Sprint Launches LTE Plus in the New York Metropolitan Area

While many mobile network operators are looking ahead to the inevitable upgrade to 5G data networks—Nokia and T-Mobile have already begun 5G testing, for example—there’s still plenty of reason to perform less drastic upgrades in the meantime. That seems to be Sprint’s thinking as the operator has rolled out a faster, strong and more reliable LTE Plus Network in the New York Metropolitan Area.

LTE Plus is available in New York City and 190 other markets across the country for Sprint customers. The technology leverages Sprint’s rich triband spectrum portfolio along with some of the world’s most advanced wireless technologies.

To prepare for this rollout, Sprint has doubled the speed and capacity of more than 900 2.5 GHz cell sites in the New York Metropolitan Area since the beginning of the year with the deployment of two-channel carrier aggregation. Carrier aggregation is a feature of LTE Plus that creates a wider lane that allows more network traffic to travel at higher rates, in turn allowing Sprint to provide customers with faster data speeds.

In fact, Sprint claims, based on its analysis of Nielsen Mobile Performance data, that it currently delivers the fastest LTE download speeds in New York thanks to this upgrade.

The primary benefit of LTE Plus is faster service with double the network capacity and speed of standard LTE, and peak speeds up to 100 Mbps on capable devices. Other benefits include stronger service with smart antenna technology that extends cell signals further at 2.5 GHz, and more reliable service with the use of three spectrum bands.

“There’s no better proving ground for our network than New York,” said Günther Ottendorfer, Sprint chief operating officer, Technology. “In the past few months we made tremendous improvements across the entire metropolitan area, and we’re committed to providing The City That Never Sleeps with an exceptional wireless experience.”

Over the past six months, Sprint has added or upgraded service at various popular locations within the city, including Rockefeller Center, the 9/11 Memorial, Jacob Javits Center, JFK International Airport, and The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. In addition, since Sprint is contracted to complete all seven phases of 279 underground stations in the New York City subway project, it will be deploying 4G LTE to all underground stations as well sometime in 2017.