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Carriers testing LTE-enabled 4G iPhone?
Earlier this year, Verizon CEO Dan Mead all but confirmed that an LTE Apple device would be making its way to Verizon. Eventually. And no 2011 Apple rumor spattering would be complete without at least a casual mention of the high-speed 4G network. Now, BGR claims to have received an internal iOS test build from a major carrier, revealing a property list file for LTE. This of course doesn't guarantee that Apple will be shipping an LTE iPhone flavor later this year, but that it at least remains a possibility. Still, an October iPhone launch would fall nicely in line with recent confirmation that AT&T will be releasing an LTE smartphone in "late 2011," and 4G compatibility could definitely explain Cupertino's holdup in announcing the iPhone 4's successor. So, will you be flying through the wireless web at lightning-fast speed later this year? Hopefully we need not wait much longer to find out.
4G LTE Verizon iPhone 4 rumored to debut immediately after Christmas
Update: For all of you searching for 'Verizon iPhone,' it seems clear now that MDN did not have the straight dope regarding an iPhone introduction for Verizon right after Christmas 2010. On the plus side, however, BusinessWeek is citing "someone familiar with Apple's plans who is not able to discuss them publicly" (read: a valued and trustworthy source) saying that the Verizon iPhone introduction will be scheduled sometime after CES in early January. That could be as soon as January 10... but chances are it won't be quite that soon. BW says "maybe by Valentine's Day," which would be quite a love letter to Apple's current exclusive domestic carrier AT&T. Okay everyone, take this for what it is right now: a big rumor. That being said MacDailyNews says this information is from "a sole source that we believe to be credible." The rumor? The iPhone 4 is going to drop on the Verizon network right "after Christmas." Oh, and it will be a 4G LTE iPhone 4. Here's what MacDailyNews' source says they know: The "after Christmas" unveiling of the Verizon iPhone was AT&T's final demand, so they could squeeze as many Christmas iPhone sales in as possible Verizon managers had training on the 4G iPhones last week and had functioning 4G iPhones in their hands The Verizon 4G iPhone 4 will be available the day it's announced The Verizon iPhone is already shipping to Verizon warehouses The Verizon iPhone is NOT being shipped to third-party resellers in order to control product leaks (good job) Verizon agreed to take complete responsibility for the security of the 4G iPhone before it's released to the public The Verizon iPhone will be marketed as the only "LTE iPhone" Since LTE is not widespread, Verizon will have multi-band chip backward compatibility with regular CDMA chips Other notes include that the next major (5th generation) version of the iPhone was originally planned to be LTE-only. However, "nobody thinks that either Verizon or AT&T can get to critical mass to offer an LTE-only version" by its debut in the summer, which Steve Jobs is upset about; Apple is therefore "helping" U.S. carriers to build out LTE networks faster than they could alone. It should be noted that this rumored LTE iPhone 4 will presumably not be the 5th generation iPhone, but that a 5th generation iPhone will still likely debut in summer 2011. Without further confirmation, it's anyone's guess if this rumor is true. But everyone knows it's only a matter of time before the iPhone lands on Verizon's network. And there has been that rush of iPhone sales to get people to sign up for two-year contracts with AT&T before Christmas... We'll update any information we hear on this as soon as it becomes available.
