According to Sprint, it has already managed to increase the number of markets where it offers its LTE Plus service by two fold. Also, the major US wireless carrier also referenced certain information put forth by Nielsen that ranks Sprint’s network as faster than those of the rest of the Big Four (Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile). Lastly, Sprint also took the opportunity to lambast other methods of evaluating network performance used by its rival carriers.
Sprint first introduced its LTE Plus Network back in November of last year. It was an effort by the wireless carrier to rebrand itself via the roll out of carrier aggregation and beamforming technology. For those not in the know, Sprint’s LTE Plus Network features a hybrid of transmissions in three kinds of spectrum (2.5 GigaHertz, 1.9 GigaHertz, and 800 MegaHertz). As of this writing, Sprint has declared that it has doubled the capacity of LTE Plus, which means that the network now is capable of speeds beyond 100 mbps on supporting mobile devices. Initially, LTE Plus was made available in 77 major markets across the United States. Since its unveiling in 2015, the network has expanded to over 150 locations in the country.
Sprint also made special mention of new information offered by Nielsen Mobile Performance, which constantly looks into the performance of a given network on people’s handsets by way of a mobile app. According to Nielsen’s data, it appears that Sprint, with its LTE Plus Network, has trumped rival networks during the final quarter of last year. Nielsen gathered its information from 75 million download events during the months of October, November, and December in 2015.
On top of all that, Sprint has proceeded to skewer the evaluation methods employed by its competitors in measuring network performance. The company specifically cited Ookla (the measurement method favored by T-Mobile) for not taking into consideration the throttling that goes on in T-Mobile’s Binge On feature, as well as its practice of recording information only when mobile users are proactively participating in a test, i.e. not real world conditions. As for the Root Metrics data frequently cited by industry leader Verizon Wireless, Sprint points out that the information often suggests that there is not much difference in network performance among providers, unlike the wide gap that the Big Red seems to be boasting.
Amidst the news of expansion regarding Sprint’s LTE Plus network also comes tidings that over the last three months, the wireless carrier has laid off more than 800 of its workers at its office in Overland Park in Kansas. The lay offs are said to be part of the company’s expansive effort to cut $2.5 billion in costs.
