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A major Apple store may be testing 4G LTE equipment supplied by AT&T.
That’s according to a report from Engadget, citing an anonymous source. Engadget posted an image of LTE equipment being installed at the store, although the picture was later removed.
The equipment supports the 700 megahertz band of spectrum, which is what AT&T plans to use to roll its LTE network out, as well as the AWS bands, which is what T-Mobile owns, according to Engadget.
An AT&T spokesman declined to comment. An Apple representative wasn’t available for comment.
Reports of LTE equipment showing up at Apple has fanned the flames of an LTE-enabled iPhone, although that remains unlikely. Apple has said that LTE requires too many sacrifices, including increasing the size of the device to handle the extra antennas, and decreasing the battery life because of the power-hungry LTE network.
AT&T, meanwhile, hasn’t yet launched its first commercial 4G LTE market. It plans to later this summer. The company plans to sell its first 4G LTE devices, a laptop card and hot spot, on August 21.
AT&T will launch in five markets. Verizon Wireless, which launched its 4G LTE network late last year, is in more than 100 markets, but that may not be a wide enough deployment to justify sticking in an LTE connection so soon.
