• Become a Fan!
  • Follow On Twitter
  • Circle Us!
  • Subscribe

Sprint Launching LTE Network in Early 2012

Posted In News - By Joe Fedewa On Tuesday, September 27th, 2011 9:14am PDT With 11 Comments

Sprint is holding an event in October to tell us about their 4G plans and future strategies, but thanks to CNET we’ve got some info a little early. LTE is expected to be the main topic of discussion, and this early information backs that up. According to the report Sprint has been working on installing the necessary infrastructure to convert its towers to FD-LTE, which is the same LTE that Verizon and Lightsquared use. Commercial use should be ready in the first quarter of 2012.

We know a lot of you are interested in Network Vision, and CNET has that covered too. Sprint is planning to use it’s acquired iDEN spectrum and the spectrum that will be freed up from shutting down Nextel. Sprint’s Network Vision plan is expected to cost somewhere between $4 and $5 billion. When it’s done Sprint’s 3G CDMA network will be switched to LTE. The good news for Sprint is the switch will save them up to $11 billion over the next seven years.

October is set to be a huge month for Sprint. According to this report it should be a good month too.

 

via CNET

Tags: , , , , , ,

About - Joe is a tech enthusiast. He's been interested in phones ever since he used his first one. Since then he's evolved from flip phones to smartphones, and become even more obsessed with everything in mobile tech. He brings his fresh style of tech blogging and graphic design skills to SprintFeed.

  • Tommy Thompson

    Yay! Hopefully they mention something about Rev B on Oct. 7th as well!

  • Justin Davis

    I was curious about that to. If they are going to switch their 3G to LTE will they still make the move to Rev b?

  • Derekgreen15

    Thats good news. Happy to hear they are moving forward. I love Sprint and havebeen waiting too long to get 4g in Michigan.

  • http://profiles.google.com/joefedewa Joe Fedewa

    Me too!

  • Anonymous

    Lol can you imagine how much fatter Sprints iPhone will be will all the Sprint radios for 4g? Oh well, its kinda smart to wait till the dust settles before Apple puts 4g in its phones but thats an enternity in the phone world fo next summer. I sure would perfer LTE if its faster than wimax.

  • NexusPrimal

    Flexible Device support – Since Rev B is a multi-carrier air interface technology, a Rev B network has the flexibility to support both single-carrier and multi-carrier devices on the same spectrum. This means the operator can offer lowest-cost single-carrier handsets to its most cost-sensitive subscribers, while providing higher-end multi-carrier handsets, PDAs, and PC cards to serve the needs of its high-performance subscribers. Such flexibility is not supported in other wideband systems, such UMTS/HSxPA.

  • Jrod8382

    So if my Epic 4g touch is wi-max that I currently do not get in my area and now sprint updates the 4g network to LTE that my Epic 4g touch won’t get does this mean those of us who have upgraded this year to a wi-max phone just wont get what they are paying for until there next upgrade 2 years from now.

  • Anonymous

    It’s not like they are just going to flip the switch on WiMax. If someone is in an area covered by WiMax, they will still have access to it for at least the next several years…if not longer. I would be surprised if they expanded WiMax to more markets anytime soon.

    It all should be clearer after the Network Vision speech next week.

  • Anonymous

    Fat chance of the Sprint Jesus Phone offering 4G anytime soon (or any Jesus Phone). By the time Cupertino gets with the act all the 4G radios will be on one bit of silicon and the form factors will still be skinny.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IOEJM7H6PUAIJMTOZSGZ65VRWY Anton Frost

    “When it’s done Sprint’s 3G CDMA network will be switched to LTE. ” I’m not concerned about WiMax coverage, since WiMax is spotty all over Atlanta and I can’t get WiMax coverage where I live. My concern is, when I upgrade to a new phone on December 1st, will that phone be working on December 1st of 2012, if they will be converting 3G CDMA by then? More to the point, since this is my last annual upgrade and will have to wait 20 months for the next upgrade, how are they going to “covert” 3G CDMA to LTE without requiring me to get a new phone. I sure as hell am not paying full price for a new phone due to their network plans. And IF I get an iPhone, it had better work for the life of the contract without me being required to buy a new phone. I therefore recommend they make the Sprint iPhone LTE, CDMA+GSM so that buyers will get maximum use out of it. I’m going to be really pissed if i buy an iPhone that doesn’t have LTE, and then Sprint pulls an LTE bait and switch next year. This would be a perfect opportunity for Apple to one up every Android OEM by offering a 3G CDMA phone that will be LTE capable when Sprint flips that switch next year.

  • Anonymous

    Good grief. No, they aren’t going to turn the CDMA network off overnight. Hell, Sprint is on the verge of transitioning it’s PTT service to CDMA as a prelude to the death of the iDEN network. Definitely not something they would do if the network was to be shut down at the end of 2012.

    The CDMA network is going to be around for years. The same was true during the transition of analog to digital, as well as the transition from 1XRTT to EVDO to Rev A/0 to 4G (same on the GSM side of the equation).

    Key examples: In Sprint markets where WiMax is available, they still offer CDMA only devices. In markets where Verizon launched LTE, they still offer CDMA and 1XRTT devices.