The new iPad, which has been around for a while, will officially hit Indian shores later this month. However, if you are in Kolkata or Bengaluru, and
are looking forward to enjoying 4G speeds on the airtel 4G network, then you’ll have to stick to the Huawei USB modems for now. This is because the
current Indian 4G LTE networks run on a different radio spectrum band than the ones used by the tablet. Reports suggest that this kind of network is
supported by just a few carriers in the US and Canada. Effectively, this means the new device will fall back to 3G, as it will be incompatible with the
available 4G network. It should start using 4G when a compatible network becomes available in the future.
India is not the only country where Apple is facing such 4G network-related issues. Earlier, the company was dragged into court in Australia as the 3rd
generation iPad’s 4G networks don’t work there either, forcing Apple to offer refunds to misled buyers. A similar issue was reported in Britain as
well. This is the first time that the company has official launched a version of its popular tablet in India within a few weeks of its global launch.
How Apple and consumers in India react to this new development, only time will tell.
