LOS ANGELES -- Sprint enlisted its CTO, John Saw, last week to show off how it is deploying 5G -- and updating its 4G LTE -- downtown in the City of Angels.

Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) says it will deploy mobile 5G in the US on the 2.5GHz band in the first half of 2019. The operator is promising to have a "cool" phone for the network. (See 5G in the USA: Where We at With Mobile? and Sprint Reveals 3 More 5G Cities, Promises 'Cool' 5G Phone & Small Cell.)

The operator is using massive MIMO (massive input, massive output) antennas to deploy 4G LTE and 5G New Radio (5G NR) in a "split" mode on 2.5GHz. (See Sprint's Massive MIMO 'Lynchpin' for 5G.)

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John Saw promises "hundreds of megabits" from the mobile service, with a footprint from "here [downtown LA] to Santa Monica."

This, of course, is Sprint's initial plan for 5G. The operator will combine 600MHz low-band spectrum with its 2.5GHz band, and millimeter wave, if its $26.5 billion merger with T-Mobile US Inc. is approved in 2019. (See Sprint's Claure: US 5G Leadership Depends on T-Mobile Merger.)

— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading