Residents of several major markets can now enjoy “4G speeds” thanks to today’s announcement that Sprint has expanded their WiMAX network to six new cities. The new markets where Sprint has “unleashed the power of 4G” include Los Angeles, Miami, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. Sprint also announced that their 4G network will go live in San Francisco on December 28.
“We have witnessed a great demand from our customers for 4G speeds, power and capabilities in these cities already and today they officially have it,” said Matt Carter, president-Sprint 4G. “We are proud to deliver on our commitment to serve our customers and deliver 4G to more major metropolitan areas in 2010.”
Sprint will continue to grow their 4G coverage area over the next month as the carrier plans to eventually cover 120 million people by the end of this year. In comparison, T-Mobile will offer “4G speeds” to 200 million people this year and AT&T will cover 250 million with their HSPA+ upgrade.
Even though Sprint is still claiming they have the only true 4G network, users have been reporting downloads speeds of the same level on T-Mobile. The competition is expected to heat up soon since AT&T thinks they have the fastest mobile broadband network and Verizon is already advertising the fastest 4G LTE network.
It does not appear that any one carrier has an advantage at this point, but only Sprint and T-Mobile are selling 4G handsets. If you live in one of these six new markets, let us know if you have noticed any difference in your download speeds.
