Sprint Adds 70 Fresh LTE Markets

News Analysis Sarah Thomas, Director, Women in Comms 12/16/2013

Sprint has added another 70 4G LTE markets in time for Christmas and what it promises will be a brighter new year.

The carrier says its LTE network now reaches 300 markets. Some of the bigger new markets include Green Bay, Wis., Orlando, Fla., San Diego, and St. Louis.

In announcing the market expansion, Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) reiterated something CEO Dan Hesse said recently: The coming year will see significant network improvements and be free of many of the growing pains of its Network Vision plans in 2013. The company also anounced that it launched Sprint Spark, its faster tri-band network, in Chicago this month, and it is redeploying its 800MHz spectrum for LTE and 3G to improve in-building coverage for voice and data. (See: Sprint Feels the Churn Burn Before Spark and Sprint Sparks It in Chicago.)

Sprint also said it will cover 85 million PoPS with HD voice by the end of the year. (See: Sprint Commits to Tri-Band, HD Voice Phones and Sprint Delays HD Voice Launch to Q2.)

Why this matters
Sprint has had a trying 2013. It shut down its iDEN network, losing more than 1 million contact customers in the process, and it struggled through integration and quality degradation challenges to complete its Network Vision plan. It has made big promises for 2014, which will be a critical year for it to fill in some large gaps in its LTE network, bring Spark to more markets, and reverse its customer losses.

Next year is already shaping up to be an interesting year for other reasons -- if the rumors are true. Light Reading has heard Sprint might be moving its headquarters to California under the direction of its new SoftBank Corp. leadership. On Friday, an old-time favorite rumor resurfaced -- that Sprint is looking to merge with T-Mobile US Inc. . Such a deal would have a hard time getting approval in the US, where regulators have stressed the importance of keeping four Tier 1 carriers intact. (See: Sprint: Heading to California?)

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— Sarah Reedy, Senior Editor, Light Reading