Add U.S. Cellular to the list of U.S. wireless carriers "excited" to carry Microsoft's new phone OS when it comes out this fall.
I just got this note from U.S. Cellular's public relations department: "We believe in giving our customers the latest technology and device options and we are excited about the Windows 8 phone. It will be an important part of our device lineup going forward."
U.S. Cellular thus joins AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless as public supporters of Windows Phone 8. At the moment, Sprint, Cricket and MetroPCS are still playing coy.
The presence of Verizon and U.S. Cellular on the Windows Phone 8 list holds out hope that the OS may have much better support for CDMA-based networks than previous versions did. In the two years since Windows Phone 7 launched, only two Windows Phones have come out with the radio technology used by five of our top seven carriers: Verizon's HTC Trophy and Sprint's HTC Arrive, known on U.S. Cellular as the HTC 7 Pro.
Windows Phone 8 will also support CDMA/LTE, an important step for U.S. Cellular, which has just launched its 4G LTE network.
U.S. Cellular is the nation's seventh-largest cell-phone carrier, with about 5.8 million users according to Strategy Analytics and Fierce Wireless (we don't count Clearwire as a cell-phone carrier, because it doesn't do voice). It won our Reader's Choice award by a considerable margin this year, with our readers citing the high quality of its data network and its affordable fees.
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