Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Release Date: AT&T Confirmed As First Major U.S. Carrier?

While U.S. carriers remain unconfirmed for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, there is a fairly good chance that AT&T will be one of the networks to power the device.

New information from SamMobile insiders has yielded a detailed list of countries expected to get either the SM-N900 or SM-N9005 model of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, which further fuels the speculation that Samsung will release the device in variants containing either the Exynos 5 Octa 5420 processor or the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor.

According to the new information, the U.S. will use the SM-N9005 model of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, which will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and includes the Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM, as well as LTE capability. However, the list notably refers to a handset to be powered by AT&T. Many countries appear on the list several times, paired with the different carriers or retailers that will supposedly carry the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The U.S. is only listed once, and it is paired with AT&T; however, this does not mean that AT&T will be the only carrier to sell the Galaxy Note 3.

We can easily look at previous Samsung releases and predict that the four major U.S. networks -- AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile -- will receive the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 after it is released, even though this is not yet confirmed. Considering the timing of the release of the Samsung Galaxy S4, which we saw the released on AT&T and Sprint on April 27, one day after the device’s international release. In fact, the carriers shipped several early pre-orders prior to the official release date of the Galaxy S4. T-Mobile was next to release the Samsung Galaxy S4 at select locations on May 8, while complete availability began on May 15. Verizon was the last of the major carriers to get the Galaxy S4 on May 28. We also saw the Samsung Galaxy S4 released on U.S. Cellular, C-Spire and Metro PCS and a number of other retailers.

Some reports have indicated that certain variants of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 model numbe that have been discovered may coincide with the handset's future availability on the four major U.S. networks. According to a July report from Android Beat, several Galaxy Note 3 model numbers were found on the “Zauba” database, which keeps track of imports and exports to and from India. The model numbers SM-N900T, SM-N900A, SM-N900V and SM-N900S were among those found. Gotta Be Mobile then proposed that the model numbers could coincide with Samsung Galaxy Note 3 on the AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint networks, respectively.

While it is an admirable hypothesis, it is somewhat unlikely. We consider how the model numbers of the Samsung Galaxy S4 variants in the U.S. are much different from the model numbers of the international variants. The international models for the Samsung Galaxy S4 are the GT-i9505 model containing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and the GT-i9500 model containing the Exynos 5 Octa processor, while the U.S. models are the SGH-I337 for the AT&T Galaxy S4, the SGH-M919 for the T-Mobile Galaxy S4, the SCH-I545 for the Verizon Galaxy S4 and the SPH-L720 for the Sprint Galaxy S4. Pre-release reports mainly just refer to devices by their international model number to keep confusion about device to a minimum; however, several model numbers have already surfaced for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

For further evidence that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 may be powered by AT&T, one needs look no further than the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, which has been powered by AT&T since its September 2012 release. The original Samsung Galaxy Note was also powered by AT&T.

Do you think this recent news is sufficient to confirm that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will be powered by AT&T? Let us know in the comments below.

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