Sprint Corp, the American telecommunication and wireless service provider recently announced a partnership with the South Korean multinational electronics company LG Electronics. Sources claim that the collaboration is aimed toward the launch of a 5G smartphone in the first half of 2019.

The announcement comes at a time when Sprint is trying to convince antitrust regulators to approve a merger with its rival T-Mobile. The merger has reportedly amounted to $26 billion and the companies believe that the completion of the merger will speed up the generation of a next-generation wireless network which is eventually expected to pave the way for advanced technologies like autonomous cars.

Chief technology officer at Sprint, Dr. John Saw, credited LG for having worked fabulously in developing technical designs that will enable Sprint to be among the first to bring 5G smartphones to the market, while stating that Sprint is indeed making fast progress on the road to 5G. Dr. Saw added that Sprint is expecting to transform the smartphone industry as the introduction of the new technology will dramatically improve the way Sprint customers stay connected.

According to Telecom Asia, Sprint’s 5G mobile network will be available in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Kansas City, Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Phoenix initially. Later on though, Sprint plans to make the network available in additional markets.

Reliable reports claim that the LG phone will be customized to Sprint's planned 5G network, and is touted to be compatible with T-Mobile on its current 4G network. The exact price of the new phone and the launch date will be announced later.

Recently Sprint introduced an offer which bundles unlimited wireless plans to video streaming platform Hulu in an effort to attract customers with content. Sprint’s director of product development, John Tudhope, has been quoted to say that 5G will bring more value to content as the download time is bound to become much faster.