China Unicom revealed the iPhone 5 will support HSPA+ networks. They made the announcement during a presentation at Macworld Asia
HSPA+ is being marketed as 4G in the US when it really isn't quite 4G. It's probably more accurate to call it 3.5G. HSPA+ supports theoretical data speed of 21 Mbps. Many had hoped the iPhone 5 would support the LTE networks, but Apple is probably too conservative to jump into LTE technology until it is proven very reliable and stable. Apple is usually late to the game when it comes to cellular technology. They released the first iPhone without supporting 3G despite the fact that 3G phones had been around for quite some time.
Japanese IT news site “PC Watch” tells that, Research vice president of China Unicom, Huan Wenliang, told iPhone 5 will support W-CDMA based high-speed data transfer standard HSPA Evolution “HSPA+” (21Mbps) at keynote speech in Macworld Asia 2011.
HSPA+ is being marketed as 4G in the US when it really isn't quite 4G. It's probably more accurate to call it 3.5G. HSPA+ supports theoretical data speed of 21 Mbps. Many had hoped the iPhone 5 would support the LTE networks, but Apple is probably too conservative to jump into LTE technology until it is proven very reliable and stable. Apple is usually late to the game when it comes to cellular technology. They released the first iPhone without supporting 3G despite the fact that 3G phones had been around for quite some time.