[Motorola Photon 4G] cutter2668:
Photon Should Be Okay Thanks to Beceem Chip

[QUOTE

This means our Photon will be 4G WORTHLESS come Mid 2012, since we all just got the Phone and are connected to a 2 year contract, we are Screwed. This also gives Sprint the OUT it wants as far as Unlimited. Those who get these NEW LTE Phones will be surprised when they DON'T HAVE Unlimited Data. Very Sneaky Sprint. Assholes.[/QUOTE]

Several postings regarding the wimax chip in the Photon 4g is actually the Beceem bcs 500 chip which has both wimax and lte on the chip. Motorola and Beceem began development of this chip in early 2010, the bcs 500 chip was available in the first quarter of 2011. Motorola reps have stated that the photon has this chip though no official documentation can be found on the web it is easily understandable why sprint wouldnt want this information to get out as neither the epic 4g touch nor the evo 3d are using a beceem chip and beceem is the only company ( now broadcom) thus far that has produced a wimax/lte chip. The fcc hardware specs on the photon 4g remain classified until january of 2012. Sprint will not be announcing any lte compatible phones until quarter one of 2012. There is alot of intrigue and mystery behind the wimax chip in the photon 4g but there are indications of an lte modem when the phone is hooked up to your computer and viewed through the device manager. It is also interesting to note that the motorola bionic has a "motorola" chip in it and a lab that does detailed teardowns of phones indicated that the chip in the bionic is capable of other frequencies besides lte. My guess is that is also a beceem bcs 500 chip. Odd that there have been no thorough tear downs of the photon 4g. Sprints LTE plans have been in the works for a year or so, it makes alot of sense for motorola to use the bcs 500 wimax/lte chip in the photon knowing whats coming in 2012. One person posted that the wimax chip in the photon is the bcs 350 which is wimax only but offered no evidence of any kind to support that claim. If you follow the trail of bread crumbs all over the web, the circumstantial evidence that the photon is using the beceem bcs 500 chip capable of wimax AND lte on one chip is rather compelling. The bcs 500 chip has in fact been produced. Motorola has been working closely with this company toward this effort since early 2010. Ive read that this chip only costs 8 dollars more than a standard wimax or standard lte chip so the argument that such a chip is too costly seems rather moot. The hardware diagrams on the fcc site for the photon 4g are classified until January 2nd of 2012, no other worldphone has such a gag order on it. The bcs500 wimax/lte chip was available before the photon began production. Other rumors on the web have stated that some sprint phones would have a wimax/lte chip in the second half or last quarter of 2011. Sprint has been testing lte long before its announcement in october regarding network vision. Sprint has already been converting towers to handle lte with light squared and has the option to do the same thing with clearwire. LTE will in fact be available in the first half of 2012 to the larger metropolitan markets so this is not some transition thats going to take years to complete before anyone can take advantage of it. It would certainly make alot of sense for motorola to use the bcs 500 chip in the photon. Sprint has been testing LTE in arizona and baltimore, what phones would they be testing with???? Motorola could use one chip on phones for different carriers making it more practical. The bionics lte chip has been found to exhibit a frequency reception beyond those used for lte on verizon. Do we know for a fact?? No...not at the moment but where there is smoke there is quite often fire and there is certainly alot of smoke regarding the beceem chip used in the Photon 4g. Photon owners may in fact find themselves to be the only ones who aren't screwed.