A Samsung device that is widely believed to be the upcoming Galaxy S8 has appeared on the United States’ Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) authorization page, revealing that it supports Band 66, Freedom Mobile’s LTE spectrum.
Freedom Mobile — formerly known as Wind — is a wireless carrier owned by Shaw that operates in Ontario, Alberta and B.C. It secured AWS-3 Band 66 LTE spectrum at auction in March 2015 and deployed its LTE network in late 2016. As of now, the only devices it offers that are compatible with Band 66 LTE are the LG V20 and mid-range ZTE Grand X 4.
The Samsung device being certified bears the model number G950U (with ‘U’ typically meaning ‘unlocked’), which confirms previous model number leaks and makes sense within the context of Samsung’s numbering scheme — the Samsung S7 was the G930 and Samsung generally skips the number four due to its associations with bad luck in Korean culture.
The FCC certification is only for U.S. use, however, Canadians benefit from the information posted that refers to bands existing in both the U.S. and Canada. Band 66 is a prime example of this, due to the fact that T-Mobile owns a large portion of that spectrum in the U.S. The FCC did not, however, test Band 7 which is not used by any major carrier in the U.S.
The listing also confirms CDMA and GSM support, as well as 802.11ac, Bluetooth, NFC, and ANT+.
