Sprint May Be Affected by 4G On iPhone 5

Apple

It appears that an iPhone 5 that features LTE support may be disadvantageous to Sprint once it enters the market. The possibility of an LTE-enabled iPhone is considered likely with the release of the LTE supported iPad of Apple.

The competitive standing of Sprint may be affected if the iPhone 5 will feature support for LTE connectivity since consumers would likely look to AT&T and Verizon once the iPhone 5 becomes available since the two carriers offer faster data speeds.

The network of AT&T is currently considered as the fastest among the major carriers, as shown with its iPhone 4S offering. Both Verizon and Sprint offer iPhones that use the EV-DO network which is slower compared to the network of AT&T.

However this may change once the iPhone 5 with LTE support enters the market since Verizon offers the biggest network among the US three major carriers. Verizon currently covers 230 markets, which is much higher than the 35 markets of AT&T. With the bigger coverage, consumers may look to carrier if they aim to acquire the IPhone 5.

So far Sprint will only cover 6 markets in the middle of this year although the company did not offer additional details about its plans for the future.

According to Dan Hesse, the CEO of Sprint, consumers will not be too concerned with coverage and the company will remain competitive even if the iPhone 5 will feature 4G support. He cited the sales of the HTC EVO 4G which mostly went to non-4G markets although this was when the device was the only 4G device in the market at that time.

Once the iPhone 5 will enter the market, it is expected to bring in sales for the carriers and Sprint may not be getting much of the market if consumers will take the LTE network into consideration.

The increasing focus on LTE has compelled Sprint to upgrade its network to LTE according to Hesse and the company may be concerned with an early release of the iPhone 5 as it hopes that the device will be released in the later part of the year.