According to Tom Keys, chief operating officer of the prepaid phone company MetroPCS, the flat-rate regional carrier will deploy LTE, the next-generation wireless standard, beginning in 2010.
MetroPCS, which currently operates a CDMA network on AWS and PCS spectrum holdings, said last August that it had picked LTE as its 4G standard, following the lead of Tier 1 operator Verizon Wireless. At that time it did not provide a specific timeline. The company reaffirmed its commitment to LTE in its earnings call last week, but did not say when it expected to launch the technology. In fact, in an interview with the blog GigaOM, Keys did not specify a specific timetable, but said, “It is our desire to deploy LTE in 2010, probably the latter half.” However, the news of such a rapid LTE deployment is a bit odd coming from a carrier that currently doesn’t have a smartphone on offer to customers.
The MetroPCS, is in 14 markets, and this could explain why Keys expects the carrier to be able to roll out the network quickly. “We’re nimble,” he said. Company executives affirmed MetroPCS’s LTE plans on its earnings call last week, but didn’t offer up any details as to timing.
According to GigaOm, MetroPCS doesn’t have a data card offering, and Keys wasn’t willing to commit to more details or a time frame for a data card strategy tied to LTE. For now, the company’s focus will be on the handsets, he said.
Verizon is the North American carrier that has the most detailed and specific LTE rollout plans so far. In an interview in February with FierceWireless, Verizon Communications CTO Dick Lynch said, “I can demonstrate a commercial system this year. I can show you a footprint of respectable magnitude in 2010.” Verizon revealed its vendors for LTE last month at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
“We have had working systems in operation for a few months,” Lynch said. “I am confident that while it’s aggressive and I won’t say that there won’t be a few bumps in the road along the way. I am comfortable that LTE has essentially been primed for a good launch in 2010.”
So, since Verizon Wireless and AT&T have also planned to launch LTE networks, the move is also one of convenience as MetroPCS would be able to seamlessly roam on the other networks provided the handsets and related equipment. It’s not surprising as smaller regional carriers have committed to the standard in order to gain leverage with handset manufacturers and national carriers concerning roaming and equipment.
Thus, it looks like Verizon might not be the first LTE network in the U.S. for long.

Sources: fiercewireless.com; phonenews.com; phonescoop.com.

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