Next four LTE cities announced

[marioc21]

Here are the next 4 markets to receive LTE.

• Baltimore, MD
  
• Gainesville, GA
  
• Manhattan/Junction City, KS
  
• Sherman-Denison, TX
  

http://finance.yahoo...-141200985.html

 

 

On the conference call Hesse said Baltimore would get LTE by the end of August. In the press release it says the four cities above should get it before Labor Day.

[pyroscott]

Thanks for the find, I am going to integrate that into the article on the wall.

[jhrace2]

You've got to worry a little bit that, outside of Baltimore, these aren't exactly major markets. The public image of making your 7th-9th cities to get LTE being offshoot suburbs is a bit damaging, no?

[boomerbubba]

This makes me worry that Austin has slipped.

[marioc21]

During the earnings call there was a brief discussion about how Sprint had several hundred tower sites that were ready to go but awaiting backhaul. Sound like Chicago. Once the backhaul is hooked up the site will go live. Other tower sites were seeing delays because their vendors had equipment that was on backorder. Specifically antennas. Not sure which of the three vendors that applied to.

[pyroscott]

You've got to worry a little bit that, outside of Baltimore, these aren't exactly major markets. The public image of making your 7th-9th cities to get LTE being offshoot suburbs is a bit damaging, no?

 

What do you consider a "major market"?

Houston is the 4th largest US city, San Antonio is the 7th largest, Dallas is the 9th Largest and work is underway in the top 3 US cities of New York, LA and Chicago.

 

Sounds like major markets to me.

[marioc21]

What do you consider a "major market"?

Houston is the 4th largest US city, San Antonio is the 7th largest, Dallas is the 9th Largest and work is underway in the top 3 US cities of New York, LA and Chicago.

 

Sounds like major markets to me.

 

I find this funny. I don't think VZ was launching every major city all at once either. I remember a lot of announcements that had a lot of smaller places included in them.

[Feech]

With the exception of B-More I would say the rest of the cities announced are starting to fill out the initial launch markets right?

[jhrace2]

I agree that those are major, however the markets cited were Gainesville, GA, Manhattan/Junction City, KS, and Sherman-Denison, TX. These do not have the same clout as "San Antonio," "Houston," etc.

 

I like the schedule Sprint presently has and that is maintained on this site, but an uninformed party might not know what we here know. Just a thought.

[boomerbubba]

I agree that those are major, however the markets cited were Gainesville, GA, Manhattan/Junction City, KS, and Sherman-Denison, TX. These do not have the same clout as "San Antonio," "Houston," etc.

 

I like the schedule Sprint presently has and that is maintained on this site, but an uninformed party might not know what we here know. Just a thought.

 

Sprint is trying to get more PR mileage by announcing "cities" rather than the major markets we are tracking. Except for Baltimore, which is its own market, the minor cities announced today are part of the same markets already launched July 15.

 

Sherman-Denison, TX = part of DFW market

Gainesville, GA = part of Atlanta market

Manhattan/Junction City, KS = part of Kansas City market

 

And relative to S4GRU project projections here, I have to consider the absence of Austin from today's "end of August" list to be slippage.

[jhrace2]

So in other words, they announce a city rather than a market, so that leaves them with more positive press releases in the future as they continue to roll out new cities (even though it's in a market that has already been green-lit).

 

Makes sense from a marketing perspective

[pyroscott]

I agree that those are major, however the markets cited were Gainesville, GA, Manhattan/Junction City, KS, and Sherman-Denison, TX. These do not have the same clout as "San Antonio," "Houston," etc.

 

I like the schedule Sprint presently has and that is maintained on this site, but an uninformed party might not know what we here know. Just a thought.

 

Oh, I misunderstood. I think it could be misunderstood by the average customer that says "Manhattan KS is getting LTE and I'm here in NYC and don't have LTE?" But I don't know what else Sprint can do. Verizon is announcing every city that they throw up a LTE tower, and then they announce it again when they go back to thicken coverage and make the LTE signal more usable. They could stick to their guns and stick to "markets" or they can start piling up the cities and be able to say "LTE in 19 cities and expanding"

[ericdabbs]

This makes me worry that Austin has slipped.

 

Yes apparently a huge flock of birds decided to invade Austin's Sprint towers.

[marioc21]

Yes apparently a huge flock of birds decided to invade Austin's Sprint towers.

 

It wasn't a flock of seagulls was it?

 

[KaoMinerva]

Any update on Memphis? Sprint 3g I murder where I'm at :'(

[irev210]

Sad no Boston

 

I guess September.

[amazin1988]

What about Florida well Miami you think I will have to wait til the end of the year

 

iTz Young Amazed

[Proxcee]

What about Florida well Miami you think I will have to wait til the end of the year

 

iTz Young Amazed

 

If your lucky. Even if they announce Miami in 2012...there's no guarantee that you'll see it where you live at launch since they can launch with less than 30% of the towers complete. ...But I guess that would be better than not having them announce Miami at all.

[amazin1988]

Well that blows lol

 

iTz Young Amazed

[Cpeatridge]

Why do you think no Boston? Because they have only one LTE tower and less than 10 3G towers upgraded in Boston proper?

[S4GRU]

What about Florida well Miami you think I will have to wait til the end of the year

 

iTz Young Amazed

 

We wrote an article about the Miami market deployment: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-274-miamiwest-palm-network-visionlte-deployment-schedule-update/

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[S4GRU]

Why do you think no Boston? Because they have only one LTE tower and less than 10 3G towers upgraded in Boston proper?

 

I'm quite optimistic for the Boston market. I'm excited to see them start moving in to the City now. To already have a completed LTE site in Downtown Boston is great. That's before Chicago. Heck, there are not many central city sites yet even in launched cities like Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Kansas City.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[jhrace2]

I'm quite optimistic for the Boston market. I'm excited to see them start moving in to the City now. To already have a completed LTE site in Downtown Boston is great. That's before Chicago. Heck, there are not many central city sites yet even in launched cities like Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Kansas City.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

Robert, do you know why Sprint chooses to build from the outside-in on its major cities?

[Cpeatridge]

Robert, do you know why Sprint chooses to build from the outside-in on its major cities?

 

They do this so that not a large number of subscribers are affected if something goes wrong as the teams are learning what they're doing. As one of those trial towers were in my area, I'm glad they did that and screwed up in my small town versus the city. It was atrocious for about 2 weeks. I'd either not be able to make/receive calls, send out texts or when I could they wouldn't go to the person for a couple hours. The data was tolerable before they started upgrading, but during the upgrade I would constantly be on the 1x network, sometimes for days. But data is immensely better now, if you check out the article Robert wrote about the Beverly MA tower which I tested and investigated for him. Such a vast improvement! I forget that I'm being spoiled with upgraded 3G in my area, when I leave the area and it sucks I think it's my phone but nope it's the network. Glad they are finally moving into the city as well, luckily the areas I hang out at in Boston are right around upgraded 3G towers, so it doesn't seem any different.