T-Mobile aren’t making a push for 5G until the second half of the year. Verizon are planning a launch across 30 cities this summer. And Sprint are set for launch in four cities, starting in May.
Sprint this week, announced that its unprecedented commercial 5G network will launch in May. The four lucky cities are Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and Kansas City. Expansion plans to Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Washington D.C. and New York City are in place.
To begin, 5G coverage will be limited to certain areas of each city.
The carrier said: “At launch, Sprint’s highly mobile, on-the-go customers can expect mobile 5G coverage ranging from nearly 30 square miles covering Midtown and lower Manhattan, to approximately 230 square miles spanning the greater Dallas Fort Worth area, for a total initial 5G coverage footprint of more than 1,000 square miles across all nine cities.”
Sprint’s 5G vision
Sprint are said to be looking to build a nationwide 5G network in partnership with T-Mobile. Though, such a plan would only go ahead should a proposed merger of the two companies be approved.
Sprint’s first 5G smartphone will be the new dual-screen LG V50 ThinO 5G, unveiled at Mobile World Congress just this week. The second compatible device will be the HTC 5G Hub hotspot in the spring, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G.
The country’s fourth biggest phone network announced that its 5G service will also be offered to Google Fi customers, should they own a compatible device. However, it should be remembered that Sprint have attached no timeframe for the rollout.
The network will operate on the 2.5GHz spectrum and use Massive MIMO radio equipment, as supplied by Samsung. Sprint decided against using millimeter wave technology. John Saw, chief technology officer for the carrier claimed that speeds of 430 Mbps in one demo were recorded. Such speeds are a lot faster than LTE.
