LTE coming to Metro PCS late 2010…others to follow later.

If you have a need for speed and are already growing tired of constant wait times when loading pages over the ever increasingly saturated 3G arena, Metro PCS has some news that will wet your whistle and give you a second wind to ride out the waiting game that awaits you. Come late 2010, one to several quarters behind any other U.S. cellular provider, Metro PCS is planning to launch their first LTE capable handset on their new LTE network. The dual mode CDMA/LTE handset will reportedly be from Samsung beat many other players to market as Verizon won’t be joining the fun until early 2011 and AT&T once it gets its head out of the clouds sometime in 2012 if their network doesn’t implode by then.

Metro PCS meanwhile is playing a risky strategy by holding off on advancing to slower yet more readily available technologies such as CDMA EVDO Rev A and B right now in favor of bringing next gen 4G technology to market in the not too distant future ahead of many other carriers’ schedules. If they can pull it off with relatively minor snafus along the way, they will be in great shape to command a decent market share of 4G market share as by the time other players are just warming up, Metro PCS will be advancing to 2nd or 3rd base. 4G never seemed closer or more beautiful than now.

Some questions to ponder…

• With LTE taking most of the media spotlight, does CDMA based 4G technology still have a chance or has GSM based 4G technology taken the cake?

• does T-Mobile’s recent announcement of holding off on 4G technology in favor of further gleaning as much speed and efficiency from 3G and 3.5G technologies seem like the best idea or are they setting themselves up for another game of wireless catch-up? Not to mention, does this sound like a completely different tune than the one they were singing not too long ago…you know…the one about skipping HSPA+ and moving straight to 4G?

Source: GigaOhm, Image Source