Regional operator MetroPCS was the first wireless firm to launch an LTE network in North America, but they didn’t exactly have the right gear to show off what it was capable of providing users, save for some streaming video services that no one actually used. That’s soon to change with the Samsung SCH-R910, a device that was spied by Boy Genius Report and is said to have both a CDMA and LTE radio, 5 megapixel camera, Android 2.2 with that fancy TouchWIZ UI on top that we all love to hate, and the 1 GHz Hummingbird processor that the flagship Samsung Galaxy S packs inside. This puppy is expected to come out during the first quarter of this year and will cost between $329 and $399 off contract. We can’t wait to see some real bandwidth numbers on an actual competent device versus a feature phone.
Unlike MetroPCS, both Verizon and Clearwire have built LTE networks with super wide 10 MHz channels. Clearwire recently demonstrated hitting 90 Mbps using a 20 MHz channel. MetroPCS is rocking 1.4 MHz wide channels, which provide hardly any additional bandwidth compared to the 3G networks of today. That being said, the newer LTE gear supports more users, is more power efficient, and enables one hell of a marketing tactic by letting you tell your users that you’ve actually got a 4G network.
Depending on how MetroPCS will price their monthly service this Samsung SCH-R910 may actually be worth it. At the end of the day though we say you go with T-Mobile, who has an HSPA+ network that’s due to be upgraded by the summer of 2011 with support for 42 Mbps download speeds. Hybrid CDMA/LTE devices will be just as rare as the CDMA/WiMAX devices that Sprint has been trying to peddle. With HSPA+ you can import foreign models, free of operator branding, and if they support the 1700 MHz 3G band then you’re good to go!