Back in May earlier this year, Sprint had taken the opportunity to officially unveil Magic Box, an LTE Advanced User Equipment (UE) Relay tool produced by AirSpan, which is a firm that specializes in the field of small cell wireless technology. Fast forwarding to three months later, the major US wireless carrier is now crediting the Magic Box, as well other forms of wireless tech, like High Performance User Equipment (HPUE), as integrable in allowing the company to improve its network performance.
According to Sprint, its national download speeds have improved 28 percent in the last seven months, based on data accumulated by Ookla Speedtest Intelligence. The results of Ookla’s tests also show that Sprint has now ranked first in terms of the fastest average download speed in 15 cities, including Atlanta, Denver, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City, and Seattle.
Although Sprint’s Magic Box is a UE Relay tool, it is far from being a mere repeater. The product happens to come with self organizing network (SON) capabilities, and is able to operate on its own channel in Sprint’s spectrum. This gives it the freedom to minimize the noise level, while at the same time improve the capacity of the overall set up. This is what makes it different from repeaters.
As pointed out by Sprint, its Magic Box is now enhancing data connection speeds for thousands of the major US wireless carrier’s subscribers, including those based in Kansas City, North Boone School District, and some users located at the Denver Housing Authority, where Sprint was able to improve download speeds by over 300 percent.
All well and good because of Magic Box, but when exactly will this piece of technology be made available to all users? As explained by a spokesperson for Sprint, Magic Box is now being deployed to subscribers across America, and remarkably, the supply can not quite keep up with the high demand.
Sprint also revealed that it is looking to keep on adding to its portfolio of HPUE compatible handsets, which already includes Samsung’s Galaxy S8, LG’s G6, and HTC’s U11. HPUE is capable of extending the carrier’s current 2.5 GigaHertz coverage by up to 30 percent, allowing better data connection speeds for customers over a more expanded geographic area, and even in indoor settings.
Sprint was one of the leaders in developing HPUE tech in the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI), along with other tech giants like China Mobile, SoftBank, Qualcomm, Samsung, ZTE, Broadcom, MediaTek, Skyworks Solutions, Alcatel, Motorola, LG, and Qorvo.
