Sprint this morning officially lit up four new 5G markets — New York City, Washington D.C., Phoenix and Los Angeles — bringing Sprint’s total to nine. When you include its original 5G markets in Texas, Illinois and Kansas, that brings the carrier’s total coverage area up to about 2,100 square miles, where some 11 million customers will have access to what Sprint calls “true” 5G.
As highlighted by The Verge, Sprint’s 5G doesn’t use the same mmWave spectrum that Verizon does. That brings some pros and cons, like improved indoor coverage but slower overall speeds.
Sprint claims that its 5G network focuses on offering broader, more consistent service to its customers, rather than high speeds only few people can access. Sounds great, but that we’ll test that claim ourselves with some Sprint 5G hardware later today.
Sprint CEO Michel Combes told gathered reporters that the current plan is to devote resources to strengthening those original nine markets, at least partially because those cities are also the carrier’s largest markets in terms of LTE usage.
Keying in on markets where it’s already popular and relied-upon is a savvy move on Sprint’s part, but the move is enough to make us wonder whether Sprint will hold off on expanding further until its merger with T-Mobile is complete. After all, Combes himself just said that the merger would give Sprint the right “financials, assets and skills to expand everything we’re seeing today” nationwide.
