BELLEVUE, WA--(Marketwired - May 21, 2014) - 4G Americas, a wireless industry trade association representing the 3GPP family of technologies, today announced the election of Sprint to its Board of Governors. Sprint will join leading service providers and manufacturers to advocate for and foster the advancement and full capabilities of LTE and LTE-Advanced technologies throughout the ecosystem's networks, services, applications and wirelessly connected devices in the Americas.
Chris Pearson, President of 4G Americas, welcomed Sprint's election to the 4G Americas Board and commented, "We are pleased to have Sprint join our Board of Governors. We value their commitment and look forward to their future contributions to the advancements of LTE mobile broadband and beyond, as they serve a significant role with the other Board member companies of our organization."
As one of the major national service providers in North America, Sprint currently provides LTE service in 443 markets. Sprint's all-new network consolidates multiple network technologies into one new, seamless LTE network with the goal of increasing efficiency and enhancing network coverage, call quality and data speeds for customers across the United States. As the wireless landscape continues to rapidly adopt 4G mobile broadband technologies to bring innovation to consumers, Sprint's vision closely aligns with that of 4G Americas.
"Sprint has displayed positive leadership in the deployment of LTE technology. We are certain that they will be a key contributor to establishing a strategic course to drive next generation technologies," Pearson added. "4G Americas is honored to have them as part of the Board of Governors."
In recent news, Sprint announced 41 new 4G LTE markets and expects to cover 250 million people with 4G LTE by mid-year. The company also introduced Sprint Spark™, an enhanced LTE service that is built for data and designed to deliver peak wireless speeds of 60 Mbps on capable devices, with the potential for speeds three times as fast by late next year. With its unique combination of network technologies, spectrum capacity and tri-band devices, Sprint Spark is designed to greatly improve the performance of video and other bandwidth-intensive applications.
"We are thrilled to join 4G Americas to support the advancement of LTE technology in collaboration with leading operators and vendors," said Ron Marquardt, Vice President of Technology at Sprint. "Sprint has proven to be a leading innovator in mobile broadband technologies and takes pride in its vision for the wireless connected future. We look forward to the opportunity to work with 4G Americas to shape the development of next generation services."
4G Americas' Board of Governors members include: Alcatel-Lucent, América Móvil, AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Cisco, CommScope, Entel, Ericsson, HP, Mavenir, Nokia Solutions and Networks, Openwave Mobility, Qualcomm, Rogers, T-Mobile USA, Telefónica and now Sprint.
About 4G Americas: Unifying the Americas through Mobile Broadband Technology
4G Americas is an industry trade organization composed of leading telecommunications service providers and manufacturers. The organization's mission is to advocate for and foster the advancement and full capabilities of the 3GPP family of mobile broadband technologies, including LTE-Advanced, throughout the ecosystem's networks, services, applications and wirelessly connected devices in the Americas. 4G Americas contributes to the success of 3GPP technologies and their No. 1 place in the region. 4G Americas is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. More information is available at www.4gamericas.org or www.facebook.com/4gamericas and www.twitter.com/4gamericas.
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