Andre Yoskowitz
30 Oct 2013 23:30
Sprint, the third-largest carrier in the U.S., has said it will gradually offer faster LTE speeds than its rivals; Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.
The company wants to expand its proposed 'Spark' service, which reaches up to 50-60 megabits per second speeds but will first launch in just five cities, LA, Tampa, Miami, Chicago and New York.
LTE speeds from Verizon, for example, reach about 12 megabits/s, but its network already covers most of America.
While the speeds seem good in theory, issues of power consumption, battery life and heat have yet to be seen in real world examples.
Sprint even demonstrated speeds of 1 gigabits per second to reporters, which it said could make online multiplayer gaming or 4K streaming a possibility on mobile.
AT&T dismissed the presentation, but declined to comment on any of their own high-speed offerings: "A demo counts as much as making a touchdown with no other players on the field," said the carrier.
Sprint says that Spark will be available to 100 million people in the U.S. by the end of 2014, and the company is upgrading its antennas and receivers to use 8 transmitters, capable of handling tri-band frequencies and a spectrum range that can handle 180 megabit speeds, theoretically, by the end of 2015.