MetroPCS picks LTE for 4G; Leap remains mum

MetroPCS Communications Inc. plans to hitch its 4G plans to Long Term Evolution technology. Following in the footsteps of other CDMA carriers, MetroPCS said during its second quarter conference call that it would use LTE for its 4G network technology. Verizon Wireless, Alltel Communication L.L.C. and other carriers have also made the same decision, ignoring the CDMA community’s own 4G technology, UMB.
During MetroPCS’s conference call, Roger Lindquist, chairman, president and CEO of MetroPCS, said the carrier plans to roll out 4G in the not-too-distant future.
“Quite frankly, 4G represents a great opportunity for us because we see that as capacity expansion, higher data rates imply capacity expansion, not just combining speed and download capability,” Lindquist said according to a transcript of the call from SeekingAlpha.com. “So I think overall, we see it as kind of wait and see. And if market trends shift and change, then that’s something that will be easily accessible to us.”
“I think the world is going there, the world phone will be a reality,” Lindquist said. “I think you’ll see some interesting developments here over the next six to twelve months.”
When asked about deploying LTE, Leap Wireless International Inc., a MetroPCS competitor, said it has made no decision or public announcements about what the carrier will do.