4G LTE Mobile Broadband

[gk4]

Will the iPhone be software upgradable to AT&T's new 4G LTE Mobile Broadband?

[BrianfromNO]

No.  None of AT&T's current phones will work with the LTE network.  This is not a software upgrade; it's a completely new generation of cellular technology.

[DocDeth]

They will benefit from improved Backhaul so should see downloads go from @ best 1.5 Mbps to 7.2Mbps the uploads limited from current 0.01Mbps-0.3Mbps to more consistent 0.5-1Mbps if other cities that have their HSPA+ online with full backhaul activated. LTE will range 8+ to 22Mbps at current plans with the fall back cellular service being the above HSPA+ speeds. Really limiting factor will be the phones processors and battery life. Find a friend with a Verizon 4G phone and they will tell you that 4G (LTE) burns through battery about twice as fast as 3G!

[Underlyingsound]

No, I'm sorry! 4G LTE requires hardware not software upgrades :/

[gk4]

Will Apple's 5th generation iPhone coming out in September 2011 be LTE?

[dwill05]

All the rumors say no.

[satchev]

---

gk4 wrote:

Will Apple's 5th generation iPhone coming out in September 2011 be LTE?

---

Do you have inside information?

No new iPhone has been announced nor has a release date.  There is frankly no guarantee that there will be another iPhone... it could be next year for all we know.

[youngjm ACE - Professor]

---

satchev wrote:

---

gk4 wrote:

Will Apple's 5th generation iPhone coming out in September 2011 be LTE?

---

Do you have inside information?

No new iPhone has been announced nor has a release date.  There is frankly no guarantee that there will be another iPhone... it could be next year for all we know.

---

The rummor mill and those watching the supply chain say no to LTE and yes to an iPHone sometime in the near future.  Now they are saying October?

The theory on no LTE for this version relates to the size of the current generation of LTE chips and the large power consumption required to run them.  Now based on Apple's past of minimizing size and extending battery life, this does not bode well for an LTE based iPhone for the next generation.  Development rummors do have the next generation of the LTE chips being smaller and better at power management.  This fits well for Apple's customer experience.

Also consider that Apple is going to want an iPhone that can be used by the Masses.  While LTE is expanding daily in footprint, it may not be deployed broad enough for Apple to push it as the next great feature for the iPhone.  This would be a different case for the generation of the iPhone following this one.

[JFizDaWiz]

that and apple has a history of letting everyone else come out with a feature then slightly improve it and call it original ha. but no seriously, apple is usually behind in new features as they want to make sure that when they release it there are no kinks and it works at 100%