When Sprint initially announced its plans to launch a 4G LTE network, the carrier said that it'd be using its 1900MHz spectrum initially and would eventually begin taking advantage of its 800MHz spectrum that's currently in use by iDEN customers, too. Today Sprint offered up more details on its plans to utilize its 800MHz spectrum, saying that it plans to launch LTE service using that spectrum by 2014. Bob Azzi, Sprint's senior vice president of networks, said that the timing of the LTE deployment on 800MHz spectrum depends on how quickly Sprint can move the iDEN subscribers on to its CDMA Direct Connect service. The carrier plans to decommission 9,600 iDEN cell sites this year, which works out to about one-third of its total iDEN towers, with the rest planned for 2013. Sprint currently serves less than six million iDEN users.
So there you go, Sprintsters. It's nice to get an update on Sprint's LTE plans, and as we heard yesterday, the carrier is hard at work at moving folks away from iDEN so that the spectrum can be used for 4G LTE coverage. There's still no word on exactly when Sprint will initially flip the switch on its LTE network, as the only timeframe that Sprint has confirmed is that it'll be going down by the middle of this year. With the LG Viper 4G LTE launching on April 22nd and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus rumored to be coming on the same date, though, the good news is that Sprint customers may not be waiting much longer to get their mitts on a pair of the carrier's LTE-enabled devices.
Via Fierce Wireless
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