We know that Apple tends to be discreet about its future plans. Recently, much is being speculated about Apple and its alleged testing of LTE devices. There even have been rumours that the iPhone 5 will have LTE support. Regardless of that, it is now confirmed that Apple is indeed testing LTE technology that it just might integrate in its devices pretty soon.
LTE is a 4G network standard and has become the choice of many big carriers as this particular network standard has its unique set of advantages. It increases the capacity and speed of mobile data networks, so much so that users experience download speeds of up to 12 mbps and upload speeds of up to 5 mpbs. Verizon launched their LTE network earlier last year whereas AT&T is set to launch theirs by the end of 2011. Both of these carriers officially sell the iPhone through their retail network in the USA, so an LTE iPhone release may mean that AT&T and Verizon will most probably the first carriers to sell it.
Earlier last week it was reported that one of Apple's major carrier partners has been internally testing a prototype LTE iPhone, which was confirmed due to the fact that code relating to LTE was found in the internal build of iOS that was running on that very prototype LTE iPhone. Now, that very same code has been discovered in the latest developer beta of iOS 5. Buried deep within iOS 5 beta firmware for GSM iPhone 4 and CDMA iPad 2, is a LTE.plist file with a "key" tag for a "Connected mode LTE Intra-frequency Measurement." This particular "key" tag has not been spotted in iOS 5 beta for other supported iPhones, iPads and iPod touches.
According to another report, Apple is looking forward to recruiting engineers who have experience working with LTE technology through LinkedIn. On the other hand, latest spy shots have also revealed that both AT&T and Verizon are setting up LTE equipment in their stores, apart from that, LTE equipment being installed at a major Apple Retail Store has also been spotted sparking further rumours that the next generation iPhone may very well come bearing support for LTE network standard.
The iPhone 5 release is slated for September, do you think you can wait that long to find out?