Samsung is delivering 4G LTE small cells for Sprint to deploy, a TBR analyst tells Light Reading.

Michael Soper, networking and mobility analyst at Technology Business Research Inc. (TBR) , noted in a report Friday that Samsung "continued rolling out small cells for Sprint."

Sprint has been big into 3G residential femtocells -- it is said to have more than 1.3 million of the tiny home basestations deployed to date -- but hasn't said much about LTE small cells beyond naming Samsung and Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) as suppliers in 2012.

Soper, however, tells Light Reading that Samsung has started supplying the 4G goods for Sprint's LTE network rollout.

"Samsung is providing LTE small cells for outdoor and indoor use," he tells us. The South Korean networking vendor is already one of Sprint's "Network Vision" suppliers for the 3G and 4G macro network upgrades.

Sprint hasn't yet responded to questions about any Samsung small cell deployments.

Why this matters
This is some of the first indication that Sprint is ready to follow AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless into the 4G LTE small cell area.

It's also further confirmation of Samsung's increasing strength in the infrastructure field. The vendor recently hired former NSN CEO Simon Beresford-Wylie to help it grow the networks business globally.

As soon as we know more about how Sprint is using -- and planning to use -- the tiny 4G radios, we'll update you.

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— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading