U.S. Cellular has announced its Samsung Galaxy S3 Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release date saying that it will be rolling out the software upgrade to owners starting this Friday, December 21st.

Read: Verizon Galaxy S3 Jelly Bean Update Now Available.

The carrier confirmed the good news today saying that it is prepared to offer the long-awaited Jelly Bean update to Galaxy S3 owners starting this Friday. Starting Friday, owners will be able to update wirelessly through the device’s settings or, they will be able to update manually by plugging their Galaxy S3 into a computer with a USB cable. The update instructions will be posted on U.S. Cellular’s website which should make the process extremely painless.

Owners of the Galaxy S3 will want to make sure to set aside some time to download and install the update because it’s going to be a big one. Previous Jelly Bean updates for the Galaxy S3 hovered around 400MB and this update should be right around there as well.

The update will be bringing a host of new features to Galaxy S3 owners on U.S. Cellular including a faster, smoother user interface, Google Now, expanded Notifications and improved widgets, better Voice Search, more Face Unlock options and a whole lot more. It will be a huge upgrade over Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the previous version of Android found on the Galaxy S3.

Better yet, the update is free which means that owners are going to want to install it once it becomes available.

The U.S. Cellular Galaxy S3 will be the fifth Galaxy S3 device in the U.S. to receive the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update following in the footsteps of the AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon models. And while it’s last, it doesn’t come too long after the Verizon Galaxy S3 Jelly Bean update which rolled out last week.

U.S. Cellular has typically been much slower than the other four carriers to Android updates and for those who are either on the network or thinking about heading there, this is a very good sign.