Sprint is now up 24 towns and cities that have street-level 4G coverage. It maintains that it will launch over 100 4G towns and cities in the coming months but still isn't putting any definite dates out yet. The operator has launched LTE in Wichita, Topeka and Lawrence, Kans.; Waukegan-Lake County, Ill.; and Barnstable-Hyannis/Mid-Cape, Mass.
See Sprint's fresh 4G footprint below:
View Sprint 4G LTE Markets in a larger map
Why this matters Thanks to Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Samsung Corp. , users are now starting to buy 4G LTE devices in large numbers so having the coverage actually starts to become an issue. Sprint said that it had sold 1 million LTE devices earlier this month. iPhone 5 sales, which hit 5 million in the first weekend, have the potential to add a considerable number of new 4G connections to the fledgling network. (See Apple Sells 5M iPhones in First Weekend and iPhone 5 Could Cause Local Data Crunches in US.)
For more
- Sprint Cracks 1M LTE Devices Sold
- iPhone 5: Which 4G Carrier to Pick?
- Sprint: LTE in 100 Cities in the 'Coming Months'
- Sprint Launches 4 LTE Markets for Labor Day
- Sprint LTE Devices Arrive Before Network
— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile
Sprint has a lot of work to do in "the coming months" it has to launch LTE in Chicago, NYC, Boston etc. etc. And still not a word about the Bay Area either.
How much of this was a FUD announcement to try and prevent users jumping the 4G ship to AT&T or Verizon I wonder?