Those cities are Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Sprint began testing its LTE towers in Kankakee, Ill, last month.
The LTE network is set for release "in the first half of 2012," right alongside improved 3G coverage and improvements including "boosting voice and data quality."
Sprint's current 4G is WiMax, which offers 3-6 MB/s average download speeds but the network is not large and can be spotty. LTE will require new towers and will offer much higher theoretical speeds than WiMax and even the HSPA+ networks used on AT&T and T-Mobile.
Into the future, LTE promises 300MB/s downloads, which is 100 times faster than current 3G and many, many times faster than even the fastest commercial home Internet connections.
Sprint notes that WiMax users will still have access throughout the length of their two-year contracts that are currently signed. There will be 15 new smartphones, tablets and modems/cards with the LTE access to be launched this year.
Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 7 Jan 2012 3:40
