The cloud gaming service Hatch has another mobile operator partner with Sprint. The US carrier will offer access to Hatch pre-loaded on its 5G smartphones, including a three-month free trial. Sprint also announced the expansion of its 5G service to new markets and the launch of the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G model.
Hatch is designed for streaming over 5G networks and has already launched with Vodafone in several European markets. It is 80 percent owned by Rovio, the maker of the Angry Birds mobile games.
The service offers a selection of over 100 on-demand mobile games, such as Monument Valley, Beach Buggy Racing and Angry Birds GO!. It will be available on the smartphones Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, LG V50 ThinQ 5G and OnePlus 7 Pro 5G.
The OnePlus model has gone on sale now in 5G markets and will be available across the Sprint retail network from 06 September. It's available for a limited time on a lease contract with zero upfront for USD 20 per month, offering a 40 percent savings on the standard price, Sprint said.
Sprint has already launched 5G mobile service in several large markets and expects to cover around 11 million people in nine cities within the coming weeks. The latest markets to receive the service are New York, LA, Phoenix and Washington, DC, adding to Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City and Chicago.
Sprint said Ookla's Speedtest data shows it has an average 5G download speed of 203.8 Mbps, which is nearly 6x faster than its average LTE download speed of 35.2 Mbps. Sprint is using 64T64R 5G Massive MIMO radios from Nokia. These radios support a feature called split-mode that enables Sprint to simultaneously deliver LTE Advanced and 5G New Radio service.
Customers can also access Hatch on the nationwide LTE-Advanced network. After the free trial period, Hatch costs USD 7.99 per month, with no minimum contract.
