Apple unveiled two new iPhones to replace the iPhone 5 on Tuesday, the lower-cost iPhone 5c and higher-end iPhone 5s, and to the relief of Apple fans across Europe the new smartphones will now support LTE Bands 7 (2.6 GHz) and 20 (800 MHz), as well as LTE Band 3 (1800 MHz).
What this means is that more European operators will be able to offer both the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s as LTE devices, in contrast to the former iPhone 5 that was available only on 1800 MHz spectrum in Europe. While the devices do support TD-LTE for LTE Bands 38 (2.6 GHz), 39 (1900 MHz) and 40 (2.3 GHz), Apple did not announce on Tuesday a deal with China Mobile for support for its TD-LTE network,
UK operators EE and Vodafone are now listed on Apple's site as providers of the two devices, while SFR, Orange and Bouygues Telecom are all listed for France, and Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom are listed for Germany.
Vodafone UK has already confirmed it will offer the devices: "As you would expect, Vodafone UK will be offering all variants of the newly announced iPhone," the company said in a statement. "They will be available to consumers on our Vodafone Red 4G-ready plans."
No doubt other European carriers will be added to the list over time as the two devices are launched in more markets. As things stand, the iPhone 5c and 5s will be available in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK on Sept. 20. Apple said the phones will be available in 100 countries and 270 carriers by the end of the year.
"[iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s make] it even easier to connect to high-speed networks with support for up to 13 LTE wireless bands, more than any other smartphone in the world," Apple said in the releases for both devices. "With download speeds up to 100 Mbps, you can browse, download and stream content even faster." It should be noted that those speeds are theoretical peak speeds.
The company also noted that the new iPhone models include dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi support for up to 150 Mbps and Bluetooth 4.0.
The iPhone 5c comes in blue, green, pink, yellow and white and will be available in the UK for a suggested retail price of £469 (£390.83 ex VAT) for the 16 GB model and £549 (£457.50 ex VAT) for the 32 GB model.
Meanwhile, the iPhone 5s will be available in black, silver and, for the first time, gold metal casing, in the UK for a suggested retail price of £549 (£457.50 ex VAT) for the 16 GB model and £629 (£524.17 ex VAT) for the 32 GB model and £709 (£590.83 ex VAT) for the 64 GB model.
In France and Germany, prices start at €699 for the 16 GB 5s and €599 for the 16 GB 5c.
For more:
- see this Apple release
- see this separate Apple release
- see this Apple page on LTE network support
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