Accelerated rollout of LTE (Long Term Evolution

Sprint officials today announced an accelerated rollout of LTE (Long Term Evolution, latest standard in the mobile network technology) wireless research on Friday -- and said that it will continue to support its millions of Wimax smartphone and device clients beyond 2012.

Sprint officials told analysts that the company's LTE network will begin rolling out in some markets in mid-2012, and that it would reach some 275 million potential U.S. clients by early 2014.

The Sprint network strategy update

During the Sprint network strategy update, which was as well Webcast, CEO Dan Hesse said that Sprint will continue selling Wimax-based smartphones and devices running for the Clearwire network through 2012. Srint will support the Wimax devices for an unspecified period beyond 2012, he added.

But Steve Elfman, president of network operations, said today that the rollout is "more likely a two to three year plan" that would be normally complete by the end of 2013.

The first LTE smartphones coming in mid-2012 will include Qualcomm innovation running over the 1900 MHz wireless spectrum, Elfman said, without offering furthermore details.

Wimax, first launched as Sprint's first 4G network in October 2008, gave Sprint a "first to market" advantage, Sprint officials said.

Verizon has said its LTE network offers downloads of data at 5 Mbps to 12 Mbps, during AT&T has not disclosed download speeds for its LTE network.

Sprint, whose Wimax network operates at up to 9 Mbps for downloads, hasn't stated what its LTE speeds are expected to be. Sprint officials did toll analysts Friday that the LTE network will be somewhat faster than its Wimax offering.

Sprint has a two-year, $1 billion agreement to use Clearwire's Wimax network service through 2012, Hesse said, adding that Clearwire is as well moving to a different version of LTE from Sprint as then.

Sprint expects to save $11 billion in the straightway six years with its so-called Network Vision project, first announced last year.

The Network Vision project will consolidate Sprint's existing 3G CDMA network switches and cell tower antenna infrastructure with the coming 4G LTE network.

It as well phases out the iDen network in 2013 that has been used to support Push-to-Talk devices as a rule used by service workers. Sprint launched PTT over its CDMA network on Oct. 2 during introducing a new ruggedized PTT phone.

The retired iDen network will free up 800 MHz spectrum that Sprint said it will "harvest" it for other purposes however being considered.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen , or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com .