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Hacked Nexus 4 Works on AT&T’s 4G LTE in Limited Markets

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The saga of does the LG-made Google Nexus 4 support LTE continues as hacks have proven that the device does work on AT&T’s 4G LTE network, albeit in select markets. Despite Google‘s and LG‘s insistence that the Nexus 4 does not support nor have a functioning LTE antenna to make whatever traces of an LTE modem work, hackers have gotten the device functional on AT&T’s LTE network with LTE download speeds in select markets.

As it stands, the hack isn’t perfect, and it seems that upload speeds may still be handled over AT&T’s slower 4G HSPA+ network, rather than LTE, given the results of speedtests after the hack was enabled.

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LTE hacked support was already available for some time before for users in Canada.

The way the hack works is that XDA member checkitonetime managed to use the Galaxy S III APN, or access point name, on the Nexus 4. This enables the smartphone to access AT&T’s Band 4 frequency, but at this time Band 4 is still not widely deployed. It is only available in Phoenix, Raleigh, San Juan, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Chicago, Charlotte, Athens, and College Station, according to Android Community

Band 4 is a different spectrum than the more widely deployed 700 MHz spectrum that AT&T is using for most of its national coverage.

Download speeds were shown to be close to 30 Mbps while upload speeds hovered at 0.75 Mbps. The robust download speeds will mean that users can browse webpages, load YouTube videos, stream Netflix, and download content at blazing fast speeds. Uploads of photos and videos, such as to sites like Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google+, will be slower than desired, however.

It’s unclear if software tweaking can enable LTE support on different frequencies in the future.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Gokhan

    12/11/2012 at 10:10 am

    Nexus 4 does have the modem for all LTE bands but it doesn’t have the band-pass filters and amplifiers for all bands. In fact, the download frequency of Band 4 seems to be perhaps the only band-pass filter and amplifier Nexus 4 is equipped with. This is not surprising, as this frequency (2100 MHz) is part of the AWS band also one of the HSPA+ frequencies. The simple settings change on the phone should allow the use of the download link for LTE Band 4.

    Therefore LG and Google are only partly correct. The truth of the matter is that Nexus 4 has the modem for all LTE bands but apparently there is the amplifier and band-pass filter for only the download link of LTE Band 4 (AWS 2100 Mhz). The simple settings change described should allow the phone to access the download link of Band 4, which should be useful.

    However, I also suspect that the download link (PCS 1900 MHz) of the LTE Band 25 for Sprint Nextel might also work.

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