Verizon Wireless just started offering its 4G LTE network for data on laptops a week ago, and smart phones aren't anywhere in the mix for awhile yet. But a questionable report Monday says that the carrier might launch a 4G LTE iPhone right after Christmas.
In a heavily qualified posting — though the "information is from a sole source that we believe to be credible," it "should be treated as rumor, since we cannot independently confirm the information at this time" — Apple news site MacDailyNews said an LTE-capable iPhone has been "100 percent cooked for quite a while," and is "already shipping in bulk to Verizon warehouses."
The phone is "coming right after Christmas," said the report, with the source explaining that this was "apparently ATT's final demand so as to maximize ATT's Christmas iPhone sales." AT&T has been the exclusive provider of the iPhone in the United States since it was released in 2007, and that exclusivity is ending.
Verizon Wireless has "no comment on the report," spokesman Jeffrey T. Nelson told msnbc.com.
The company, which began rolling out its fourth-generation LTE network Dec. 5 in 38 cities, said it does not expect to have "consumer-oriented LTE devices like smart phones and tablets" until mid-2011, Nelson said. The carrier says its 4G high-speed network will be available to all nationwide by the end of 2013.
This isn't to say that an iPhone won't hit Verizon in the coming weeks. It's just not so likely that it runs on the new 4G LTE network. The source who spoke to MacDailyNews may be confusing a CDMA 3G version of the iPhone, that is coming to Verizon Wireless, something that has been widely reported, although still not confirmed.
But the source does go on to say because LTE — an acronym for wireless standard Long-Term Evolution — won't be widespread in 2011, the Verizon iPhone will "have multi-band chip backward compatibility with regular CDMA." (Note, this would be true for any 4G phone released by Verizon, as they would all need to be able to also run on its CDMA network.)
And perhaps most interestingly, and unlikely, is that Apple CEO Steve Jobs "is said to be upset that carriers cannot seem to get their LTE act together more quickly," and that Apple is "helping" Verizon and AT&T, which is also creating a 4G network using LTE, to build those networks faster.
Jobs may have an interest in 4G, but he's unlikely to be first with a 4G LTE Verizon phone: When the original iPhone was launched on AT&T, Apple built it to use only the carrier's 2G network, despite the fact that 3G was already up and running.
