Lack of Simultaneous Voice And Data - Verizon iPhone 5

[LCW]

Chalk me up to the "nice to have but not essential" camp.

I was AT&T for years with iPhones. I have used the talk and surf on occasion, but I'm guess half the time I was probably near a wifi hotspot anyways. I can see it being a bigger deal for folks that use their iphones for conference calls for work. But on a personal level, while nice, I had way more to gain in switching to Verizon in my area. I'm in the sticks of northern MN, but we have Verizon LTE. I wouldn't hold my breath for AT&T LTE up here any time soon. AT&T still has EDGE for god sake in many non-metro areas still.

 

[shaolinfinest]

Well if you are on the data network (3G) this is all true that you cannot do what you posted but you can however do it over WIFI. Jump on WIFI and talk and surf all you want. Have a great weekend.

EDIT: Once again Keith got me.... I have to get quicker on the trigger!

Actually some of the HTC phones like the Thunderbolt allowed the user to talk/surf over 3G. It can be done if the company is willing to allow it. I believe Apple did not offer this due to it being something new and could cause a bad user experience. I am not sure if it is just with the iPhone but I am on AT&T and and on a phone call, I can not use the data fast enough to transfer money from banking app. It always times out, when I am surfing the web it is very slow. It sucks sometimes being on a call with ordering or billing and having to tell them you have to call back because moving money from another account is taking longer than you anticipated.

 

[ghostface147]

The iPhone 5 doesn't have a third antenna to allow simultaneous voice and data. VoLTE will alleviate it.

 

[planoman]

I needed it today. My work phone is a iphone 5 and I was on the phone today and needed an email corrected and sent back to me but was not able to view it at the same time. Hung up and called him back with my personal phone and then was able to view the corrections to the email on my iphone 5. I could have said I switched to my ATT phone and did both but I made my point.

 

[androidluvr2]

I needed it today. My work phone is a iphone 5 and I was on the phone today and needed an email corrected and sent back to me but was not able to view it at the same time. Hung up and called him back with my personal phone and then was able to view the corrections to the email on my iphone 5. I could have said I switched to my ATT phone and did both but I made my point.

I just realized that I like to wifi tether my laptop to my phone (it's an android) and if I am doing that and receive a call, then I would get kicked off of data if I were doing it with the iPhone 5.

 

[androidluvr2]

The iPhone 5 doesn't have a third antenna to allow simultaneous voice and data. VoLTE will alleviate it.

What is the ETA of VoLTE?

 

[shaolinfinest]

What is the ETA of VoLTE?

There is no ETA as of yet, it will come as LTE gets enhanced over time.

 

[androidluvr2]

There is no ETA as of yet, it will come as LTE gets enhanced over time.

My guess is that the iPhone 5 will be out of date by the time Verizon converts to VoLTE.

 

[bunjy]

I still wonder is the iPhone 5 is even capable of VoLTE.

 

[androidluvr2]

I still wonder is the iPhone 5 is even capable of VoLTE.

If it is capable of LTE, it is capable of VoLTE. The hardware limitation only affects whether or not it can transmit/receive LTE. Everything else would be software and so updatable.

 

[shaolinfinest]

I still wonder is the iPhone 5 is even capable of VoLTE.

Should be capable as it seems it is on the network side only not network and handset. It seems the problem with VoLTE is the battery can not handle it.

 

[androidluvr2]

It seems the problem with VoLTE is the battery can not handle it.

The battery cannot handle 4G LTE data either for very long, so why would it handle VoLTE. But that only makes my point - the iPhone 5 will be out of date before VZW gets VoLTE.

 

[shaolinfinest]

The battery cannot handle 4G LTE data either for very long, so why would it handle VoLTE. But that only makes my point - the iPhone 5 will be out of date before VZW gets VoLTE.

I have no problem using my phone on LTE throughout the day, I am not sure what you are using your phone for.

 

[kch50428]

The battery cannot handle 4G LTE data either for very long, so why would it handle VoLTE. But that only makes my point - the iPhone 5 will be out of date before VZW gets VoLTE.

Verizon is supposedly still on track to deploy VoLTE later this year... and how you define "out of date" - yes, a newer iPhone will likely be out, but that in no way makes the present iPhone5 model "out of date" as it will still see iOS updates for quite some time to come. When iOS updates cease, that's when an iDevice is "out of date" - at least from my perspective.

 

[shaolinfinest]

So AT&T's FUD works on you??

What is FUD?

 

[androidluvr2]

I have no problem using my phone on LTE throughout the day, I am not sure what you are using your phone for.

If you stream music or video or are using the browser with the screen on quite a bit, it won't last through the day. Obviously, not the typical user, but for those of us who have unthrottled, unlimited data on Verizon, well, we can use it like that if we want to.

 

[kch50428]

What is FUD?

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.... All being played by AT&T in their marketing in their adverts that bring up the subject of talk&surf.

 

[androidluvr2]

Verizon is supposedly still on track to deploy VoLTE later this year... and how you define "out of date" - yes, a newer iPhone will likely be out, but that in no way makes the present iPhone5 model "out of date" as it will still see iOS updates for quite some time to come. When iOS updates cease, that's when an iDevice is "out of date" - at least from my perspective.

I see your point. But I still think battery life is huge when you are talking about the shelf life of these devices.

If you mostly use the phone as a phone/texting device, the battery is fine. But as a hand-held computer, which is what these devices are to me, the battery life needs improvement. I think that is one reason Apple came out with the lightening chargers - they realized that heavy usage of the device's 4G LTE capabilities is going to take a toll on the battery life and they compensated by providing faster charging.

Then if you add VoLTE, further draining the battery, I foresee a problem with the device that is correctable with battery improvements but that is hardware, so it will be corrected in future models but uncorrectable in the current model - hence why I said out of date.

This is true for any 4G LTE device, btw, with the exception of the Razr Maxx and the Galaxy Note 2.

 

[Kathryn Laskey]

Sure AT&T is making the most of this, but it's not FUD. I switched to AT&T from Verizon before there was Droid. Just this week I decided to switch back to Verizon with the rest of my family because I'm tired of dropped calls in my living room. I got an iPhone 5, which I love, but because I tend to ignore commercials, it was a rude awakening to discover to my dismay during a professional phone conference that I can no longer look something up on the web or download an email when I'm talking. That meant I could not participate fully in the phonecon because I could not use the screenshare application. Don't tell me this isn't a problem because I can do it on wifi. There was no wifi in the doctor's office where I was doing the phone call while waiting for my daughter. Maybe if you've never used it, you won't miss it -- it is a *very* useful capability. It's almost enough to make me rethink switching from AT&T or not choosing a Droid. I like iOS, but not having the ability to talk and surf is going to be a real problem for me.

 

[yaynative]

I have AT&T and it isn't a "feature" I ever use more than twice a year. Does it interrupt GPS navigation if a call comes in on VZW?