AppleInsider Staff
U.S. carrier Sprint announced Thursday that its 4G LTE network, which offers faster connections to the iPhone 5 and Apple's latest iPads, will expand to 28 new cities in the coming months.
The continuing deployment is part of Sprint's Network Vision strategy, in which the company will consolidate multiple network technologies into one new, seamless network.
The goal, Sprint said, is to increase efficiency and enhance network coverage, call quality and data speeds for customers across the U.S.
"We’re committed to providing improved 3G and 4G LTE as quickly as possible, and keeping our customers informed as to when and where they can experience the new network’s superior performance and speed," said Bob Azzi, senior vice president-Network, Sprint. "Our customers depend on their mobile devices as their primary source of communication, business connectivity and entertainment. We’re delivering all of that functionality at a very competitive price."
The full list of markets that will gain access to Sprint 4G LTE follows:
- Albany, Ga.
- Anderson, S.C.
- Bay City, Mich
- Branson, Mo.
- Bremerton/Silverdale, Wash.
- Columbus, Ga.
- Columbus, Miss.
- Decatur, Ala.
- Florence/Muscle Shoals, Ala.
- Gadsden, Ala.
- Gaffney, S.C.
- Gettysburg, Pa.
- Glasgow, Ky.
- Homosassa Springs, Fla.
- Hot Springs, Ark.
- Lake City, Fla.
- Lake Havasu City/Kingman, Ariz.
- Midland, Mich.
- Nacogdoches, Tex.
- Opelousas/Eunice, La.
- Oxford, Miss.
- Paris, Tex.
- Pittsfield, Mass.
- Saginaw, Mich.
- Spartanburg, S.C.
- The Villages, Fla.
- Waycross, Ga.
- Winona, Minn.
During the pre-launch phase, customers of Sprint with compatible 4G LTE devices, like Apple's iPhone 5, may begin to see coverage. Customers are welcome to use the network before it officially launches.
Sprint promises that customers on its LTE network will see enhanced call quality and better performance. 4G LTE allows for significantly improved data speeds, which will enhance browsing the Web, streaming music or video, and downloading applications from the App Store.
Sprint has already announced nearly 200 markets where Sprint 4G LTE is on its way, including Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Indianapolis; Los Angeles; Memphis, Tenn.; Miami; Nashville, Tenn.; New Orleans; New York; Philadelphia; and Washington, D.C. The carrier announced plans to expand its LTE network in 100 new cities in September.
Charles Martin
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9 Comments
I'm happy for you guys. Over here in NL, things aren't as swell. Local KPN did buy a 4G license, but it's the 800MHz band , not compatible with iPhone nor iPad. Just when you think a takeover will solve the incompetence problems of our local telco, AT&T makes it bid. And from reading US telco news, that's not going to improve things. At all. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-17/kpn-stock-jumps-on-report-at-t-seeks-european-takeovers.html
More LTE is a good thing, even if it's Sprint ;)
[quote name="PhilBoogie" url="/t/155513/sprints-4g-lte-network-expanding-to-28-more-cities-in-coming-months#post_2260497"]I'm happy for you guys. Over here in NL, things aren't as swell. Local KPN did buy a 4G license, but it's the 800MHz band , not compatible with iPhone nor iPad. Just when you think a takeover will solve the incompetence problems of our local telco, AT&T makes it bid. And from reading US telco news, that's not going to improve things. At all. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-17/kpn-stock-jumps-on-report-at-t-seeks-european-takeovers.html[/quote] It's not going to be pretty for some time. Qualcomm can only allow for so many operating bands per baseband and Apple has to choose the most common ones. We have at least 4 in the US alone for it's 4 main carriers. There are dozens around the world. Hopefully they can find a solution of a modulating system that can use the same HW but then use a carrier profile to adjust the bands in use but I wouldn't hold my breath. It's funny how we finally have a unified communication standard but because of frequency bands it's more chaotic than before. AnandTech even remarked on that recently which corresponded with my views and fears. I'll see if I can find that article. edit: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6541/the-state-of-qualcomms-modems-wtr1605-and-mdm9x25 [QUOTE]The reality of LTE at the moment is that the number of bands being proposed for 3GPP releases is only continuing to increase. Additional primary ports does in turn mean OEMs can choose to include maybe one or two more LTE bands, but roaming on all of the popular bands still is an unsolved problem. [/QUOTE]
They get trapped somewhat by legacy frequency uses that differ around the world when spectrum interference was considered a rather local issue. But it's result is an amazingly inefficient "system".
Sprint will use LTE on 1900, 800, and also the 2.5Ghz band from Clearwire they just bought out. Right now the iPhone 5 only offers LTE on the 1900 frequency for LTE. I wonder if they plan to add the other 2 bands this year or next on future models.