MetroPCS planning voice over LTE device

MetroPCS made headlines yesterday, mainly for their earnings call. Since we covered their subscriber gains back in January, it seems appropriate to focus on another item from the call. CEO Roger Linquist announced that the company will launch a handset later this year that will use Voice over LTE technology. This will help MetroPCS better use its limited spectrum. Instead of using one side of the network for voice and text and the LTE side for data, they’ll have everything consolidated. The timeline coincides with MetroPCS’s stated goal of introducing cheaply priced LTE handsets by the second half of 2012. The lower-cost, high-powered handsets, combined with MetroPCS’s relatively cheap monthly rates, could provide fuel to grow the service. Voice over LTE becomes important, then, because MetroPCS will need additional spectrum to service these customers. Since there is not much new spectrum to be had, more efficiently managing existing spectrum becomes the best option. Via FierceWireless.]]>