If you were wondering why the LTE deployment at Sprint has been so s-l-o-w, Sprint explained why in papers filed at the SEC. There were shortages, problems with permits and the environment.
"During the second half of 2012, we experienced delays with vendor execution, backhaul connectivity delays, shortages in equipment such as fiber cable and antennas, as well as other regulatory and environmental issues," said Sprint.
As we noticed before, Sprint LTE is not fully deployment across Los Angeles. You can get coverage in major corridors but not in outlying areas.
Sprint LTE can be as fast as 13Mbps down and 5.5Mbps uploading data. Sprint has overhauled its towers for increased capacity and more stable connections. Los Angeles Sprint LTE was officially launched on April 18.
Sprint suppliers include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and Samsung each covering different parts of the country.
Sprint expects to have a majority of the sites on-air by the end of 2013 with expected completion of Network Vision deployment by the middle of 2014.