4 ms·

Well why would they pull the chip if they launched it like that?

marshray 14y ago
Why would they put in the chip if it didn't have an antenna? I think T-Mobile is selling their HSPA+ as "4G", even though it's not using LTE yet. So it's not that no GSM carriers would advertise the phone as "4G". Perhaps they designed and/or manufactured the circuit boards before they had the frequencies all sorted out. Perhaps they need the chip in there for patent licensing reasons.
- tadfisher 14y ago
  The real reason is that they went with the Qualcomm S4 SoC, which has an LTE modem on-die. It's likely that it would be too expensive to have Qualcomm manufacturer an LTE-less chip for one device.
  - marshray 14y ago
    According to http://www.qualcomm.com/chipsets/snapdragon http://www.qualcomm.com/chipsets/snapdragon the Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8064 has LTE "on select processors". But it's still a separate chip from from the WTR1605L LTE chip. So the Nexus 4 may actually have two unused LTE implementations ?!
    - tadfisher 14y ago
      Now this boggles the mind. This could be explained by the Nexus 4 sharing the internals of the Optimus G, but why opt for the off-die LTE modem in the first place?
      - marshray 14y ago
        http://www.anandtech.com/show/6474/nexus-4-includes-support-for-lte-on-band-4-aws http://www.anandtech.com/show/6474/nexus-4-includes-support-... Looks like the LTE does, in fact, work for "band 4 AWS". This is said to be the band T-Mobile will be deploying LTE in next year.
- cube13 14y ago
  >Perhaps they need the chip in there for patent licensing reasons. Actually, maybe someone can answer this. Does anyone know exactly what the cost is(both in licensing and materials) for a 4G LTE chip vs the antenna?
  - marshray 14y ago
    I doubt you could get a price quote for under 10,000 units. The company to ask is iSuppli, they specialize in reverse costing. http://www.isuppli.com/Teardowns/Pages/Headlines.aspx http://www.isuppli.com/Teardowns/Pages/Headlines.aspx
fudged71 14y ago
Probably because the device wasn't licensed by the FCC to transmit/receive on those frequencies :( http://www.mobilenapps.com/articles/5579/20121214/nexus-4-lte-being-secretly-removed-google.htm http://www.mobilenapps.com/articles/5579/20121214/nexus-4-lt...

Why would they put in the chip if it didn't have an antenna? I think T-Mobile is selling their HSPA+ as "4G", even though it's not using LTE yet. So it's not that no GSM carriers would advertise the phone as "4G". Perhaps they designed and/or manufactured the circuit boards before they had the frequencies all sorted out. Perhaps they need the chip in there for patent licensing reasons.

tadfisher 14y ago
The real reason is that they went with the Qualcomm S4 SoC, which has an LTE modem on-die. It's likely that it would be too expensive to have Qualcomm manufacturer an LTE-less chip for one device.
- marshray 14y ago
  According to http://www.qualcomm.com/chipsets/snapdragon http://www.qualcomm.com/chipsets/snapdragon the Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8064 has LTE "on select processors". But it's still a separate chip from from the WTR1605L LTE chip. So the Nexus 4 may actually have two unused LTE implementations ?!
  - tadfisher 14y ago
    Now this boggles the mind. This could be explained by the Nexus 4 sharing the internals of the Optimus G, but why opt for the off-die LTE modem in the first place?
    - marshray 14y ago
      http://www.anandtech.com/show/6474/nexus-4-includes-support-for-lte-on-band-4-aws http://www.anandtech.com/show/6474/nexus-4-includes-support-... Looks like the LTE does, in fact, work for "band 4 AWS". This is said to be the band T-Mobile will be deploying LTE in next year.
cube13 14y ago
>Perhaps they need the chip in there for patent licensing reasons. Actually, maybe someone can answer this. Does anyone know exactly what the cost is(both in licensing and materials) for a 4G LTE chip vs the antenna?
- marshray 14y ago
  I doubt you could get a price quote for under 10,000 units. The company to ask is iSuppli, they specialize in reverse costing. http://www.isuppli.com/Teardowns/Pages/Headlines.aspx http://www.isuppli.com/Teardowns/Pages/Headlines.aspx

fudged71 14y ago

Probably because the device wasn't licensed by the FCC to transmit/receive on those frequencies :( http://www.mobilenapps.com/articles/5579/20121214/nexus-4-lte-being-secretly-removed-google.htm http://www.mobilenapps.com/articles/5579/20121214/nexus-4-lt...