Apple job post mentions LTE and 21Mbps HSPA

Apple in a job listing has signaled its plans to get advanced 3G and 4G. A sport for a Cellular Technology Software Manager would implement mobile data protocols that include the existing UMTS/WCDMA and HSPA already used by the iPhone but also HSPA+ 3G and LTE 4G, standards that have yet to reach any Apple device. The technology could give future iPhones 21Mbps 3G on networks that support it as well as 100Mbps 4G.

As the company is just recruiting for the position now, any technology likely wouldn't show in a shipping iPhone until 2011 at the earliest. Despite speculation, an HSPA+ or LTE version is unlikely to appear this year as both phone chipsets and coverage are still young. HSPA+ now has wide coverage in certain countries, particularly Canada where all major carriers support it, but it has yet to get an actual shipping phone and has only very small coverage in the US. T-Mobile's network will cover only 100 cities by the end of the year, and AT&T will only have selective HSPA+ use.

LTE is more distant and won't have its first deployments in the US until later this year, when MetroPCS and Verizon launch limited access. The first LTE phone has only just been announced by Samsung and will only have use of 4G for data, not voice. AT&T and T-Mobile won't have 4G in commercial service until 2011, and concerns have existed that initial 4G chips will consume too much power for phones without large batteries.

By Electronista Staff