As Sprint decides what it needs to do about its 4G situation, and how WiMAX will fare as it dips its toes into the LTE pool, we’ve been periodically hearing more about its plans for 2012 and the future. A couple months ago, it was looking like Sprint was hoping to have nationwide LTE deployment by mid-2013, with plans to initially offer service in specific markets by mid-next-year. Now those plans appear to be slightly delayed, with Sprint not expecting to get its first LTE devices until later into 2012.

These revised plans come courtesy of Sprint CFO Joseph Euteneuer. Right now, there’s nothing more definite than sometime in the second half of the year. Even constraining releases to just that time period, Sprint expects to offer 15 LTE devices for sale by the end of the year; that would be quite the ambitious launch, and would go a long way to helping Sprint catch up with the likes of AT&T and Verizon. Keep in mind, though, that 15 figure is almost certainly including USB modems, wireless hotspots, and LTE-enabled tablets; there probably won’t be more than a handful of smartphones available at first.

Source: CNET