Useless 4G Chip Discovered in Google Nexus 4
Teardown reveals previously unknown feature.
Google's LG-developed Nexus 4 apparently features a previously unknown 4G chip.
Repair experts iFixit found that the recently released smartphone features a Qualcomm WTR1605L Seven-Band 4G LTE chip situated on its motherboard. It also sports a Avago ACPM-7251 Quad-Band GSM/EDGE chip for 3G support.
Although Nexus 4 owners will be delighted with their handset boasting a 4G chip, it's still missing several key components in order for users to utilize the 4G technology itself. A 4G antenna and power amplifier is not present, which leaves no way of enabling it.
The Nexus 4 is powered by a quad-core processor, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro, as well as 2GB of RAM. In addition to a 4.7-inch display with a 1,280 x 768 pixel resolution, the device also has a 8-megapixel rear camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera and supports wireless charging and NFC.
Within minutes of its availability on Google's Play Store, both the smartphone's 8GB and 16GB variants sold out.

Best headline of the day.
More likely its simply cheaper to include this cheap than to exclude it as it simplifies LG's manufacturing structure since it shares similarities with the optimus G
Best headline of the day.
More likely its simply cheaper to include this cheap than to exclude it as it simplifies LG's manufacturing structure since it shares similarities with the optimus G
Unless they plan on using the same assembly line to build the 4G version.
Also, you can't just omit a part when the whole line is tooled to build a specific motherboard. It is much more cost effective to be able to produce motherboards for multiple devices on the same line, so that you don't have the down-time to retool. This in turn passes on a savings to the consumer, reducing the cost of a device.
It is much easier to omit the antenna at the hand-assembly portion of the device build.
That is till some modders come along =D
BGA devices (such as 4G modems) are fairly difficult to reliably (millions of units) hand solder to a board. Power amplifiers are very easy to attach. By producing a board compatible with multiple handsets, LG can use the same board over and over. In fact, they only need to have one component soldered to the motherboard to make it 4G ready. This is very cost effective, as the development cost for each motherboard design is fairly high.
-I would say that is the case. It's very easy (and cheap) to specify two different PCB loads if they want to share the PCB for different products. I can't believe it would have been loaded in error or that it would be a production cost saving.
Actually, now that I think about it. They could be using the boards that failed the QC for LTE operation. Kind of like AMD turning off faulty cores and selling processors in lower bins to recoup costs. Except in this case, the boards have the power amplifier removed and power traces likely cut to the LTE chip.
As for partial functionality, not very likely:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/qualcomm-work-chip-support-multiple-700-mhz-bands/2012-06-05
The bands this chip uses aren't usable for anything other than 4G. Also, the missing power amplifier is what is used to increase the output signal to a useful signal strength.
3G and lower data bands are being handled by the other chip mentioned, the Avago ACPM-7251.
Actually, LTE is still a pretty new technology. Aside from major population centers, there are few areas that actually see any sort of coverage. For instance, Fort Myers in Florida is said to have LTE coverage for Verizon, but most of the time you will only be able to get a 3G signal.
See also: http://network4g.verizonwireless.com/#/coverage
Note that the Green dots are the only areas with 4G. Verizon is also the largest LTE network in the US.
Not to mention the fact that current LTE designs guzzle battery power. It will be another few years before LTE is operating at the same power as 3G solutions like CDMA. Many manufacturers have even tried working around this by limiting LTE usage to more data intensive activities.
In the meantime, phones can be produced cheaper without the extra radio, and consumers can pick up very good smartphones for less than their LTE brethren. Or better yet, the cost saved on not having an LTE radio can be used to add more storage or a faster processor.
Did you buy the phone for 4G? No, well ok then does it matter if there is a chip in there. If you got exactly what you paid for then who cares. Even if somebody tries to say they're passing on the extra cost (which I agree with kog on, specially since I've worked on lines) it doesn't matter. You still got what you paid for.