Sprint Revs Up 9 More 4G Markets

Sprint Nextel Inc. is pushing along with its 4G upgrade plans with nine new LTE markets coming online. The new towns and cities are:

Altoona, Pa.

Asheville, N.C.

Columbus, Ind.

Elkhart/Goshen, Ind.

Hammond, La.

La Crosse, Wis.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Statesville, N.C.

Temple, Texas. Sprint now has 67 live 4G LTE markets. The operator expects to cover 200 million potential customers with LTE by the year's end, with 174 LTE towns and cities due in the coming months. In February Sprint soft-launched LTE in some areas of San Francisco, New York City (and other parts of New York state), Washington D.C. and some parts of Florida. This means that users can get signals but the company is not yet officially offering 4G services in these areas. Why this matters
Sprint is behind its major rivals on LTE deployments and typically slower on the average downloads too. The operator has to push the pace on its 4G "Network Vision" as much as possible this year. For more

• 4G in the City: Sprint's LTE in NYC & SF
• Sprint CEO: We're 'Behind' on Network Vision
• Sprint Ups 4G LTE Markets to 58

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile