Sprint CEO Michel Combes speaking at a press conference during MWC 2019 in Barcelona.
At MWC 2019 in Barcelona Sprint executives announced the carrier’s mobile 5G network will launch in four cities in May.
The initial launch cities include Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Kansas City. Those will be followed by Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C., later in the first half of 2019.
Sprint said its network, using 2.5 GHz spectrum and Massive MIMO, will cover 1,000 square miles across the nine markets, providing meaningful coverage for customers.
Sprint CEO and President Michel Combes contends that Sprint will be the first carrier to provide real mobile 5G coverage that reaches consumers broadly and not just in pockets.
CTO John Saw said that he can’t speak for AT&T and Verizon and their respective 5G launches, but questioned how much time new 5G-capable phones will “spend on 5G as opposed to sitting on LTE-Advanced most of the time, I don’t know.”
“But for my network, when you’re in a 5G cluster in those markets, you will get a 5G signal, real 5G,” Saw said, adding that the signal will fall back to LTE-Advanced as needed.
Coinciding with its 5G mobile network launch, Sprint will also begin offering 5G devices in May, including LG’s newly announced LG V50 ThinQ 5G and HTC’s 5G Hub, which is a mobile hotspot that provides connectivity for up to 20 users. Starting in the summer, Sprint customers can also get Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G.
Unsurprisingly, executives declined to disclose pricing for 5G services, but said the carrier will make sure it remains competitive.
Speaking at a press conference Monday, Sprint Chief Marketing Officer Roger Solé said that early 5G will super-charge entertainment and enhanced mobile broadband from 5G will take gaming to the next level.
He noted that a larger percentage of people in the U.S. now game on mobile than other platforms, including 60 percent of male gamers and 58 percent of female gamers. Solé said 5G will change gaming from a download-based activity to streaming, and transition from solo to social play. In addition, users will have access to a huge portfolio of games rather than single games.
Partnerships
As part of the the push to deliver mobile gaming, Sprint has partnered with cloud gaming company Hatch Entertainment to provide customers with instant and unlimited access to more than 100 mobile games. The streaming game service will be embedded and native on Sprint customers’ 5G smartphones, starting with LG’s new 5G phone.
Solé said the platform is designed for live social gaming and includes tournaments, as well as a section of games developed specifically for children.
Sprint Business, meanwhile, inked an expanded MVNO agreement with Google, enabling Google Fi users to connect to Sprint’s 5G network when it becomes available.
Amazon Web Services is also partnering to use Sprint’s Curiosity IoT platform, by integrating its cloud services on the network.
