Bloomberg has reported that Sprint finally struck a deal with LightSquared Inc to help deploy 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution). This will be a 15-year deal worth $20 billion, which should help Sprint compete with Verizon's rapidly growing 4G LTE network. At this time Sprint 4G WiMAX is available in 71 markets and covers 120 million people and should reach 130 million by the end of 2011. By comparison Verizon plans to offer 4G LTE service in 175 markets by the end of 2011 covering 185 million subscribers.
At this time Sprint is the third largest U.S. wireless carrier and refers to this switch from WiMAX to LTE as the Network Vision project. This project will take three to five years and cost Sprint $4 to $5 billion, but allow them to phase out their incompatible iDEN network. They then plan to implement both 3G and 4G technology on 45,000 cell sites by utilizing 800/1900/2500Mhz spectrum bands. When this agreement with LightSquared goes live it will allow Sprint to lighten the load on their network as demand increases for faster wireless data speeds. The decision to join forces may have been made easier by AT&T's plans of buying T-Mobile, which will put Sprint far behind both AT&T and Verizon in terms of overall wireless subscribers.
