While AT&T still has yet to actually officially launch their 4G LTE network we are now seeing a few signs of life regarding the upgraded service. This week AT&T is launching a few 4G LTE Mobile hotspot devices but so far nothing else has been announced. What we are now hearing is the Samsung Impulse 4G will be the first LTE smartphone to hit AT&T later this fall.

What you see above is the image that was recently leaked of the next-gen smartphone. The last thing we heard regarding AT&T’s 4G LTE network was that no smartphones would be launching with LTE until very late 2011, but if we are starting to see leaked devices already things may be moving along a bit better than expected. With rumors of the HTC Jetstream (aka puccini) launching in October with 4G LTE AT&T might finally be ready.

The leaked Samsung Impulse 4G LTE looks extremely similar to the Samsung Droid Charge over on Verizon Wireless, which is also an LTE device. It could be possible that Samsung has slightly redesigned the smartphone and are prepping it for an AT&T launch. While we have no specs to confirm if it indeed is similar to the Charge it will feature a 4.3″ AMOLED display, 8MP camera on the rear and a 1 Ghz processor but hopefully we will see some dual-core power with the device.

AT&T’s 4G LTE network is severely lacking behind Verizon’s efforts and are quickly getting left farther behind. They need to get it going, and do it quickly before it’s too late. This week alone Verizon has announced over 30 more cities getting 4G LTE in the next month.

[via SlashGear]