C Spire Wireless, the United States’ sixth largest mobile network operator by subscribers, has announced that it has started deploying additional low-band spectrum across its 4G network in order to improve data transmission speeds. The cellco, which activated its 1900MHz LTE network in September 2012, will augment around 500 existing cell sites with 700MHz and 850MHz spectrum over the next nine months. Customers will see coverage improvements throughout the company’s Mississippi footprint, but especially in rural areas, major traffic corridors in central, northern and southwestern parts of the state, the Delta, and the Gulf Coast. In announcing the development, C Spire chief technology officer Stephen Bye noted that in the main, its service area comprises large swathes of undeveloped rural land with a lower population density; a typical cell site that uses low-band spectrum can cover a much broader geographic area than multiple sites using mid-band spectrum, he observed.