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Seattle & Grand Rapids are scheduled to be in the Second Round of Sprint Network Vision/LTE Deployment in 2012


S4GRU

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blog-0445728001330713444.jpgby Robert Herron

Sprint 4G Rollout Updates

Friday, March 2, 2012 - 9:31 AM MST

 

Today, Sprint 4G Rollout Updates is prepared to tell you about two more Round Two markets in Sprint's Network Vision/LTE deployment plans for 2012. West Washington and West Michigan. But please Detroiters, don't flood my inbox with your angry hate letters. I didn't pick it!!! And don't fret, I see Detroit coming up on my To Do List. ;)

 

Sprint's Network Vision vendor Samsung will likely begin Network Vision and LTE deployment in the West Washington and West Michigan markets in 2012. This is not an imminent start in the next few weeks. This is a Second Round start. Which means that the start of this market is dependent on when the previous market before it wraps up. There is no way for me to determine at this point which Samsung markets will precede this.

 

Sprint's West Washington market

 

Sprint's West Washington market basically covers everything west of the Cascade crest and north of Longview. Including the cities of Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Olympia, Bellingham, Bremerton, Port Angeles, Aberdeen and Chehalis. It is bordered by the Inland Northwest market (Spokane/Tri-Cities) and the Oregon/SW Washington market (Portland/Vancouver), which are yet to be announced. 680 sites in total after NV is complete.

 

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Sprint's West Washington Market. All 675+ Network Vision sites are shown for the West Washington market in this map. Click on image to enlarge.

 

Sprint's West Michigan market

 

Sprint's West Michigan market is the whole western half of the Lower Peninsula. It includes two sites in the U.P. in St. Ignace/Sault Ste. Marie and one site and Mackinac Island (see the map below). Essentially, everything West of US 127 North of Lansing and West of I-69 South of Lansing. It includes the cities of Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Battle Creek, Traverse City and Niles (I added that one for you, Jason). It is bordered by the East Michigan market to the east, and the Ft. Wayne/South Bend market to the south. These two markets are yet to be announced. 518 Network Vision sites in all.

 

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Sprint's West Michigan Market. All 500+ Network Vision sites are shown for the West Michigan market in this map. Click on image to enlarge.

 

We would love to give you the date, but...

 

There is absolutely no way for S4GRU to be able to provide a start date for these markets, or any of the Second Round 2012 markets that will be announced after these. We are announcing these markets to you for your information, to give Sprint customers a rough idea of when these second round markets can be anticipated.

 

There is absolutely no guarantee of the order in which these markets come live, because there is a lot of variability in the plan. The most significant variable being how quickly the preceding market before it wraps up. If things go quickly in the preceding market, work may start early. Things go late, these would likely start late. And to complicate start dates in each market, Sprint has said they may elect to slow down Network Vision in future quarters if cash flow becomes strained.

 

Sprint has three different OEM vendors, with several different crews in many markets at once. There could be final permitting and design delays, some vendors and/or crews will work at different speeds, weather issues and any number of unforeseen circumstances to complicate matters even further. First round market starts are much easier to predict, but second round and third round markets starts are increasingly difficult to predict and put dates to. This is likely the reason why Sprint has elected not to announce these markets themselves at this time. But we know you don't want to wait for Sprint to tell you! With these caveats understood, we are releasing the Network Vision second round markets in the order that they are anticipating to start deployment, based on the schedules as they exist to date.

 

We won't stop digging for you!

 

Sprint 4G Rollout Updates will continue to scour through the data and gather deployment information for your use. It is our intent to provide at a minimum, all the Sprint markets that will likely begin Network Vision/LTE upgrades in 2012. And we intend to do so in a series of articles over the next few weeks. We will not likely announce communities slated for 2013, because the dates we hold for 2013 markets appear very tentative and subject to change. With the many variables to sort out between now and 2013. Sprint could make significant shifts in deployment plans based on dynamic need change, funding, market permitting difficulties, etc.

 

With the release of West Washington and West Michigan markets today, that brings the total of Network Vision markets announced to 15. We have created a thread in our forums where we are keeping track of all the markets announced by Sprint and S4GRU.com.

Click on this link here to view the Network Vision Market Running List.

 

Stay tuned to Sprint 4G Rollout Updates. Tomorrow, we will bring a special Saturday edition article, and announcing one additional market Round Two Samsung market. Just to brighten up your weekend! On Monday we will be announcing the next two Round Two markets for Sprint Network Vision and LTE deployment.

 

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gallery_1_2_8825.jpgPhotos Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Information about the source: The information for all of our Network Vision information has been freely provided by several sources close to the Network Vision program who choose to remain anonymous. No source information will be released to protect anonymity.

 

Special thanks to S4GRU Member digiblur for creating the West Washington and West Michigan Market maps! Thank you!

 

EDIT 6/26/2012: Removed sentence mistakenly calling these markets early in the Second Round, when actually it was meant to say they are early to be announced.

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Jumping up to Seattle was a surprise... But it makes sense they'd go for population over proximity. It's interesting the same preference wasn't given to Detroit though.

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With West Michigan being an early market relative to its custmers counts makes sense from what I have found out. In my list bill (Jan 2012) there was a notice about Nextel towers starting to be reduced in April 2012. (This notice was probably in every Nextel bill.) I then happenedto check with a Sprint large business sales rep and she mentioned that Michigan was going to be higher on the list for NV because we still have a rather large Nextel customer base and Sprints wants to get people off starting sooner rather than later.

 

I just need Sprint to release a phone that will work with LTE so I can jump from my trusty Nextel i880 to something a little more current. :)

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AZOclark...great point. Nextel subscriber numbers is not something I had even thought about relative to Network Vision.

 

- Robert

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Jumping up to Seattle was a surprise... But it makes sense they'd go for population over proximity. It's interesting the same preference wasn't given to Detroit though.

 

Since it and most of the west are in Samsung's sphere of influence, I would expect it will hit the major metropolitan areas first and spread along the interstates while working its way to the smaller markets. I think it's the most logical way to do it with the wide spaces its responsible for.

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With the Grand Rapids market stretching all the way to the southern state line how long until South Bend gets it? Or are we to Small for them to worry about! =)

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With the Grand Rapids market stretching all the way to the southern state line how long until South Bend gets it? Or are we to Small for them to worry about! =)

 

The West Michigan market is out of order, considering it's placement. The Fort Wayne/South Bend market doesn't come as early as West Michigan. But it is a good location for the size of market it is. Stay tuned!

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The West Michigan market is out of order, considering it's placement. The Fort Wayne/South Bend market doesn't come as early as West Michigan. But it is a good location for the size of market it is. Stay tuned!

 

Yes, I would love any new for the Fort Wayne/South Bend Market. Our Sprint Rep said this market is upgrading 122 towers with (3g) upgrades and that does not include any NV upgrades, from how I understood it. Plus doesn't Hesse have some ties to Norte Dame :) I am sure he needs LTE for the ND home football games in the fall!!

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so i am a little confused, does the network vision in the west michigan market mean 4g LTE coverage for the whole market?

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