Just because MetroPCS' unsolicited advances to Leap got rejected doesn't mean it can't check its damaged ego at the door long enough to get some other business put away. The two regionals sat down recently to hammer out a pretty comprehensive package of collaboration, throwing in a new 10-year roaming agreement, a spectrum swap whereby Leap gets coverage in San Diego, Fresno, Seattle, and parts of Washington and Oregon while MetroPCS picks up Dallas / Fort Worth plus some Louisiana and Florida territory, and a mutual agreement to drop any pending litigation against one another. Can't you just feel the love in the air?

True, ZTE's C79 clamshell becomes one of the relatively few phones released to market to support CDMA on the AWS frequency band in addition to the old-skool cellular and PCS bands, but to buyers, that doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot at this point. Instead, they'll be more concerned (and rightfully so, may we add) about the stylish red shell, the 1.3-megapixel camera, 220 x 176 primary display, external music controls, and 69MB of memory on top of a microSD slot. Strangely, there's no EV-DO involved, but this is MetroPCS we're talking about -- which also means we're met head on with a contract-free price of $169. It's available now.

Even casual observers may have noticed a pronounced trend in the 4G announcements lately: pretty much everything's turning up LTE. That's good news for global unity, infrastructure and handset development, roaming capability, and time to market, we figure -- and while MetroPCS' 4G declaration in particular really doesn't have a ton of bearing either way, it's just another tiny nail (call it a thumbtack, if you will) in UMB's coffin. The regional carrier used its second quarter earnings call as the venue to announce that it'll be transitioning to LTE for its next-gen footprint, and it won't be wasting much time, either. Said CEO Roger Lindquist, "I think the world is going there, the world phone will be a reality. I think you'll see some interesting developments here over the next six to twelve months." That's a ridiculously aggressive schedule, but it might be an easier one to stick to for a regional like MetroPCS with a smaller total upgrade expenditure. You know where to send the review handsets if that works out for you, guys.

[Via RCR]

You don't see terribly many low-cost horizontal slider dumbphones from Samsung, and that's left the market wide open for LG with its Rumor and Scoop -- until now, that is. Meet the Messager, a candybar whose sole reason for being is making your texting life a little easier thanks to a QWERTY keyboard that slides out to the side. The 1xRTT data (yipes!) and 1.3-megapixel sensor aren't going to bake any noodles, but at $199 with no contract whatsoever, there's not a lot of room for bellyaching, especially when you throw in A2DP and a microSD slot. Just a hint, though, Samsung: any phone + pretty colors = $$$. Seriously.

Cellpassion has unearthed a new candybar from Motorola that it claims will find shelter on "a couple" US carriers -- and judging from the "MetroPCS" front and center on the display, we'd tend to agree. The so-called VE240 really isn't much to look at, but it obviously has a music slant and reminds us a bit of the W388 we first saw not long ago with an added bar of bright orange across the front for, oh... excitement and style, we guess? If the MetroPCS bit checks out, it'll be a CDMA handset, so put away those newfangled SIM cards, GSM fanboys and girls.

Update: phoneArena has now scored some high-res shots of the phone and says that it'll be available in Cricket in addition to MetroPCS.

MetroPCS may not have the largest wireless footprint in the States, but they did take a jab at the larger two CDMA carriers by announcing their intention to take on any Verizon and Sprint customers ready to jump ship -- as well as any "compatible" devices they may want to bring along with them. Sprint already supposedly does this (although we've still yet to hear of it actually really happening), but the specifics of MetroPCS's MetroFlash seem equally unclear. It doesn't sound like they'll reprogram just any CDMA device that walks through their doors, though, just the ones they've had a chance to test on their network. Definitely kills the buzz (and the number of devices that can be ported), but a little open is still kind of better than totally closed, right?

[Via Seattle P-I and Mobility Site]

That handset for MetroPCS that ZTE was promising is finally here -- and while it's not a FasTap phone or anything nifty like that, it's a surprisingly decent midrange piece that should find its way into a fair number of pockets. The Chinese manufacturer is clearly trying to make inroads into North America, and it had previously said that its MetroPCS device would be custom designed for the US market; a good, close look at the C88 has us agreeing that they probably weren't lying. The phone is a clamshell -- just the form factor us Americans can't get enough of -- and includes a camera, speakerphone, decently sized primary display, Bluetooth, and on-device web content. It's available now for $139.

Contain yourselves, folks, this is a civilized society! Please, just remain calm and calmly file into the MetroPCS or US Cellular store to pick up one of these two gems, the r300 flip and the r610 slider from Samsung. Neither one is likely to turn any heads, but the prices are right; the $129 (on contract, naturally) r620 does EV-DO with a 1.3 megapixel cam plus A2DP and microSD expansion, while the lower-end 1xRTT r300 gets flashy with a red exterior but keeps a tight lid on the cash outlay with a $109 asking price. Get 'em both now.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Read - Samsung r300 for MetroPCS
Read - Samsung r610 for US Cellular

In case the FCC filing with the big honkin' MetroPCS logo across the front of the phone back in June wasn't enough of a clue, Huawei has now made their handset deal with the carrier official. Huawei claims that the M318 was designed specifically with MetroPCS customers in mind, a fairly pedestrian, faux-metal piece with a 1.5 inch display, speakerphone, BREW support, and 5MB of onboard memory. Huawei's announcement to provide MetroPCS with equipment comes a few days after crosstown competitor ZTE's, but these guys are going to end up beating ZTE to the punch anyway -- the M318 is available immediately, whereas ZTE's yet-to-be-named phone won't rock shelves until next month.

[Via RCR]

We've been monitoring MetroPCS' pages for a while now waiting for this thing to become available to purchase, and finally, here it is. The r410 candybar from Samsung features a VGA camera (MetroPCS calls it "high-resolution," pshaw), Bluetooth, and a slide-out QWERTY keypad for ridiculously easy messaging with a no-nonsense design. In fact, the fanciest thing about this phone seems to be the fact that it's available in both black and red. Grab it now for $199 before rebates.

It really doesn't come as a surprise following Leap's less-than-enthusiastic response, but yeah, it's official: MetroPCS' offer is no more. The statement MetroPCS issued regarding the whole ordeal is actually kinda sad, revealing that the company "has not been able to engage Leap in meaningful negotiations" -- in other words, it got the cold shoulder. "Talk to the hand," if you will. For its part, though, Metro insists it's still in great shape, touting its recent Los Angeles launch with several more markets in store for '08 and '09. Still has to smart a little, though.

Ooh, in your face, MetroPCS! Leap Wireless has rejected a multi-billion dollar stock swap proposed by its fellow regional carrier a couple weeks ago, citing... well, to be brief, a bum deal. MetroPCS was looking to trade each share of Leap for 2.75 shares of its own stock, a formula that actually values Leap at about $4.7 billion -- significantly below the $5.3 billion pegged the day merger discussions kicked off. Leap CEO Doug Hutcheson officially responded to the offer today, bluntly stating that it "dramatically undervalues" his company while citing Leap's strong growth, its prospects for future buildouts, and MetroPCS' infrastructure troubles in New York and Los Angeles as reasons why his shareholders deserve more bang for their buck. That being said, Hutcheson left room for further discussions; an eventual deal makes sense, considering that the two carriers' combined footprint would approximate that of a national carrier. Can MetroPCS pony up the requisite cash to be taken seriously here?

Are we about to have another national carrier on our hands? MetroPCS has put together a $5.3 billion stock swap offer for Leap Wireless -- perhaps better known for its Cricket brand -- potentially pairing two regionals to create the nation's fifth-largest carrier, displacing Alltel in the process and combining regional licenses to create a rather generous coverage footprint. Of course, this is all based on the assumption that Leap's cool with the plan; at this point, all we know is that MetroPCS sent a nice little letter to Leap's board of directors. If everything goes according to plan, though, and the appropriate regulatory bodies approve, expect the two to close on the deal in spring of next year.