How To: Enable LTE On A Jailbroken iPhone 5 For T-Mobile

Yesterday we told you that T-Mobile would be selling a new variant of the iPhone 5 that would be compatible with its new LTE network. According to Apple, this required them to refresh the hardware of the A1428 model of the iPhone 5 currently sold through AT&T and a firmware update to bring compatibility would not be possible. This means that if you have an A1428 iPhone 5 and wanted to switch to T-Mobile you would not be able to access the LTE network unless you buy a new handset.

It looks like this isn’t entirely the case however, as if you have a Jailbroken iPhone 5 then can take advantage of a little trick discovered by Leimobile  that allows you to enable T-Mobile LTE AWS connectivity on an A1428 iPhone 5. It is important to keep in mind that this will only work with an AT&T iPhone 5 or one that has been officially unlocked by Apple. It will not work with a Verizon iPhone 5.

Here are the steps for enabling LTE on a Jailbroken A1428 iPhone 5 compliments of Leimobile.

1. Jailbreak your iPhone 5 running any firmware version from iOS 6 to iOS 6.1.2 by clicking here.
2. Open Cydia
3. Tap “Manage” and then tap “Sources”
4. Tap “Edit” then tap “Add” and put the following URL into the text box: http://v.backspace.jp/repo
5. Once the URL is entered in tap “Add Source” and allow for it to download all of the repo’s info and packages.
6. After your iPhone has refreshed, tap the v.backspace.jp/repo field or go to the search bar and find the package CommCenter* patch…
7. Once you have found it, install it and then reboot your iPhone once completed.
8. After the iPhone has restarted, open Cydia once again.
9. Search for iFile. The free version includes basic features. You will want to purchase it to take advantage of all of the features.
10. Once you have found it, install it. No reboot is required, though you can do it just to be on the safe side.
11. Once iFile has been installed, close Cydia and click on this file from your iPhone and click “Open in iFile”
12. Once you’re in iFile tap “Unarchiver” and 3 files will show up above T-Mobile LTE.zip
13. At the top, tap “edit”and tap the dots with a check mark next to carrier.plist, carrier.pri, overrides_N41_N42.plist, and overrides_N41_N42.pri
14. Tap the clipboard icon at the bottom and tap “cut”
15. Now tap “done” at the top and tap the house icon at the bottom then tap Library, then tap Carrier Bundle.bundle (the one in blue), and then tap edit at the top again and tap the clipboard icon. Tap “paste” and it will auto inject the carrier files into the carrier folder overwriting the other files. (you may want to make a backup of these files in case anything goes wrong or we have a backup below.)
16. After the files have been placed, exit iFile and restart iPhone. After the iPhone restarts, allow it to acquire signal and display the T-Mobile logo then go to where you edit the APN settings (Settings –>General–>Cellular) click reset network settings. Once that is done, enable the LTE toggle and you’re good to go.

Essentially what you are doing by following the steps outlined above is loading a custom carrier firmware that will allow you to access T-Mobile’s LTE AWS network. This won’t allow you to access HSPA+ 42Mbps on 1700mhz though, like the new A1428 variant T-Mobile will be selling.

We haven’t able to officially test this, as none of the staff from iJailbreak have a T-Mobile SIM card, but by the looks of user feedback it looks promising. Do let us know if you try it out in the comments section.