Sprint says its LTE Plus is the most improved wireless network this year

Sprint Chief Operating Officer Günther Ottendorfer boasted today that Sprint's LTE Plus is the most improved network of 2017. The executive wrote that year-over-year its average download speed rose by 33%. In 25 of its 99 top markets, average download speed rose by 40% to 100% based on data taken from Ookla's Speedtest Intelligence. According to the COO, part of the improvement was due to the employment of more 2.5GHz spectrum by the carrier. Ottendorfer says that the more spectrum Sprint uses for its LTE Plus network, the faster the network becomes.

One new tool soon to be in use on Sprint's LTE Plus network is Massive MIMO, which will debut in the first half of 2018. This adds additional data connections between a cell tower and a handset, increasing the carrier's capacity and allowing data speeds to increase. Currently in use is multiple carrier aggregation and beamforming. The former increases capacity and data speeds by combining different swatches of spectrum owned by Sprint in a particular market. With beamforming, LTE signals can be sent to cover a specific area. This also increases the capacity of Sprint's LTE Plus network.

Sprint released examples of how download data speed increased sharply year-over-year in ten cities. Those markets include:

• Atlanta – Up 86% to 32 Mbps
• LA Metro – Up 55% to 23 Mbps
• Chicago – Up 61% to 32 Mbps
• Minnesota – Up 64% to 29 Mbps
• Colorado – Up 44% to 25 Mbps
• San Diego – Up 48% to 20 Mbps
• Houston – Up 43% to 22 Mbps
• Seattle – Up 40% to 35 Mbps
• Indianapolis – Up 61% to 35 Mbps
• Washington DC – Up 45% to 20 Mbps

Is Sprint turning things around? Two months ago, the company reported its first quarterly profit in three years. Of course, one report is just that, one report. But with signs of an improvement in its network and with its financial results, it would appear that the nation;s fourth largestc arrier has bottomed out and is ready to make a turnaround.

source: Sprint