Is it possible to locate estimote beacons using classic bluetooth?

Question

I have been working on BLE enabled iPhone application which uses Estimote beacons for accurate location detection. But my app is only available to users with iPhone4S on-wards.

I would like to know if it is possible to detect a Beacon using IPhone 4 with iOS 7.

As iPhone4 does not have BLE so if any-buddy know how to detect a beacon using classic bluetooth.

In my understanding Bluetooth LE(4.0) works on higher frequency than Classic bluetooth so classic bluetooth should be able to detect a Beacon.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

No, they actually work in the same frequency range, but using incompatible signaling (as do wifi and zigbee and a plethora of unique-protocol chips like the NRF24L01, CYRF6936, etc found in fixed-function wireless gadgets). BLE is pretty much something entirely new, linked to classic bluetooth only by branding.

Dual mode chips exist, but a fixed-function legacy bluetooth chipset would not be able to interoperate with BLE signals, unless it is effectively a software defined radio which can be heavily reconfigured. That's probably not the case with the iphone 4 hardware, and certainly not something iOS would permit to an app developer, even on imagined hardware which might support it.