LG Optimus Black likely headed to Sprint, U.S. Cellular, Alltel and Virgin Mobile

The LG Optimus Black has been available in the U.K. for nearly two months now, yet little has been said regarding its launch in the U.S. Well, what if we told you that we have a few reasons to believe that the smartphone is almost definitely coming across the ocean and that it might be up for sale on the shelves of four different wireless carriers?

The first clue to back up that claim comes from the Tera-WUFRL database where the LG Optimus Black is already listed with a US855 model name. For those of you who do not know what the Tera-WUFRL database is, it is an online catalog containing technical information about pretty much every cellphone that can connect to the Internet in some way. Although we cannot be absolutely sure at this time, the US prefix of the model name may mean that U.S. Cellular is planning to launch the Optimus Black at some point this year. The database entry itself does not reveal any spicy details except for the fact that the smartphone is listed with Android 2.3 Gingerbread as its operating system, which is great news considering that its European counterpart still runs 2.2 Froyo with no official update available yet.

However, while digging through the FCC, the guys at PocketNow revealed three additional LG smartphones with similar model names – LS855, AS855, and VM855, which appeared to be variants of the Optimus Black tailored for Sprint, Alltel, and Virgin Mobile respectively. Unfortunately, our search showed that only the Sprint-bound model is listed right now so you might want to take the existence of the other two devices with a grain of salt.

With its single-core TI OMAP3630 chipset, the Optimus Black may not be capable of competing with all the latest Android heavyweights, but it stands out with its low weight and its bright and beautiful NOVA display. Feel free to take a look at our LG Optimus Black review and see whether it might not be the next smartphone that will make its way to your pocket.

Thanks, anonymous tipster!

source: Tera-WUFRL, FCC via PhoneDog