Although Sprint could soon be swallowed by T-Mobile, the telecom is nevertheless aggressively rolling out 5G service. Its cutting-edge network is up and running in nine cities, and the carrier promises this is up to 6X faster than its LTE service.
Sprint offers a 5G mobile hotspot that can bring much faster access to Macs and iPads day.
The wireless carrier just launched its faster service in parts of Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. It had already begun service in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Kansas City.
Sprint 5G coverage doesn’t blanket these cities, but the telecom claims it encompasses approximately 2,100 square miles and roughly 11 million people. And it claims the title of “largest initial 5G coverage footprint in the U.S.” Rival Verizon has been expanding its footprint as well, and promises to have its 5G service in 30 cities by the end of 2019.
According to Ookla Speedtest, the telecom’s average 5G download speed is 203.8 Mbps, compared to its average LTE download speed of 35.2 Mbps. That said, Sprint’s 4G service is fairly bad, which is one of the reasons it wants to merge with T-Mobile.
Sprint 5G available for MacBooks today
The first iPhone with built-in 5G isn’t expected until next year, but Mac and iPad users don’t have to wait: Sprint already offers the HTC 5G Hub.
Up to 20 users can connect simultaneously to this mobile hotspot. It also has 4G when outside of the faster coverage area.
Sprint charges $600 for the HTC 5G Hub. That’s in-line with the cost of Verizon’s 5G portable hotspot.
Source: Sprint
