New York City finally has received 4G LTE cell phone service, just not the entire city, CNET.com reported.
Of the five boroughs, only Brooklyn and the Bronx will be fully connected to Sprint's 4G LTE network on July 30, the cell service provider announced.
Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island will have to wait, but Sprint did say the ultra-fast network would grow "in the coming months." Executives at Sprint said there are pockets of 4G LTE throughout the city, but the volume is not high enough to declare the whole city connected.
The new announcement and only partial coverage of the city indicated the challenges to connecting a large city as densely packed as New York to the nation's fastest cell service.
Sprint announced in September that New York City would be one of 100 cities connected to 4G LTE in the coming months. Nearly a year later, only part of the city is lit up and the company was not specific of when the rest of the city would receive the service.
Sprint is also in the midst of connecting the city's 277 subway stations with cell service, allowing people to use their smartphone's data while underground.
AT&T and T-Mobile had already offered service in select subway stations, but Sprint and Verizon are now aiming, with help from Transit Wireless, at providing cell reception for all.
The announcement came Wednesday, PC Magazine reported, and said Sprint customers would likely have to wait until early 2014 to be able to use mobile data in the city's underground stations.
City officials announced in April that the four major wireless carriers and Transit Wireless, which owns and operates the subway system's wireless network, launched voice and data service in 30 subway stations and platforms.
"As we build out our new network, adding the vast underground New York City subway system brings a whole new level of connectivity to our customers, whether they're consumers, public safety representatives, first responders or city workers," Greg O'Connor, vice president of engineering at Sprint, said in a statement. "We look forward to providing an enjoyable connected experience for the 1.65 billion visitors and straphangers who ride the NYC subway annually."
