LTE Advanced is a minor software upgrade. Sprint will be deploying it over its entire network too. But LTE Advanced in and of itself does not produce faster results. It's the additional hardware support of LTE Advanced that produces improvements. Things like wider channel support, carrier aggregation, additional MIMO antenna support, etc.
However, if a Wireless carrier doesn't upgrade hardware to take advantage of LTE Advanced, and have devices that do, then LTE Advanced is just a label. So a lot of carriers will be singing the chorus of LTE Advanced, but it won't mean anything.
Robert via Samsung Note II using Forum Runner