MetroPCS: LTE launching in Vegas with Samsung handset this year

LAS VEGAS--Flat-rate carrier MetroPCS will launch LTE services in Las Vegas and other, unnamed markets in the second half of this year, and will provide those services to consumers via Samsung's SCH-r900, the handset vendor's first CDMA/LTE handset.

"The Samsung SCH-r900 will be one of the first commercially available LTE-enabled, multi-mode, CDMA, 4G handsets in the United States when MetroPCS launches the handset in the second half of 2010," Samsung said in a release. "The introduction of the Samsung SCH-r900 is part of Samsung Mobile's collaboration with MetroPCS to deliver advanced LTE handsets, services and infrastructure."

A Samsung spokesperson said the company is not providing pictures of the SCH-r900.

MetroPCS previously had promised it would launch LTE services sometime this year, and that it would work with Samsung to do so, though details such as the model number of the phone and specific markets are new tidbits of the carrier's plans. MetroPCS will provide LTE service on a prepaid basis without device subsidies. The announcement is especially notable as Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest wireless carrier and a CDMA network vendor, plans to commercially launch LTE services in 25-30 markets sometime this year.

Samsung is also providing network products for MetroPCS' LTE network rollout.

For more:
- see this Samsung release

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