[Zebb]

When Motorola announced it would make a Universal 4G LTE version of their Moto G, I was hoping that it would have LTE bands for the UK and US, but they made different phones for different countries. How difficult would it be to make a universal LTE mobile phone?

[iGeek2014]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zebb

When Motorola announced it would make a Universal 4G LTE version of their Moto G, I was hoping that it would have LTE bands for the UK and US, but they made different phones for different countries. How difficult would it be to make a universal LTE mobile phone?

I think it's something to do with the radio chips which is causing the problem; AFAIK the last time it was mentioned they had yet to come up with a universal one.

That was some months back and I'm pretty sure both Samsung and Apple (maybe others) are on the verge of being universally LTE so others should follow suit soon?

[Aye Up]

The problem with the states is LTE isn't standardised like it is in Europe. EU countries got together many years back to agree a common goal regarding frequency and at what level it would operate. It has largely been successful as the harmonisation of bands took place. You will find LTE operating in most EU countries at 700/800/1800/2300/2600, with 800/1800/2600 being the most widespread and popular.

The states has suffered from the legacy days of market restriction. You see when an operator owns say some spectrum in the 700 range it generally only applies to certain markets. Very rarely is it nationwide. Over there they bid on smaller markets to access spectrum unlike over here and in Europe where it is done on a national scale. For many years the American mobile market was way behind that of their European cousins, however in recent years they have leap frogged much of Europe in technology.

Whilst Europe maybe slightly behind the good ol' USofA, the lead time between bidding and deploying technology over here is far shorter.

EDIT:

Its also the reason why several variants of a flagship handsent is released there compared to the usual single over here.

[AlecR]

You've also got the fact that some USA networks use CDMA (e.g. Verizon), which isn't used in Europe.

However, Verizon won't be CDMA for much longer.

[enapace]

Actually you can already technically buy a International LTE Device get a AT&T iPhone 5S/C or a T-Mobile US one it supports both 700MHz B and AWS LTE plus EU 800MHz LTE and 1800MHz you just don't get 2600MHz support. I think that qualifies as international you get support for the major bands in both US and Europe and likely best you going get for a while.

[maxsquared]

CDMA and GSM were types of 2G, EVDO and WCDMA were types of 3G.

LTE has much better compatibility with earlier generation of mobile networks. You are right Verizon uses CDMA for 2G and upgraded to EVDO for 3G, in theory, they should upgrade to UMB for 4G, where LTE is direct upgrade for GSM and WCDMA, but they chose LTE instead. Verizon uses 700c and 1700f LTE, and its no different from AT&T's 700c and 1700f LTE network, which is a GSM and WCDMA network.

In terms of LTE, there are also 2 types of systems, FDD and TDD, each type has multiple frequencies, FDD is used most widely in the world, including most of the America, Europe, Asia, Australia. TDD is used mainly in China, because they were the one who developed it, although there are some networks in Japan (Softbank), US (Sprint), Australia (Optus) and some others uses TDD, but it's not widely used at all.

Network frequency is not a new thing, back in 2G times, Orange and T-mobile uses 1800MHz, Vodafone and O2 uses 900MHz, and 3G times, there are even more variant.

In terms of "Universal LTE", Are you referring to FDD LTE handset that can work on all frequencies. Then I am pretty sure iPad Air and iPad Mini Retina are "Universal", so I think it is likely the next iPhone will be Universal too, at least I hope so.

[RAN Man]

There are currently 31 defined LTE FDD frequency bands by the ITU, and more on the way. There are also 11 defined TDD bands. When you combine this with the multiple 2G/3G bands and technologies (UMTS FDD/CDMAEV-DO/UMTS FDD etc) then it's not likely that you will ever get a single phone supporting all. Not all of these combinations are widely used, but unless you can support them all, I guess you can't call any phone a true worldwide LTE phone.

e.g. For the iPhone 5s you get the following combinations. The A1533 would work in most places, although limited in USA/China.

Model A1533 (GSM)*: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 19, 20, 25)

Model A1533 (CDMA)*: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 19, 20, 25)

Model A1453*: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26)

Model A1457*: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20)

Model A1530*: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); FDD-LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20); TD-LTE (Bands 38, 39, 40)

[Zebb]

Thanks for all your replies. Motorola used the word universal which I thought would cover at least the US and Europe. I remember now that Qualcomm announced the RF360 which was supposed to cover most bands but might have been too expensive to put in the Moto G 4G?

The Sony Xperia Z1 compact has a good range of LTE bands but it's much more costly than the Moto G 4G.

Maybe it's a marketing rather than a technical limitation?