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The Insanity And Confusing Truth Of The iPad's Mobile Specs

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Apple released its new iPad on March 16, a much-improved take on the second generation. One of the important features of the new tablet is its ability to connect at higher speeds through the new fourth-generation broadband networks. “World ready. And very well connected," the ads say. You’re supposedly to be able to hop from AT&T to Verizon and even pop in a local SIM card to get a connection when you’re traveling.

Not exactly. While its tablet does operate on Verizon, AT&T and other 4G networks, Apple failed to tell the rest of the story. As any buyer will soon learn, there's a complicated and confusing mix of technology and incompatibility here, as well as misinformation upon the part of the carriers and Apple customer support and its retail stores. These problems can directly affect your ability to roam with your new iPad, especially internationally.

I was in London last week and purchased the new 4G iPad at the Apple flagship store on Regent Street near Oxford Circus.  I spent a couple of hours speaking with different sales reps and techs to determine whether the generic Apple version would work on Verizon and AT&T in the U.S. because obviously the store did not carry either of the iPads designed specifically for these carriers. I was told at first there was absolutely no problem using the Apple version of the new iPad on either Verizon or AT&T. Then I was also told it would only work on AT&T, and finally that they really did not know. Take your choice, and one answer might be correct.

Apple actually introduced four different iPad models: three with 4G LTE, and one with Wifi connectivity only. The devices with broadband capability are the generic Apple “allegedly unlocked” model that works worldwide, the Verizon version, and the one for use on AT&T. If Apple and the carriers had set out to confuse the consumer they could not have done a better job because there is another layer of technical issues in the new tablets that relate to interoperability between carriers, roaming by users, and a lack of standardized 4G global roaming SIM card.

At the press conference by Apple CEO Tim Cook in San Francisco on March 7, it was pointed out that iPad could operate on 4G services around the world. That's true, but it must be qualified, and depends on what you define as a 4G network (which is part of the problem). Further complicating factors are the carrier you're using and  your location.

The Different 4G Systems

All the carriers use the term 4G but they're talking about different versions. AT&T uses something called HSPA+, or Evolved High Speed Packet Access, which is not true 4G but more like an enhancement of the widely used WCDMA-based 3G networks. This service can offer theoretical download speeds of up to 168 megabits (Mbit/s) per second, and 22 Mbit/s upload speeds from the mobile device. True 4G is something called LTE, which has similar speeds but a new interface. This is the one Verizon uses.

All the new iPads continue to operate on 3G networks but there presently is no “universal” iPad that can function on 4G anywhere even though the specs might suggest it can. Universal access is a myth and interoperability depends upon which model you purchase. Non-Verizon iPads technically should work on Verizon or Vodafone's 4G network--but they don't. Making things even more confusing, the AT&T and generic Apple version (sold at all Apple stores) don't have the (older) CDMA radio used by Verizon so they won't even operate on Verizon 3G network. In other parts of the world, it will depend upon the network.

For reasons too arcane to go into here, that dream of worldwide roaming on 4G at 700 Mhz may require regulatory enforcement to make it a reality. I reached out to Apple corporate for technical answers. They would not return phone calls or emails either in the U.S. or England. So, I spent several hours meeting in person with support staff in the UK, and on the phone with senior tech support in the U.S. To say that I received conflicting and inaccurate answers to my questions about the capabilities of the new iPad would be an understatement. I got several different answers to technical questions, all of which were essentially wrong.

I spoke with a senior tech support/customer care agent at Apple in the United States, who finally called a store in London for a definitive answer. They were told “there should not be any issue with a Verizon SIM card working in a feneric Apple iPad in the U.S."  The store in London indicated they had used a Verizon SIM card and checked with Verizon and it had worked. This was totally inaccurate.

So, I decided to reach out to Brenda Raney, senior press information officer for Verizon in New Jersey. I asked her if the Apple version of the iPad would work on the Verizon network, telling her that I was in England and wanted to make sure that the model I purchased would function properly. First, she told me that Verizon did not test any other devices and they have no idea whether they will work or not. In response to a number of technical questions that I posed, she referred me to Apple for further information.

She further stated that:

• A Verizon 4G SIM card is interchangeable between Verizon tablets, but they do not know if this is true for iPads for other carriers;

• With regard to using the devices as a roamer between Verizon and AT&T, she wrote “Keep in mind that 4G LTE from Verizon Wireless and LTE from our U.S. competitor operates on different frequency bands and you have to have roaming agreements in place for billing purposes so no one at Verizon Wireless would be able answer your questions about an iPad purchased outside of the U.S."

It is curious that Verizon didn't know that all generic iPads are the same, regardless as to where they are purchased. This response also implies that roaming is possible between 4G carriers, which is not presently true on the 4G bands and will also likely not be allowed on 3G GSM bands if Verizon locks their devices against U.S. carrier usage like the iPhone 4S does.

More to the point, Verizon correctly noted that AT&T calls two different technologies 4G: LTE and HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul at 4G speeds. This adds to the confusion about 4G services that are available to the consumer, and Apple has conveniently aided AT&T in what I would call misleading information at best and, frankly, a scam at worst. In the new iOS for the iPhone, Apple has allowed AT&T to represent to the public that its 3G+ network is really 4G because, as AT&T tech support told me, “they achieve near- 4G speeds.”

While that may be technically true, it is not a 4G network like LTE and AT&T knows it. This is why they are building out (now in 28 cities) their true 700 MHz LTE network to deliver high speed broadband, as Verizon has been doing for the last year.

I got repeated affirmation from Verizon that the Apple generic version would roam on the Verizon 4G network. They, too, assumed it would since iPads all have the same frequency capabilities on all bands. That assumption would be wrong, and is currently being considered in a Notice of Proposed Rule Making by the Federal Communications Commission, as of March 21, 2012. The FCC has determined that the 700 MHz bands, which were established in 2008, are not interoperable at present and that consumer access is blocked. They are concerned with the lack of ability of different devices to operate on different 700 MHz bands. They want all devices to be capable of operating across all spectrum and to achieve nationwide compatibility.

In order to confirm that Apple's claim for universal access was not true, I sent my new iPad from London to New York to a colleague, Todd Morris, the CEO of Brickhouse Security, to be tested. What he found was that neither Apple nor Verizon were able to make it work at all, but it would function with an AT&T SIM card on 3G with AT&T. So, notwithstanding the statements made by tech support at Apple, AT&T and Verizon that the devices should be interoperable, they are not. And interestingly, Brenda Raney also told me “not to listen to tech support about such matters because they were only there to solve specific customer problems and were not knowledgeable about these kinds of issues.”

The other significant problem was my ability to install a U.S. SIM card in my Apple iPad while in England. It was locked, notwithstanding the representations of Apple that it was not. The system wanted an unlock code from Vodafone when I tried to use my Verizon 4G SIM. It recognized it, but wanted the code, in identical fashion with what a locked iPhone 4S requires in order to use a foreign SIM card. Hopefully this problem can be solved with an updated SIM but they were not available for test.