Sprint has officially launched 4G LTE services in five U.S. cities on July 15. As of now, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Kansas City, and San Antonio will receive the first 4G LTE support but Sprint will expand its market support later this year, the carrier informed in a blog post.
"While other carriers are simply rolling out their version of a 4G LTE network, we are rolling out an all-new network that will also significantly improve the 3G and voice experience over time - at no extra charge to the customer," Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said.
According to the network provider, Sprint 4G LTE, which now will lock horns with AT&T and Verizon, provides significant improvement over the carrier's 3G services and will make video sharing and web surfing process faster. Moreover, users can expect better signal strength, less dropped/blocked calls, faster data speeds, expanded coverage and better overall performance.
The company has released a promotional launch video that explains Sprint's 4G LTE rollout and Network Vision.
Sprint 4G LTE will support 6-8 Megabits per second download speed and 2-3 Megabits per second upload. According to both experts and users, the speed is much less than the speed provided by AT&T and Verizon. Verizon, for example, promises to give "average data rates of 5 to 12 Mbps on the downlink and 2 to 5 Mbps on the uplink" with peak download speeds that can go up to 40-50Mbps and peak upload speeds up to 20-25Mbps. AT&T also gives 13-17Mbps download speed and 6-8Mbps upload.
According to Sascha Segan, Alex Colon of PCMag, who have run a testing on Sprint's LTE, the new network is faster than its old WiMAX, about 25 times faster than its 3G network and also faster than T-Mobile's HSPA+ 21, but it falls behind AT&T's and Verizon's LTE speeds in cities. As a reason for the sluggish network of Sprint, Segan and Colon have pointed out Sprint's 5MHz channels. AT&T or Verizon, whereas, use 10MHZ channels in most cities. Places where AT&T has used 5MHz channels, Sprint outperformed the second-best U.S. carrier, according to the reviewers.
Sprint execs, however, have assured to work more on providing a better experience in loaded conditions than providing a great peak speeds, reported PCMag.
Check out the 4G LTE launch video of Sprint:
