Apple on Tuesday offered to refund any Australian buyer of the company’s new iPad line who wasn’t happy with the firms false 4G claims.
iPad boxes in the country advertised the use of 4G data networks throughout Australia, unfortunately carriers in the country do not use LTE on Apple’s supported bands and their HSPA+ networks are not considered 4G speeds under the currently accepted definition.
Apple also agreed to put signage in stores and e-mail customers to explain that they couldn’t use Telstra’s new LTE technology, the only high speed standard in the country so far.
While Apple has said it will not place stickers on individual iPad boxes Attorney Paul Anastassiou noted in Federal Court that Apple was technically meeting the ITU definition of 4G. Rules regarding the classification of “4G” changed when T-Mobile USA and Sprint Wireless starting referring to WiMAX and HSPA+ as 4G.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has asked Apple to issue an explanatory ad within three days, both on company pages and in newspapers. The commission has also asked that Apple change the “iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G” name when dealing in local Australian sales.
At this time Apple’s LTE technologies support the 700MHz and 2,100MHz spectrums, options that are currently available in the US and Canada. Further support industry wide is expected to arrive in late 2012 and early 2013 as LTE chipsets take over the frequencies of many top Smartphones thanks to their better battery lives and stellar download/upload capabilities.
