Sprint unveils Spark, its ultra-fast 1Gb wireless service

Sprint wants to get back into the network speed discussion badly.

The company on Wednesday unveiled Sprint Spark, its brand for the ultra-fast LTE service that eventually will offer a wireless connection capable of delivering data at a blazing 1Gbps. But initially, Spark will be able to deliver peak speeds of 50 to 60Mbps.

Sprint, which has fallen behind in its deployment of a faster 4G LTE network, is in desperate need of catching up with the competition. Sprint has been hampered by the shutdown of its Nextel network and complications with business deals, including the acquisition of former partner Clearwire and a takeover by Japanese carrier SoftBank. The company lags behind at a time when consumers are focusing more on the speed of their service.

Sprint earlier reported a return to profit in the third quarter, even as it lost 313,000 net customers, including a troubling loss of 360,000 contract customers. Its loss comes at a time when T-Mobile has thrown out promotion after promotion in an aggressive bid to win back customers, as Verizon Wireless and AT&T busily lock up their most valuable subscribers.

Spark is part of Sprint's bid for comeback, but it's more promise than a full-fledged service. CEO Dan Hesse demonstrated the network's ability to deliver a peak 1Gbps connection at the company's lab in Burlingame, Calif. The service, however, won't be able to deliver that kind of speed anytime soon.

Spark is available today in five markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Tampa and Miami, Fla. Sprint also unveiled a new set of phones compatible with Spark: the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, Galaxy Mega, and LG G2 -- all of which launch on November 8. The Spark-compatible HTC One Max will be available "soon," the carrier says.

Spark is able to deliver higher LTE speeds because it juggles three spectrum bands, entailing Sprint's spectrum, spectrum from its now defunct Nextel network, and spectrum taken from its acquisition of Clearwire. Because the three swaths of spectrum run at different frequencies, it was seen as a potential mess for Sprint. But the company's Network Vision upgrade plan allows its infrastructure to handle all three bands. The four new phones will be the first wave of tri-band-compatible devices.

The company said the new phones -- once updated -- would be able to get peak speeds of 50 to 60Mbps on a limited basis in those markets. However, given that this is the theoretical peak, the connection speed will likely be significantly slower. Still, it would be much faster than the standard speed of around 10Mbps that customers would see on rival LTE networks.

Sprint said the network could increase the speed over time and that it is technically possible to deliver a peak speed of 2Gbps over the air.

The company plans to deploy Spark in 100 of the nation's largest cities over the next three years. It already said it expects to cover 200 million people by the end of the year. Sprint has bumped its estimate to 250 million people by the end of 2014.

During a conference call earlier today, Hesse hinted at an announcement that would tie in with its unlimited-for-life offering. The "for life" part could be significant for customers who hang on to get Spark. Because for many people, it will be a long wait.

Sprint Spark Currently Delivers 50-60 Megabit Per Second Peak Speeds

Sprint poised to deliver the industry's fastest wireless network speeds to approximately 100 of America's largest cities

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--October 30, 2013--

Named Sprint Spark, the super-high-speed capability demonstrates 50-60 Megabits per second (Mbps) peak speeds today with increasing speed potential over time. Given Sprint's spectrum and technology assets, it is technically feasible to deliver more than 2Gbps per sector of over-the-air speed.

"Sprint Spark is a combination of advanced capabilities, like 1x, 2x and 3x carrier aggregation for speed, 8T8R for coverage, MIMO for capacity, TDD for spectral efficiency, together with the most advanced devices offering both tri-band capability and high-definition voice for the best possible customer experience," said Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint.

Sprint plans to deploy Sprint Spark in about 100 of America's largest cities during the next three years, with initial availability in five markets today. Sprint 4G LTE service will be available by mid-2014 to approximately 250 million Americans, and Sprint expects 100 million Americans will have Sprint Spark or 2.5GHz coverage by the end of 2014. The first markets with limited availability are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Tampa and Miami. The first smartphones with Sprint Spark capability are scheduled for customer availability in early November.

How Sprint Spark works

Sprint Spark combines 4G FDD(1) -LTE at 800 Megahertz (MHz) and 1.9 Gigahertz (GHz) and TDD(1) -LTE at 2.5GHz spectrum, TDD-LTE technology (2.5GHz), and carrier aggregation in the 2.5GHz band. These spectrum assets, technology and architecture are designed to deliver a seamless customer experience via tri-band wireless devices. Tri-band devices, named for their ability to accommodate multiple spectrum bands, support active hand-off mode between 800MHz, 1.9GHz and 2.5GHz, providing data session continuity as the device moves between spectrum bands.

Sprint Spark components

Sprint is building the Sprint Spark capability using a unique combination of spectrum capacity and network technologies. Today the company has approximately 55,000 macro cell sites; a level Sprint expects staying at for the next few years. The company also anticipates using small cells to augment capacity, coverage and speed. Small cell deployment is expected to begin in 2014, continuing into 2015 and beyond.

Radio heads

A key ingredient enabling Sprint Spark is equipment compatibility with the architecture of the Sprint initiative known as Network Vision. Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Solutions and Networks and Samsung have been selected to provide 2.5GHz radio heads and to enable Sprint Spark. Each company will service approximately one-third of Sprint's deployment markets. These 2.5GHz radios are expected to have capabilities for 8 Transmitters 8 Receivers (8T8R), which will be a first deployment of its kind in North America. These radios will be capable of improved coverage, capacity and speeds when compared to the more traditional 2T2R or 4T4R radios used by our competitors.

Devices

Sprint Spark comes to life for customers via their devices. Building on Network Vision's multimode capability, Sprint Spark is designed to accommodate all of Sprint's spectrum bands on a single device. These tri-band smartphones are designed to give users the best experience by transparently shifting from one band to another, depending on such factors as location or type of application.

How it will be used

Sprint Spark provides the capacity to greatly improve the performance of video and other bandwidth-intensive applications while opening the way for futuristic applications. Today, wireless networks and smartphones can book flights, locate children, store photos and music, video chat and much more. Sprint Spark supports a new generation of online gaming, virtual reality, advanced cloud services and other applications requiring very high bandwidth. (See how applications like these could shape future lifestyles -- "Vision of Connected Mobile Lifestyle.")

Sprint's new 4G LTE network is a key component of its Network Vision program. Sprint 4G LTE now covers 230 markets across the nation and is on track to serve 200 million people by the end of this year and 250 million people by mid-2014. While both LTE technologies bring significant enhancements in network speed, the 2.5GHz spectrum is crucial to the exceptional capacity, speed and flexibility expected with Sprint Spark.

Also through Network Vision, Sprint is upgrading its 3G services with all-new equipment to bring users improved coverage, better signal strength, fewer dropped calls and improved voice quality. The Network Vision 3G capability includes High Definition Voice to make HD calls Sprint's new standard for voice quality. HD Voice is a next-generation technology for mobile phones where background noise is virtually eliminated and sound quality is dramatically enhanced. Sprint's HD Voice offering reaches approximately 85 million people across the Sprint network today, and the company expects 250 million to have access to HD Voice capability by mid-2014. Sprint expects 12 million HD Voice devices in the customer base by the end of 2013, growing to 20 million by the end of 2014.

In addition to demonstrating the 1Gbps speeds via over-the-air wireless, Sprint has also extended its leadership in wireline speeds by commercially deploying one of the longest 100Gbps circuits in the United States. That live transmission required no signal regeneration over a distance of 2,100 km, or 1,304 miles.

By Kevin Fitchard

2 hours ago Oct. 30, 2013 - 5:28 PM PDT

http://gigaom.com/2013/10/30/whats-igniting-spark-a-look-inside-sprints-super-lte-network/

Summary:

Sprint has finally tapped into the spectrum treasure trove that has sat dormant for so long in Clearwire. It’s new LTE network is fast, but more importantly it has enormous amounts of pent-up capacity.

Sprint didn’t just launch a new 4G service today when it announced Spark, it also launched two new LTE networks, one of which has been many years in the making and should give Sprint’s nationwide competitors cause for concern.

That network is the 2.5 GHz time-division LTE (TD-LTE) deployment started by Clearwire back in 2011. It uses a funky of version of LTE that no other carrier in the U.S. utilizes, and it runs on a spectrum band most radio network engineers consider atrocious for widespread and indoor coverage. But it more than makes up for those faults in sheer quantity of frequencies it uses.

Sprint has more than 100 MHz of 2.5GHz in most cities, and while its not using all of the bandwidth for LTE today, it’s strung enough of those frequencies together to produce a system averaging 50 Mbps to 60 Mbps on the downlink — at least according to Sprint’s marketing materials. To put that in perspective, the other two plain-old LTE networks making up Spark use 10 MHz each and have theoretical ceilings of 37 Mbps.

Sprint is also balancing out coverage and capacity, using its LTE networks at 1900 MHz and 800 MHz (which occupies Nextel’s former spectrum) for coverage, while packing the weaker TD-LTE cells into dense urban areas where capacity is most needed.

Several U.S. LTE networks today are capable of breeching the 50 Mbps mark, though most of them are averaging 10 Mbps to 20 Mbps. If Sprint can really deliver average throughput of 50 Mbps it will most certainly take the speed crown away from AT&T. As of now, though, Spark’s full capabilities are only in five cities — New York, Los Angeles, Tampa, Miami and Chicago — and its footprint in those cities is limited at that. It appears it will grow slowly as well, covering 100 million people by the end of 2014.

And Sprint will soon face a challenger in Verizon Wireless, which is set to launch a new LTE network of its own using 40 MHz of spectrum in many cities. Early sightings of that new network in New York City are showing speeds of 80 Mbps, but once launched commercially it may actually be much faster.

But Sprint has a lot of bandwidth to work with. In lab tests, Sprint demoed today an LTE link of 1 Gbps, speeds it said it could eventually boost to 2 Gbps. It’s accomplishing this not only by patching together all of its available spectrum, but also using new LTE-Advanced techniques like carrier aggregation and multiple pairs of antennas. It’s unlikely that any user in the real world would ever see a 1-2 Gbps mobile connection, but there’s a lot more to this demo than mere bragging rights.

Those kinds of lab connection speeds speak to the enormous pent-up capacity in Sprint’s airwaves. As I’ve written before, Sprint has long talked about building the mother of all 4G networks, but it’s never delivered. Now it seems as if it’s ready to make good on its promises.

Nokia asserts itself

Sprint’s TD-LTE networks were built by Samsung, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia. While Samsung and Alcatel aren’t surprises given their work on Sprint’s other CDMA and LTE systems, Nokia is a shocker. It actually started work on Sprint and Clearwire’s original WiMAX networks — the predecessors to today’s TD-LTE systems — before getting kicked off the contract for failing to deliver its equipment on time.

This is a big deal for Nokia. Though a global powerhouse in LTE, it’s big weak spot has always been the U.S. Before the Sprint deal, it’s only LTE contract of note was with T-Mobile. Nokia has long talked up its TD-LTE technology, implying it could use the new LTE variant to outmatch its archrival Ericsson. It appears that was more than just talk. Ericsson has won a piece of every major LTE contract in the U.S. except this one, even though it’s currently Sprint’s largest equipment vendor.

Sprint adds 45 LTE markets, puts pressure on T-Mobile

The company now offers LTE service in 230 markets around the US, just off the pace of T-Mobile's 233 markets.

by Don Reisinger

Sprint launched a major expansion of its 4G LTE coverage, the wireless carrier announced Tuesday.

Sprint rolled out it's high-speed service in 45 new markets, bringing its total coverage to 230 markets. Sprint's rollout included parts of Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, which finally brings its 4G LTE coverage to all five boroughs of New York. Other areas to see LTE access turned on include Abilene, Texas, Naples, Fla., and Red Bluff, Calif.

Sprint has been slow to expand its 4G LTE coverage as it works to overhaul its wireless network. With Tuesday's expansion, the carrier comes a long way in the ongoing race for LTE coverage around the US.

"Today's announcement means that we are continuing our nationwide network enhancements, tower by tower, to provide even more Sprint customers the speed and power of Sprint 4G LTE," said Bob Azzi, Sprint's senior vice president of network, in a statement.

Sprint is still slightly behind T-Mobile, however, which announced earlier this month that it's now covering 233 markets. Verizon, the country's leader in LTE availability, has over 500 markets. AT&T boasts that its network is the fastest and most reliable.

Here's a list of all of the new Sprint LTE markets.
Watch out AT&T: Verizon’s new LTE network monster stirs in NYC

By Kevin Fitchard

http://gigaom.com/2013/10/14/watch-out-att-verizons-new-lte-network-monster-stirs-in-nyc/

photo: Milan Milanovic

Summary:

Verizon’s double-wide LTE network has made its first appearance in New York — spotted by a GigaOM reader. Clocking in at 80 Mbps, the network is already speedy, but it likely will be even faster when it officially launches.

photo: Milan Milanovic