Although a lot of people are clamoring to finally have a proper 4G Phone when Apple’s next device is released next month, how important is LTE to the average consumer? Not very, it looks like.

The data comes from a poll of 3,000 individuals conducted by investment firm Piper Jaffray, which found that 47 percent of consumers don’t think they need LTE.

Of the rest, 26 percent indicated that they thought all 4G was the same, which isn’t surprising: this is the result of the war of misinformation that carriers without LTE (like Sprint, T-Mobile and even up until recently AT&T) have been waging against consumers, trying to trick them into believing that HSPA+ and WiMax offer the same speeds. Only 15 percent of all individuals polled seemed to realize LTE was superior to all other types of so-called “4G.”

Likewise, while individuals in the know are aware that Verizon has the biggest and most pervasive LTE network, Piper Jaffray’s poll says that 51% of those asked thought either that all 4G networks were the same or that they didn’t know who had the best 4G network.

Those results bode well for AT&T, who was late to the game compared to Verizon when it comes to LTE roll-out. However, these results should give Ma Bell pause: of those who plan to buy the next iPhone, 44% plan to do it on Verizon, while only 29% plan to sign up for one with AT&T, and 14% on Sprint. Considering AT&T controlled 100% of the iPhone market just a couple years ago, that’s a big slide in popularity.

Source: Apple Insider