Sprint works to revamp service before Super Bowl

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has described the company’s years-long project of building a new mobile broadband network as being like working on a NASCAR race car while it’s speeding around the track.

That challenge also explains Sprint’s efforts to catch up with other mobile networks and bring its 4G LTE service and the enhanced speeds of Sprint Spark to the Phoenix market in time for the 2015 Super Bowl.

The term “4G” refers to the fourth generation of mobile communications technology, and LTE is an abbreviation for long-term evolution, a standard for 4G service.

Sprint, which has worked for years to improve its service, trails its rivals — Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile — in the latest J.D. Power study of wireless-network quality.

To improve local service, Sprint has already deployed about 40 percent of its 4G LTE infrastructure in the Valley. An announcement on a full rollout and adding Sprint Spark is expected later this year, Sprint officials said.

“This is a complete rip and replace” of Sprint’s network base stations and cell towers rather than an upgrade of existing equipment, Sprint spokesman Randy Spolter said.

Sprint officials were in the Valley this week to explain the company’s Network Vision, an all-new network, and its effort to make the network available to 250 million people nationwide, up from 200 million, by

See SPRINT, Page B7