MetroPCS Sprinkling EVDO Onto 20% of Cell Towers
Sep 15, 2011, 2:03 PM by Eric M. Zeman
MetroPCS has indicated that it is upgrading a little under 20% of its cell towers with EVDO 3G in order to supplement its CDMA 1x coverage. MetroPCS CFO Braxton Carter said that the company will invest about $100 million in the upgrades, which will be complete by the end of the year. MetroPCS operates a CDMA 1x network and had initially planned to skip 3G services entirely in favor of LTE. The company's LTE network is up and running in a few markets, and there are two handsets available for it. Though MetroPCS wants more customers to switch to LTE, Carter admitted that they don't expect most customers to make the switch until the prices for LTE devices and services drop. Carter didn't indicate which markets will have access to the EVDO 3G cell towers.
Comments
Markets