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Sprint Will Audiocast Rumored iPhone 5 Event, Confirms 4G Announcement

sprint’s PR department updated the iPhone 5 News Blog today with a little bit of news regarding their scheduled October 7th media event, which many in the media believe will be used to announce the launch of the iPhone 5 on the “Now Network.” According to a Sprint PR representative, the October 7th event will feature an audiocast, confirming that they “will be putting out info on the audiocast shortly.” The iPhone 5 News Blog will be monitoring Sprint’s official news page for further details on how to follow the webcast for the event.
In addition, Sprint also confirmed that the media event would indeed be focused on Sprint’s 4G network, saying that “this is an event for financial analysts to update them on our 4G strategy and plans.” To this point, the Sprint 4G announcement has remained a rumor, but we can now confirm that Sprint will tout a new 4G infrastructure to investors.
Sprint declined to comment about the iPhone 5, or whether their 4G plans have been adversely affected by the failure of 4G wireless partner LightSquared, who were slated to pay Sprint over $9 billion for use of their 4G infrastructure.
Sprint, Nexus S First To Launch Google Wallet In U.S. — NFC Coming To iPhone 5?
In other recent news, Sprint surprisingly became the first U.S. mobile carrier to launch Google Wallet on the Android-powered Nexus S. In their press release, they boast of the technology as “an app that enables consumers to transform their phones into their wallets and make purchases with a simple tap. Sprint is the first carrier and Nexus S 4G is the first phone in the United States to deliver this convenient, innovative service that lets shoppers tap-to-pay at hundreds of thousands of participating retailers, including American Eagle Outfitters, the Container Store, Macy’s, Foot Locker and Subway.”
You can read the entire press release here.
The launch of NFC payments on Sprint’s Nexus S 4G is a sore reminder of the rumored NFC-related technologies that iPhone users would very much like to see present on the iPhone 5. Early on, NFC was a hot topic in the iPhone 5 rumor mill, but has trailed off over the past couple months in the wake of the growing frustration over the iPhone 5 release delay, as well as persistent rumors that the next iPhone could in fact turn out to be a refreshed iPhone 4.
You can read all of our previous NFC articles here.
At present, the news regarding NFC for the iPhone 5 hasn’t been resoundingly positive. In a recent article from Computerworld, Richi Jennings comments, “no love for a possible NFC-enabled iPhone 5.” For as much as NFC hasn’t been touted lately in the iPhone 5 rumor mill, there are plenty of users who will be disappointed if the next iPhone fails to offer a wireless payment option.
In any event, Sprint racks up perhaps the first of a string of wins in the smartphone market with Google Wallet. Let’s see if Apple counters it with their own solution.

This post was written by: Irfan Jam

Irfan Jam is a professional blogger, web designer and front end web developer. Follow him on Facebook