The FREETEL FTE171A passed through the FCC this week, suggesting that it is possibly en route to the US. However, it is still a little unclear exactly which model this is. It does seem likely that it is part of the FREETEL Ice range of smartphones and therefore could be a FREETEL Ice 3, or a variant of the Ice 2 Plus. Of course, whether or not it is a smartphone from the Ice line or not, has little to do with whether or not it will be branded as an Ice smartphone, if and when it does arrive in the US. The manual is included with this FCC listing and that simply refers to this as the FREETEL FTE171A. So it could be the case that it simply arrives as the FREETEL FTE171A.
In either case, the listing also does bring with a number of photos of the FREETEL FTE171A. As a result, the hardware on offer can be seen from just about every angle. This does seem likely to be a fairly low-to-mid range smartphone based on its design, its fairly hefty use of bezels, and its single rear camera, which is located in the top left hand corner of the device. The only other obvious hardware aspects on show include on-screen buttons, a microUSB port on the bottom, and a rear-positioned speaker.
For those unfamiliar with the brand, FREETEL actually did make some waves last year at CES 2016 when they announced they were bringing a number of new devices to the US. These included the FREETEL Kiwami and the Priori 3, which both become available to buy as unlocked devices in the US in March of 2016. This was then followed by the FREETEL Musashi which was a little more unique than the other options, largely due to this being a flip phone which ran on Android. Of course, none of these were particularly expensive devices, with the Kiwami being the most high-end and costing the most, $350 at launch. Based on the limited information on offer with this FCC listing, the FREETEL FTE171A is likely to be available at a much cheaper price. Again, if it does become available in the US. In the meantime, you can take a closer look at the FREETEL FTE171A in the gallery below.
