iPhone future: Will it support LTE?

[TheForce]

I think there is no doubt that a future iphone will support LTE but the real question is when? Will it be out in July 2011 or next year?

To date all we have heard is that Qualcom has the chip technology and it has contracts with Apple to supply but no dates on the LTE chip.
Today, Chairman Wang Jianzhou of China Mobile Ltd,(source-DowJones newswire) announced he is in discussions with Apple's Steve Jobs to make the LTE capable iphone. but while he made the announcement today, we don't have a date as to when these discussions took place, just recently, or some time ago.
One thing I'm pretty sure of and that is Apple would need to pass testing by the FCC before taking such a device to market so it would seem if this testing has not yet been done, it may be a bit too late to accomplish by Apple's typical release on new iphone versions for July.

So, let me speculate on another theory- Apple releases iphone5 on schedule but it offers nothing new for LTE, however it does have new form factor and function capability in 3G RF bands. Later in the year, say Fall, Apple releases the same iphone 5 but with LTE RF transceiver. This would be a similar release they did with the iphone 4 and a CDMA change this year.

Let the speculation and rumors continue!

Edit-
This just in- Chairman Wang Jianzhou just announced they are to begin testing the TD-LTE iphone ( a China variation of LTE ) today.

 

[harshness]

Someone expressing interest in building something doesn't seem very close to delivery.

 

[TheForce]

harshness- True but note the final comment he made about beginning testing today. Now I recognize he said TD-LTE but this sort of announcement was made last Fall re CDMA and all the nay-sayers said just because they made a CDMA for China doesn't mean they made one with the US version of the chip. I didn't buy that. It would be stupid not to. And I was right, Verizon iphone in January. Now the same pattern of announcements regarding LTE is upon us. I have high hopes with the last comment from Chairman Wang Jianzhou the likelihood of an LTE iphone this summer, here, is much higher. I'm an optimist, what can I say?

 

[mike123abc]

I would speculate it will not be this year that the iPhone does LTE, but next year. Two factors, one is network buildout, the other is low power chip sets. I suspect the low power chipset will be the driving factor. Once they can put in LTE without hurting battery life it will go in.

 

[Big Dawg 23]

AT&T wont care if it has LTE or not. Since it will likely have HSPA+ they won't care. Verizon will have to make the big push.

 

[mdram]

AT&T wont care if it has LTE or not. Since it will likely have HSPA+ they won't care. Verizon will have to make the big push.

the iphone4 on verizon has a chip that is already hspa+compatible, its just not turned on. its a global chip

 

[TheForce]

The one who should care the most is Apple since they would be the one to have the slower device when other mfgrs are moving ahead as fast as they can to LTE on the Verizon network.

I'm pretty sure that while HSPA+ is great speed and stands good enough when next to an LTE device, the problem is HSPA+ does not have the capacity to hold up the speeds in a rapidly expanding population density. LTE can. Thus, HSPA+ will suffer the same speed issues and reliability as the present GSM devices. AT&T knows this and is moving ahead with LTE as well. IT's just that Verizon is ahead of AT&T roll out of LTE at this time.

My choice is clear- I will NOT sign on another 2yr contract on a phone that is not LTE capable. I will keep my EVDO REV A phone until I can jump to LTE.

 

[mperdue]

AT&T wont care if it has LTE or not. Since it will likely have HSPA+ they won't care. Verizon will have to make the big push.

AT&T is rolling out both HSPA+ and LTE.

 

[TheForce]

AT&T wont care if it has LTE or not. Since it will likely have HSPA+ they won't care. Verizon will have to make the big push.

Sorry I forgot to comment on your remark earlier. I believe you are quite mistaken on this as AT&T went after the 700Mhz spectrum that was auctioned off a couple years ago specifically for the purpose of LTE. Both Verizon and AT&T were primary bidders for this and each won a little less than half of the spectrum. When a company spends that much money on an asset that they are required to develop, I seriously doubt the validity of the statement they don't care about having it.

 

[mike123abc]

AT&T has already announced they will have their LTE network up mid year in select cities. They are also persuing HSPA+ since they can do both upgrades at the same time. HSPA+ will let them maximize current equipment since LTE devices will take a few years to become mainstream.

More Than One Acronym for Speed | ATT Innovation Space

 

[navychop]

Meh. It'll take a year or two before LTE will have significant deployment. And when that AT&T rep mentioned it would be a long time deploying........