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China Mobile asks Apple for LTE iPhone...

...and Apple seems willing

Apple seems set to produce an LTE - Long Term Evolution - 4G iPhone, for network operator China Mobile if for no one else.

China Mobile's chairman, Wang Jianzhou, was yesterday quoted as saying the Apple "has made it clear they will support TD-LTE", Reuters reports.

By TD-LTE, he means the 4G successor to TD-SCDMA - Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access - China's answer to W-CDMA, the technology that underpins 3G networks.

TD-LTE is likely to remain a China-only option, but Wang indicated that if Apple is happy to broaden its technology support beyond HSPA 3G to the CDMA EvDO technology used by America's Verizon, it will surely be equally keen to adopt China's version of LTE as much as the Western form of 4G.

Verizon supports LTE, and many observers were surprised the Verizon iPhone 4 was not an LTE device.

Wang said China Mobile and Apple have been discussing this for "two years" or so, and that now "the situation is moving forward". ®

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