With the Arrival of LTE on the iPhone 5, the LTE Era Has Began

LTE arrives on the iPhone. With Apple making LTE available for iPhone 5's in the Philippines, I think it is safe to say that the LTE age has arrived. Getting LTE on your postpaid smart iPhone is as easy as applying the latest iOS 6.1 update. Your unlimited data plan, become a unlimited LTE data plan. No word from Globe, but I was told during Globe iPhone launch that Globe iPhone data plans would also automatically become LTE data plans.

With the Apple iPhone now having LTE, this now gives you a wider choice on LTE handsets since you now have both iOS and Android options. The Apple iPhone 5 joins the Huawei Ascent P1, Sony Ericsson Xperia V and  ZTE T82 as the Philippines first LTE capable phones.

Why place so much emphasize on LTE support for the iPhone 5? When it comes down to the mobile handsets that have the consumers mind share, it really comes down to three models: the Apple iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S III and Samsung Galaxy Note II. For so long as all three handsets in the Philippines did not have LTE, phones with LTE were largely ignored.

Now that the Apple iPhone 5 has LTE active, it truly becomes a cutting edge handset, which will have an incremental upgrade later this year. No matter how much you like the large beautiful Super AMOLED displays and quad core processors on the Samsung Galaxy S III and Samsung Galaxy Note II, they feel like last years handsets soon to be replaced by a LTE capable model, or by a whole new model all-together.

0.4-inches from greatness. The other beneficiary of LTE arriving on the is the Sony Xperia V, which is an excellent smartphone. The problem with the Xperia V is that it came with a 4.3-inch display when the Android standard for a flagship phone was a 4.7-inch or larger screen. With the Apple iPhone 5 toting LTE, the Sony Xperia V becomes its only equivalent competitor. LTE will allow the Sony Xperia V to arise from the large shadow cast by Samsung's Galaxy's.

Carrier wars. The Apple iPhone 5 will bring greater public awareness of what LTE is, than all of the marketing that Smart and Globe have poured in for the past one and a half years. With greater public awareness, the fight for which is the best network will focus on which network has the wider LTE coverage.

Rappler has a updated list of Globe Telecom LTE locations and has confirmed download speeds as fast as 35 Mbps:

• Manila Golf and Country Club, Forbes Park
• The Residences, Greenbelt 1
• Rockwell Nestle; Palanan Avenue; Rockwell Condominiums
• Along Ayala Ave. Ext. going to Kamagong St., Along Ayala Ave. Ext. going to Gil Puyat Ave.
• Towards Ayala Ave. going to Buendia; towards Ayala Avenue going to Edsa; towards Dela Rosa
• EDSA; South Luzon Expressway (SLEx); A. Arnaiz Ave.; Bangkal
• Jupiter St.; Kalayaan; Bel-Air 1 Village; Bel-Air 2 Village
• Gil Puyat Ave.; Bel-Air 2 Village; Salcedo Village
• Pasong Tamo Extension; Dasmarinas Village
• H.V. dela Costa St.; Valero St.; Salcedo Village
• Indoor coverage - Manila Peninsula Hotel, Makati
• McKinley Road; Forbes Park; Dasmarinas Village
• Indoor coverage - Makati Medical Center

Smart LTE is now available in eleven cities. Displaying a list would be too long, and it would be easier to simply display them on maps.

For more details on Smart LTE, click this link (Smart Communications).

With the LTE era having began, it looks like Globe and Samsung are caught playing catchup.