The final nail may have already been thought to have gone into the coffin of CDMA, but it looks like there are more to come as US-based CDMA operator MetroPCS joins the throng of those moving to LTE.

Late Tuesday, the fifth biggest mobile operator in the US announced plans to migrate to LTE for its 4G strategy, with the intention of launching commercial services in the second half of 2010.

The operator has tapped Swedish kit vendor Ericsson to deploy the infrastructure for its LTE service and has named Samsung as provider of the carrier’s initial LTE handset.

MetroPCS, which counted 6.26 million subscribers at the end of June, targets prepay users with unlimited, flat rate calling plans, and intends to use the same model for LTE-based wireless broadband.

Roger D. Linquist, president and chief executive officer of MetroPCS, said: “We anticipate to begin offering our 4G LTE services and a dual-mode LTE/CDMA smartphone in our major metropolitan markets in late 2010.”