GigaOM » network rollout

Sprint turns up LTE in 21 new cities; preps for big 4G push this summer

Kevin Fitchard — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:06:32 +0000

Sprint’s LTE rollout machine sprang back into action this week. It announced Thursday that its new 4G network is now available in 21 markets, including Los Angeles, and added a bunch of cities to its buildout schedule in the coming months.

Here are the new markets receiving LTE services: Albemarle, N.C.; Bloomington, Ind.; Charlotte, N.C.; Contra Costa County, Calif.; Denison, Texas; Greeneville, Tenn.; Joplin, Mo.; Kerrville, Texas; Lafayette, Ind.; Lincolnton, N.C.; Los Angeles; Mankato/North Mankato, Minn.; Memphis, Tenn.; Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Newport News, Va.; Palm Bay, Fla.; Port St. Lucie, Fla.; Rochelle, Ill.; Salisbury, N.C.; Shelby, N.C.; Tullahoma, Tenn.; West Palm Beach, Fla.

Sprint now has LTE service in 88 markets (you can see the complete list here), and while many of them are on the small side, the operator is readying some major cities for launch. The operator called out New York City, San Francisco and Washington in Thursday’s announcement, saying customers are already starting to get LTE signals in those cities. In the coming months, Sprint said, it will officially unveil networks in additional 120 cities and towns in coming months.

Sprint is trying to catch up to Verizon Wireless and AT&T, both of which got more than a year’s head start on the No. 3 U.S. operator. Verizon is pretty much finished with its primary LTE network — in its earnings call today that it revealed it has built 4G in 95 percent of its 3G footprint — and it is set to break ground on its second network this year.

Recently AT&T has been turning on new LTE markets in small increments. For instance, on Thursday it said the 4G service has expanded to Cheyenne, Wyo.; Cushing, Okla.; and Florence, S.C. But it plans to make a big push this summer as well, launching in 77 new markets. By the end of the year it plans to have 250 million people under its LTE umbrella, which would put it about 50 million shy of Verizon’s footprint.

Meanwhile T-Mobile’s LTE build is just starting. Its first seven 4G cities went live in March.

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Verizon will start building LTE network No. 2 this year

Kevin Fitchard — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:26:34 +0000

Now that Verizon has closed its blockbuster spectrum deal with the cable operators it’s ready to break ground on its second 4G network. In an interview with FierceWireless, Verizon Wireless CTO Nicola Palmer said Verizon would deploy 5,000 LTE cellsites this year in the Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) band, layering mobile data capacity onto the 4G network it’s already built in the 700 MHz band.

In 2014, Palmer added, Verizon will start building a much broader footprint in the new band. What’s more, Palmer said that Verizon would start selling its first AWS compatible devices in the next few months.

“You can’t have the network without compatible devices,” Palmer told Fierce’s Sue Marek. “We have already given the OEMs guidance on that strategy. The first half of this year we will see AWS-compatible devices in our lineup so when the network comes online in the second half, we will take advantage of that.”

There are some major implications in Verizon’s move:

Verizon is now ready to start focusing on capacity instead of coverage. Palmer said Verizon’s 700 MHz LTE network will cover 90 percent of the U.S. population this year, meaning there will be few populated places where Verizon customers can’t get a 4G signal. It has enough AWS spectrum to double its LTE capacity nationwide, and almost everywhere east of the Mississippi it can triple it. That means it will be able to support more 4G subscribers and more 4G devices and eventually it will be able to boost 4G speeds.
The AWS band uses 1700 MHz and 2100 MHz frequencies, which make it an ideal spectrum for urban deployments. The lower the frequency, the further radio waves propagate, so while 700 MHz was perfect for Verizon’s coverage network, you can expect Verizon to be more selective about where it builds the second network. It will likely target cities and other high-traffic areas and it may even USE AWS for its first indoor and outdoor small cells.
By moving to AWS, Verizon will actually have a 4G band in common with other North American carriers. T-Mobile’ and the Canadian operator use the band. AT&T owns AWS licenses as well and is already sells devices that support those frequencies (the iPhone 5 is one of them). Network fragmentation has been a huge problem in the U.S., requiring handset vendors to make different variants of their devices for different carriers. With the operators coalescing around AWS, we could get a step closer to a smartphones that work across all carriers’ networks.

Other operators have plans to launch LTE over a second band as well: AT&T will make use of its newly minted 4G band in the 2.3 GHz frequencies, while Sprint will refarm the 800 MHz airwaves currently occupied by its Nextel network for LTE. Both operators are still at least a year away from making those plans reality.

By putting LTE into a second band, Verizon could also become the first U.S. operator to start down the path toward the next-generation of mobile technology called LTE-Advanced. The first LTE-Advanced technique we’re likely to see is called carrier aggregation, which bonds two disparate spectrum bands together to create a single super-fast air link. Verizon could choose to merge its two LTE networks, effectively doubling the uplink and downlink speeds available to its customers.

Several U.S. operators — from Sprint and T-Mobile to Clearwire and Dish Network — have talked a big game about LTE-Advanced, abusing the term to make their networks seem more sophisticated than they are. Ironically, Verizon has never made any boasts about LTE-Advanced, but it might well be the first U.S. operator that commercially implements the first LTE-Advanced technique.

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Sprint’s LTE rollout goes urban with launches in Boston, Austin

Kevin Fitchard — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:54:10 +0000

After spending the last six months boosting its small-town cred, Sprint is focusing more 4G attention on larger markets. On Monday it took its LTE network live in Boston and Austin, joining Chicago and Indianapolis, which Sprint turned on right before the Christmas holidays.

When Sprint first launched LTE this summer, it started with six large cities, but it quickly shifted its focus to smaller cities, towns and suburbs, getting 4G markets online as soon its Network Vision upgrade was complete. Sprint’s LTE network is now live in 58 cities, but most of them are small markets.

Sprint may be returning to the urban zones, but it isn’t abandoning the places in between. In addition to Boston and Austin, Sprint launched LTE in seven other areas: Bryan/College Station, Texas; Columbia, Tenn.; Emporia, Kan.; Farmington, Mass.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Gettysburg, Pa.; and Western Puerto Rico (including Aguadilla, Isabela, Cabo Rojo, Mayagüez).

In fact, Sprint plans to double its current number of LTE markets in the coming months, targeting both big and small areas. Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., are all on the list, as are Kerrville, Texas, and Shelby, N.C.

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Nokia Siemens’ US prospects improve with new LTE deals

Kevin Fitchard — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:30:51 +0000

It’s been a good start to 2013 for Nokia Siemens Networks. While the Finnish-German infrastructure vendor has established itself as a big-time LTE player internationally, its 4G network prospects in the U.S. had been pretty dismal until recently. But this week, it announced U.S. Cellular as a 4G customer and in the coming months it’s set to roll out its first major U.S. LTE radio network with T-Mobile.

NSN revealed today that it was the infrastructure supplier behind U.S. Cellular’s 4G service in 11 smaller cities in Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. It may not be a huge contract, but before the launch, NSN didn’t have a single commercial LTE cell in the U.S. It also managed to horn in on archrival Ericsson’s previously exclusive contract with the regional carrier.

NSN’s big moment in the sun, however, will come in the next few months when T-Mobile launches its commercial LTE network. The carrier plans to have 100 million people covered by the network by mid-year and 200 millions people covered by year-end.

NSN is splitting the $4 billion contract with Ericsson, and the two are deploying a total of 37,000 of their latest-generation base stations, which will be able to support new LTE-Advanced technologies in the future. FierceWireless reported that T-Mo’s first 4G networks may go online within the week in Las Vegas and Kansas City, Mo.

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