“Just one more day. Just one more day.” That’s how Apple enthusiasts may go to bed tonight, day-dreaming about the March 7th event when the Cupertino company will finally showcase its newest creation – the next gen iPad 3. Rumors have been spreading like weeds about what this wonder device is going to possess. One of the persistent rumors that keeps coming out is that the next gen tablet will be sporting 4G connectivity. Now iMore, the site who first kick-started this rumor, comes with another statement – the LTE in the new iPad is ready and “good to go”. It will most certainly be present at the grand unveiling.

Some rumors about the 4G LTE were spread around by The Wall Street Journal last month which announced that the next generation device will sport a wireless radio which will fit perfectly with the high-speed 4G networks that big time carriers like Verizon and AT&T provide in the U.S.

Verizon and AT&T are the only two U.S. providers of LTE networks but they have an impressive amount of subscribers put together. At 200 million for Verizon and 74 million from AT&T, that is quite massive, indeed.

Among other persuasive rumors we stumble upon some of those same ones preaching the upgrade of the processor, the improved HD Retina Display and an improved camera. The best rumored addition to some folks would be Siri – the virtual assistant we have been growing so fond of lately.

So far, Apple has managed to dominate the tablet market in every way possible and with the addition of this new device we’re pretty sure it is going to be doing it better than ever!

By Radu

Source: AppleInsider

I'm not liking how the author stats that ATT and Verizon are the only ones offering 4G LTE.
MetroPCS was the first carrier in the USA to offer 4G LTE, and on top of that its no contract prepaid unlimited everything. MetroPCS rolled out 4G LTE in my area about 6 months before Verizon even started marketing it and it took them several months more to start rolling it out.

I am on wifi most do the time anyway. I will try it at the Verizon store to see how it works.

Sent from my Verizon Black 64GB iPad 2 With IOS 5.01 Update From NYC using iPF

Originally Posted by MikesTooLz

I'm not liking how the author stats that ATT and Verizon are the only ones offering 4G LTE.
MetroPCS was the first carrier in the USA to offer 4G LTE, and on top of that its no contract prepaid unlimited everything. MetroPCS rolled out 4G LTE in my area about 6 months before Verizon even started marketing it and it took them several months more to start rolling it out.

How does Metro work in your area?

Sent from my Verizon Black 64GB iPad 2 With IOS 5.01 Update From NYC using iPF

Originally Posted by tlbaker

How does Metro work in your area?

Sent from my Verizon Black 64GB iPad 2 With IOS 5.01 Update From NYC using iPF

Works great, just as good as the other carriers for phone calls, With their 4G LTE i get 5.6MB/s. While MetroPCS could match the other providers higher 4G LTE speeds. They are currently focused on providing a decent connection for as many people per cell site as possible and the 5+ MB speed caps are in place to allow more users with a decent speed connection. Also they plan to switch over to Voice Over IP and I'm sure they want to keep some bandwidth open for that changeover to happen. I think they will slowly be increasing the speeds once they get changed over to VOIP and can see what all data usage the users put on the network. Some MetroPCS users in texas have reported increased speeds up to 8MB/s.

For most users the iPad is a WiFi device. Makes me wonder why Apple would incorporate 4G LTE now, considering the power drain issues and current spotty coverage.

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aa,
it depends on users. for us, we will not use a wifi unit even if its free, our guys are on the road collecting live business data and send back info to office. 3G is too slow, we are very happy if the new unit comes with LTE, if testing works, we will ditch all our ipad2s for the LTE capable unit just for the speed.

Originally Posted by ronwong

aa,
it depends on users. for us, we will not use a wifi unit even if its free, our guys are on the road collecting live business data and send back info to office. 3G is too slow, we are very happy if the new unit comes with LTE, if testing works, we will ditch all our ipad2s for the LTE capable unit just for the speed.

When you say collecting "live" business data, what do you mean?

AA

What time is the announcement?

1pm Eastern.

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