Verizon Wireless sees Motorola as a good candidate to produce the carrier’s first LTE-capable smartphone, according to comments made by John Stratton, Verizon Wireless’ chief operating officer, in an interview with the Wall Street Journa
“We’ve got LTE smartphones on the horizon…Motorola will be right there,” Stratton said but did not mention details on price, specs or availability for the device.
Verizon officially launched its LTE network Dec. 5 but has yet to release a smartphone that will run on the network. The carrier currently offers a pair of LTE-capable USB modems from LG and Pantech.
Stratton heaped Motorola with praise for its work on Verizon Wireless’ Droid line of smarpthones. “Over last 13 months, they have done a very good job in supporting our business and have worked their way up into almost a preferred vendor…They have been driving our Droid strategy,” Stratton said in the interview.
Verizon Wireless has brought numerous Motorola smartphones to market under the carrier’s Droid franchise, including the original Droid, Droid 2, Droid X and Droid Pro.