Sprint said that its customers are among the first in the world to experience the power and performance of True Mobile 5G with the largest initial 5G coverage footprint in the U.S. In a press release they said, “The next generation of wireless service is here, delivering blazing-fast speeds in areas of Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. True Mobile 5G from Sprint is set to power new experiences for wireless customers, from gaming and entertainment services, to IoT and business applications. Starting today, Sprint customers can enjoy Hatch mobile cloud gaming on Sprint’s 5G smartphones.”
The carrier said with yesterday launch, launch, Sprint’s True Mobile 5G service is now available in areas of nine markets. In May, Sprint launched 5G service in areas of Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and Kansas City, following with Chicago in mid-July. Sprint 5G covers approximately 2,100 square miles, with approximately 11 million people expected to be covered in total across all nine market areas in the coming weeks, more than any other U.S. carrier to date.
“We’re proud to give Sprint customers their first truly mobile 5G experience in some of the biggest cities in the U.S.,” said Sprint CEO Michel Combes. “With our initial nine market launches complete, it is just the start of what we can achieve with T-Mobile, together building a better, faster, nationwide mobile 5G network that benefits all U.S. businesses and consumers.”
“We are delighted to partner with Sprint to support the launch of 5G in some of their largest markets,” said Rajeev Suri, Nokia President and CEO. “We have long collaborated on the deployment of our Massive MIMO and 5G innovations, and it’s exciting to see our joint work come to fruition. The cities we’re launching today are among the largest and most dense urban markets in the U.S., requiring significant expertise and stringent testing to ensure quality, performance and delivery.”
Today Sprint True Mobile 5G is delivering faster download speeds with Ookla® Speedtest Intelligence® data showing Sprint’s average 5G download speed of 203.8 Mbps is nearly 6X faster than Sprint’s average LTE download speed of 35.2 Mbps.1 Looking ahead, Sprint 5G will power new experiences for wireless customers across a range of industries including energy, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, insurance, transportation, hospitality and more.
Sprint True Mobile 5G is now available in the following new locations:
- New York City: Sprint True Mobile 5G will cover approximately 1.7 million people with service available in parts of Manhattan from Central Park to the southern tip. Sprint 5G service is available in parts of Midtown East and West, including popular destinations such as Times Square, Chelsea Piers, Rockefeller Center, and the areas around Jacob Javits Center and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. In addition, Sprint 5G service can be experienced in parts of the Upper East Side including Lenox Hill and Yorkvilleareas; and the Lincoln Square area of the Upper West Side, as well as parts of Greenwich Village, East Village, and Chinatown in Lower Manhattan. Sprint 5G also covers the ingress and egress to La Guardia and JFK Airports, parts of Flushing and Rockaway Beach in Queens, Red Hook in Brooklyn and Concourse in the Bronx. In New Jersey, Sprint will cover areas of Hudson County including Union City and North Bergen.
- Los Angeles: Sprint True Mobile 5G will cover approximately 1.2 million people with service available from Marina del Rey to Downtown L.A., and West Hollywood to Culver City. Sprint 5G covers popular locations such as USC, UCLA, West L.A., Midtown and Downtown Los Angeles, including LA Live and the LA Convention Center. Sprint customers can experience True Mobile 5G while shopping on Rodeo Drive, catching a game at Dodger Stadium, browsing museum row on the Miracle Mile or hanging out in Century City. In addition, Sprint 5G is also available in parts of Orange County, Pasadena and Cerritos.
- Phoenix: Sprint True Mobile 5G will cover approximately 740,000 people with service available across the greater Phoenix metro area with service in parts of Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale and Glendale. Sprint customers can experience mobile 5G at popular destinations such as Mill Avenue near ASU, Sun Devil Stadium, Wells Fargo Arena, Grand Canyon University, Heard Museum, Sloan Park, Scottsdale Waterfront at Stetson Canal, Old Town Scottsdale and the Biltmore area along Camelback Road.
- Washington, D.C.: Sprint True Mobile 5G will cover approximately 520,000 people with service available around the US Capitol, the White House, the National Mall, Foggy Bottom, Downtown, Penn Quarter/Metro Center, Dupont Circle, West End, Logan Circle, Southwest, Shaw/Howard University, U-Street Corridor, NoMA, Atlas District, Brentwood/Edgewood, Catholic University, Trinity College, Bloomingdale, Columbia Heights, Sheridan-Kalorama, Woodley Park, Cleveland Park , Forest Hills, Wesley Heights, American University, Friendship Heights, Glover Park, McLean Gardens, Foxhall/Spring Valley, Cathedral Heights, Observatory Circle and Carver Langston. Just outside of D.C., True Mobile 5G is available in areas of Maryland’s Montgomery County, including Bethesda/North Bethesda, NIH/Walter Reed, Chevy Chase and Cabin John. In Northern Virginia, Sprint 5G is available in areas of Arlington, including Rosslyn, National Cemetery and Crystal City, as well as McLean and Tysons Corner in Fairfax County.
At the foundation of Sprint 5G is Massive MIMO, a breakthrough technology that dramatically improves network capacity. In Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington D.C., Sprint is using 64T64R (64 transmitters 64 receivers) 5G Massive MIMO radios from Nokia. These radios support a feature called split-mode that enables Sprint to simultaneously deliver LTE Advanced and 5G New Radio (NR) service. Sprint’s 5G Massive MIMO radios run on its 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum, and they are deployed on Sprint’s existing 4G cell sites, providing a nearly identical footprint for both 2.5 GHz LTE and 5G NR coverage.