China Unicom reveals that iPhone 4S/5 will have HSPA+ connectivity

Previous rumors surrounding the iPhone have suggested that maybe the next-gen iPhone will sport 4G LTE connectivity. This has quickly been quashed due to 4G LTE chipsets consuming too much battery for Apple’s liking, but now it looks like the next best thing may arrive for the iPhone 4S/5.

It seems that China Unicom’s Deputy Direction, Huang Wenliang, may have accidentally revealed that the next-gen iPhone will sport HSPA+ connectivity instead. The current iPhone 4 supports 3G speeds up to 7.2Mbps, and if China Unicom’s Deputy Director was indeed speaking the truth, we could be looking at an iPhone with connection speeds of 21Mbps. Given that while 4G LTE is on paper a lot faster than HSPA+, in real world situations, HSPA+ speeds should be fast enough to please most users.