Sprint lights up 70 new markets with 4G LTE
It looks like Sprint’s Network Vision (as well as Sprint Spark) movement is moving in the right direction, with the company able to announce that they’ve lit up 70 new markets with 4G LTE ahead of Christmas. The sizable list includes a lot of major cities, including Green Bay, WI; San Diego, CA; Little Rock, AK; Orlando; FL and more.
It’s no secret that Sprint has fallen behind a bit with their plans to get a vast majority of their network up and running with LTE by the end of this year, but this major push should tell you that the company is serious about getting much further than they did with WiMax. A new wide-band data standard isn’t the only thing they’re looking to bring us in the months and years to come, of course.
Sprint Spark is another major cog in this big machine, a series of network upgrades that will add a new building-friendly 800MHz spectrum into the mix. Sprint’s network setup gives them the ability to deliver LTE speeds on all three of their bands (800MHz, 1900MHz and 2100MHz) simultaneously, and the first phones with this tri-brand support are already beginning to roll in.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is one such device getting a re-release with the “Sprint Spark” upgrades. It’s also worth noting that the Nexus 5 might also get upgrades to enable Spark compatibility at some point down the line. Those devices join a family of hotspots and modems already available on the Now Network. We’d bet our bottom dollar that Sprint will look to bring Spark in most of their future major smartphones, and eventually in every 4G LTE device they launch.
Having the device alone isn’t enough to take advantage of Sprint’s new and improved network, though. Spark upgrades have to roll out city-by-city just like the initial LTE rollout, so it will be a while yet before you get to take advantage.
Folks in Chicago are already having a bit of fun with it, but it’s going to take more than just a couple of big cities to impress the lot of Sprint customers currently begging for improved network performance. Let’s hope 2014 brings the push Sprint needs to help turn public opinion about their struggling network around. Hit the source link for the full list of cities that got 4G LTE today.
[via Sprint]