by Robert Herron

Sprint 4G Rollout Updates

Monday, March 5, 2012 - 12:01 AM MST

Today, Sprint 4G Rollout Updates is prepared to tell you about two relatively early Round Two markets in Sprint's Network Vision/LTE deployment plans for 2012. Austin and Charlotte. Encompassing large sections of Central Texas and Western North Carolina.

Sprint's Network Vision vendor Ericsson will likely begin Network Vision and LTE deployment in the Austin market and Alcatel/Lucent in the Charlotte market in 2012. This is not an imminent start in the next few weeks. These are Second Round starts. Which means that the start of these markets is dependent on when the previous market before it wraps up. There is no way for me to determine at this point which markets will precede them.

Sprint's Austin market

Sprint's Austin market basically covers all of Central Texas. Including the cities of Austin, Round Rock, Waco, Killeen/Fort Hood, Temple, Bryan/College Station, Lampasas, Stephenville and San Marcos. It is bordered by the DFW market to the north, Houston to the east and San Antonio market to south. All of these have been announced previously. The West Texas market borders to the west, but has yet to be announced. The Austin market will sport 387 sites in total after NV is complete.

Sprint's Charlotte market

Sprint's Charlotte market is the whole western portion of North Carolina and the part of South Carolina adjacent to the Charlotte metro area. It includes the cities of Charlotte, Asheville, Hickory, Salisbury, Boone, Hendersonville and Rock Hill, South Carolina. It is bordered by the Nashville market to the west, South Carolina market to the south, Raleigh/Durham market to the east, the Winston/Salem market to the Northeast and the Sprint Regional Affiliate Shentel to the north. All of these adjacent markets are yet to be announced. 446 Network Vision sites in all.

Sprint's Charlotte Market. All of the approximately 450 Network Vision sites are shown for the Charlotte 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 Austin and Charlotte markets today, that brings the total of Network Vision markets announced to 17. 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. On Wednesday we will be announcing the next two Round Two markets for Sprint Network Vision and LTE deployment. We will be talking about in a few hours in advance in a S4GRU Live Chat at 9:30 PM Mountain Time on Tuesday evening. Come join us!

Photos 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 Austin and Charlotte Market maps! Thank you!