After months of waiting and biding their time, Sprint customers finally have a reason to rejoice. At least Sprint customers in select cities. The cellular provider has announced this morning that their LTE network is officially online. Anyone in the tech business will tell you that a launch rarely goes off without a few problems and Sprint seems to be having some speed issues.
Recent reports show that the 4GLTE network is operating with a six to eight second mbps download speed and a two to three megabits per second upload speed. While this is faster than their 3G Now network speed, it isn’t exactly what 4G customers were probably expecting.
In fact, if this is as fast as Sprint is going to be able to get their 4G network it will be arguably the slowest of the big three. Verizon has claimed that its 4G network is broadcasting with speeds in the five to 12 Mbps download speed and two to five Mbps on the upload. Verizon also says that at peak times the speeds increase to 40-50 Mbps download and 20-25 Mbps upload speeds. While AT&T has not made their speeds public, there are reportsthat the company is able to operate with 13-17 Mbps download speeds and six to eight Mbps on the upload.
While Sprint is lagging behind its competitors when it comes to speed right after the launch, there is a chance it could pick up eventually. There is also something to be said for how much an improvement this is over the speeds most people without the 4G network are seeing. The 4G LTE network is being launched in just a handful of cities with more expansions expected later this year and into 2013. The 4G networks are for the moment being clustered in very select states. There are seven cities in Texas including San Antonio, Dallas and Fortworth that have gotten the new network. Two cities in Missouri (Kansas City and St. Joseph) and three cities in Georgia (Newman, Atlanta and Rome) are the first to try out the network.
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Edited by
Brooke Neuman 
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