Sprint, the first mobile provider to launch a 4G network in the US, will soon bring its next-gen mobile data infrastructure to three of the biggest cities in the country.
The new rollout will begin with New York City, which is getting 4G access on November 1. Los Angeles will be next in early December, followed by San Francisco at the end of the year.
The increased presence of Sprint’s 4G will come just as other mobile carriers start to break into the emerging mobile space. Verizon plans to launch its own next-gen mobile network later this year, including the big cities. Until now, Sprint has been the only major mobile provider with a fully deployed 4G network.
Sprint says that by the end of the year, it will have 120 million Americans covered by its 4G space. Thanks to these latest additions, that will be more than Verizon, which promises to cover 110 million.
The race for 4G will continue next year when T-Mobile plans to release its own network using a different standard. AT&T hasn’t talked a lot about 4G but it’s expected to have a similar offering to T-Mobile.
Although other 4G networks will begin popping up soon, Sprint will still hold onto its handset exclusivity for a while. Verizon will not have any phones available when its network opens up. At first, it will only be available through its Mi-Fi and portable broadband connection devices.
Sprint, meanwhile, has just launched a second 4G phone – the Epic. Both devices running on the new high-speed platform use Android.
