CNet is reporting that Verizon has announced that they will require all future smartphones to support the faster 4G LTE technology. Some believes that this new requirement means the next-generation iPhone will come equipped with an LTE chip.
There is room for an exception in the requirement however. These exemptions seem to be aimed at Verizon’s own push-to-talk initiatives.
Here’s the announcement in full:
From now on, nearly every smartphone, wireless hot spot, tablet, and Netbook that Verizon offers will come with LTE guns a-blazing. Yes, Virginia, that includes Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices, too.
There will be the occasional exception, however. For instance, phones on Verizon’s push-to-talk network are 3G-only for now, and will remain that way until further notice.
Verizon’s clear, unyielding stance on 4G–“a hard requirement,” according to Verizon–may partially explain why it has picked up only one Windows Phone so far.
CNet also adds that Verizon is ahead off all the other carriers in the US in LTE deployment covering 200 million people in 190 markets, and they hope finish the rollout by the end of next year.
In other words, if this is a hard requirement, Apple, at least as this announcement stands, will have to build in LTE technology in the next iPhone. That said, that’s not how Apple works, they will only build in a new technology when it meets their designs, their economics of scale and manufacturing. They will not be including this technology unless they are ready to do so.
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TAGS: 4g lte, iPhone, Verizon
