Talk of Sprint's upcoming LTE network has been on the rise over the last several weeks, with Dan Hesse himself announcing the first four cities (Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio) to gain the ultra-fast network, and Kansas and Baltimore being added to the list shortly after.

We're now hearing word that the San Francisco Bay Area is likely to gain Sprint LTE before the end of 2012, with construction of the network already underway. The Bay area rollout will cover nearly 900 sites and take approximately six months to complete, putting the estimated launch date for the finished product sometimes in October or November.

Fortunately, The Now Network should be turning on each site as it's completed, so users who upgrade to an LTE device before the rollout is finished should be able to begin reaping its benefits little by little as construction progresses.

It's worth mentioning that, while the information appears to be accurate, this one is still floating around in the "rumor" pool, and should be treated as such until Sprint makes the official announcement itself.

[S4GRU]