Sprint has announced more milestones on the way to the completion of its Network Vision revitalization initiative. Sprint’s deployment of HD Voice is now available nationwide and Sprint first launched HD Voice with the HTC EVO 4G in 2012. Sprint now says 28 of its smartphones are capable of making HD Voice calls between customers. Sprint also announced that its LTE network has expanded to 28 new markets nationwide and now reaches a total of 471 cities and 225 million people, while expecting to reach 250 million by mid-year and have also expanded the reach of Sprint Spark by three markets, including St. Louis, MO, Winston-Salem and Greensboro, N.C.
Sprint has also announced the forthcoming launch of international Wi-Fi Calling on select smartphones in more than 100 countries around the world, expanding the feature from its initial launch, and will launch the feature in a few weeks. Last, Sprint will deploy 8T8R radios in order to boost the coverage and the strength of its 2.5GHz spectrum currently utilized on the Sprint Spark overlay. The radios are being tested and will go live in Spark markets later this Summer with the goal of expanding Spark coverage depth in urban areas.
To finish out the announcements, Sprint has announced the revival of its 30-day test drive program shelved all the way back in 2011 for a shorter 14-day trial period as a response to T-Mobile’s recent 7-day test drive program. The program will allow new consumers, select small business customers, and current customers who add a new line of service to test drive Sprint service with no risk and will also waive service charges incurred during the 30-days along with a full refund if not completely satisfied.
