Move Over iPhone 3G. Sprint preparing 4G Cell Network - 2011 Release Date?

[Enigmafan420]

Yeah-can't wait to get some of that Sprint "world famous" customer service...

Sprint's CS is the only one that can make AT&Ts look good 😉

 

[StoneColdSober]

If it wasn't for the iPhone AT&T still would not have rolled out as much as they did.

I'm not quite sure how you come to that conclusion. There are many other phones out there that use 3G. There are numerous advantages to AT&T to convert to 3G as it allows for more efficient use of AT&T's resources.

It isn't like a company just makes a decision of this kind one day and then rolls out the change nationwide the next day. The upgrade to 3G for both T-Mobile and AT&T and to EVDO for Verizon and Sprint were in the works for years before they ever began a roll out. They were in the works long before Apple had even discussed the iPhone with any company.

Have the sped things up some, maybe. But I would venture to guess that it has not sped up substantially, if anything, it has possibly slowed it down as AT&T is and has been working on beefing up areas that already had 3G coverage.

 

[lakaiordie]

sprint will still suck anyway.

 

[Diseal3]

I could be dead by then.

 

[mcdj]

Move over lead bullets, DARPA preparing laser rifles - 2056 release date?

 

[Cynicalone]

I would be surprised if Sprint survived to 2011 w/o someone buying them. They'll be the next to fall imo. Maybe a Sprint-Verizon merger since they use the same technology.

 

[cobaltchroma]

10-70 megabits?
isnt 3G capped at around 1 megabit?
oh god.
that would be like instant web pages!

 

[bluenoise]

10-70 megabits?
isnt 3G capped at around 1 megabit?

No. I regularly get more than 1 megabit on my iPhone, and often more than 1.3.

 

[cobaltchroma]

No. I regularly get more than 1 megabit on my iPhone, and often more than 1.3.

well even then,
10 megabits would be INSANE!

 

[benthewraith]

"Sprint has at least a two-year head start with 4G technology."​

I'm SO inclined to go back to Sprint.....



not. 🙄

 

[11800506]

Yeah... by the time Sprint actually gets Wimax launched AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile will also have their LTE networks launched as well. LTE has become the worldwide 4G standard by now meaning that there will be a wider variety of phones, so even if Sprint does launch their network earlier it barely means anything because there won't be very many phones able to use it.

 

[mkrishnan]

LTE has become the worldwide 4G standard by now meaning that there will be a wider variety of phones...

But my understanding is that it's not quite so simple. Like there's that T-Mo comment that was referenced earlier with the exec from T-Mobile questioning plans of other carriers to launch LTE on 700 MHz spectrum because of compatibility with devices abroad. Hopefully, however, interoperability testing is suggestive of seriousness about compatibility. I guess what's not clear though is whether a small enough set of bands will be available globally so that there could actually be a multi-band LTE phone that will work on every network, or that many phones will be such multi-band LTE phones.

For instance, T-Mobile USA and AT&T operate technologically intercompatible 3G networks on different frequencies (well, the T-Mo one is still in its infancy, but the point still stands). A phone that had all the frequencies could use either network, but few phones like this exist.

 

[benzslrpee]

isn't the XOHM service already released? i know it's live in a couple of cities up in New England already.

 

[WildCowboy]

They've been doing limited testing in Chicago, DC, and Baltimore since late last year. But it's supposed to actually launch sometime this month in Baltimore, with Chicago and Washington following by the end of the year. Only promising speeds of 2-4 Mbps at first though.