Remember last year when Microsoft's Panos Panay revealed that an LTE-enabled version of the Surface 2 was in the works? Well the device may have taken its sweet time to get to market, but it'll finally be available for purchase starting tomorrow.

Microsoft has confirmed that a new version of the Surface 2 with built-in AT&T LTE connectivity and 64GB of storage will go on sale on March 18 at a price of $679, which is $130 more than the 64GB WiFi-only Surface 2. When adding this LTE-enabled Surface 2 to an AT&T plan, customers can pay $10 per month to add the device to a Mobile Share plan or select from a standalone $14.99/250MB plan, a $30/3GB option or a $50/5GB plan. The Surface 2 with AT&T LTE will be available for purchase at Best Buy and Microsoft stores as well as through those retailers' websites.  

Besides the AT&T LTE support, this new Surface 2 is fairly similar to the WiFi-only model that's been available since late last year. That means that you're looking at a 10.6-inch 1920x1080 display, 5-megapixel rear and 3.5-megapixel front cameras, full-size USB 3.0 port and a microSD card slot for when you need space beyond what the 64GB of internal storage offers. It's also worth pointing out that because this is the Surface 2 and not the Surface Pro 2, this device is running Windows RT 8.1 and not the full-on version of Windows 8.1.

It may have taken a while for Microsoft to get around to launching the Surface 2 with AT&T LTE, but it's nice to finally have the option of picking up the Windows RT 8.1 slate with built-in cellular connectivity. After all, WiFi may be getting more widespread by the day, but sometimes we may still encounter a place with weak or no wireless Internet. That's when a tablet with its own cellular service comes in handy. 

Do you own a tablet with built-in cellular connectivity?

UPDATE: NVIDIA has confirmed that the Surface 2 (AT&T 4G LTE) is powered by a combination of its i500 modem and quad-core Tegra 4 processor.

Via Surface Blog, NVIDIA