On Monday, Internet rumors spread that Apple was testing a version of its iPhone that had support for 4G speeds via the LTE protocol. Now a new report from Engadget claims via unnamed sources that it has seen a photo of LTE equipment being installed inside an Apple store at an undisclosed location. The article originally came with the photo itself at first but Engadget has since removed the image.
According to the story, the LTE equipment was being installed by AT&T who is supposed to start launching its LTE 4G network sometime this summer, but in only in a select few cities. Verizon Wireless, which also sells the iPhone, launched its LTE network months ago and has now expanded it to cover well over 100 US cities and metropolitan areas. The same report also claims that all Apple stores in the region were the 4G support was being installed are ramping up its staffing needs by 30, percent although it"s not clear as to what the reasons are.
Most industry observers don"t believe that the next version of the iPhone, the iPhone 5, will contain support for 4G LTE speeds. However, Apple has surprised the media before with announcements and features for previous versions. The biggest question still remains: When will the iPhone 5 be released? Again industry pundits have predicted that Apple will launch the new iPhone as early as early September and as late as the last week of October. We are also still awaiting Apple"s annual iPod refresh.