Sprint announced a major expansion of its still-nascent LTE network today, with three large markets headlining the Now Network's growing 4G footprint: Los Angeles, Charlotte, and Memphis. 18 other, smaller markets were also announced. Here's the full list.

California, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee seem to be getting the most love in this announcement, with Contra Costa County and Los Angeles making up a rather large chunk of square mileage now blanketed in the warm embrace of four-gee.

• Verizon Expanding Its LTE Market To 6 More Areas Starting Today, For A Total Of 47
• Verizon Wireless' LTE Rollout Is Two Months Ahead Of Schedule, Launching Its 400th Market On October 18th
• [Rumor] Sprint Adds Los Angeles To List Of Planned Network Vision/LTE Markets For 2012
• Verizon Bringing LTE To 34 New Markets On August 16th, Expanding In 38 Others

Sprint Announces 21 New LTE Markets, Including Rollouts In Three Major Regions was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Network Vision has been a fairly slow process for Sprint, but the carrier is flipping the LTE switch in nine new markets today.

• Altoona, Pa.
• Asheville, N.C.
• Columbus, Ind.
• Elkhart/Goshen, Ind.
• Hammond, La.
• La Crosse, Wis.
• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Statesville, N.C.
• Temple, Texas

This brings The Now Network's LTE footprint up to a whopping 67 markets, some one-point-seven gazillion short of Verizon, five-hundred-million behind that of AT&T, and negative sixty-six short of T-Mobile's LTE network count (on a good day). Note: those numbers are estimates, and may not be exact. 

The company is still working on testing and implementing its high-speed network in other areas across the country, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.

• Sprint Rolls Out LTE To More Cities, Begins Network Vision Rollout In Chicago, New York, And Los Angeles
• Sprint Brings LTE To Boston, Austin, Western Puerto Rico, And More, Fails To Achieve Triple Rhyme Bonus
• [Rumor] Sprint Adds Los Angeles To List Of Planned Network Vision/LTE Markets For 2012
• AT&T Lights Up Its 4G LTE Network In 11 New Cities, Including New York, San Francisco, And Los Angeles

Sprint LTE Goes Live Today In Nine New Markets was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Mobile data hotspots aren't the world's most exciting products, though if you travel consistently, they can be an absolute lifesaver. But let's be brutally honest: the average mobile data consumer really doesn't care about the hotspot itself - as long as it works. They care about the network, and the monthly pricing. That's really it.

The hotspot is basically just a tiny little Wi-Fi router with a cellular modem and a lithium-ion battery inside. If it functions properly, you only remember it exists when the battery dies. If it doesn't, it's the worst thing in the universe, and you actively contemplate just how many pieces it would shatter into after a fall from the 4th story window of Homewood Suites.

• AT&T: The Samsung Galaxy Express Will Be Available Nov. 16 For $100
• Free Android WiFi Tether For Root Users App Now Supports WPA2 And Full Hotspot (Infrastructure) Capabilities On EVO 4G
• PSA: Using An Unapproved Tether App On Your Verizon Device? Expect To Have Your Data Session Cut Off With An Upsale
• We Go Hands-On With The Sprint Mobile Hotspot App On HTC EVO 4G [Post Google I/O Coverage]

AT&T MiFi Liberate Hotspot Review: It Has LTE, A Touchscreen, And Amazing Battery Life - Any More Questions? was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

If you're a T-Mobile customer with an LTE-enabled phone (with Band 4 connectivity) in the Kansas City area, you may be able to pull down some four-gee goodness starting today. Over at XDA, one member has managed to establish an LTE connection with his unlocked AT&T Galaxy Note, which supports Band 4 LTE. Speed test results and connection info follow.

While the speed isn't particularly impressive right now, T-Mobile's LTE is likely in late pre-launch testing in this market, so the switch may not be fully flipped just yet. Kansas City was expected to be one of T-Mo's first LTE markets, after Las Vegas.

• Sprint's LTE Network Just Went Live In Kansas City - More Markets To Follow?
• T-Mobile Set To Launch LTE Network Within Days In Las Vegas, To Be Followed Soon By Kansas City
• T-Mobile Bringing 4G HSPA+ To 10 New Cities, 42Mbps To Vegas, Orlando, and New York
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE Coming To AT&T On November 20th, Along With Six New LTE Markets

Limited T-Mobile LTE Service Goes Live (Probably For Testing) In Kansas City Area was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

For most people, wireless spectrum is a topic best discussed right before bed with a warm glass of milk. It is boring. But it's important. While landline internet is, as we know, a series of tubes, wireless internet is more like a giant fleet of invisible flying trucks... or something.

To put it plainly, long-range, high-bandwidth spectrum usable with cell phones is a finite resource. Now, the scarcity of that resource in reality is very debatable - vast swaths of basically unused (or severely underutilized) wireless spectrum are in this range, much of it belonging to the military, public safety, television, and various executive agencies.

• Verizon To Begin Using Its AWS Band Spectrum For LTE This Summer, Start Selling AWS-Friendly Phones Soon
• T-Mobile, Shockingly, Unhappy With Verizon's Spectrum Hoarding, Asks FCC To Block Acquisition Of Cable Companies' Holdings
• Editorial: The $3.6 Billion Spectrum Sale To Verizon That Was Just Approved Is Kind Of Really Shady
• Verizon And T-Mobile Strike Agreement To Swap Spectrum, T-Mobile Reiterates Plans For LTE Next Year

Verizon Sells Lower 700MHz B Block To AT&T For $1.9 Billion (And Some AWS Spectrum) - Here's What That Means was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

LTE is probably like getting a glass of ice water in hell for Sprint customers after the flop that was WiMAX, so announcements of expanded 4G coverage are doubly welcome on the Now Network. Sprint let fly today that 28 new markets will be getting the four-gees in 'the coming months,' and here's the list.

This particular portion of the LTE buildout seems focused on the southland, though there are a few outliers sprinkled in there as well.

• AT&T Turns On LTE In 20 More Markets Including, Shreveport, Chattanooga, And Huntsville
• Sprint Rolls Out LTE To More Cities, Begins Network Vision Rollout In Chicago, New York, And Los Angeles
• Verizon Rolling Out New 4G LTE Markets And Expanding Current Ones On August 18th
• AT&T Launches Several New LTE Markets, Expands In A Few Others

Sprint Announces 28 New LTE Markets Going Live 'In The Coming Months' was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

If you're an AT&T subscriber who is yet to "do more faster" with the provider's LTE network, you might just be in luck. AT&T has announced new LTE availability in six cities across the country today, along with expansion in the Greater Seattle Area and one county in Maryland.

Here's a quick look at cities where AT&T LTE has officially lighted up (click them to see AT&T's city-specific press release):

• Denver, Colorado
• Daytona Beach, Florida
• York, Pennsylvania
• Tacoma, Washington
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Louisville, Kentucky

Certainly, there are still plenty of cities and markets waiting for AT&T to flip more switches, but it's always nice to see that AT&T is continuing its expansion of LTE service (as it plans to do throughout the rest of 2012 and 2013), and those without AT&T LTE coverage still have a shot with HSPA+ speeds.

• T-Mobile Continues Surprisingly Vigorous Campaign Of HSPA+ Expansion; To Add 19 New Cities By July 21st
• Verizon Rolling Out New 4G LTE Markets And Expanding Current Ones On August 18th
• U.S. Cellular Announces New LTE Markets For 2013, Should Cover 87 Percent Of Customers By Year's End
• T-Mobile Bringing 4G HSPA+ To 10 New Cities, 42Mbps To Vegas, Orlando, and New York

AT&T Marks LTE Service In Six New Cities 'Available' was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Six months ahead of all competitors, EE - a joint-venture between Orange and T-Mobile - is launching the UK's first LTE network today. The initial launch rollout will cover 11 major cities: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Sheffield, and Southampton.

EE is promising at least 2,000 square miles of coverage expansion every month (which is probably a better coverage metric for the UK), with 5 more cities to be covered by year's end.

EE has a decided advantage over its competitors due to a spectrum crunch even worse than the one currently going on in the US, with T-Mobile and Orange using spectrum refarming to work around the lack of new airwaves.

• Sprint Turns On Several LTE Networks In Virginia, Massachusetts, Indiana, And More
• Verizon To Begin Using Its AWS Band Spectrum For LTE This Summer, Start Selling AWS-Friendly Phones Soon
• EE Launches 4G In Nine More Towns And Cities Across The UK, Including Coventry, Preston And Walsall
• EE To Bring 4G To 16 UK Cities By The End Of The Year, Launch Devices Include The Samsung Galaxy S III LTE And HTC One XL

EE 4G LTE Launches In The UK Today was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

If you haven't heard by now, the Nexus 4 doesn't have LTE. It probably won't ever have it, either, based on what Andy Rubin told The Verge regarding the latest Nexus handset's network situation in an interview. 

He talks a lot about "tactics" and "user experience" (read: battery life), but it really boils down to one issue: money. The fact that the unlocked 8GB version of the Nexus 4 is just $300 is absolutely crazy. Looking at the hardware, this is easily a $600 phone. Having used an Optimus G (the platform this phone is based on), I already know this is a truly premium device.

• The Wait Is Over - Android 2.2 Froyo Source Out Today!!!
• Android Head Andy Rubin Not Leaving Google As Rumored, Cites 900,000 Android Activations Each Day
• [MWC 2013] Andy Rubin, Finger To The Side Of His Nose, Says Google Has No Plans For Retail Stores
• Android Keeps Rolling Forward: 3.7 Million Devices Activated Over Christmas Weekend

Why Doesn't The Nexus 4 Have LTE? Here's Google's Explanation, And Why It Sort Of Makes Sense was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

Hey Sprinsters - guess what? The Now Network has some more LTE markets for you. It's a short list, but at least they're making progress, right?

• Chicago Area Suburbs: Addison, Bolingbrook, Des Plaines, Downers Grove, Kankakee, Rockford, Joliet, Naperville, Palatine and Plainfield
• Gary, IN
• Hutchinson and McPherson, KS
• New Bedford and Fall River, MA
• Wichita Falls, TX

If you're still waiting on Sprint's LTE to hit your area (which should be quite a few of you), don't sweat it. The network has already released a rollout schedule for the next few months - if you didn't make the cut this time, maybe you'll have better luck in the near future.

• Verizon Wireless Launching 4G LTE In 26 New Markets On September 15th
• Sprint Rolls Out LTE To More Cities, Begins Network Vision Rollout In Chicago, New York, And Los Angeles
• Sprint Launches New Network Site, Lets You See Enhancements In Your Area
• Sprint's LTE Network Just Went Live In Kansas City - More Markets To Follow?

Sprint Expands Its LTE Network To Five More Markets In Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, And Texas was written by the awesome team at Android Police.