14 DAY TRIAL // U.S. Cellular has just announced plans to release its first 4G LTE devices in conjunction with the first wave of 4G LTE services that will be launched next month.
The carrier has teamed up with King Street Wireless, a company that currently owns 700 MHz wireless spectrum in 27 states, to deliver 4G LTE service to U.S. Cellular customers in several areas.
Apparently, the 4G LTE network will cover only 25% of U.S. Cellular's customers at launch, but the carrier plans to expand the coverage to reach more customers by the end of the year.
The first cities will get 4G LTE services in March: Milwaukee, Madison and Racine, Wis.; Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa; Portland and Bangor, Maine; and Greenville, N.C.
The first 4G LTE device to hit shelves is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE, which is expected to arrive at U.S. Cellular in March. The Galaxy S Aviator 4G LTE won’t be available for purchase until April 2012.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be delivered with Android 3.2 Honeycomb on board and TouchWiz UX user interface on top. The slate features a 10.1-inch WXGA capacitive touchscreen display with 800 x 1280 pixels resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass coating.
At first glance, Samsung Galaxy S Aviator seems to be a rebranded DROID Charge, so expect this one to come with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen with support for 480 x 800 pixels resolution and 16 million colors.
Furthermore, the smartphone packs a 1 GHz single core processor and runs Google’s Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread operating system. An 8-megapixel rear camera is available as well, along with a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera for video calls.
“With 4G LTE speeds, you can quickly get what you want when you need it. This 4G LTE network builds upon our industry-leading network satisfaction and is the only one that comes with a valuable rewards program and other unique benefits like Overage Protection and Battery Swap that make our customers the happiest in wireless,” said Mary N. Dillon, president and CEO of U.S. Cellular.
