What Is Sprint Network Vision And How Will It Affect Your Business?

What Is Sprint Network Vision And How Will It Affect Your Business?

You are going to want to sit down for this one, especially if you're an existing Sprint customer.

Sprint Network Vision is a project to improve existing cell towers and roll out LTE across the U.S.  Phase one of the project is already underway in the existing CDMA 1900MHz range.  In phase two, Sprint intends to augment its 1.9GHz footprint with 800MHz for 3G service, thereby enhancing coverage, particularly the in-building experience for customers. This augmentation will dramatically improve coverage and signal strength throughout the country.  Sprint customers will soon see better signal strength for improved wireless access in more places.  

While this first 1900MHz stage is nice, just wait till you see what the 2nd stage of Network Vision has in store when it starts rolling out in the 800MHz range in place of the current iDEN network!

LTE for speed, 800MHz for range - Now that's a winning recipe.

 Sprint's plans currently include starting the 800MHz range in late 2012-early 2013, although it has already starting rolling it out in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.  Today Sprint coverage and Nextel's Push to talk coverage in Dallas is only at 40% for indoor coverage. With Sprint's new Network Vision it is expected to increase to 80%.  With the 800MHz, coverage will increase 95%!

These next projected slides of new Sprint coverage maps of Atlanta will show you an example of what you can expect when Sprint replaces the current Nextel IDEN push to talk network with the 1900MHz in the first phase and with the 800MHz range in phase 2.

Signal strength (green - great,   yellow - good,    red - mediocre, blue - very poor)
 

Map of Atlanta today on the Nextel IDen push to talk network

Map of Atlanta in the first phase (1900 MHz) of the new Sprint Vision network 

Here is what will happen with the roll out of the 800MHz Sprint Network Vision in phase 2:













You won't need your glasses to see the difference here. Lower frequency means longer wavelength, which in turns means better signal propagation and building penetration.  The improvement will be this significant.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT

The new Sprint Network Vision entails dramatically improving their network coverage, call quality, push to talk services, and data speeds for customers. It includes phasing out Nextel IDEN push to talk completely, and bringing in Sprint Direct Connect. The roll-out has already begun in many areas and the scraping of the old IDEN Nextel towers has already begun. They have already completed 10,251 upgrades from August through October and another 22,000 cell sites are now underway.


Sprint Direct Connect Coverage

Though some Nextel iDEN users have begun to balk at the change, Sprint is pledging to completely shut down its Nextel iDEN cell sites by 2013. The provider also stresses that using the new Sprint Direct Connect technology will dramatically increase Push to talk coverage over what it is today- nearly 2.7 million square miles or 309 million people.  It will also strongly boost in-building coverage. 

Sprint Direct Connect service will continue to evolve. In early 2012, the Sprint Direct push-to-talk coverage area is expected to grow to match the Sprint CDMA voice coverage area – expected to be almost three times the square miles covered by Nextel iDEN today. Additionally, in 2012, international push-to-talk calling to select countries will also begin rolling out to help support our current customers with international push-to-talk needs. And Sprint will continue enhancements to Sprint Direct Connect in 2012 by offering a downloadable push-to-talk app that will enable any Android-powered device to support Sprint Direct Connect.

The New Sprint Direct Connect Devices

Sprint is already offering  three new Sprint Direct Connect devices. The new Kyrocera DuraMax is the workhorse of the new Sprint Direct Connect portfolio much like the i580 once was with Nextel . It has a rugged exterior and non-slip Dura-Grip surface, a 2.0-inch display, 3.2 MP camera with flash and camcorder, and is designed to meet Military Standard 810G for dust, shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, blowing rain and water immersion (up to 30 minutes in one meter of water).  If you would prefer to have the same phone but without a camera,  you may want to go with the Kyrocera DuraCore.

Motorola has joined the new line up with the Admiral, a rugged Android SmartPhone that has Sprint direct connect. Discouraged Blackberry users everywhere are already starting to resolve their issues with this new SmartPhone with push to talk.

 What's to come for the business who need direct connect?

 So how will Sprint's new Push to talk network function?  First Sprint will begin rolling out new devices with Sprint Direct Connect to attract new customers and encourage existing Nextel push to talk users to transition to Sprint Direct Connect. Both Nextel towers are taken down.  

Sprint plans to  launch up to 15 new devices in 2012, including new handsets, tablets and data cards, and these devices will be able to run on its new LTE network and its 3G CDMA network if LTE is out of range.  LTE networks promise speeds that can be as much as 10 times faster than 3G service, with theoretical peaks of 300 megabytes per second for downloads and 75 megabytes per second for uploads.

So what does this really mean for Sprint customers?

In a word: Everything. It means faster data speeds and fewer dropped calls, and keeping pace with the ever-increasing demand for data. If everything goes as planned, 2013 will be definitely be the year to get on the new and exciting Sprint Vision Network.

For more information on the new Sprint Vision Network and the new push to talk devices, call us at:  1-877-679-1206.