TmoNews reports that T-Mobile USA has issued an internal memo announcing that it will release a new carrier update on April 5 that will add LTE support for unlocked iPhones running on its network. The update will also bring Visual Voicemail and other features to the devices.
The T-Mobile Carrier Update is a minor iOS software update that enables official iPhone support by T-Mobile. When installed, the software update enables a handful of capabilities like Visual Voicemail, MMS Settings and Network/Device optimizations that customers do not have access to today.
On April 5, the software update will begin being pushed via OTA to all iPhone devices on the T-Mobile network with iOS 6.1.x or higher.
The software update for existing handsets will come one week before T-Mobile officially begins offering the iPhone, although it has for a number of years catered to iPhone users seeking to bring their unlocked devices to the carrier.
While existing T-Mobile customers using unlocked iPhones will be able to access LTE speeds in just a handful of cities, the carrier is working on rapidly building out its LTE network. Existing users will also continue to have some limitations on network access, as Apple will be releasing a tweaked iPhone 5 as part of the T-Mobile launch, with the new hardware providing full compatibility with T-Mobile's network including AWS Band 4 frequencies that are unsupported by iPhone devices sold to date.
Band 4 is where much of T-Mobile's 3G network is housed, an issue that has long forced iPhone users on the carrier to fall back to slower EDGE networks on Band 2. T-Mobile has been working hard to shift its 3G network over to Band 2 to provide greater 3G compatibility for existing customers, but the transition is not yet complete.
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past.
The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3.
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The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
Apple today released watchOS 11.4, the fourth major update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.4 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2.
watchOS 11.4 can be downloaded on a connected iPhone by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software,...
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC.
It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025:
Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that launched in September. macOS Sequoia 15.4 comes two months after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3.
Mac users can download the macOS Sequoia update through the Software Update section of System Settings. It is available for free on all Macs able to run macOS 15.
With...
Visa wants to pay Apple approximately $100 million to be the new payment network for the Apple Card, reports The Wall Street Journal. As of right now, the Apple Card is on the Mastercard payment network, but that is set to change because Apple is ending its partnership with Goldman Sachs.
Both American Express and Visa are vying to replace Mastercard as Apple's card services provider, while...
Always found it weird that more carriers didn't/haven't jump on the Visual Voicemail train. Such a useful feature. Ditto for HD Voice.
Apple requires carriers to include it at no additional cost. Others, like Android devices, don't, so companies like Verizon charge for Visual Voicemail. Apple also doesn't allow carrier bloatware or branding on their phones unlike Android which is festooned with logos and a crazy amount of bloatware. Verizon even put their logo on the home button of the Note 2
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5s is probably right around the corner in June...probably waiting before I make the switch over to TM.
Not sure how people can live with T-Mobile coverage unless its great where you live and you don't travel much. Whatever Verizon's faults are coverage isn't one of them. Especially LTE which nobody is even close to them on including AT&T.
Obviously speed does not concern you. Maybe Verizon hits more markets (for now), but AT&T is much faster. And if you aren't on LTE, look out. Data speeds drop off considerably on Verizon. In fact, Verizon is the slowest of the four major US carriers in non-LTE markets.
I haven't done a direct comparison, but I can't believe it's slower than Sprint's non-LTE (assuming no Wi-Max, which iPhone doesn't support and which Sprint is killing off). Sprint's 3G is slower than AT&T's Edge.
So this https://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/26/t-mobiles-iphone-5-is-a-tweaked-model-a1428-phone-with-aws-support/ isn't a new hardware revision, just software tweaks? Great, else people who bought an unlocked 5 before this would've been burned.
EDIT: Or well, reading carefully, the T-Mobile note doesn't mention it'll add LTE support. Guess I'm wrong and it is new hardware.
The new hardware adds WCDMA 1700 (what T-Mobile calls "4G"). The existing hardware already supports LTE Band 4 and just needs the update.
