Does Freedom's LTE work with iPhone 7?

mcfart wrote: ↑ Nope. Well it might in Ottawa which just deployed AWS-1 which most phones support...but in general, no.

AlexatOrchard wrote: ↑ Confirmed. Freedom is *praying* that next gen of iPhones are compatible. Not looking good though.

wearysky wrote: ↑ Why not looking good? Every other flagship released this year has supported band 66, if memory serves. I'd be pretty shocked if Apple didn't include band 66 support. Not because Freedom finally deployed their network, but because T-Mobile did in the US.

titaniumtux wrote: ↑ Agreed, there's a good chance that iPhone 8 will support LTE band 66.

I also heard from Freedom that if your phone is not considered LTE compatible on their network, you won't get LTE on Freedom, not even in Ottawa/Gatineau.

mcfart wrote: ↑ sounds like something they should fix fast lol. why have aws-1 if you still need a band 66 phone for it???

titaniumtux wrote: ↑ Marketing, please shareholders, urge ppl to upgrade their phones, etc.

I spoke to a Freedom Mobile sales guy in Ottawa who told me you need a phone compatible with Freedom Mobile's LTE network to get any LTE on Freedom, including in Ottawa.

My guess for Ottawa is they went with what's available, costs, etc. otherwise I have no idea why they operate a different LTE band in Ottawa.

Makes no difference to me. I might get the odd phone from Freedom Mobile if it's a carrier exclusive, but have no intention of using their service because it's simply not the best fit for me (I put two of the big three at a loss given all the phones I snag at no cost to me from their subsidiaries, plus I get QC plans, even with referrals I can't figure out how to put Freedom Mobile at a loss).

wearysky wrote: ↑ I'm not sure I would trust a sales guy to actually tell you the truth, or even know what he's talking about.

titaniumtux wrote: ↑ This is true, but to be fair, the guys at the kiosks also activate BYOD on customers' existing phones, and likely have some first hand experience with the Freedom network in Ottawa.

It wouldn't surprise me that Freedom Mobile won't allow LTE phones to connect to their LTE network in Ottawa unless they support band 66.

wearysky wrote: ↑ It *would* surprise me, to be honest... I don't know how they'd even do it. Limiting so that only certain models of phone can connect to their LTE network, regardless of which band they're connecting on? That sounds like more work.

titaniumtux wrote: ↑ They're already going through the hassle of throttling their grandfathered base on 3G, even if they have a compatible handset. IMEI has to register on their network, and would be enough to filter which handsets connect to LTE.

Knowing how Freedom is (the only carrier to offer consumer and business accounts, data sticks AND throttle grandfathered base to keep them on 3G), that wouldn't surprise me.

wearysky wrote: ↑ There's a difference between forcing a specific sim card to only be able to connect to 3G vs LTE, and forcing a specific *model of phone* - because with the sim card, they can just say "this sim card is not allowed to connect to the LTE network" all the time. They would have to look up the IMEI of the phone once it connects to their network, to see if it's allowed to connect to their LTE network or not. And all of that would be to prevent customers *that are paying for LTE connections* from connecting to their LTE network, which doesn't make much sense to do.

AlexatOrchard wrote: ↑ Confirmed. Freedom is *praying* that next gen of iPhones are compatible. Not looking good though.

wearysky wrote: ↑ Why not looking good? Every other flagship released this year has supported band 66, if memory serves. I'd be pretty shocked if Apple didn't include band 66 support. Not because Freedom finally deployed their network, but because T-Mobile did in the US.

titaniumtux wrote: ↑ Agreed, there's a good chance that iPhone 8 will support LTE band 66.

I also heard from Freedom that if your phone is not considered LTE compatible on their network, you won't get LTE on Freedom, not even in Ottawa/Gatineau.

aqnd wrote: ↑ And re: the other discussion on LTE in Ottawa needing band66, not true.
So long as your phone has band4 and you have LTE SIM and plan you'll get LTE. But only in areas where your phone can connect (Ottawa, Peterborough, Kingston)
They're even actively promoting it to some users as a free trial upgrade to LTE.