Apple has released iOS 6.1 which extends LTE support to a wider group of mobile operators.

The update, the first major one since the release of iOS 6 last September, adds LTE capability to an additional 36 iPhone operators and 23 iPad operators.

The operators are in countries including Italy, Denmark, Switzerland and the Philippines, in addition to existing LTE support in countries such as the US, Australia, South Korea, the UK, Germany, Canada and Japan.

LTE is available to those Apple users with the iPhone 5, iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad WiFi + Cellular models.

Other additional features in the update include the capability to use Siri for buying cinema tickets in the US through Fandango, the online ticket seller.

And, subscribers to iTunes Match can download individual songs to iOS-based devices from iCloud, a capability that was removed in a previous release but has now returned.

Also, the update adds a privacy option so that subscribers can reset Apple’s advertising identifier option, which was added in iOS6.

More minor features in the update add new boarding pass behaviour in the Apple Passbook wallet, some tweaks to Safari and a reworked music playback controls from the lock screen and a change in the back-end to Apple’s mapping software.

The iOS 6.1 update is compatible with the iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad (third and fourth generation), iPad mini, iPad 2 and iPod touch (fourth and fifth generation).