Women may glow and the men might plunder in the land down under, but they get awfully touchy when you release a 4G-enabled tablet in Australia, only to find out that it doesn’t actually work there -- and as usual, all signs point to the courtroom.
News.com.au is reporting that watchdog group Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) plans to file a lawsuit against Apple Inc. in Melbourne on Wednesday morning seeking "injunctions, pecuniary penalties, corrective advertising and refunds to consumers affected.”
What’s got the Aussies so riled up? Turns out that Apple’s new 4G LTE-equipped iPad doesn’t work there, due to the incompatible 1800MHz frequency used in the land down under -- which is different from both AT&T and Verizon Wireless here in the United States.
All of this ruckus comes despite Apple stickering new iPad boxes bound for Australia with “IMPORTANT NOTE: This product is not compatible with Australian 4G LTE networks, and will only operate at up to 3G speeds in Australia,” as shown in the image above. That would seem to legally cover Cupertino from legal action, but the ACCC says no way.
“A spokesman for the ACCC declined to comment on the lawsuit, but the watchdog claimed in a statement that advertising the tablet under the ‘4G’ banner was ‘misleading’ as it suggested the tablet computer could, ‘with a SIM card, connect to a 4G mobile data network in Australia, when this is not the case,’” the report outlines.
Hey, maybe the ACCC should head to the States and see what they can do about this whole “FauxG” thing on the iPhone 4S while they’re at it -- AT&T may claim we’re basking in 4G wireless, but it’s just plain ol’ HSPA+ which iOS 5.1 is deceptively reporting as something else...
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(Image courtesy of Zol.com.cn)
