Sprint accelerates 4G LTE rollout; launching mid-2012, complete in 2013

By on Oct 7, 2011 at 10:06 AM
Breaking October 7, 2011

Sprint announced at its Strategy Update meeting on Friday that it has adjusted its 4G rollout plans in order to deploy the carrier’s new network more rapidly. The carrier will also convert to a single-network architecture, moving away from CDMA and WiMAX as it rolls out its LTE network. Sprint had initially announced a 3-5 year plan for the rollout, and on Friday network operations head Steve Elfman confirmed that Sprint’s 4G LTE network rollout will be largely complete by the end of 2013. Sprint’s 4G LTE network will launch in initial markets in mid-2012, and the carrier is working with Qualcomm to ensure an assortment of devices are available at launch. Sprint also confirmed that it will continue to sell 4G WiMAX devices through 2012.

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  • http://www.youtube.com/user/TechDexs?feature=mhee Mr. Nelson

    Hell yeah! About time. Hopefully theyll roll it out quickly. Maybe just maybe the nexus prime will work with it. I just hope they keep unlimited data.

  • http://www.geekahead.com Sergey Mak

    You guys really believe this crap ? They are just renaming their WiMax network to 4G WM

    • http://twitter.com/MattSTKC MattSTKC

      unsure if troll, or just idiot….

      • Anonymous

        both is a good bet.

    • guest

      WiMax and LTE are completely different competing technologies, I don’t see Sprint saying they will roll out LTE and just trying to pass off their WiMax network as LTE.

      • http://www.geekahead.com Sergey Mak

        AT&T ? HSPA+ 4G ??? Thats no 4G 

      • http://twitter.com/MattSTKC MattSTKC

        ok now i’m sure.. idiot.

      • Anonymous

        “The carrier will also convert to a single-network architecture, moving away from CDMA and WiMAX as it rolls out its LTE network”

    • http://www.facebook.com/DIVCorp Corey Fisher

      Troll, this is not renaming Wimax, did you even read the article?? It’s a complete brand new network that is owned and operated by Sprint, not Clearwire!! This is part of their network vision technology and who cares? There will be NATIONWIDE LTE by 2013!! This is crazy awesome news man!

  • http://www.facebook.com/DIVCorp Corey Fisher

    YES~!@!~@!~

  • Guest

    Sorry Sprint but I’m not impressed. You still haven’t launched your 4G network in San Diego or a large portion of Orange County with WMax so why should I listen a out hour new and improved LTE system. As far as I’m concerned only Verizon has a serious LTE network.

    • Anonymous

      wimax was being built out by clear who had some cash problems. 

    • http://www.facebook.com/DIVCorp Corey Fisher

      Thats because wimax is not from Sprint, it’s from Clear and Clear is broke. Thats why Sprint is taking initiative to roll out 4G LTE which will be much better for you in the long run. Wimax is running on Sprints network now, yes, but they don’t own or operate it. They use clearwire for that.

  • somedude0123

    To late. They are going to roll this out so fast they won’t do it right. That’s the Sprint way.

  • http://www.twitter.com/Genjinaro Genjinaro

    Awesome in many ways. This is pretty damned fast for a rollout. LightSquared can be thanked for a huge chunk of that.

  • http://www.bsharitt.com/ Brandon Sharitt

    If they can actually meet their aggressive strategy, Sprint may just be able to save itself.

  • http://www.jeffkibuule.com Jeff Kibuule

    I hope they can start using that lower 800Mhz band ASAP since that is what Europe is using. I’m really hoping for some world LTE capable phone and not a repeat of the GSM/CDMA mess we’ve had to deal with in the states.

    • Anonymous

      Not going to be compatible with European LTE
      Specifically:  iDEN is 806 – 824 MHz and 851-869 MHz
      and Europe LTE is Band 8: 880 – 915 MHz and 925 MHz to 960 MHz
      and Europe LTE is also Band 20: 791 MHz to 821 MHz 832 MHz to 862
      Europe also has LTE on 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz

      Bottom line ….not the same thing. There is some overlap when compared to EU band 20…but it won’t work I’m sure.

      I think eventually we will see LTE world phones…but just like with GSM phones it took a while to see GSM world phones. We still don’t have HSPA world phones (barely – just one or two that I’ve heard of).

      • http://www.jeffkibuule.com Jeff Kibuule

        Well… great. Is Apple supposed to make custom LTE phones for each market then? I think they’d rather just ignore LTE all together then. It’s too much work for something most people won’t be able to enjoy for several years.

  • Chad Richardson

    Making my brand new WiMax S2 obsolete! Thanks Sprint!

    • motu

      Does anyone really keep their phone more than 6 months before upgrading?

      • Anonymous

        6 months… I’m on my 4th different phone this year

      • Chad Richardson

        I kept my Hero for almost the full 2 year length of my contract. Buying phones off contract and selling the old ones seems like such a hassle.

    • http://www.facebook.com/DIVCorp Corey Fisher

      Its not obsolete, they’ll support wimax long before you have a shiny new phone with LTE. Read the article…

      • Chad Richardson

        Only problem is I’ve been promised WiMax in my area for a year now. They just recently turned on a very small swath locally where it is available. Now, with the switch to LTE, WiMax rollout will stop and my shiny new phone will never be able to be used to it’s potential. I had planned on replacing my home internet with WiMax tethering. Oh well. Thanks for the read the article at the end though. That really helped.

      • Therequiem

        Youll be happy, the new lte will be nation wide and will be much faster. They will have lte tethering before you know it and much, much faster then wimax. I also find it highly unlikely they will raise prices or get rid of unlimited data.

    • Deval

      I sat through this presentation today, your phone, and the wimax network it connects to, isn’t going anywhere for a good while.

    • Anonymous

      lol! not for another two years!!! Plus I believe the S2 will support 800mhz bands. I’ve also just upgraded to the S2…you still have the best phone smoking right now and it’ll be that way for quite some time,so long as your respective needs are met on it.

  • NTXGadgetDude

    Are you sure that the announcement included moving away from CDMA?  I heard him say they were committed to 3G and that’s CDMA.

  • Anonymous

    Sprint is going to have to release some sort of statement clarifying their roll-out plan.  Those new GSII owners are going to want to know if they’re going to continue getting 4G speeds for the next two years.

    • Anonymous

      what needs to be clarified? wimax till end of 2012 at least. I’m sure it won’t kill em to replace a few customers phones who are unhappy with wimax dying with new LTE devices

    • Wirelessmodz

      its going to take them 2 years to do this roll out so theres no issue perfect t u aint so perfect lmao

  • Anonymous

    I’m hoping the 1900 & 1600 MHz frequencies Sprint plans to use for their LTE network can penetrate the thick walls of my office building, unlike WiMax on 2500 MHz.

    • http://twitter.com/MattSTKC MattSTKC

      WiMax sucked indoors so hard I couldn’t even use the Clear modem I got in my apartment. Ended up returning it within the 30 days. was a shame, because it was pretty fast and a good home and on the go solution.

  • Kevinharrison911

    what is going to happen to Boost Mobile both Iden and CDMA and Virgin Mobile CDMA??

  • Anonymous

    So no WiMax/LTE dual mode phones? No? Guess no Wimax to LTE hand-off messes then? Sprint, so fickle. But don’t worry LTE is the right move this time ;^p. From the start Sprint should have deployed GSM and followed the tech path to >EDGE>UMTS>HSPA>LTE, when Verizon and AT&T Wireless was stuck on CDMA/TDMA respectively. CDMA/1XRTT/EVDO, IDEN, WIMAX = All mistakes, and all dead end techs.

    If Sprint, the fledgling “pure play wireless” operator took the GSM technology path from the start they would have saved tons of cash and THEY WOULD BE THE NUMBER ONE U.S. OPERATOR RIGHT NOW PERIOD!!

    • Xavier Carryl

      Sprint was GSM back in the 90′s but it was spectrum inefficient(compared to CDMA, which is still somewhat the case today), thus moved to CDMA.

  • Deval

    If you have sprint signal where you are, technically it should also give you LTE coverage, eventually.

  • Thehiker01

    Does anybody know how Light Squared is going to factor into this accelerated rollout? Or will Sprint go forward with them?

    • Anonymous

      From what I understand sprint will use its own spectrum as well as lightsquareds

  • JD

    Dear Sprint,

    I realize the city I live in is a very small market but it would be great if we could get 4g.

    Sincerely,

    Everyone in Phoenix, AZ (the SIXTH largest city in the country)

  • Vinh Nguyen

    To all of you old-fart Sprint development reps that said that I was full of crap when I said that your Wi-Max network was gonna be rolled over to LTE OVER A YEAR AGO, you can begin feasting on your crow now.

  • F1

     ZACH EPSTEIN

    Do you people at BGR have any sense of pride?
    When People take the time to write on your blog, show some respect, and publish it!

    Through the observation of a repeated pattern, it has become quite evident that BGR is bias towards SPRINT, hence it blatantly, consistently conducts censorship on any negative, however detailed and well documented statement, which could be construed as critical towards SPRINT.

    Also DISQUS, is a joke of a posting system, if you don’t know that by now,….well let’s just say it is obvious, you simply do not care, so why should we ?!

    By the way don’t blame the writer’s system for your short comings!

    MacBook 2011/ Snow Leopard/ Safari version 5.1 

    Thank you

    • Anonymous

      Ha agreed. BGR has Sprint on the ol payroll. Also, to all that think there will be no price hikes think again. You are naive. They’ve now killed off 5-6 of Sprints “features” to “save” unlimited data. Not only will unlimited data go away but more premium data charges will be added guaranteed.

    • Anonymous

      I probably don’t agree with what you were going to say, but I agree that for whatever reason the comment system on BGR is terrible.  I have gone to post long comments before and I get some sort of temporary popup message that says it has to be OKed by a moderator.  Then, of course, it never gets published.  

      I’m pretty sure this is just a problem the BGR’s implementation of Disqus, because I never have these problems on other sites.

      • F1

        On BGR, 

        DISQUS does not update comment count or load properly, however as you stated, but not so on other sites, why would they not address the issue?They are either severely under staffed or just incompetent, why else would they fail to communicate, either as a Moderator, or a direct email acknowledging your effort and explaining the issue, and or post your response in a timely fashion, rather than just ignoring it!Also where is our writing history on BGR? No way to either “manage” it yourself, or reference your own past material.They should create a page/link, explaining posting options/choices/functions, very poor communication standards for a Tech-blog.By the way, I don’t get a single comment update on my yahoo account!Thank You  

  • Anonymous

    Wait, so let me get this straight…

    1. Dan pays 20 billion dollars for 30 million new iphones ( and more or less buys his way into the “iphone race”)
    2. All chips are now announced to be in one basket
    3. Announced new Iphone “S” will not only just be a copied Iphone 4 (essentially) but will have crap for speeds on anyone but AT&T
    4. Then announce LTE/CDMA in the very near future causing customers to rethink buying out his now HUGE inventory of Iphones
    as
    they aren’t the beloved “5″, they’re slow, and people would want to wait for the switch to LTE and the new lte smart phone/iphone anyway.

    Man, I really hope he has plan B ready to go. Hopefully Sprint will be worth enough for someone to buy out…

    • Anonymous

      You are waaaaaay off base if you think that the majority of people who buy iphones even take a split second to ponder the carrier’s future network plans.

  • Anonymous

    WiMax 4G sucked anyway, not sure why anyone is crying about it being phased out.  They say they’ll support the network through 2013 anyway, and perhaps longer as they didn’t set a date.  So they’re giving anyone who buys a WiMax device now plenty of time to enjoy its limited benefits, and by the time they shut it down, you will have been able to upgrade to an LTE handset on the cheap.

    Also, doesn’t this LTE roll-out essentially put Sprint on the same time table as AT&T?  That seems pretty impressive to me. 

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