MetroPCS says "yes" to LTE for 4G

Even casual observers may have noticed a pronounced trend in the 4G announcements lately: pretty much everything's turning up LTE. That's good news for global unity, infrastructure and handset development, roaming capability, and time to market, we figure -- and while MetroPCS' 4G declaration in particular really doesn't have a ton of bearing either way, it's just another tiny nail (call it a thumbtack, if you will) in UMB's coffin. The regional carrier used its second quarter earnings call as the venue to announce that it'll be transitioning to LTE for its next-gen footprint, and it won't be wasting much time, either. Said CEO Roger Lindquist, "I think the world is going there, the world phone will be a reality. I think you'll see some interesting developments here over the next six to twelve months." That's a ridiculously aggressive schedule, but it might be an easier one to stick to for a regional like MetroPCS with a smaller total upgrade expenditure. You know where to send the review handsets if that works out for you, guys.

[Via RCR]

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 15th 2008 12:51PM]

Does this mean that they'll have a better line-up of phones and allow people with unlocked phones to use their service?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 19th 2008 9:29PM]

There phone line up is so terrible, that they are going to allow other selected CDMA Network phones (Sprint, Verizon) to try to drum up more biz. Metro has the right idea with there rate plans, but boo! on there crappy Chinese phones and there mega basic cheapos.