Changing the Cellular (LTE) chip on the iPhone

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iPhone 5

Repair information, troubleshooting tips, and guides for the sixth iteration of Apple iPhone, announced on September 12, 2012. Model: A1428, A1429

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Luis @luis40065

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Posted: May 25, 2013

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Changing the Cellular (LTE) chip on the iPhone

Hello, in my country, LTE is only on band 7 (2600 mhz), which isn't supported by the iPhone 5.

What I know is that the iPhone has native support for LTE, so it CAN recognize LTE chips, it's not like trying to add an LTE chip to the iPhone 4S.

What I wanted to know is if I could replace the current cellular chip for another one, from some phone that supports band 7 LTE, like Motorola Razr HD, Samsung S3, S4, HTC One, etc.

I read that the chip is part of or glued to the motherboard or logic board or something, so technically it would be impossible to replace it, but I couldn't know for sure... Maybe I could replace the entire logic board...? I don't know, I'm really a dummie when it comes to hardware. Of course, I would get help of somebody specialized/professional. Does anybody have any idea on what I could do?

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Dan @danj

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Posted: May 25, 2013

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Luis - No you can't exchange out the LTE chip for a few different reasons.

First you would need to find a pin compatible chip which currently there isn't one, second you would need soldering skills of a fine eye surgeon to even remove the chip from the very tight logic board (no one even tries as its just to difficult without the very expensive equipment required to do it), and lastly, the antenna's needed for your bands are different than what your current phone has.

Best thing here is wait until Apple comes out with a version of the phone for the LTE band you have in your area (I'm sure one will be coming out soon).

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