T-Mobile Galaxy Note 2 has dormant LTE radios
When T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was announced many assumed it would be coming with HSPA+ as the sole provider of 4G speeds. T-Mobile’s LTE network is not yet ready, after all, and we thought they might have wanted to save money in manufacturing by opting to exclude the radios necessary for the device to operate on the waves of the advanced network.
It looks like we were wrong, though — the device does, in fact, house LTE radios. With this move Samsung and T-Mobile have ensured a device that is future proof. It’s not unlike the launch of the EVO 4G LTE on Sprint ahead of a widespread LTE rollout, except T-Mobile’s network isn’t expected to get off the ground until next year.
T-Mobile and AT&T’s versions of the Galaxy Note 2 are nearly identical according to Anandtech. As such, the Qualcomm 9215M network chip inside provides the necessary hardware for T-Mobile’s future network.
The radios seem to be locked out for us common folks, and why wouldn’t they be? They’re of no use as is unless someone found a way to hack this thing onto AT&T’s LTE network.
LTE functionality could eventually be unlocked via an OTA update, but while T-Mobile was ready to confirm Anandtech’s suspicion they had no interest in confirming whether or not LTE capabilities would be unlocked once the network launches next year.
We would hope T-Mobile would eventually enable the functionality for its early adopters, but since they aren’t advertising the Note 2 to have LTE they are not obligated to do so. We can only cross our fingers and hope they’ll do the right thing once the time comes. [via The Verge]
The Galaxy Note II features a Qualcomm 9215M chipset which provides the hardware capability to support both HSPA+42 and LTE. T-Mobile plans to reach more than 200 million Americans with LTE by the end of 2013. The Galaxy Note II will not automatically access T-Mobile’s LTE network. We will share more information on how and when the Galaxy Note II will support T-Mobile’s upcoming LTE network when the network is available.