Microsoft details 4G LTE Surface 3 availability

While the Wi-Fi version of Surface 3 has been available to consumers and businesses for nearly two months now, the same cannot be said about the 4G LTE counterpart. It only went on sale two weeks ago, and only in Japan, and is not yet available in any other markets where the slate is offered.

This is about to change as Microsoft today announces that this week the 4G LTE version of Surface 3 will also be available to prospective business customers in Germany and UK. Consumers will have to wait a bit longer, however.

On July 3, the 4G LTE Surface 3 will be available through Deutsche Telekom in Germany and O2 in UK. It will later also be offered through Orange Business Services in France and Movistar in Spain, again only for businesses.

Business customers will be able to purchase two 4G LTE Surface 3 models, one with 64 GB and the other with 128 GB of internal storage -- but both featuring 4 GB of RAM and Windows 8.1 Professional out-of-the-box. The consumer-destined counterpart with 64 GB of internal storage only packs 2 GB of RAM and the standard Windows 8.1.

Consumer availability follows business availability, with the 4G LTE Surface 3 expected to be offered through commercial resellers and retailers in France, Germany, UK and US "in the coming weeks", according to Surface general manager Brian Hall. There is no word on configurations, but expect the 64 GB model to feature 2 GB of RAM, with the higher capacity reserved for the 128 GB model. The former costs $599, while the latter will be priced at $699.