Microsoft To Launch LTE Windows Phones In 2012 On AT&T

There have been a lot of hints and suggestions of what the Windows Phone LTE offerings will look like next year. Paul Thurrott over at Winsupersite says that with all the rumors and suggestions he is just going to out the real plans and then goes on to lay out the LTE scheme. He says that Microsoft and its smartphone partners do intend lots of LTE devices next year.

The smartphone will start to land in a six-month period next year and all of them will be offered on the AT&T network. That seemingly means that Verizon might not be testing the Lumia 800 on its LTE network as previously reported or perhaps after the six months that Thurrott mentions for AT&T, Verizon will get in on the LTE WinPo action. It's not clear if Verizon will ever carry windows Phone devices with LTE, but it would be surprising to me if the carrier didn't.

The LTE plans will be official unveiled at CES next month. Thurrott says that the LTE Windows Phone headset will all land before the middle of 2012 and will include the Nokia Ace, HTC Radiant, and Samsung Mendel. The Ace is set for a March 18 launch. It's not clear if the Tango update will be part of this LTE rollout or if the rollout will come with some sort of software update. The Lumia 710 will hit Verizon in April, but will not be LTE.

[via Winsupersite]