No more LTE?

[tankrd]

Are LTE plans gone for good?  I heard the new iPhone 12 will not support 3G anymore. I was planning to buy it but then I won’t be able to use PublicMobile

[Korth]

Agreed with all above. Public Mobile's "3G" works across a 4G connection.

The main things to worry about would actually be voice calling (since Public Mobile does not carry VoLTE) and SIM compatibility (since Public Mobile doesn't eSIM). Although these, too, are non-issues.

But more to the point: the iPhone 12 apparently will indeed support HSPA, LTE, and 5G. Or at least some regional variants (like the ones which will be sold in North America, USA, and Canada) will each support their specific region-compatible network technologies.

https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_12_pro_max-10237.php

[Nezgar]

@cellphoneuser1 

Yeah since nothings official, who knows -- but indeed it would make more sense to only support the "later" 3G HSPA variants...

[cellphoneuser1]

@Nezgar 

The specs there might be wrong or they're simplifying the description. They're not likely to go backwards.

[Nezgar]

Looks like it's HSUPA and HSDPA and no HSPA+.

So voice calls would still work just fine. HSPA+ is an evolution HSPA (HSDPA&HSUPA).

So Apple might just be choosing to cripple some of the advanced speed of 3G to simplify the radio, since these days its mostly used for voice and LTE for data anyway.

[gpixel]

@tankrd it matters cause pm uses HSPA for voice calls. so wherever you heard that would mean you wouldn't be able to make calls with the iPhone 12

[tankrd]

I’ve read somewhere that iPhone 12 pro will have no 3G but I guess it doesn’t matter if PM runs on LTE. Thank you all for your input. 

[computergeek541 · Accepted solution]

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@tankrd wrote:

Are LTE plans gone for good?  I heard the new iPhone 12 will not support 3G anymore. I was planning to buy it but then I won’t be able to use PublicMobile

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There's no truth to that. Carriers are still very dependent on HSPA networks.

[gpixel]

@tankrd Im sure iPhone 12 will support 3g. the majority of North America is still on the 3g. it will take at least 5 years to phase it out. by then public would have moved to LTE and 5g

[Staliger]

@tankrd PM uses LTE, but the speed is limited to 3mbs.

[kb_mv]

@tankrd The data on PM is over the LTE network it just restricted to I believe 3MB/sec.