Shares in MetroPCS climbed 17.8% on Tuesday to close at $13.57. Unconfirmed reports state that Deutsche Telekom is in talks to merge its T-Mobile USA business with MetroPCS.
MetroPCS operates a CDMA network while T-Mobile USA operates a GSM network. MetroPCS launched LTE in January 2011 while T-Mobile USA is preparing to launch LTE next year.
As of June 2012, MetroPCS passed 700,000 LTE subscribers, representing 8% of its customer base.
In August, MetroPCS launched its commercial Voice-over-LTE service. The first sale of a VoLTE-capable handset occurred at one of the company’s Dallas/Fort Worth store locations.
