Sprint, the fourth largest telecom operator in the US, plans to release 5G smartphones in association with Samsung Electronics during the summer.
A recent report from Consumer Technology Association (CTA) noted that phone vendors will sell 2.1 million units of 5G smartphones in the US and gain $1 billion in revenue in 2019.
Research firm Ovum predicts that North America will have 336,000 5G connections in 2019.
Last month, rival Verizon Communications said it will launch 5G smartphones from Korea-based Samsung on its 5G mobile network in the first half of 2019. 5G can offer data speeds up to 50 or 100 times faster than current 4G networks.
Sprint, a subsidiary of SoftBank of Japan, plans to include nine U.S. cities — Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington D.C. for the 5G networks.
Meanwhile, tech giant Apple is planning to wait until at least 2020 to release its 5G iPhones, Bloomberg reported last month.
Apple’s delay makes it easier for Samsung and Verizon to win customers who are eager to connect to 5G networks.
