The LG Nexus 4 supports LTE on AT&T – sort of
When the LG Nexus 4 was announced, it had almost all of the features that mainstream consumers were looking for, and most people had few complaints. Of those few complaints, however, LTE connectivity has been quite high on a list that also includes a missing microSD card slot and non-removable battery. Although I don’t particularly care about LTE connectivity myself, the lack of such a feature in the Nexus 4 has in particular been highlighted as a problem with the device, and a deal-breaker for some consumers.
However, a week or two ago, a teardown on iFixit revealed that the Nexus 4 actually includes a LTE 7-band radio: the Qualcomm WTR1605L. This chip is likely a leftover from the Optimus G’s design, which does include LTE, and it made many users hope that LTE connectivity was only a software tweak away..
Despite LG’s statement that the LTE radio in the Nexus 4 was basically a dud, users were in fact able to get the Nexus 4 to connect to some limited LTE networks in Canada. While that wasn’t much help to users here in the US, an XDA user has now demonstrated that the Nexus 4 can also work on AT&T’s LTE network here in the states. Using a custom APN and radio, the user was able to connect successfully to AT&T’s LTE and get some fairly impressive download speeds.
Unfortunately, this still doesn’t mean that LTE connectivity for all Nexus 4’s is just a new radio away. The hack utilizes the Nexus 4’s support for LTE band 4, which is used only in very few markets, meaning that it won’t be useful to the vast majority of people. In fact, the poster of the above screenshots didn’t even post instructions for the tweak. Still, it is good to know that the Nexus 4’s LTE radio really will work in the US, provided the right LTE network is available.
[xda-developers]
