Apple's new iPhones support more LTE bands than any other smartphone in the world, the Cupertino giant boasted at its coming out party on Tuesday.

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) unveiled two much-leaked new iPhone models at an event on Tuesday, the mid-range iPhone 5C and high-end iPhone 5S. Both devices will support dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and enough LTE bands to effectively roam around the world.

Both versions of the iPhone will support the same LTE band sets, which include bands 1 through 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 19, 20, 25, 26, and 38 through 40. The combination depends on the SKU. To be considered a truly global phone that works in most major countries, if not all, a handset needs to support around 12 to 13 of the 19 LTE bands currently in use. (See LTE RF: Complicated by Design.)

The new iPhones will work on all four major carriers in the US, as well as BCE Inc. (Bell Canada) (NYSE/Toronto: BCE), Rogers Communications Inc. (Toronto: RCI), and Telus Corp. (NYSE: TU; Toronto: T) in Canada. The device will also work with operators in Puerto Rico, France, Germany, the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Apple didn’t reveal what chipset it is using for LTE, but it is likely Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM)'s new RF360, which supports 40 LTE bands and works on LTE-FDD, LTE-TDD, WCDMA, EV-DO, CDMA 1x, TD-SCDMA, and GSM/Edge networks. (See Qualcomm Unveils Single Global LTE Chip.)

The new iPhone 5S also includes a fingerprint sensor on the home button for secure access to the phone and iTunes sales, a new A7 64-bit processor that Apple says is twice as fast as the iPhone 5's CPU, and an improved camera with more pixels. The company says the 5S battery will last for 10 hours of 3G talk time and 10 hours of LTE data usage.

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Editor, Light Reading