Sprint’s commercials for the HTC EVO 4G are hard to miss these days, but it looks like HTC is planning on delivering some 4G action on Verizon’s LTE network in 2011. This news should come as no surprise to most of you if you’ve been keeping up with the news on the HTC Mecha (HTC DROID Incredible HD), but it’s nice to hear HTC’s Peter Chou share this new with GSMA. Since the HTC Mecha has been in the works for quite some time, we’d expect HTC’s first LTE enabled phones to launch on Verizon’s network during Q1 of 2011.
If the HTC Mecha isn’t the 4G phone you’ve been waiting for, you might be delighted to hear that the HTC was recently spotted at one of Verizon’s LTE demo events. There have been rumors floating around that the launch of the Merge was delayed so that HTC could prep the handset for Verizon’s LTE 4G network. This makes perfect sense since the T-Mobile G2 features support for HSPA+ (T-Mobile “4G” network) and Sprint is planning on launching the HTC EVO Shift 4G with WiMax support.
We are working on an LTE device for next year, 2011. We think that the U.S. mobile operator will be taking some lead and pushing 4G in the U.S. market. But, however, we are seeing the rest of the world will be deploying LTE networks in 2011. Could be the second half of 2011. – Peter Chou, HTC
Source: AndroidCentral 1, 2
