Sprint may be focusing its build efforts in its existing footprint, but it isn’t neglecting outlying areas completely. The carrier has teamed up with Great North Woods Wireless to expand roaming LTE access to Sprint customers traveling through New Hampshire’s North Country.
According to a press release, Great North Woods Wireless is utilizing ExteNet System’s LTE evolved packet core network architecture to extend data roaming services to Sprint customers. Great North Woods said Sprint is the first Tier-1 carrier to utilize this architecture on its 4G LTE network in Coos County.
“Access to 4G LTE broadband cellular technology is required for commerce, necessary for modern modes of communication, and indispensable to public safety in the 21st Century,” Bob Parsloe, CEO of Great North Woods Wireless, commented. “With the integration of ExteNet’s Network architecture on our Coos County 4G LTE network, customers in northern New Hampshire now have that access.”
Sprint did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the arrangement.
Great North Woods said it is also offering area residents and businesses the ability to get fixed wireless service through TCC Networks.
TCC will reportedly offer fixed wireless Skywire LTE service to the area, eliminating the need for expensive fiber trenching in the sparsely populated region. TCC Networks’ fixed wireless Skywire LTE service will leverage extra band class 4 capacity on Great North Woods’ Coos County network to provide high-speed internet, the company said.
“The addition of Skywire LTE fixed wireless to our current TCC Skywire wireless broadband services significantly increases our coverage area in greater Coos County,” TCC Networks President Donald Dawson noted. “With Skywire LTE, we are able to deliver cost-effective, high-speed internet access to much more of the community, along with LTE redundancy and mobility solutions not yet seen in this area."