Sprint is getting ready to bring its Sprint Spark LTE service to enterprise customers. The carrier is launching a wireless router in partnership with NETGEAR that combines LTE wireless broadband, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Gigabit Ethernet. Sprint is promising peak speeds of 50-60 Mbps now, and says those speeds will increase over time.
Sprint Spark is currently available in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Texas, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Kansas City, Mo., Philadelphia and Baltimore. Spark aggregates three different sets of spectrum holdings to accelerate network speeds. Those spectrum bands include the 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings that Sprint acquired from Clearwire, as well as the carrier’s current 1.9 GHz G-Band spectrum, and the 800 MHz spectrum re-farmed from the shut down of its iDEN network.
Verizon Wireless is boosting coverage and capacity with the help of Alcatel-Lucent’s small cell solutions. The nation’s largest carrier will deploy Alcatel-Lucent hardware in both indoor and outdoor locations.
“For Verizon, small cells are part of a balanced approach to deliver network coverage and capacity so that our customers receive the rich user experience they have come to expect from us” said Mike Haberman, vice president of network technology for Verizon Wireless. “Alcatel-Lucent’s small cells enable us to strategically add coverage and capacity to high-traffic and hard-to-reach areas, both indoors and outdoors.”