Samsung Craft may hit MetroPCS' 4G network in September
updated 02:55 pm EDT, Wed August 25, 2010
Samsung Craft seen at MetroPCS next month
Samsung on Wednesday reportedly said it will bring its first LTE-based 4G phone to the US next month. The phone, known as Craft, is already known to be distributed by MetroPCS. The phone will use the LTE network only for data access, while the CDMA voice network will still be used for voice calls.
According to an earlier report, the Craft will cost about $300 off-contract and sport a touchscreen display, full HTML browser, Bluetooth 2.1 and a Qualcomm CPU. It won't be a smartphone and will instead use a simple custom OS with TouchWiz layered on top.
MetroPCS is expected to begin the rollout of its LTE network in Dallas/Fort Worth and Las Vegas first, with a complete rollout completing sometime in 2011.
LTE is a 4G technology that is theoretically much faster than WiMAX with 100Mbps peak speeds compared to about 10Mbps. Actual speeds should fall in the range of 5-12Mbps downstream, or about twice as quick as existing 3-6Mbps speeds for Sprint's WiMAX network.
