Sprint's 4G WiMAX has been a savior to many users outside of cable or DSL's footprint, thanks to its speeds, and it's good to hear Sprint stating they have NO PLANS of capping the usage! Their WiMAX data network averages speeds between 3-6Mbps down with bursts up to 10Mbps down and average uploads between 600Kbps - 1Mbps. This type of performance can rival home DSL/cable service, but in order to really compete with traditional broadband services, keeping usage unlimited is very important. The fact that users can get truly unlimited service and faster than DSL speeds is a huge selling point.
The main reason that Sprint is able to offer truly unlimited service on their 4G network stems from the amount of spectrum (range they can broadcast service on) Sprint has available. On Sprint's 3G network they only had about 30Mhz of spectrum available, which has a huge impact on overall capacity. On the 2.5Ghz frequency band they use to transmit their WiMAX signal, Sprint has between 120Mhz and 150Mhz per market. This added spectrum gives them much more capacity and Sprint has already said that they have enough capacity to even offer LTE down the road in addition to their WiMAX network. Verizon has already stated that their plans for their upcoming 4G LTE network will be usage based, so if Sprint is able to continue offering truly unlimited service, they will have a big advantage over Verizon.
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