Sprint’s massive MIMO network is already on-air in its initial nine launch cities and carrying LTE traffic, and 5G service via the same sites will be officially launched before the end of the first half — in some cases, launches are just weeks away, according to Sprint CTO John Saw. And the carrier is doing AT&T’s “5GE” icon one better: one of its first 5G phones, the LG V50, will have a flashing 5G icon on the back of the phone in Sprint’s signature yellow, so that users can “show off at a street corner,” as Saw put it, and the people around them will be able to see that the device is operating on Sprint 5G.
