Motorola Moto X Pure Edition to get T-Mobile LTE band 12 support with Marshmallow update

posted by Alan F. / Nov 15, 2015, 6:18 PM

Motorola Moto X Pure Edition to get T-Mobile LTE band 12 support with Marshmallow update

According to Motorola's David Schuster, who works as a member of Motorola's software product management team, the Motorola Moto X Pure Edition will be adding support for T-Mobile's LTE band 12 when it receives the update to Android 6.0. The carrier has been heavily advertising band 12, which it employs for its Extended Range LTE service.

T-Mobile's LTE band 12 uses the 700MHz range. Lower frequency spectrum not only travels farther than higher frequency airwaves, they also penetrate buildings better. The FCC will be auctioning off a chunk of low frequency 600MHz spectrum next year, that is no longer being used by television broadcasters.

The T-Mobile Motorola Moto X Pure Edition is undergoing the approval process for the Android 6.0 update at this moment, according to Schuster, who expects Motorola to push it out in the next few weeks. So if you are a T-Mobile customer who is thinking about going after the Moto X Pure Edition, feel free to do so since the handset will soon be supporting the carrier's LTE band 12.

Motorola Moto X Pure Edition (2015)

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source: +DavidSchuster via TmoNews

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6 Comments

1. Jason78

Posts: 281; Member since: Apr 10, 2013

I have never understood why phone manufacturers disable bands on phones. If the phone physically has the band it should be enabled.

posted on Nov 15, 2015, 7:06 PM 1

3. Adsr14

Posts: 118; Member since: Aug 08, 2015

I've never understood it either but I heard someone say it's a licensing issue and paying for the license or something like that. So most manufactures especially like Chinese phones stick to the usual 4G LTE bands 1/3/7 for example to avoid paying the extra band licensing. Not to mention the fact most Chinese phones use some crappy mediatek processor that doesn't support those bands anyway. But I've always thought it was a hardware issue not a software issue that's where I'm confused about this article. I could have swarn you couldn't simply add a band with a software update. What kind of sorcery is this??

posted on Nov 15, 2015, 7:17 PM 0

6. darthpooky

Posts: 1; Member since: Nov 16, 2015

My understanding is that T-Mobile is using band 12 for LTE only and are leaving the traditional phone services such as phone calls and SMS (which as I understand it, still use EDGE) on its other bands.The problem with that is that their other bands have less range/penetrating power so there are areas in their coverage map where phones that support 4G LTE but don't properly support voice over LTE (VoLTE) if at all will say they have signal but would be unable to call 911. So T-Mobile is doing what they can to make Manufacturers disable band 12 on their phones that don't go through T-Mobile's VoLTE certification. Its a cover your ass move, but one that I agreed with after I took the time to understand some of the details. The general population will not take the time to understand any of the details, so I can see T-Mobile getting sued multiple times.

posted on Nov 16, 2015, 1:25 PM 0

5. Docfunkinstein

It was T Mobile wanted the band disabled to get something ready on their end, note the nexus 6p also didn't ship with band 12 If enabled without t mobiles blessing the user could be in a situation where they would have reception but would not be able to make a 911 call. Its not hard to understand if you do a small amount googling

posted on Nov 16, 2015, 9:02 AM 0

2. Mxyzptlk unregistered

This is good news for T-Mobile cuscustomers.

posted on Nov 15, 2015, 7:06 PM 2

4. d2kplus

Posts: 6; Member since: Nov 08, 2014

In the past, the reason phones supported a limited range of bands had more to do with technological capabilities more than about royalties. GSM phones used more or less the same bands everywhere but North America, and CDMA phones were mostly locked to a specific carrier. With the development of 3G and 4G data services the required bands multiplied regionally, by country and carrier. The chip sets and radios initially available could not support every permutation, so multiple versions of phones were needed. Now, advanced chip sets are able to provide universal support, but there are various business, economic and political reasons why this doesn't always occur. Some countries, like China, use protocols unique to their country. US carriers try to limit their handsets ability to function on a competitor's network and some manufacturers want to limit grey market importation of their phones to protect profits in high margin markets.