Sprint’s 4G wireless service creeping across Triangle

Score one for Charlotte over the Triangle – again!

This time in the never-ending battle for bragging rights, the Queen City has been fully covered by 4G LTE wireless broadband service from Sprint.

So said Sprint on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Triangle is still waiting.

In some places, that is. Not everywhere.

While Sprint announced service in Charlotte as well as other North Carolina cities (Albemarle, Lincolnton, Shelby, Salisbury) and with it available in numerous other N.C. markets (Goldsboro, Fayetteville, etc. – you get the message), the high-tech Triangle waits.

Perhaps we can take some solace in the fact that Los Angeles is just now fully covered by Sprint.

But, all is not lost in the search for faster data.

Depending on where you live or roam, your 4G capable phone just might kick to a different level of service.

A big wireless user in the Triangle reports that as of Thursday: “It’s hard for me to find an area that’s not [showing LTE.]”

Coverage is not complete, however, as he notes “the hand off between LTE and 3G … is still marginal. Data communication typically hangs when passing between the two services. Sometimes drops all together …” But he says that could be a phone problem.

So, while Raleigh, Durham and the rest of the Triangle are not listed on the latest 4G LTE rollout announcement by Sprint, the service is growing into more of a competitive threat to emplaced AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

As WRALTechWire reported last September and again in December, Sprint is upgrading the backhaul needed to service 4G LTE and towers are being loaded with new gear.

“Beginning to see pervasive coverage of LTE on Sprint,” the wireless user told WRALTechWire a couple weeks ago.

“LTE at millbrook & 70, pleasant valley area, Crabtree mall, areas on 540 and 440.

“Speeds continue to impress.”

WRALTechWire recently pinged Sprint again about progress.

The message: Be patient.

“We have not announced timing for an official LTE launch in the Research Triangle Park area of N.C., but I can tell you we do have several 4G LTE sites on air in the Triangle today,” Sprint’s Kelly Schlageter wrote.

“We expect to launch sometime in the summer.

Between now and then, we’ll turn up more sites each week and customers are welcome to use 4G LTE where they find it.”

For the record, here’s the latest Sprint deployment list: