Brian X Chen for New York Times:

An Apple spokeswoman, Natalie Kerris, said: “iPhone 5 supports simultaneous voice and data on GSM-based 3G and LTE networks. It is not yet possible to do simultaneous voice and data on networks that use CDMA for voice and LTE for data in a single radio design.”

Much has been made today about reports that the iPhone 5 won’t support simultaneous voice and data transmissions over Verizon and Sprint LTE networks.

It is a competitive shortcoming of the phone compared to contenders like Samsung’s Galaxy S III, and it’s because the iPhone 5 doesn’t sport a separate antenna (and radio) to handle voice transmissions like the Samsung phone does. According to Chen’s report, carriers should fix the problem at some point in the future.

Technical sophisticates like bloggers and smartphone enthusiasts are making a big deal of the problem, but it remains to be seen if it’ll have any impact on actual iPhone 5 sales. Muggles are not always interested in the same things that tech weenies care about.