Sprint has announced Sprint Spark, its new tri-band 4G wireless network, which it claims will see speeds of up to 60mbps, twice that of its existing 4G LTE network. Without going into too much unnecessary technical detail, Sprint Spark will actively hop between the 800MHz, 1.9GHz, and 2.5GHz spectrums, making the most of available capacity to provide constant, fast data speeds.
Sounds great, right? It certainly has the potential to be, but to take advantage of Sprint Spark, you’re going to need to own a particular smartphone. Of course, Sprint is more than happy to provide you with a tri-band compatible device, and has announced the forthcoming availability of four new devices.
The range starts out with the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, which will cost $100 with a brand new contract, but only after one of those annoying $50 mail-in rebates. Sprint has priced the Galaxy S4 Mini at $17 per month on Sprint One Up. If the little Galaxy phone is just a bit too basic, spending $200 up front will get you either the LG G2 or the Galaxy Mega 6.3, once you’ve signed a contract. If you choose Sprint One Up, LG’s G2 costs $23 per month, while the Galaxy Mega is $20.
All three of these phones will be on sale November 8, but if you hold out for a while longer, Sprint plans to add the HTC One Max to the Spark line-up. The massive HTC phone isn’t going to come cheap though, and you’ll need $250 in your pocket when you scribble at the bottom of a two-year contract, plus $25 each month on Sprint One Up.
As for Sprint Spark, it’s only available in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Tampa, and Miami at the moment, and will eventually reach 100 cities over the coming three years.
