Sprint today launched what it calls “true 5G” in four more markets: Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Phoenix. The launch follows earlier commercial releases in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Kansas City.
This time, Nokia is getting in on the action. In those previous markets, Sprint launched with gear from Ericsson and in the case of Chicago, Samsung Networks.
At the foundation of Sprint’s 5G is Massive MIMO, which can dramatically improve network capacity. In Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., Sprint is using 64T64R (64 transmitters 64 receivers) 5G Massive MIMO radios from Nokia. The radios support a feature called split-mode that enables Sprint to simultaneously deliver LTE Advanced and 5G New Radio (NR) service.