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Customers on the Now Network have a little something to look forward to this year. Aside from Sprint announcing a handful of shiny new devices that will soon be available on their network, they’re also announcing that these will be some of the first that will feature tri-band radios, built to better handle Sprint’s multiple 4G LTE bands.
Sprint has branded these devices as “Sprint Spark” compatible, seeing as how tri-band would likely only confuse customers. Upcoming devices to be released on Nov 8th include:
- Samsung Galaxy Mega
- Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini
- LG G2
- HTC One Max (later this year)
According to Sprint, all of these devices will need an over-the-air software update in order to flip on their dormant radios, with the exception of the Galaxy S4 Mini, which will be Sprint Spark enabled out-of-the-box. In any case, it’s always nice to see Sprint making a greater effort to bring LTE to more customers. They certainly have a lot of competition.
[Sprint]
I’m not sure ‘Sprint Spark’ is any less confusing. At least the Tri-Band term has been around for awhile now.
And also, the Tri-Band term actually means something.
Kind of pointless since sprint is known to take its sweet time rolling out it’s update network.
Totally agree. Similar to when they started selling LTE capable phones like the S3 but didn’t even have LTE deployed anywhere yet. And they’re still playing catch up 2 years later. So glad I dropped them.
No complaints from me since I have lte where ever I go.
I agree, in ATL it’s everywhere I go…
Would love to be happy, but in 3 years, who knows what will be out, but it will not matter because Verizon and AT&T will be even further ahead, and more than likely so will T-mobile. Sprint is always too little too late.
What happened to the note 3?
doesn’t count its old device by now
It’s not tri-band
LOL…Let’s see if Sprint can actually deploy the 3 different LTE spectrums by the time the next generation of phones are released. I’d put money on none of them being fully functional until 2015 and by then, there will be new phones worth upgrading to. That’s a big reason that I had no issues with the Note 3 not being tri-band. Heck, I’d be even happy with the singleband LTE and 3G being significantly improved and that’s already behind schedule with “Network Vision.” Typical Sprint pitching products that won’t necessarily have usefulness for a long while, after a customer has chosen one of these phones. Anybody remember Wimax? Sprint was the 1st carrier with 4G, but little to no Wimax coverage…and I’m in a major market (Los Angeles).
Tri-Band is live here in Harrisburg, PA. It’s active in lots of places.
http://www.s4gru.com
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57610032-94/sprint-unveils-spark-its-ultra-fast-1gb-wireless-service/?tag=nl.e723&s_cid=e723&ttag=e723&ftag=CADc15b6ba
According to the article, the rollout to 100 cities to add “Spark” is projected for over the next 3 years. Like I said earlier, that’s long enough for people not to worry about having a tri-band phone. And Sprint hasn’t even completed the NV upgrades for 3G/1900mhz LTE, so while it’s great that they’ve launched Spark in some major cities, I wish they would increase the efforts on completing NV and making sure that it’s more than solid, which it’s not even close to right now. I follow s4gru as well. I just don’t see that good of results from NV yet. I’ve been a loyal Sprint customer since 1999, but the service (for phone calls) at my house has gone down tremendously (even with the Airrave, it doesn’t make that big a difference).
Next generation? The LG G2 is brand new on the market!