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Leap Wireless testing the LTE waters by end of 2011, diving in head-first next year
Cricket's sure making some leaps and bounds, isn't it? That's right, Leap Wireless -- the prepaid provider's parent -- announced that it's making preparations to jump into the world of LTE. The carrier will begin testing the service in Tucson by the end of this year, and aims to blanket two-thirds of its current network (nearly 25 million people) with 4G goodness within the next two to three years. You won't have to wait that long to get your hands on an LTE-capable smartphone, however, as the first ones will begin showing up in the carrier's lineup by the second half of 2012. We knew the company had aspirations for the echelon of 4G when it signed a roaming agreement with LightSquared, so this doesn't necessarily come as a surprise, but it's the first solid announcement we've heard regarding its very own network. It looks like MetroPCS won't be the lone ranger in the prepaid LTE market for much longer. The news comes in line with the company's third quarter earnings report, which you can find below.
Huawei Ascend II on sale now, brings off-contract Gingerbread to Cricket for $180
We gotta say -- we dig where this is headed. Between Virgin Mobile's Intercept, Boost Mobile's Prevail and Cricket's Ascend II, it's getting harder and harder to justify a mid-range smartphone on a post-paid carrier. Huawei's latest prepaid smartphone has just landed on Cricket, quite a few months after we first touched it at CTIA. What's wild isn't the predictable design or middle-of-the-road 5 megapixel camera -- it's that $179.99 off-contract price tag coupled with a copy of Android 2.3. Gingerbread is proving tough to find even on the big boys, so having a prepaid option is all the more surprising. You'll also get a 3.5-inch HVGA touchpanel, WiFi, a microSD slot and a 600MHz processor. Granted, you'll likely experience plenty of lag when trying to multitask, but with an all-inclusive $55 / month plan (which includes unlimited talk, text, 411 information, international text, data and video picture messages), what's to kvetch about?
