Nokia, Kyocera entering the AWS market

We’ve been hearing a ton about the Advanced Wireless Services market lately, mainly because Cricket and MetroPCS have rolled out networks. And where there are new networks, there need to be new phones to work on them. What we’ve seen so far is kind of unimpressive, at least by new-fangled cell phone standards. There’s no “awesome” phone among the three announced by Metro and Cricket. But with new players entering the market for AWS handsets, that might change pretty quickly.

Nokia, the biggest name in cell phones, is ready for entry, unveiling the 1606 and 3606, which will operate on both the PCS and AWS bands. The 3606 is a music phone as well, though you’ll need a microSD, as it only has 15 MB of memory onboard. Plus, it has a 1.3-megapixel camera. The 1606 is a simpler clamshell model.

Kyocera has its own troika of AWS phones: The Mako S4000, the Neo E11000, and the Adreno S2400. They’re not the highest-end phones…the E1100 looks to be the best of the group with a 1.3-megapixel camera and Bluetooth. And Chinese handset maker ZTE has released the C78 and C79.

While MetroPCS has a deal with ZTE, none of the above handsets have been announced by any carrier. But with Cricket ready to aggressively roll out AWS markets, and with MetroPCS presumably right along with them, we’ll likely see both companies pick up some of these handsets.

Remember, too, that T-Mobile won a huge swath of AWS spectrum. While we won’t see these specific handsets — T-Mobile is a GSM carrier, while these are CDMA handsets — we should see a new slew for them, too.

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