Sprint 4G LTE will definitely be in Baltimore by the end of August [Updated]
HTC EVO 4G LTE owners in Baltimore: rejoice! You may have felt left out after the first round of LTE markets officially lit up, but now you can rest assured that your devices will enjoy faster mobile data speeds by the end of August. This news came earlier this morning during Sprint’s second quarter earnings calls, where Sprint had a few other goodies to announce.
Namely, last quarter, Sprint experienced its best ever postpaid ARPU and its best ever postpaid churn. It’s continuing to successfully meet its iPhone sales obligation to Apple, and Network Vision is also still on track: 12,000 sites are expected to be on air by the end of 2012, and the end of 2013 still looks like a reasonable completion time.
Sprint is also well ahead of schedule in shutting down old Nextel sites, with the shutdown of 9,600 sites complete. In fact, Sprint just announced a firm date for shutting down the entire Nextel network: June 30, 2013. That means that in less than a year, Sprint will have lots of extra spectrum that it can use to continue improving 3G, and eventually 4G, as well. And not to worry: 60% of postpaid subscribers leaving the Nextel platform get recaptured on Sprint’s platform, so it’s not like Sprint is losing a ton of customers because of this.
As expected, Sprint is still losing money each quarter, but most of this is due to Network Vision – the company expects to make back all its losses once Network Vision is complete.
[Sprint | Android Central | Engadget]Update: According to a new press release from Sprint, LTE will also launch in Gainesville, GA; Manhattan/Junction City, KS; and Sherman-Denison, TX.
