T-Mobile has some big plans for 2013 that should help the carrier slow the hemorrhaging of customers it has been plagued with recently. With T-Mobile planning on debuting its LTE network in 2013, a device has been spotted in the wild that could be an LTE version of the Samsung Galaxy S3.
Samsung Galaxy S3 model SGH-T999L can be seen on the Bluetooth SIG website (thanks to the folks over at Ubergizmo). Model SGH-T999 is the T-Mobile Galaxy S3 variant, which has no LTE support, so the 'L' tacked onto the end could stand for LTE. Of course, none of this has been confirmed, so as of now, treat a T-Mobile Galaxy S3 LTE handset as rumor. We'll most likely have to wait until the SGH-T999L gets FCC certified before getting a peek under the hood to see it the phone is LTE capable or not.
T-Mobile has been ramping up its networks in an effort to give its customers more coverage with faster speeds. While its recent offerings have been 4G, the company has promised that LTE service will be rolling out in 2013. T-Mobile's LTE network won't be nearly as big as Verizon's, AT&T's, or Sprint's, which have all had a solid head start, but it will finally give T-Mobile customers access to network speeds and LTE handsets previously unavailable to them.
T-Mobile is planning on scrapping contracts and starting to sell Apple products such as the iPhone in 2013 and a cheap LTE version of the Galaxy S3 would be a great incentive for T-Mobile to offer customers. So while there's no telling whether T-Mobile will offer an LTE Galaxy S3, or simply opt to wait until the Galaxy S4 with LTE releases, it's still clear the carrier is looking to shake things up in 2013, and an LTE Galaxy S3 could help Magenta do just that.