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Leading German carrier Deutsche Telekom today announced (via Macerkopf) the launch of its new LTE-Advanced or LTE+ network offering data speeds of up to a theoretical maximum 150 Mbps, with the network going live immediately in over 100 towns and cities in the country.
In the press release, Deutsche Telekom notes that Samsung is launching a new version of the Galaxy S4 with support for LTE-Advanced, and word that other LTE-Advanced devices are coming "at the end of September" is renewing speculation that the iPhone 5S might be one of those devices.
Samsung will be offering an upgrade of its Galaxy S4 with LTE+. Comparable devices from other vendors will follow at the end of September. Deutsche Telekom's latest data products, including Speedstick LTE III, Speedbox LTE II and Speedbox LTE mini, will also support LTE+ in September, following a software update.
Two months ago, a report surfaced claiming that Apple was in talks with Korea's SK Telecom about supporting LTE-Advanced on the iPhone 5S. At the time, we noted that it seemed unlikely Apple would be willing and able to add support to the iPhone 5S given the rarity of LTE-Advanced networks and that the company was only in the negotiation stages roughly two months before the device's debut.
With another leading carrier in a major market for Apple now launching LTE-Advanced, it seems that momentum is starting to build behind the technology and handset manufacturers are clearly lining up to support the standard. Apple has, however, traditionally been somewhat conservative in adopting new cellular technologies before they have widespread adoption, and so it remains to be seen whether Apple has plans to bring the latest LTE-Advanced support to the iPhone 5S later this month.
Top Rated Comments
Doubt we won't see this until iPhone 6 at least.
You doubt we won't? Or doubt we will?
How many people need that kind of speed? You pretty much have to have an unlimited data plan so that you can watch shows all the time.
This argument is tired and drawn out. If the capability is there, we should be able to do it.
Given that the plans are for a fixed amount of data, faster speeds can only make it easier for consumers to easily go over their data limits and pay exorbitant prices. We need to get back to the unlimited plans....
This guy gets it. I think it's stupid (or maybe just very naive) to get excited about much faster data burn rates in an environment in which hard caps exist... unless the added speed provides some special need for some users. All the bulk of us are celebrating here is how much faster we can re-up on monthly data tolls because we were able to get one of the tier limits faster than ever.Progress is very good. But this progress is about pulling more money out of our pockets rather than actually giving most of us some noticeably tangible benefit. Complete (business) genius to make the whole country swallow the pill of hard tier limits so small that streaming one HD movie could burn all of tier 1 AND then have us frothing at speeding up how fast we can consume data to get those limits.
Another version of focusing on "next big things" with big dependencies on burning data to help cell phone service providers make even more money: you know, like iRadio, Facetime, Maps, iCloud, etc. Give us data-hungry apps on tier-capped feeds at faster-than-ever data (burn) rates and AT&T, Verizon, etc are very happy. :rolleyes: