The LTE iPhone 5 speculators have just received a fresh shot of life thanks to a newly leaked image showing an alleged AT&T LTE station installed in a “major” Apple Store. Even more intriguing is the fact that one of the pieces of LTE equipment above supports the 700 MHz and AWS bands — bands which AT&T will only be able to fully use for LTE after the T-Mobile merger goes through. It seems rather brash for AT&T to be throwing this much potential money around on AWS LTE equipment with the outlook for the merger getting darker with each passing week. If anything, AT&T is really planning ahead this time.
After similar reports surfaced in recent days of carriers already having LTE iPhones out and about for testing purposes, this latest revelation is at least interesting given the timing. At the same time, the reality of an LTE iPhone dropping this year — when LTE networks are still young and rather undeveloped — is pretty unlikely. But we’ll be the first to admit that we’d love for Apple to prove us wrong.
