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butterfly0fdoom · Mar 21, 2007, 11:22 PM

The title is a big misnomer.

I just realized this, and I don't think anyone else has, but are there any parts companies that manufacture multi-band UMTS radios/chips? Cingular uses a different frequency than European and Asian companies, as far as I know. Given that the iPhone is intended to be a global product, wouldn't the lack of multi-band UMTS supplies pretty much prevent 3G from being on the iPhone until something like that is produced, as I wouldn't think that Steve Jobs would allow for two UMTS radios in the iPhone.

Just wondering if this could be the whole reason that there is no 3G in the iPhone.

mduell · Mar 21, 2007, 11:59 PM

Cingular's UMTS network is available on both 850Mhz and 1900Mhz... so there should be no lack of handheld chipsets for it.

Yastreb · Mar 22, 2007, 04:20 AM

Oh, I waiting this cool phone in Ukraine. Maybe at summer i could buy. In Ukraine 3g technologies become just this winter.

kudapoyti

butterfly0fdoom · Mar 22, 2007, 05:53 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

Cingular's UMTS network is available on both 850Mhz and 1900Mhz... so there should be no lack of handheld chipsets for it.

But from what I know, 850 and 1900 aren't used in Europe and Asia.

Even T-mobile's new 2100 band isn't compatible with Europe's 2100 band.

f1000 · Mar 23, 2007, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by butterfly0fdoom

Given that the iPhone is intended to be a global product...

That doesn't mean that Apple intends any particular iPhone to work everywhere on the globe. Apple will probably do what the other cell phone manufacturers do: create region specific phones compatible with local carriers.

butterfly0fdoom · Mar 23, 2007, 05:55 PM

Originally Posted by f1000

That doesn't mean that Apple intends any particular iPhone to work everywhere on the globe. Apple will probably do what the other cell phone manufacturers do: create region specific phones compatible with local carriers.

*shrugs* Who knows what their plan is?

But the other thing is the roaming thing, since roaming is a problem since there's no multi-band 3G radio chip. That part is something I don't think Jobs would allow to be a problem.