You know what the most painful thing in the world is? Buying a lovely couch that does not fit in the living room, or worse yet, spending months to build a huge rack or closet from scratch, only to find that you can not even get it through your door. Sucks right? Something worse just happened to T-Mobile. The carrier company just bought a new LTE network, and Apple has just announced that its latest iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus will not support it.
T-Mobile is just beginning to release its new 600MHz network nationwide, and the first of the sites have begun functioning already. Plans call for coverage of a million square miles by the end of 2017. Unfortunately, the 600 Mhz network uses a new LTE channel called Band 71, and very few devices support it, and clearly, the latest iPhones are not on the list.
The latest LTE network from T-Mobile promises to bring better coverage to less urban areas that will compete with AT&T and Verizon, but most devices have no support for the tech. If you are a T-Mobile customer planning to buy any of Apple’s new phones, you will stay limited to the existing LTE network. John Legere, CEO T-Mobile commented on the new network, “It’s the equivalent of beachfront spectrum, the stuff that works better in buildings and travels further from the tower.”
Apple is not the only one that lacks support for the new T-Mobile network as no other phone supports the system either. The new LTE system was rolled out in some parts of the US only about a month ago, and it won’t be available in the entire country until 2020. T-Mobile claims that the Samsung and LG phones releasing by the last quarter of 2017 will come with support for the 600 MHz system.
Once the new system becomes widespread in the entire US, do not expect an update that will support the 600 MHz spectrum because the capability is hardware based. If you are a loyal customer of both Apple and T-Mobile, you have to get your pick right now.