By It looks like Sprint is adding more cities to its list of cities set to receive 4G LTE in the months to come. A good chunk of you will enjoy the super fast speeds Sprint’s network provides to phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and the HTC EVO 4G LTE.
Those added to the party today reside in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn; Oakland/Fremont/Hayward, Calif; Key West, Fla; Fort Smith, Ark; Michigan City/La Porte, Ind; Bloomington, Ind; Eau Claire, Wis; Ardmore, Okla; and McAllen/Edinburg/Mission, Texas.
We’re happy to see that the company isn’t being lethargic in announcing its plans, but actual rollouts have been few and far between. Last I checked with a Sprint representative, most of the cities in its current list of 125 and counting will be getting lit up with LTE by the end of this year, but Sprint seems to be waiting for… something.
We’re not sure if testing is taking longer than anticipated or if they are waiting to have a certain number of towers up and running before letting the network run loose, but it’s certainly getting a bit annoying to see new cities added to a list when a vast majority of cities on that list have been there for months, and have yet to see a shred of high-speed LTE data.
Sprint’s still confident in its goal of getting most of its network up and running by the end of 2013, though, so you’ll just have to trust that they’ll make nice on that. And after the WiMax debacle, getting a list of targeted cities — at the very least — is something to be very grateful for at this point. Raise your hands (or comment below) if you’re in any of the aforementioned cities confirmed to be getting blazing fast 4G LTE, and be sure to read on for full press details.
Sprint Adding 4G LTE to Nine Additional Cities in Coming Months
Power data users in several cities will soon enjoy a 4G LTE experience with the only truly unlimited 4G LTE plans from a national carrier
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), November 13, 2012 – Continuing its aggressive push to deliver an enhanced top-tier network experience for customers, Sprint (NYSE:S) announced today that its 4G LTE network build is progressing in nine additional cities within its nationwide 3G footprint.
Work has begun on the 4G LTE Network in the following additional areas:
– Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. – Fort Smith, Ark. – Ardmore, Okla. – Oakland/Fremont/ – Michigan City/ – McAllen/Edinburg/ Hayward, Calif. La Porte, Ind. Mission, Texas – Key West, Fla. – Bloomington, Ind. – Eau Claire, Wis. “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.”
During the pre-launch phase, Sprint customers with capable devices may begin to see 4G LTE coverage in these areas and are welcome to use the network even before it officially launches. Sprint plans to announce commercial availability of 4G LTE in these cities in the coming months, followed by continued enhancements in coverage, performance and reliability. Ultimately, Sprint’s 4G LTE coverage is expected to largely match the existing nationwide 3G footprint.
Sprint has announced more than 125 cities 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. To find out more about which markets currently have Sprint 4G LTE and which markets are coming next, please visit www.sprint.com/4GLTE.
Sprint introduced its all-new 4G LTE network in July 2012 and currently offers service in 32 cities1. As part of its overall network strategy, Sprint is also doing a complete overhaul of its 3G infrastructure so that customers can enjoy better wireless signal strength, in-building coverage, and fewer dropped/blocked calls. These enhancements are now available to customers in several markets across the country, with significant deployment in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., and will continue to improve in the weeks and months ahead. With these enhancements to Sprint’s 3G network, the company’s prepaid customers, on Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile, will also benefit and can expect to see better coverage, improved network reliability and voice quality resulting in up to 20 to 30 percent fewer dropped and blocked calls.
Unlimited + Sprint 4G LTE = Game-changing wireless offer for customers
In today’s competitive wireless market, the value of unlimited has never been more apparent and Sprint is clearly a leading choice in wireless. Customers with capable devices can combine Sprint’s all-new 3G and 4G LTE networks and enjoy unlimited data while on the Sprint network. Data usage continues to increase and consumers value Truly Unlimited data because it’s simple and straightforward – while on the Sprint network there is no metering, no throttling, and no need to share data, which increases the likelihood of a surprise monthly bill because of overage charges.
Coupled with unbeatable plans and fast devices, Sprint has been working hard to deliver the best customer experience in the past few years. The 2012 American Customer Satisfaction Index ranked Sprint No. 1 among all national carriers in customer satisfaction and most improved, across all 47 industries measured, over the last four years. And Sprint has been ranked Highest in Satisfaction with the Purchase Experience among Full-service Wireless Providers three times in a row by J.D. Power and Associates.
About Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served nearly 56 million customers at the end of the third quarter of 2012 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The American Customer Satisfaction Index rated Sprint No. 1 among all national carriers in customer satisfaction and most improved, across all 47 industries, during the last four years. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in both its 2011 and 2012 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company.
1 Atlanta, Ga.; Athens, Ga.; Baltimore, Md.; Barnstable-Hyannis/Mid-Cape, Mass.; Calhoun, Ga.; Carrollton, Ga.; Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill.; Gainesville, Ga.; Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas; Gary, Ind.; Granbury-Hood County, Texas; Houston; Huntsville, Texas; Hutchinson, Kan.; Lawrence, Kan.; Kankakee/Bradley/Bourbonnais, Ill.; Kansas City, Mo.-Kan.; McPherson, Kan.; Manhattan/Junction City, Kan.; New Bedford/Fall River, Mass.; Newnan, Ga.; Rockford, Ill.; Rome, Ga.; San Antonio, Texas; Sedalia, Mo.; St. Joseph, Mo.-Kan.; Topeka, Kan.; Waco, Texas; Waukegan-Lake County, Ill.; Wichita, Kan.; Wichita Falls, Texas.
What happened to the DC, MD, and Va area? Even T-Mobiles new 1900 is live here.
It’s not uincommon to see a lot of smaller cities get LTE before the big guys. It takes a lot more testing for major areas like the DMV area.
According to Sprint 4G Rollout Updates, there is *some* LTE in that general area: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/212-network-visionlte-deployment-running-list/
They are working on it, slowly, but working on it. I live in MD and they have LTE in Baltimore and Hagerstown, about 40 min from where I live. It’s getting here, just slow.
Sprint is a joke, service even in popular areas is unreliable. In dc there is no excuse not to have lte by now
read the sprint forums! there are so many customers that are saying service and function has been the worst including customer service!
Still no Portland, OR eh? My sister has an iPhone 5 on Sprint. I couldn’t imagine dealing with CDMA 3G speeds on a top of the line device like that, in almost 2013. Hopefully Portland will get lit up soon.
Until companies rolling out LTE do it properly (as in, voice over LTE, not just data), LTE is a useless trade off IMO. Yes, download speeds are faster, and it makes perfect sense for tethering devices such as MiFi hotspots and 4G netbooks/ultrabooks/laptops, but for normal phones, all it does is kill the battery.
With no voice over LTE, the phone must have two radios (minimum, most have 3), to maintain voice capability on the 2G network (yes, 2G), and a LTE radio to make use of the new LTE network for data only. The phone should also have a 3rd radio for 3G (for when there isn’t LTE service available) or nobody will buy it, though in all fairness, the 3G and 4G radios aren’t on simultaneously (unless there’s a serious bug in the handset). Either way, the dual radio stack is a battery killer, and all for what, a bit more download speed? I’d really rather see companies like this boost their 3G download speeds (similar to what T-Mobile did with their network – HSPA+ is not 4G by any means, technically, despite what them and AT&T would like you to believe), and work on VoLTE for the medium term. All these resources being thrown at LTE Data Only is just a waste, as they’re only going to have to do it all over again when they start debuting VoLTE.
This is probably what Tmo is doing. That’s probably why they haven’t started their LTE roll out yet.
sprint is a joke, glad to have left them and their unlimited slow as can be 3G network. i’ll take HSPA+ speeds from t-mo all day long instead of empty promises and small markets with LTE.
So lucky. I plan on paying my ETF and going to Tmo as well.
That’s what I did. Never had a regret in a full year now. The ETF was well worth it just to get off of their terrible network and stop listening to their lies.
i would’ve done the ETF myself if my contract didn’t end, bought a GNexus and pay $70/mo. prepaid and only sales tax. sprint pricing isn’t even competitive to that once you figure in all of the taxes and surcharges. i wish i did it even sooner, t-mo is fine for me in NY.
why don’t they upgrade the cities first? i guess majority don’t always win.
I assume less traffic areas are easier to work on with this being new cellular technology.
Close to Aventura city in South Florida and south in Broward county the LTE network is on close to the I-95 and I-595. Also in Pompano Beach city and close to Boca Raton.
The 3G signal is actually pretty weak in Fort Lauderdale, Sprint should improve its 3G network.
Thank you!! Their 3G network is horrible. I lyk what Tmo and AT&T are doing. Replacing their entire 2G network with 2Mbps 3G speeds. Sprint needs to do something about that because if you don’t have LTE, you will drop from a 15Mbps+ all the way down to .5Mbps speeds. That’s such a godly drop too. LoL!!
That’s right I am getting less than 0.5MB/sec with 3G
You’ve got it mixed up. T-mobile is leaving it’s 2G network in ruin (they are only upgrading current 3G areas to LTE and 1900 HSPA+). If you have 2G now on T-mobile expect to have it forever.
Sprint, However is deploying 1900 LTE and 800 CDMA Voice to 100% of its network. It’s bringing 800 LTE to 80% of its network (it can’t in Georgia, Alabama and parts of Louisiana due to SouthernLinc).
What’s the big deal with 800? It covers more than 3 times the area that 1900 does and has vastly superior in-building coverage. 800 is what Verizon and AT&T use to get the coverage superiority they currently have over T-Mobile and Sprint’s 1900/1700 networks.
T-Mobile has NO (zip, zero, zilch, nada) 800 or 700 spectrum to deploy LTE or Voice on.
I love Sprint’s cheaper unlimited data plans, but man, as soon as I get to a city with thousands of people consuming bandwidth (especially during a concert, for example), forget it! I’d be very lucky to squeeze in an FB status or two. Only reason I’m staying with them for now is because of the affordability. As soon as I start working, back to Verizon we go! (GNote2, here I come!)
Actually, I have a question…T-Mo is my 2nd choice to jump to. I live in Southern California…which one is better?
Contrary, Sprint has a lot of towers since their frequency is so high. That means since there are more towers, there won’t be as much strain. That also means it’ll take longer to expand since they would need to use more towers for giving areas.
An example would be this. You have more cars to fit people in, so you have more space. Verizon is just a giant van. You can still fit the same amount of people, but it still will be crowded.
Verizon has a very lower frequency, so they can use less towers, but they are more prone to having issues when a lot of people are using the internet at the same time. This is also why they can spread their network so fast.
What you said made a lot of sense…but I’m not sure how to explain why I look around people during break in the concert on their cellphones (Verizon) and they can get through FB, and I can’t. Another problem I often run into is the signal strength inside buildings…Sprint suffers a lot from that.
One thing I’ve noticed though…I never had problems with Sprint’s network going down as much when I had Verizon.
Uuuuggghhh…I’m confused! I want better speeds and signal strength…what to do?
I’m on Verizon and at large sporting events, I’m the only one in my group who can use Facebook, Twitter, and usually even text messages. AT&T specifically has so much gridlock that friends have to ask me to text others for them.
That’s what I said! ::sigh::…maybe I’ll just hope for the best…right…:(
Sprint’s frequencies are close to that of a home wireless router. So think about what happens when you walk outside from your home. You lose signal easily even though the router is pretty close. What happens is you will need more towers to connect to. So you would need a router outside your house and inside. This is the same concept Sprint is doing. They are making more towers. Less strain, but of course if there aren’t enough towers you won’t get much service.
But Verizon gives you betters speeds, and signal strength, but they don’t give you reliability during major events.
Remember, Verizon said during large events they were going to have those random trucks driving with towers? So that everyone doesn’t use that one lone tower? LoL!! So doing huge major events there will be spare towers for people to use. So that’s probably why. They may had spare towers during that concert, and Sprint’s frequency was just having issues penetrating the building because there weren’t enough towers.
Sprint was actually kind enough to give me the AirRave for free the first 2 years. I have unlimited calls while I’m within range of my WiFi at home. Now, I’m just getting charged $3/month for that service. Despite what people have said about Sprint’s customer service, I think they’re a whole lot better than Verizon.
I randomly get a 4G signal in the Long Beach/Lakewood area of Southern California. Trying to run a speed test times out. This area wasn’t on list of today’s announcement but seeing the 4G indicator light up gives me hope for the near future.
Last week, I was around Staples Center…and I saw down/up speeds of 20M/10M. After I left the area, I’m back to my puny 3G…LOL.
I don’t think adding 1 tower to a city can be considered spreading LTE. I don’t believe that their LTE is as reliable as others. I mean yes the speeds are fast, I’ve seen it before, but if they have as much coverage as their WiMax, then I still see no point. I’ll still have mostly 3G speeds that are averaging .5Mbps.
Saving up to pay my ETF and buy a new phone on Tmo. I’m looking at close to $500. Grr!! I’m hoping these holidays can help lower that price. LoL!!
“Ultimately, Sprint’s 4G LTE coverage is expected to largely match the existing nationwide 3G footprint.” Which is MUCH better than their WiMax coverage.
Samsung sale this weekend on t-mo includes the Note II. :p
No Phoenix? No thank-you! 2+ years with no Sprint 4G in the 6th largest City in the Country. This is ridiculous.
If they have a device that has Wimax and LTE, I would buy it..I am getting 5 to 10 mbps in San Jose/Santa Clara for the most part. I have had the EVO V with VMO since Aug 2012 and I love it..
Uhhh, Eau Clair? Really? Try Appleton, or Kimberly? A place with more population…?
it is the biggest city in that part of the state by far, and verizon already has it there (currently the only one)
Eau Claire is in the Minnesota market. Nothing has been announced for the Milwaukee (Milwaukee, Madison) market or the North Wisconsin (The rest of Wisconsin) market yet.
so ardmore Oklahoma gets LTE but not Oklahoma City still lol…… kk sprint just making sure ;)
Think about it, ardmore has maybe 3 or 4 towers total. Sprint will get towers done at a rate of 20 or 30 per week. Oklahoma City has at least 200 towers, so………
So… When do we get LTE in Vegas. It’s a popular city
Hope it is better in the new cities. The Not Right Now Network has done a very poor job in DFW with spotty 4g coverage and slow switches between 3g and 4g. Heck my phone roams more in the city then it did before the new and improved towers.
Eau Claire, Wis? wtf? lol, nice surprise, they don’t even have WiMAX yet, so going straight from 3g to LTE (i guess considering Verizon turned on LTE for them over the summer, and are the only ones currently
When is ny nj getting these lte towers?
Hey Sprint, how about the Providence market? It’s essentially all of Rhode Island. Oh wait, there’s a village in Alaska with 43 people, never mind my asinine question. You’re not the only competitor on the block now. T-Mobile looks more appealing every day.
Oakland! Finally.
The rollout schedule is being tracked here…
http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/212-network-visionlte-deployment-running-list/