lte chicag boston Sprint will launch 4G LTE in Chicago and Boston on September 21

Just a few days ago, Sprint announced that it would be launching LTE in 100 different markets in the coming months, and we now have unofficial confirmation that at least two of those markets – namely, Chicago and Boston – will be getting LTE as early as next Friday, September 21.

This information comes from an anonymous tipster who shared an internal Sprint screenshot with Engadget earlier today. According to the memo, LTE will actually be turned on before 9/21 in these areas for testing:

  • Barnstable Town/Hyannis-Mid-Cape, MA (9/12)
  • Waukegan/Lake County, IL (9/15)

All live LTE towers will then be turned on by 9/21, and Sprint also reminds us that initial coverage “will be limited at first but will continue to improve as the network is built out.”

This memo also gives us confirmation that “As 4G LTE towers continue to be built out over the next six to eight months, they’ll be turned ‘on’ or made ‘discoverable’ as work is completed. If a city/area within your market isn’t officially launching in the next couple weeks, there will be coverage if there’s an LTE tower in the area.”

So there you have it: we’ll have two more market launches next week, and we now know that Sprint will be turning on LTE towers as soon as they’re ready to go – even if that’s before an official launch.

It sounds like maybe there was something more to all this Network Vision talk than smoke and mirrors, after all.

[Engadget]