A job ad has lent more credence to the
belief that Apple's next iPhone will support the 4G technology LTE.

Judging from recent job advertisements, the next version of Apple’s iPhone will pack support for LTE, the fast 4G wireless technology that is rolling out across the U.S. and other parts of the world.

Forbes has viewed listings on the job networking site LinkedIn that indicate Apple is seeking field test engineers with expertise in LTE. (A copy of the full ad is posted, in full, below.) Field testing in the wireless industry typically means taking a new cellphone outdoors (“into the field”) and measuring its signal strength. It is an integral step that phone makers take before releasing products to the public.

The LinkedIn ad, which was either posted on August 17 or 18, says the recruits, who will work with Apple’s “iOS Quality team” as “QA” (Quality Assurance) engineers, will “join a dynamic team responsible for qualifying all of the latest iPhone products.” The ad, which was posted by a California-based Apple senior recruiter, goes on to say that the engineers’ focus will be “testing the telephony (phone, sms, data, etc) functionality of the iPhone.”

Such a listing indicates that Apple not only has an LTE iPhone in the works, but one that is close enough to completion for real-world testing. Apple’s next iPhone is widely believed to be debuting in the next few weeks, most likely late September or early October.

Generally, both carriers and device makers analyze the connectivity properties of new devices to ensure that any network problems are resolved by launch time.