Sprint Announces 4G LTE to Run on 1900Mhz |
| Friday, 07 October 2011 | |
Sprint Announces 4G LTE to Run on 1900MhzThe next person up to the stage is Steve Elfman and their aggressive plan on LTE rollouts on the 1900Mhz spectrum. The plan is to create a multi-mode network platform, which "Enables multiple technologies and spectrum to be deployed on a common platform at a lower cost structure." They plan on a rapid LTE deployment with the first series of devices in mid 2012, and WiMAX devices will be sold throughout 2012. The LTE network will be significantly faster than their existing 4G WiMAX technology. Steve also mentions their partnership with LightSquared and how they plan to host their service on the 1600Mhz frequency (LightSquared pending FCC approval). They will also be wholesaling their 2500Mhz WiMAX spectrum from their arrangement with Clearwire.
After
discussing their plans with LightSquared and 4G LTE the next topic is
their network vision progress. They've known they'd have the iPhone for a
few months and have been improving cell sites to be prepared when the iPhone 4s
launches on October 14. They've achieved 3G/4G milestones and currently
have work on 22,000 cell sites underway to improve native coverage. New
tower agreements are being put into place so customers won't be found
roaming on other networks. Finally the iDEN network should be fully
migrated by mid 2013, which will yield 3 times better coverage and
deliver better in building penetration.
Below you'll find a picture of what coverage will look like in the New York area after their Network Vision is complete:
All
of their OEM manufactures like HTC, LG and Samsung are adopting LTE
chipsets to make the Network Vision possible. As these changes are made
the cost for LTE chipset will actually fall below the current cost for
WiMAX chipsets. Customers can expect dual mode CDMA/LTE phones and
devices in the mid part of 2012. These will consist of mobile hotspots,
cellular phones, machine to machine applications and embedded modules
with LTE. They anticipate that there will be 15 devices coming
throughout 2012, which will put them on par with Verizon's 4G LTE device
offerings.
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 07 October 2011 ) |
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