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Sprint knows a thing or two about playing catch up. Since Verizon and AT&T are already in the 4gLTE mix, its only natural that Sprint would have to follow suit. Looks like theyve been doing it on the sly and now theyre ready to go big.
Dara Kerr of the CNET Blog Network writes:
According to the technology news site TechnoBuffalo, which received the documents, it seems that Sprints Network Vision campaign has been in progress in Akron, Ohio; Chicago; Fort Worth, Texas; Nashville; New York; Rialto, Calif.; and Stockton, Calif., since last year. This means that these markets could possibly be next on the list to get 4G LTE activation.
In January, Sprint announced its plans to launch its 4G LTE service in 10 markets by midsummer, including major cities like Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and Atlanta. TechnoBuffalo reports that the mobile network also recently said that it plans to have most of its 3G markets blanketed with 4G LTE in 2014.
Verizon Wireless and AT&T are both well under way with their own LTE deployments. Verizon announced last month that it planned to have at least 400 markets equipped with 4G LTE by the end of the year (it currently has about 200 sites around the U.S.) and AT&T already covers all five New York boroughs and a total of 32 markets with 4G LTE.
This is great news for Sprint subscribers because Sprint is going to have some cool phones coming up and speed is definitely playing a factor is peoples decisions on which smartphone to get, let alone, which provider they choose. Stefan Constantinescu of INTOMOBILE provides a great perspective in his article:
Sprints going to launch a 4G LTE network this summer thatll initially cover five to six cities. By the end of the year, Sprint expects to cover over 123 million Americans, and by the end of next year they expect that figure to climb to 250 million Americans. To put that number into some perspective, Verizon covers more than 200 million people right now, as in today, and they expect to reach 260 million people by the end this Christmas. AT&T covers less than 75 million people today with 4G LTE, but they say theyll double that by the close of the year. So is Sprint catching up to the big boys? Hardly. According to Bob Azzi, Senior Vice President of Sprints Network, he says: 2014 is the big year.
What happens in 2014? Sprint is going to turn on 4G LTE in the 800 MHz band. That spectrum is currently being used for iDEN, better known as push to talk. Less than 6 million people are currently using that network, which means that prime real estate spectrum is being underutilized. Once Sprint moves some of their 4G LTE to that band however, theyll be much better able to compete with the likes of AT&T and Verizon, who own spectrum in the 700 MHz band. Sprints network will use half the amount of spectrum (5 MHz down, 5 MHz up) that AT&T and Verizon use (both do 10 MHz down, 10 MHz up), but Sprint has half the number of customers, so less load equals more speed? Well find out.
Theres been a huge debate over the spectrum and what it will mean for companies using it. I hope Sprint does bring the heat in the speed game, because Verizon is overpriced and AT&T is over-hyped. Its time Sprint made a comeback.
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