We had seen reports that Apple might be working on delivering a 4G-enabled iPhone 5 but today that rumour has been given a significant “boost” after a China Unicom executive confirmed that the next-generation smartphone will support HSPA+ “4G” technology, providing handset owners with data speed of up to 21Mbps, reports Macpost.

Japanese tech site PC Watch snapped a photo of an accompanying slide, noting:

Research vice president of China Unicom, Huan Wenliang, told iPhone 5 will support W-CDMA based high-speed data transfer standard HSPA Evolution “HSPA+” (21Mbps) at keynote speech in Macworld Asia 2011.

Whilst it might not be true 4G, the inclusion of HSPA+ technology would ensure customers worldwide would be able to make use of the improved speeds, with many carriers in North America, Europe and other regions working boost their infrastructure to provide improved service to their customers.