Sprint bringing 4G LTE to its PAYG subsidiaries [RUMOR]
With increased pressure from the likes of Cricket and MetroPCS, it appears Sprint won’t let its pay-as-you-go carriers operate without meeting the competitive edge that the aforementioned carriers have established. According to leaked marketing documents Sprint might be bringing 4G LTE to its Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile soon.
It wouldn’t be the first 4G network for Sprint’s PAYG subsidiaries. Boost and Virgin both enjoyed WiMax for a short time, but with Clearwire’s struggles to roll coverage out and Sprint’s plans to phase WiMax out of its life this is significant news for anyone who prefers the smaller cousins of the Now Network.
Since they all share the same spectrum and radios it wouldn’t be much extra work to get Boost and Virgin up and going on Sprint’s ongoing LTE rollout. Sprint will likely take care of the other end of the hurdle — devices — by simply rebranding some of the more affordable LTE options already available on its end.
There’s no telling when, exactly, this is all going down but if marketing materials are indeed being prepared then we could be as close as a few weeks out (though it’s still entirely possible we’re as far as a few months out, too). Whatever might happen, if you’re a Boost or Virgin faithful and you’ve been dying to get some 4G LTE in your life you can rest easy knowing you likely won’t need to switch carriers to get in on the fun.
[via A&M]