is really no big deal.  I have a 3Gs running iOS5 and other than notifications, I dont see any real improvements.  “Reminders”?, photo editing? I already had apps that did that.

    Can anyone tell me what the “200 new features” are because I can’t find them.

  • shloppyjoe1

    I think its a safe bet that the next iPhone will have LTE support.  9 months is a long time in this market -and by then especially in the US market – LTE will be significantly more ubiquitous.  Having said that, when the iPhone 5 does come out with LTE coverage it will of course be Revolutionary!!, and truly the Best deployment of the technology on any phone.  The way it will seamlessly take the 4G signal and make it flow beautifully and in such a polished way in your hands and through the phone will be unlike anything anyone had done before.  Somehow the same speed, data, and throughput will perform in some new magical way on that particular phone.  Right?

  • http://twitter.com/JayPCrawford Jason Crawford

    Yeah, it makes since the did not include it in the 4s…the world is not ready for that and when apple makes the iphone they are thinking about cost and production….The global market is still mostly GSM (yeah HSPA+ too) with sprinkles of CDMA/LTE technology. 

    But the Iphone 5 damn well better have it….and knowing apple it will. 

    Thats why choice is good…if you dig the faster speeds get an android. They are clearly winning the battle with hardware ..hands down

    • JD

      Apple didn’t do it because they knew the sheep would buy whatever they put out. Apple fan boys will defend anything Apple does. They could put out a phone made out of dog sh*t and morons would buy it. 

  • Blablablue

    Well GOD help us. It’s quite difficult to turn it off.

  • Zack

    Android is taking over the world!!!!!!!

  • Tim242

    The next iphone will be the 6th gen, not 5th. Why do people keep calling it iphone 5? Better yet, why talk about it all?
    l? It’s a long way off, with many MUCH better phones available…right now!

  • Anonymous

    He’s right, at that point they need to keep up.

    Also I had a laugh at this:

    “BGR exclusively reported in August that carriers were already testing 4G LTE versions of the iPhone”

    BGR’s exclusive reports are usually based on random guesses made by 10 different analysts, I don’t think they have much credibility

  • http://twitter.com/OtakuJedi Topher

    I could understand if LTE was widespread enough then this would be an issue. But considering that only ONE company even has some LTE coverage and another one only has 4 cities. Its a misnomer. People act as if LTE is in every single city. Apple will do LTE when the chipset doesn’t hinder the battery life or design. 

    • Anonymous

      Yes, only one company has LTE. And USA is the only country in the world

  • zacamandapio

    It doesn’t matter if Apple makes the same phone with only GPRS connection.
    They’ll sell like pancakes because it’s Apple.

  • Anonymous

    and yet, Apple is selling boatloads of these phones…

  • Joep_seattle

    LTE buried HTC with poor hardware execution, LTE made Samsung a joke on battery life, LTE and motorola’s a yawner.  Apple waits until it’s done right then improves.  LTE is amazing, it just has too many technical gotcha’s.

    • Anonymous

      False.  Apple doesn’t use LTE right now because they can’t get it working properly. 

      LTE is so fast, so stable, and so perfect on my CM7 Thunderbolt right now, I’d be hard pressed to upgrade unless that new phone proves to be as consistent and stable.  My 4g lights up all the way and stays that way all day without any sort of drops.  I stream it to my ipad2 at work ALL day with no hiccups and it’s STUPID fast. 

      My family LOVES having a LTE hotspot in the car for road trips.  It’s great in every sense that the word implies it.  Don’t try to pass off Apple’s 4g failure as anything other than that, Apple tech fail.

  • Anonymous

    why exactly would i “need” LTE? 

    • Anonymous

      You don’t “need” LTE anymore than you “need” a smart phone.  You “want” lte because it is literally, in every sense of the word, 10-20 times faster than 3g.  You don’t “need” lte any more than you “need” cable internet connection, afterall dial up is just fine.  In reality LTE is even faster than most people’s WIRELESS connection at home (most people only get 5 or less MBS because they don’t know how to tune routers, LTE can get up to 20 or more).   

      It is THE single greatest spec on any smartphone, the one that will make more of a difference than any other.  You will notice lte much more then you will notice a jump from a single core CPU to a dual core. 

      It is truly the game changer and I stream LTE from my thunderbolt to my ipad2 from anywhere and it’s like I’m sitting right at home.

  • Ashleigh

    It is bad enough that the 4S doesn’t have LTE. If the iPhone 5 doesn’t have it then do they really expect people to wait around until 2013 for an LTE capable iPhone? I live in a great LTE market and I definitely feel like I am missing out by still using an iPhone 4.

    • http://www.themacuniverse.com TMU-Kelly

      You’re not missing out on nothing. The network infrastructure isn’t even in place for most major cities as it is. There’s very limited coverage for the LTE network now.  Only the large major cities have it, I think it’s quite silly that people feel they are “missing out” – you’re not missing a thing.  Now if the network was further developed and more phones were taking advantage of the network and there was 100% constant 4g coverage and the iPhone  was the only phone that didn’t have the capabilities then it’d be a different story.

  • http://twitter.com/PlasticWig Joshua K

    Sure it would be nice to have fast 4G speeds, but these days that just means you can waste your limited data plan faster. I feel like I am back in the 90s with limited internet again. “SIGN UP NOW AND GET 5 FREE GIGABYTES PER MONTH”

  • Anonymous

    Yes they will be run over. Just like the iPhone 3GS was… O wait till the iPhone 4 came out the 3GS was the best smartphone out there. Not implementing 4g, something that’s not even covering half the country in to the iPhone is far from a mistake. Is it not better to wait till all markets are covered? If you have no 4g lte in your home town whats the sense of having a 4g phone?

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