It was just a little over a month ago that Aio Wireless first launched as a prepaid provider that operates on AT&T's HSPA network, but today the company announced a pretty major addition to its service that ought to make it more appealing to consumers in the markets where Aio is available.
Aio revealed this morning that it's rolling out 4G LTE service, giving customers with LTE-capable hardware access to the AT&T LTE network that's available in 278 markets. The company currently sells a couple of LTE-capable handsets, including the Galaxy Express and iPhone 5, and Aio says that it will push a software update to consumers that will enable their hardware to access the LTE network.
In addition to its existing LTE offerings, Aio announced today that it plans to launch the LTE-enabled ZTE Overture within the next month. The Overture features a 4-inch touchscreen, 5-megapixel rear camera, secondary front-facing camera and a microSD slot with support for cards up to 32GB in size. ZTE's Overture is powered by Android Jelly Bean.
Aio Wireless also provided an update on its service rollout. Both Ft. Meyers and Naples, Fla., have been added to the list of markets that Aio is available in, joining the existing group of towns that includes Houston, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville and Gainesville, Fla. Aio says that it plans to continue to expand its presence to more cities later this year.
Aio offers a handful of different rate plans for dumbphones, smartphones and tablets. A tablet-only plan is available for $15 per month and offers 250MB of data, while smartphone customers can sign up for a $55 plan that includes unlimited talk, text and data with 2GB of high-speed data or a $70 offering that's also unlimited but bumps the high-speed data allotment up to 7GB.
It's good to see Aio add LTE service, especially since it's only been a little over a month since the provider first broke onto the scene. AT&T recently added LTE support to its own GoPhone prepaid service, meaning that consumers interested in a prepaid operator with LTE service now have a couple more options. Looking at the plans available from Aio and AT&T, it looks like AT&T's GoPhone service could be good for lighter data users, while Aio and its bigger data buckets may be a better option for power users (provided you live in an area where Aio is available, natch). Now that it's added LTE service, what do you think of Aio Wireless? Would you sign up for Aio if it were available in your town?
Via AT&T (Image credit)
