In last week’s interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, he revealed that they will be rolling out LTE support to 36 new countries by next week. Among the countries he specifically mentioned is the Philippines.
That could mean both Globe and Smart will be able to offer LTE connectivity to iPhone 5 subscribers of the respective networks. {via}
While Smart and Globe already has initiated LTE roll-out in some parts of Metro Manila, the iPhone 5 didn’t come with any LTE support by the time they launched it back in December.
Both telcos have explained that Apple is yet to approve their application for LTE support for the iPhone 5 and so until such time that Apple said so, they cannot offer LTE data plans with the handset. Once they get the go-signal, a quick tweak and software update will fix all that.
What is not know is whether the LTE connectivity will require additional cost from subscribers. Smart has started charging for LTE handsets like the Xperia V on Plan 1500 and Plan 2000 with 1.5GB and 2.5GB data caps. Meanwhile, Globe promised that they’ll offer unlimited LTE on the iPhone 5 once it is rolled-out but that has yet to be seen.
You can read our review of the iPhone 5 here.
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