As you know, in the mobile space it’s currently all about 4G LTE, and over in the US Sprint has been a bit behind in rolling out their LTE network; however as of Sunday, Sprint rolled out its LTE network in Kansas City, St. Joseph and thirteen other markets in Georgia and Texas.

According to an article over on The Kansas City Star, the above are the first markets to receive the Sprint Long Term Evolution service, a move that kick starts an effort by Sprint to catch up with rival carriers Verizon and AT&T.

Last November both Verizon and AT&T added the Kansas area to their 4G LTE markets, and have gotten ahead of the USA’s number three carrier in rolling out 4G LTE, although Sprint has been selling LTE enabled smartphones along with promoting LTE hot spots ahead of Sunday’s launch.

The senior vice president of networks for Sprint, Bob Azzi has said, “the liftoff is what we were waiting for, to get enough of a footprint where we were proud of what we could put in front of a customer.”

Apparently crews will continue to fill in spots on the edges of markets, and bolster the areas as more people adopt LTE enabled handsets, and Sprint is working on launching LTE in other markets later in the year.

Customers’ 4G LTE coverage on the edge of coverage will be a bit spotty, and a map showing Sprints’ local LTE coverage floods most of the area south of the Missouri river, whilst Azzi says the map represents ‘street’ coverage that might lag inside substantial structures such as brick buildings.

As of today Monday the 16th of July, Sprint customers can check their location’ LTE coverage with an interactive map available on the Sprint website.