Sprint Finally Switching-On LTE Service In Mid-July; Who Gets It First?
Sprint’s been selling LTE-capable smartphones for two months now, but has yet to start offering LTE service to its subscribers, requiring users of those phones to subsist on 3G EV-DO data. If you’ve got one of those models, like the HTC EVO 4G LTE, or are about to pick up Samsung’s Galaxy S III (hitting Sprint stores on July 1), it’s nearly time to tap into the speeds your phone’s really capable of, at least if you’re living in the right markets; Sprint has announced the start of its LTE service, kicking-off in just over two weeks on July 15.
If you’re looking to tap into Sprint LTE speeds next month, you’d better live in America’s heartland, as the first five markets to get coverage will be San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston in Texas, Atlanta, Georgia, and Missouri’s Kansas City.
Sprint promises to announce more LTE markets in the future, with plenty more coming later this year, but it’s going to take until the end of 2013 for the carrier to spread its LTE signal nationwide.
This is good news even if you don’t have a newer, LTE-capable Sprint phone, the improvements Sprint makes to its network as it enables LTE service will also benefit 3G users. The carrier says that even on 3G, subscribers can expect stronger signals, higher speeds, and expanded coverage. Sounds good to us!