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Australia  GoogleLGTelstra 201 days ago | | 12 Comments

Telstra has no plans to offer the Nexus 4, lack of LTE radio is to blame

NExus 4 ft img

With yesterday’s announcement of the Nexus 4, we’re all incredibly interested in who will be offering it down under. LG told us yesterday that we’ll hear more at the end of November, but we wanted to get just a little bit more information. From what LG had to tell us, it looks like the Nexus 4 would not be coming to any carriers, at least with any restrictions or locks – the Nexus 4 was toted to work on all networks.

However, we were interested to see which carriers are thinking about offering the N4 to customers for a subsidised price. The first carrier to get back to us is Telstra, who have sadly informed us that they currently have no plans to offer it.

Anyway, here’s what Telstra had to say:

At this stage we don’t plan to offer the Nexus 4. Our customers are increasingly demanding a high speed mobile internet experience on their devices so we are focused on bringing models that are compatible with our 4G LTE-enabled network to market.

While it’s sad that Australia’s largest telco won’t be stocking Google/LG’s latest and greatest, it is understandable. This falls in line with what we were hearing at the Motorola/Telstra event for the the RAZR HD and RAZR M. Our very own Norman Ma attended and a telling line of the day was that Telstra and Moto are focused on bringing 4G LTE enabled devices down under, and nothing else really.

While the N4 is not packing an LTE radio, it does feature the Dual Channel HSPA+ radio that is said to reach speeds of up to 42 Mbps, though in the real world this may not be likely. We also reached out to Telstra (who have the strongest network) in regards to the speeds we could expect on this network and this is what we heard back:

Telstra offers HSPA+ Dual Channel coverage to 80 percent of the population on the Telstra Mobile Network. Typical download speeds are between 1 and 20Mbps.

To go without an LTE radio is an interesting choice by Google. We’ve heard from multiple news sources around the world why exactly there is no LTE radio, but for many of us the reasoning just doesn’t matter. According to Telstra, Australians want speedy Internet and we want 4G LTE.

Does the lack of the 4G LTE radio stop you from snatching a Nexus 4 of your own?

Written by : Josh is the founder of Android Australia. He is an adamant vegan, tech enthusiast and psychology student. He is currently a Google Chromebook Product Specialist and a Student Ambassador. You should probably follow him at +Josh on Twitter or on his personal blog!
  • cameron charles

    eh whilst its true telstra are using the “call” of 4g as a massive selling point atm, mostly to those to silly to know better, ill call BS on this, telstra have plenty of non 4g phones available this is more then likely a pr cover to the fact they arent allowed to bloat, i mean customise it, unfortunately google dont YET have the power, like apple, to say sell it as is or dont and lose out, hopefully this n4 sells like hotcakes and telstra are left sulking

    • http://www.androidaustralia.com.au/ Josh Berg

      Interesting point. Do you thin they’re working their way to getting the Nexus phone at that status? Perhaps moving forward to next year?

      • cameron charles

        Indeed I do, although sales here don’t directly reflect it, the nexus line has proven demand for pure Android and the other Nexus offerings Is high, will move units and get contract sign ups, the problem being of course carrier non sense ruins that currently and google knows it, hence they are trying to make the nexus line interference free, in the us this will work fine its proven over there that a carrier free nexus sells, its not so proven here yet but when google throws some money around and play store/online Sales succeed or carriers will change tune ,Id put money down that the nexus4 will be sold By our carriers

  • funkyblue

    LTE uses more battery and mostly marketing by Telstra. It is faster but where are the data quotas to match? I’m happy about DC-HSPDA. Will work well on Vodafone’s new network as it is upgraded.

  • Presjar

    We wouldn’t need LTE if the idiots at Telstra kept up with 3G demand. The only reason we are not getting 10-20Mbps down on HSPDA+ is because of congestion and poor equipment.

    LTE will become slower as more people buy into it, just like their now crappy 3G.

    • http://www.androidaustralia.com.au/ Josh Berg

      Yes but it will most probably always be faster than the 3G, except for when we get throttled.

  • TT

    I will buy a Nexus 4 for sure no matter it is with LTE or not. Actually it is not a big deal. Also I use Vodafail carrier, so I never care it. Waiting for 13rd, Nov. Quick quick

  • http://twitter.com/stowball Matt Stow

    I have no desire in 4G after seeing my colleagues’ S2 and iPhone 5, both of which have awful battery usage.

    We don’t have the battery/power technology to effectively support 4G, and really, I can’t see why you need those speeds on mobile anyway, so I’m glad it doesn’t have it.

    I’m not glad that carriers are refusing to stock the N4 though – as it will mean much slower uptake and growth, which is bad for Android’s market share in general.

    • http://www.androidaustralia.com.au/ Josh Berg

      I agree with everything you have to say. If you know that you’re going to be without a charger for 6-8 hours then a LTE phone will simply die. We’re not ready for it unless you’re thinking about the Note II with 3100mAh. That being said, you’re able to turn the LTE radio off whenever you wish and turn it on for when you need high speeds – works perfectly for me when I need to tether instantly.

  • angryfrog

    What difference does it make whether Telstra offers the Nexus 4 or not? Isn’t the idea to get it outright off Google’s website?

    • cameron charles

      yes and no, currently if you want the true nexus experience you should shun carriers as they ruin it, but from all reports it seems like google have said “no more” to that and are saying” sell it without your crap or dont sell it”, which would mean that no matter where you brought it you would get the true nexus experience, the fact carriers are all of a sudden say no to the nexus devices now they cant customise them is suspicious, as i said above the “no 4g” thing is, imo, a lie.

      but further the real let down of carriers not selling the phone is for those people who buying a phone outright is not an option and despite the higher long run cost can only afford to get a new shiny phone if its bundled into a contract, those people now cant get a nexus so sales will be “down”

      • angryfrog

        I didn’t know about Google saying, “No more crapware” to carriers, thank you for that info. And good on Google for taking a stand.

        As for some carriers shunning the Nexus 4, it’s a shame that it’ll dampen sales, but IMO if someone doesn’t have $350 to their name then they shouldn’t be getting a phone contract anyway.