The number three wireless  carrier is working hard to catch up to its rivals in offering high-speed, long-term evolution (LTE ) data transfer for its devices, and service is already up and running in some small markets.
But analysts say it will be some time before LTE becomes standard for high-speed data on smartphones.
"LTE is going to take some time to fully get into customer use," William Ho of Current Analysis told us. "Carriers are using handsets as the means to transition users to the more efficient LTE network ."
Small Town Testing
Large-scale LTE service will roll out for Sprint Nextel customers around mid-year, with service in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, Baltimore and Kansas City, ultimately covering 120 million people by year's end. But service is already active in some very small markets.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Kanakee, Illinois, a town of 27,537, located 60 miles from Chicago, is one such market where Sprint is ironing out the LTE kinks.
Sprint is no doubt feeling the heat to have the network ready in time for the next iPhone release from Apple, expected this summer. The new version is widely believed to be LTE-capable since the latest iPad tablet , released last month, is also LTE-equipped.
Sprint is also promising enhanced 3G service to prevent speed degradation when customers leave 4G -enabled areas with LTE devices.
"Sprint is investing in its CDMA network," said Bob Azzi, Sprint senior vice president for Network in a recent statement. "We continue to deploy multi-mode base stations across Sprint's nationwide cell sites and are expecting improvements in voice quality, signal density and data speeds."
Sprint already uses the WiMax standard, which it also calls 4G, for some devices. The new phones that will be LTE-enabled include Samsung's Galaxy Nexus and LG's Viper. The carrier will also sell a 4G Sierra Wireless Tri-Network Hotspot, which works for 3G, WiMAX and LTE.
Ho of Current Analysis said LTE makes sense for carriers because it is cheaper to operate (after the initial investment) than a 3G network. However, "Unless users transition to LTE devices, carriers still will have to operate 2G/3G networks. Those networks will remain in place for some time unless carriers are more aggressive with build-out and the FCC allows for more spectrum." (continued...)
Based on your interest in this article, here's something that may be of interest to you also:
This article relates to the following term(s) that also match our recommendation: Wireless. ( Close)
 Recommended Reading: The History of Wireless: How Creative Minds Produced Technology for the Masses Synopsis: The History of Wireless reads like a novel. It chronicles the discoveries and inventions that led to today's mass market. Available for the Kindle and in paperback.
Ed.:
Posted: 2012-04-10 @ 8:53am PT
@Sprint Advocate, @Telecomm guy: Good catches, thanks. Modifications made.
Sprint Advocate.:
Posted: 2012-04-10 @ 8:07am PT
>Sprint already uses a slower standard, WiMax, which it also calls 4G for some devices like HTC's EVO 4G LTE, shown above.
UMMM? NO, The HTC EVO 4G LTE does NOT use Wimax, It's a LTE 4G device.
Telcomm guy:
Posted: 2012-04-09 @ 4:42pm PT
WiMAX is not a slower standard at all. The current version can peak to 24Mbps or more if there is enough backhaul capacity. WiMAX 2.0 is faster than current LTE. They simply leapfrog with each release. That said, Sprint had no choice but to switch since it has become the standard.
|
