Samsung gives fastest phone to small US carrier

Samsung surprised the industry on Wednesday by revealing that the first phone ever to use LTE is headed to MetroPCS. The SCH-r900 (not yet pictured) will run on the new 4G standard when the small US cell provider switches on the faster network in the second half of this year. Full details of the phone itself weren't provided, but it should still support the existing CDMA/EVDO network.

The Korean company won't be the first to bring a 4G phone to the US, as HTC's Evo 4G should be the first when it ships in the summer. LTE, however, will theoretically be much faster with about 100Mbps peak speeds versus about 10Mbps for Sprint's WiMAX network. Actual speeds won't be as high but should be about double at 5-12Mbps downstream versus 3-6Mbps for the older technology.

Many cellphone manufacturers are holding off on LTE for multiple reasons, ranging from the lack of a completely ratified standard for voice calls as well as overly large or energy-hungry chipsets and small coverage maps. Verizon will have LTE at the same time as MetroPCS, but only in 25 to 30 cities. AT&T, T-Mobile and others are waiting until 2011 in part to make sure that both the phones and an adequate amount of coverage are in place.

Samsung LTE phone prototype (not necessarily the SCH-r900; image via PCMag)

By Electronista Staff