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iPhone 5: Will Bangalore and Kolkata be lucky?

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Deepa
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BANGALORE, INDIA: The iPhone 5 mania is heading towards its culmination point as the world awaits the sun to rise over the US on September 12.

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Media across the world went gaga over Apple's new iPhone device and did not leave any of its part from being scrutinized. On the other hand, its rivals Samsung, and HTC among others are also no less eager and are waiting for the moment when the official specifications of the device will be released. That, not just to see if it fares better than their's, but also to see if any of them infringe patents.

That said, now coming back to the rumours, while some talked about its screen and other speculative features, others argued on whether the device will be worth the wait and money and also debated over the features it will or will not have. The hype was such that no one could stay away from it.

Now, whether or not Apple had any direct role or 'accidental' hands in sparking off rumours, most of these will remain oblivious to the fact. Let us now look at particularly one such rumour.

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It is about the speculation that the iPhone 5 will support the fourth generation (4G) technology. Now, for those who just sighed and thought 'what is the big deal, today there are several such 4G handhelds available', let me add that the speculation is also that Apple's new iPhone will support 4G worldwide.

Apparently, what it means is that the device will be compatible with all 4G networks - ie FDD and TDD variants and all bands of LTE- that have been deployed across the world.

A report on The Wall Street Journal says: "Apple Inc.'s next iPhone will work on the fastest wireless networks around the world - including in the US, Europe and Asia."

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Though there have been no confirmation on this, let us see why there could be a catch, which the report does probe into.

Yes, an iPhone that supports all LTE networks will give that extra edge for its makers, in the smartphone market against its biggest rival Samsung. The latter has not been successful in bringing out one such device from its own stable, yet.

However, it is near to impractical to build a device that can be compatible with '36 LTE bands around the world', adds the report since such chips are yet to be made.

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So, there is this possibility that many countries will be left out, like how it was when Apple announced its new iPad LTE or Samsung its Galaxy S III, sometime back.

Well, we can only hope that India finds a place in this list. If so, currently we have Airtel's 4G networks functioning in two cities - Bangalore and Kolkata. So will Bangaloreans and Kolkatans be the lucky ones, and also the first to get their hands on the network that is supposed to give 100 Mbps of speed.

It might be true unless an Aircel or Reliance decides to launch their's before iPhone 5 launch, which is unlikely to happen soon. Above all, statistics are itself against such a device.

But nevertheless, we can hope against the hope. Isn't so?

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