Sprint 4G (LTE) Question

[jonathanm1978]

LTE isn't yet in my area (central alabama, in the middle between Birmingham and Montgomery) and not sure when it might roll-out to this area...but here's my question...

Verizon has a tower just up the road (actually, they lease space from AT&T and use their tower), but at any rate, when I leave the range of my Airave at home, I'm roaming now with 5 full bars and 3G...on my SGS3.

So I'm just curious, if Verizon brings 4G to this area, which is REALLY likely before Sprint gets Network Vision installed here, will my phone do 4G when I hit Verizon and begin roaming?
If it does, I may just unplug my Airave 3G and use the roaming 4G from time-to-time when I want to play with faster speeds.
I'm just not sure if they are based on the same technology or not...I picked up my SGS3 Thursday, and since I know for a fact that 4G isn't anywhere around here, I've turned off the LTE and put mine to hit CDMA only for data...I figure it might help with battery life if it's not trying to connect to 4G (or searching for it)...when I know it's here, I'll turn it back on.

 

[Paul627g]

As far as I know you can't use another carriers 4g signal like Verizon. Different frequencies, etc.

Anyone feel free to correct me.

 

[naes]

As far as I know you can't use another carriers 4g signal like Verizon. Different frequencies, etc.

Anyone feel free to correct me.

I think you're right.. there is no way you can share a verizon signal on sprint and vice-versa.. thats for sure though

 

[Paul627g]

3g CDMA can be shared just like GSM models can share but LTE (4g) signal are frequency specific which is built into the modem/radio chip.

 

[camiller]

Yep, as I understand it the LTE (1900Mhz) radio in Sprints current phones is only using Sprints frequency and not Verizons (700Mhz). Furthermore, in the more distant future when Sprint finally kills of it's IDEN network and starts re-purposing that frequency block (800Mhz) for LTE these first gen LTE phones will not work on those frequencies either. Of course by then you will be upgrading to a new phone that can seamlessly use both frequencies anyway and hopefully by then multi-carrier LTE roaming will also be available.