Remember those rumors that Nokia is prepping Windows Phone handsets with support for AT&T LTE? Those reports have just gotten a bit of support, all thanks to Nokia's own on-device Windows Phone diagnostics app. The folks over at Nanapho did some digging in the app's XAP file and found references to "LTE TX" and "LTE Band Lock." That's not all, though, as the LTE Band Lock menu also mentions LTE bands 4 and 17, which just so happen to be the ones used by AT&T.
But wait! The juicy nuggets of information revealed by this diagnostics app don't stop there! An MMS Settings menu in the same diagnostics app contains references to CDMA, suggesting that support for a carrier like Verizon may be in the works as well. We've heard the rumor mill claim that a Verizon LTE-compatible Nokia handset is coming, but no mentions of Big Red LTE support (it uses band 13) have been dug up in this app.
Verizon has said in the past that LTE support is a "critical" feature that Windows Phone needs in order for the carrier to continue to support it, so it'll be interesting to see if the aforementioned references to CDMA in Nokia's code are indeed meant for Verizon and if Big Red would be willing to ignore a lack of 4G in order to launch a Lumia. The good news is that Nokia North America President Chris Weber recently revealed that the Finnish firm plans to release "a portfolio of devices" here in the U.S. and that it plans to have "a very large presence" at CES, so we may not have to wait long for all of these mysteries to be cleared up. Stay tuned!
Via Engadget, Nanapho.jp