Verizon and Sprint iPhone 5 Will Not Offer Simultaneous Voice and Data

Posted on September 13, 2012 by

I’ve been thinking about switching from AT&T to a different carrier, but not anymore. It has been confirmed that the iPhone 5 on both Verizon and Sprint will not support simultaneous voice and data. The AT&T iPhone has supported simultaneous voice and data since the iPhone 3G, and I don’t think I could live without it.

AT&T’s 3G network uses GSM, which allows for voice and data at the same time, but Verizon and Sprint use the very slow and inferior CDMA network which doesn’t support this feature. The iPhone 5 features LTE, but this technology currently only supports data. Apple would have had to add a third antenna to the Verizon and Sprint iPhone 5 to allow both LTE data and CDMA voice together.

Verizon and Sprint customers may not realize how awesome this feature is, but once you’ve been using it for years, it becomes a part of you. I’m not sure why Apple didn’t add a third antenna to the iPhone 5 so these networks would be able to support it, but my guess is that there just wasn’t any room.