Beating its deadline by a day, Sprint made good on its promise to deliver 5G services in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Kansas City before the end of May. The operator, which is waiting for regulators to make a decision on its proposed merger with T-Mobile US, also restated plans to expand its 5G network to Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. in the “coming weeks.”

When all nine markets are live, Sprint’s 5G network will span approximately 2,180 square miles with a potential coverage of 11.5 million people, according to the operator.

“Sprint 5G is here and we’re proud to give customers true mobility and the largest initial footprint in the country,” CEO Michel Combes said in a prepared statement. “This is a momentous day and just the start of what we can achieve with T-Mobile, together building a better, faster, nationwide mobile 5G network that benefits all U.S. businesses and consumers.”

T-Mobile US plans to make 5G service commercially available next year, which would make it the fourth and last of the top tier U.S. operators to launch 5G.

While Sprint is struggling to catch up to its competitors on multiple fronts, the operator has pointed to its "broad mobile 5G deployment" as a key point of differentiation. AT&T and Verizon haven’t disclosed the coverage areas of their initial 5G deployments, which means Sprint can now claim to have the largest 5G footprint in the country until the top two operators prove otherwise.

Sprint’s largest 5G network footprint is in the Dallas metropolitan area where it covers about 575 square miles and 1.6 million people, according to the carrier. Sprint says its 5G network also covers 225 square miles and 625,000 people in Kansas City; 165 square miles and 800,000 people in Houston; and 150 square miles and 565,000 people in Atlanta.

The operator says its 5G network utilizes massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radios from Ericsson, which allows the operator to provide simultaneous 5G New Radio (NR) and 4G LTE Advanced services to its customers. The radios and Sprint’s initial 5G network are running exclusively on the carrier's 2.5 GHz spectrum.

Devices from LG and HTC that can access the new network will be available for purchase to Sprint customers in 5G markets starting tomorrow and the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G will be available for purchase “beginning this summer,” according to the operator.