Sprint To Launch 5G Service in 4 Cities in May

Sprint has shared some of its plans when it comes to 5G service in the U.S. The company announced at MWC in Barcelona that mobile customers in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City can expect 5G service as soon as May 2019. From a report: If you don't live in one of those cities, maybe you live in Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix or Washington D.C. Sprint also promises 5G coverage in those cities soon after the initial launch, at some point before the end of June 2019. Overall, Sprint expects to cover 1,000 square miles in nine cities by the end of the first half of 2019. It's going to take years to roll out 5G coverage across the U.S.

Neat. I don't need it.

[DogDude]

Like the subject says. If I'm doing something important and bandwidth intensive, I'm using a laptop and Wi-fi or even better, ethernet. My cell service could have a million G's, and it wouldn't change how I operate.

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[thereddaikon]

If they still offered truly unlimited plans with reasonable pricing then I would use it for high bandwidth as long as latency wasn't requirement. They dont, so I avoid using it as much as I can.

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[slaker]

IIRC Sprint is the only full-service provider in the USA that still has "unlimited" data on offer. Unlimited in the USA is essentially a misnomer; apparently you'll start getting complaints from your provider if you're using more than about 1GB/day no matter which service you have, but it does still have $60/month service plans with no explicit data cap.

I'm not sure what good it does to offer absurdly high bandwidth to mobile devices while capping data plans to insignificant amounts. Exceeding a data cap ev

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[thereddaikon]

I'm not sure what good it does to offer absurdly high bandwidth to mobile devices while capping data plans to insignificant amounts. Exceeding a data cap even faster doesn't sound all that appealing. I'm not sure when I've needed something delivered to my phone at higher than 20mbps and LTE is more than capable of doing that.

The benefit is that the ISP can effectively advertise faster rates than you truly get. It would be better is there were no data caps and providers simply sold rates based on what level of network saturation they could maintain. But if they did that then they would loose profits. Its no secret ISPs, wired and wireless both over subscribe their networks. They bank on not everyone using full bandwidth at the same time. It would be great if the FCC would do its job but as long as government appointees can be c

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[tsqr]

I'm not sure what good it does to offer absurdly high bandwidth to mobile devices while capping data plans to insignificant amounts. Exceeding a data cap even faster doesn't sound all that appealing.

I see this sort of comment quite frequently, and it really doesn't make sense to me. Please tell me what you're doing that you would do much more of if only your cap was removed. The only reason you would exceed your data cap faster is if you consume more content just because you can. Really now, how many cat videos and superhero movies can you watch before your brain turns to mush?

Disclaimer: I know my use case is not your use case. I just can't imagine what your use case really is.

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[slaker]

I don't need it. I never claimed to. I've exceeded 80GB use in a month one time in five years, because a customer site had nothing faster than a basic rate ISDN line and I turned on the access point on my phone for around a dozen people to use while I was on site. Sprint called me to ask why my data usage spiked and to please not do that again.

I recognize some people will consume 4k video on a phone, given the option to do so. I can't think of another high bandwidth personal application for a mobile device

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[AlanObject]

I hear you. I'm not sure what I would use 5G for and I have Gbit service to the house and use it.

If I did have 5G and there was a reasonable plan I would probably tether my laptop to it so I could work somewhere other than my office. The main apps would be to monitor my infrastructure and to do teleconferences from the road. So far I just do that from the closest free WiFi like Starbucks.

5G is fine technology and all but I just don't see the killer app for it.

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[AHuxley]

AC when the extra big new pipes are in place to that 5G.
The services that allow a lot of data to get used and for every 5G users to get their speed and data limits.
Lots of speed and a less data is not a new way of selling.
A slow speed and an average data amount is not great.
Much slower speeds and much more data is not the expected speed.
Big pipes, new plans and each 5G user getting more data at a much faster speed on day one AC.

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[rahvin112]

The goal here is the for the local teleco's to abandon the rural market by claiming the cellular network provides equivalent or better service.

Seems a little premature

[thereddaikon]

The release spec of 5G wont be ratified by that point. The early release will be ratified by April, one month before they expect to roll out. How do they expect to go in one month from a ratified paper spec to real hardware that is deployed and working in multiple cities? And that's not the finalized spec, that's due out next year. This reminds me of all of those "pre-N" wifi routers from 10 years ago. Each supported its own non-spec extension of G that was compatible with nothing and failed to give any real world performance gains.

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[darkain]

Same thing happened with 4G, HSDPA, LTE... it was a shitshow of every carrier using their own specs initially for a few years.

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[thereddaikon]

Yup, LTE isn't technically 4G but it was advertised as such.

Congrats Sprint, but I have a question...

[bogaboga]

While I congratulate Sprint, I need to know whether they have [any] Chinese built hardware on their network.

This is because although the American government hasn't produced any evidence [theregister.co.uk] to support its claims, I am inclined to "toe the line" and believe what my government says.

But from sources available, I should fear my government because it's the one that has done questionable acts in the past, like planting backdoors in CISCO equipment, spying on allies and in fact hacking Huawei itself! [gearburn.com]

Congrats dogeater, but your apology does nothing.

[Anonymous Coward]

You're a fucking moron. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/technology/huawei-investigation-trade-secrets.html They're about to be indicted for ongoing crimes.

Will this actually happen or be derailed by TMO?

[filesiteguy]

Every time i see Sprint listed as doing something I wonder if they actually will or might be too busy dealing with a merger (or not) with T-Mobile. I know TMO is trying top buy Sprint for the bandwidth but the FCC and Dems don't like the prospects.

(Note: I am a TMO customer.)

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[slaker]

Unfortunately, the merger needs to happen, since AT&T and Verizon are giants and consolidating equipment and frequency ownership is really the only compelling option for either Sprint or TMO to continue to operate. There just isn't a path forward for either one unless they start to work as a single entity.

The FCC is very much pro-industry right now and I don't think there's a right-left bias in this particular consolidation so much that every time anyone gets a look at Sprint's books and up-close busine

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[ksw_92]

Sprint continues to operate as its own company and build out its M-MIMO infrastructure. It has to, until the merger is approved. 5G NR ("New Radio") is really cool tech and between T-Mob's low-band stuff and Sprint's 2.5GHz stuff (80MHz channels, anyone?) they could tilt the tables away from VZW and the Death Star.

Which 5G?

[ebh]

Let's hope Sprint doesn't hitch their wagon to the wrong 5G horse, like they did with WiMAX for 4G.

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[fred6666]

From what I understand this time there is only one 5G, and is it confusingly called "5G NR".

The solution is to stop talking about *G, and instead use the real name, such as LTE, HSPA, EVDO or this time "5G NR"

whose equipment?

[WindBourne]

America does not produce this. So, did they go with China or Europe?

Uh-huh

[longbot]

Four years on, I'm still waiting for a real VoLTE rollout. It's 2019 and I have a flagship phone... Why can I still not call and use data simultaneously? Because Sprint is dragging ass behind the other three. Only reason I'm still with them is because they're still the cheapest for true unlimited. And I've topped 80GB/mo of traffic.