According to findings from BGR, Apple‘s carrier partners are testing iPhone models with LTE capability. While there is no evidence of which particular models are being tested (iPhone 4, 4S or 5?), internal iOS test builds from one of Apple’s major carrier partners reveal a property list (.plist file) for LTE.
The rumor mills are going berserk over when Apple’s iPhone 5 will be launched and apparently the September 7th “Special Event” is off. Sources suggest a September announcement with availability in October.
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Speaking about networks, global LTE network deployment continues to increase and grow. Research firm Maravedis recently reported that by the end of 2011, there will be approximately 40 countries represented by 110 operators with 2.5 to 2.6GHz spectrum allocation for LTE (and future – LTE-2 standard).
On another note, WiMAX2 is a rival standard based on IEEE 802.16m, an ITU designated International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced) standard. It is one of two technologies labelled as “4G”, alongside rival standard LTE (Long Term Evolution). With LTE gaining high ground and visibility around the world, people tend to overlook the fact that the WiMAX equipment market, which jumped 85% in 2010 to $1.7 billion, remains bigger than the LTE market, and continues to show healthy growth.
According to Market research firm Infonetics Research, the 4G infrastructure market is set to hit $16 billion by 2015, driven by LTE and WiMAX investments.
So, Apple, why not build WIMAX-equipped phones now since WIMAX is still the bigger network?
