The Long Hello: Sprint's LTE Hunt in LA

It seems that Sprint Nextel Inc. is not going official with its Los Angeles 4G LTE launch just yet. It had been reported that L.A. would be part of a 21-city introduction of new LTE markets for Sprint. In fact, it appears more like a soft launch for now. Sprint is encouraging users to tweet when they find its LTE signal in L.A. with the hashtag #Discover4GLA before any official launch. Signals have been detected in Burbank, Hollywood and other areas. These kinds of soft launches are getting common in Sprint's 4G LTE deployment. I suspect that's so the operator can show interested subscribers that it's working on 4G LTE and service is coming without having the need to deliver consistent coverage yet. Sprint has 67 live 4G LTE markets now, far fewer than its larger rivals. It hopes to cover 200 million people in the U.S. with LTE services by the end of 2013. — Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile