Did Deutsche Telekom hint that the Apple iPhone 5S will support LTE-A?

The next iteration of the Apple iPhone not only will apparently contain the long-rumored fingerprint scanner, but it will also be quite zippy depending on what Deutsche Telekom had in mind in a press release. The German carrier announced that its LTE-A (or LTE-Advanced or LTE+) pipeline will launch at the end of this month. This wireless service offers data speeds as fast as 150MB/sec which is about twice the speed that current LTE networks offer. In July, a version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 that supports LTE-A was launched for SK Telecom's Advanced LTE pipeline.

With the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A model soon coming to the German operator, what could Deutsche Telekom have had in mind when a translation of its presser revealed the following line, "Appropriate devices from other vendors will follow by the end of September." Certainly the words "appropriate devices" could mean anything. But with the Apple iPhone 5S getting unveiled on September 10th, it would seem to indicate that an LTE-A version of the device is coming to Europe. After all, back in July, SK Telecom told the Korean Times that it was talking to Apple about the Cupertino based tech giant buiding an LTE-A enabled Apple iPhone 5S.

Deutsche Telekom's U.S. subsidiary actually will benefit from being the last major carrier to enter the LTE market in the states. T-Mobile is planning on building out LTE-A wireless service before the competition does. The telecommunication firm's head of radio network and evolution strategy, Yasmin Karimli, said "Others may have hardware that’s two years old, so they may have to rip and replace." If everything falls into place, could T-Mobile be the first carrier in the U.S. to offer LTE-A speeds to its Apple iPhone 5S wielding customers?

source: Macerkopf.de (translated), idownloadblog via IntoMobile