Sprint and Nokia are scrambling to get 5G service up and running in America’s most populated cities after missing their deadline to launch commercial service in New York City, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. by the end of July.

The markets, which include three of America’s five most populous cities, are also Sprint’s first 5G markets to use equipment from Nokia. The network operator, which is in a bit of a holding pattern as it waits to finalize its merger with T-Mobile US, beat its previous deadline to launch 5G service in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Kansas City before the end of May, and it followed that with a 5G launch in Chicago that can cover up to 700,000 people.

Sprint’s first handful of 5G markets are riding on equipment from Ericsson and Samsung. Nokia, which declined to comment for this story, appears to be causing delays in New York City, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C.

Sprint is in the final stages of testing with Nokia in the four markets and anticipates commercial availability before the end of the month, a spokesperson told SDxCentral. The operator declined to comment on the reason for the delay, other than to say it’s only a matter of days or weeks — not months — before the 5G service will be live.

PCMag and Light Reading previously reported on Sprint's 5G delays.

Delays of this nature are important if they are tied to new service offerings, according to Will Townsend, senior analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. It could also delay other offerings anchored to 5G, which creates an opportunity cost for the vendor, he wrote in response to questions. 

“I don’t view this as an ongoing problem, but Nokia continues to struggle relative to competitors such as Ericsson and Samsung Networks with respect to software defined tool deployment. I believe they will close the gap over time,” Townsend explained. 

Most operators will work with multiple vendors to gain leverage for competitive pricing, but it also affords them more options if a vendor consistently fails to meet expectations. “If this becomes a pattern in other geographies in Europe and Asia, it could jeopardize future business,” he said. “Carriers could pivot away from Nokia fairly easy if there’s a loss of confidence.”

As of late July, Nokia had 45 commercial 5G deals and nine live networks. Huawei says it has secured 50 commercial 5G contracts, and Ericsson has publicly announced 24 5G contracts to date. Despite its apparent equipment delays, Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri has claimed the vendor is winning two-thirds of 5G contracts against its rival Ericsson.

T-Mobile US is working with Ericsson and Nokia on its entire 5G build. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint have split their 5G contracts three ways with Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung all supplying gear and software for their respective networks.

“Nokia is extremely conservative and likely the latest [software] release did not meet its release requirements,” Townsend said, commenting on the Sprint 5G network delays. “If there are bugs — better they work them out before [general availability] and not wreck operator networks. Bear in mind the majority of 5G deployments will be [non-standalone] and they can’t risk cratering LTE.”