China Mobile Chief Reveals Apple is working on a 4G LTE iPhone

[Michael Essany]

According to an individual widely seen as a credible source close to Apple - Wang Jianzhou, the chairman of wireless carrier China Mobile - Apple is rapidly working to develop and support the high-speed and long-term evolution OF 4G wireless technology. Jianzhou says that a future update to the iPhone will reflect the progress Apple is now making internally.

"Apple has made it clear they will support TD-LTE," Jianzhou said in Davos, Switzerland. Jianzhou spilled the beans on Wednesday in the Sina Technology news portal, which was later picked up by Reuters. "Apple Inc fully supports China Mobile's next generation TD-LTE technology and talks are ongoing over a possible iPhone tie up with the carrier [China Mobile]," the report reads.

For the time being, the iPhone is only available in China through China Unicom, China's second-largest mobile carrier, which runs on the global 3G standard. China Mobile, however, has been working closely and remaining in talks with Apple for more than a year, a developing partnership that industry analysts believe will eventually yield a deal to expand the iPhone into China Mobile territory, a wireless network with 584 million mobile phone subscribers as opposed to China Unicom's relatively paltry 167.4 million subscribers.

Reuters

[z3r01]

I saw this coming

[Stewie Griffin]

I could have told you that...

No more cdma rumors for essany, on to LTE

[ty22]

Hmmm.... Verizon is going to use FD-LTE however. Not sure about AT&T.

[RICO_]

Hmmm. "Rapidly working" on a 4G iPhone eh? So we should expect a release sometime in the next 3 or 4 years when 4G is nearly obsolete, no?

[zeroskater61]

4G huh...
Sousa good can't wait till AT&T gets 4G this year.
Also my friends friend dad is the manager for a verizon store and she asked him about the iPhone and it's plans. And she was told by him that verizon will not have 4G on the iPhone on the release date they will have 3G and won't release 4G network until later this year.

[iPittsburgh]

I'll hold out until AT&T has lte and an iPhone that works on it.

^ no iPhone supports any 4g network, verizon has released their 4g lte but only their hotspot modem uses verizons 4g no phones yet.

[iPod]

Another iPhone rumor!

[devesstate]

I was just wondering... Is t-mobiles new 4g running LTE? Or is it different?

[babyblue_pimp]

I was just wondering... Is t-mobiles new 4g running LTE? Or is it different?

Different, Tmobile is on hspa+

[The Maestro]

I'm pretty sure the iPhone 3GS was built with 3.5g radios before AT&T released it so if apple says get in check for 4G they'll make it happen

[piston597]

iPhone on 4g would be great, hope my unlimited data plan will still be grandfathered into this...

[DRFP]

According to an individual widely seen as a credible source close to Apple - Wang Jianzhou, the chairman of wireless carrier China Mobile - Apple is rapidly working to develop and support the high-speed and long-term evolution OF 4G wireless technology. Jianzhou says that a future update to the iPhone will reflect the progress Apple is now making internally.

"Apple has made it clear they will support TD-LTE," Jianzhou said in Davos, Switzerland. Jianzhou spilled the beans on Wednesday in the Sina Technology news portal, which was later picked up by Reuters. "Apple Inc fully supports China Mobile's next generation TD-LTE technology and talks are ongoing over a possible iPhone tie up with the carrier [China Mobile]," the report reads.



Reuters

Awesome then I will be happy if Iphone 5 ( next Iphone version) comes out with LTE, it will restore my faith in them

[EskimoRuler]

that would be a huge increase in sales in china, i still think a 4g iphone wont be until iphone 6

[steve-z17]

Where else were they gunna go....?

[StealthBravo]

^ Yea its a no brainer

[Mookest]

duh, Everyone is dropping LTE phones left and right. AT&T is doing 4g lte this year. There was wild rumors that iPhone 4 was going to be the last 3g only phone apple will make. Apple stays on the cutting edge of tech. Sometimes leads tech world. The rest of the smartphone world wouldn't be where it is today with out companies trying to make "The IPhone Killer" How many attempts were there until there was actually competition for the iPhone? No Matter. For all the idiots or people who refuse to see the obvious... IPhone 5 (The next iPhone) Will be 4g LTE compatible! Unless the world comes to an end before then.

[Sticky111]

i have family in telecommunications and in verizon. we live in new york and from verizon's view, the east coast is NO where near ready for LTE. theres not a square inch of it in New Jersey and thats a huge problem. New Jersey gets everything first when it comes to the "city" part of the east coast [in example NYC, NJ]

telecommunications view is, theres no movement yet in any carrier on the east coast giving the consumer LTE support. basiclly meaning if anything comes out device wise, whats the sense in getting it if its not supported anywhere near your area.

like i said i live in New York, to be specifically Staten Island which is the center of it all. i travel and so does everyone i know and we hardly have 4G and crap tastic 3G in manhattan.

[rickinsav]

Restore faith in Apple? iPhone updates are yearly. I think iP5 will be 4G and support CDMA and GSM in same model. iP6 will probably be the one (2012) that is missing the home button and sporting a larger screen.