Sprint boosts rural LTE coverage by teaming up with regional carriers

Your Sprint phone might start performing better than usual in certain rural areas, thanks to the new LTE roaming deals the company just closed with 15 regional carriers. These partnerships fall under the Now Network's rural roaming program, which allow you to tap into the regional carriers' mobile internet connections when you happen to wander into their territories. The program's meant to aid the carrier in competing against Verizon and AT&T, as its current coverage areas are usually confined to urban locations. Even getting unlimited everything for $60 wouldn't be enough to convert people who travel a lot, you know -- or to entice old customers who suffered from extensive service disruption to come back. There are 27 regional carriers in the list from 27 states at the moment (Sprint partnered up with the first 12 in June), including the new ones listed after the break.

• Bluegrass Cellular, serving Kentucky

• Blue Wireless, serving New York and Pennsylvania

• Pine Belt Wireless, serving Alabama

• Pioneer Cellular, serving Oklahoma and Kansas

• Public Service Wireless, serving Alabama and Georgia

• Syringa Wireless, serving Idaho

• Rural Independent Network Alliance (RINA) members and their partners:
  - STRATA Networks, serving Utah, Wyoming and Colorado
  - Silver Star Wireless, serving Wyoming and Idaho
  - All West Wireless Inc., serving Wyoming and Utah
  - NNTC, serving Colorado
  - Snake River Personal Communications Service, serving Oregon
  - CTC Telecom Inc., serving Idaho
  - South Central Communications Inc., serving Utah
  - Custer Telephone Wireless, serving Idaho
  - Breakaway Wireless, serving Utah

[Image: Chris Potter / Flickr]