Sprint goes LTE: 120 cities with new 4G by end of 2012
Sprint Strategy Update event talks LTE — Sprint in tandem with its Strategy Update event Friday is now known to be outlining a switch to LTE for its 4G. Taking advantage of its Network Vision sites, which mix CDMA, EVDO 3G …
Context & Ripple Effects
Sprint's LTE announcement is a quiet retreat from the strategy it staked its comeback on: the carrier that banked on WiMax to win back market share in 2009 and pushed a four-city-then-eight-market 4G rollout in 2010 is now re-platforming its entire 4G story onto LTE, using the same Network Vision sites that already mix CDMA and EVDO 3G. The Reuters pickup frames why the timing matters — the pivot lands alongside investor concern about Sprint's cash burn.
The move also sits inside a busy autumn for Sprint: it confirmed days earlier that it would take iPhone orders with unlimited data from $69.99, and it has been publicly fighting the AT&T/T-Mobile merger it warns could 'severely harm' the company. Reports since August have suggested Sprint was in unconfirmed talks with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Brighthouse to raise up to $600 million for partner Clearwire's own transition to LTE — a sign the WiMax ecosystem Sprint built its 4G lead on was already being rewired.
First-order effects
- Sprint's Network Vision upgrade program now carries a second mandate beyond modernizing 3G: overlaying LTE across 120 cities by end of 2012, concentrating capital spending on sites that must run CDMA, EVDO and LTE simultaneously.
- The confirmed iPhone deal with unlimited data at $69.99 lands just as Reuters reports investors fleeing over cash burn — Sprint is committing to an expensive network rebuild while discounting its marquee device plan against Verizon and AT&T.
Second-order effects
- Clearwire, whose WiMax network anchored Sprint's 4G advantage, faces pressure to follow its wholesale customer to LTE — hence the reported (unconfirmed) cable-company funding talks for exactly that transition.
- With Verizon and AT&T already committed to LTE, Sprint's switch removes the last major US holdout from the rival standard, squeezing WiMax device vendors and pushing handset makers to treat LTE as the default 4G radio across all national carriers.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the US 4G standards war ends not with a winner's market share but with a converged radio standard — leaving spectrum depth, not technology bets, as the axis carriers compete on, which is precisely the argument Sprint makes against an AT&T-T-Mobile combination that would concentrate low-frequency holdings.
- A three-carrier market where every player runs the same air interface shifts differentiation to pricing structures like Sprint's unlimited-data stance and to backhaul/site economics — favoring whoever can densify cheapest.
The trend: US mobile carriers are abandoning divergent 4G technology bets in favor of a single LTE standard, turning spectrum position and network economics into the real competitive battleground.