OpenSignal Report 2/2016

[Terrell352]

http://www.opensignal.com/reports/2016/02/usa/state-of-the-mobile-network/

[dkyeager]

Latency is Sprint's strong point, which should only improve as Clear sites are converted. I expect Sprint will breakup the long microwave chains into shorter configurations, or at least add more fiber locations.  More B25 10x10 and B41 third carrier will help with speed.

[WiWavelength]

With Sascha Segan, it is always about T-Mobile...

 

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2498693,00.asp

 

AJ

[Terrell352]

Latency is Sprint's strong point, which should only improve as Clear sites are converted. I expect Sprint will breakup the long microwave chains into shorter configurations, or at least add more fiber locations. More B25 10x10 and B41 third carrier will help with speed.

From my findings that low latency is coming from Sprint's band 25/26. I have rarely seen band 41 below 60ms even on nokia equipment. When band 41 becomes more widely available I believe Sprints download will increase and ping will get worse.

[S4GRU]

From my findings that low latency is coming from Sprint's band 25/26. I have rarely seen band 41 below 60ms even on nokia equipment. When band 41 becomes more widely available I believe Sprints download will increase and ping will get worse.

I consistently find B41 pings below 40 ms on B41. Sometimes even in the teens. The biggest factors are the backhaul used and the data center it's being routed to. If the DDC that is processing your B41 sites is far away, has a bottleneck, poor routing or some issues with its internet connection itself, it could consistently increase pings. It is not unusual for B41 and B25/26 to be routed to different DDC's. Especially when you have mixed vendors like Ericsson/Nokia.

 

But when I travel and use B41, I see fast consistent pings on most Sprint B41 sites. However, it is a crap shoot on Clear B41 sites, in my observations. Some will be in the teens, some will be 50-60ms, some will be pushing 100 or more. But don't get me started on AT&T pings. Boy howdy.

 

Using Tapatalk on Note 8.0

[Terrell352]

I consistently find B41 pings below 40 ms on B41. Sometimes even in the teens. The biggest factors are the backhaul used and the data center it's being routed to. If the DDC that is processing your B41 sites is far away, has a bottleneck, poor routing or some issues with its internet connection itself, it could consistently increase pings. It is not unusual for B41 and B25/26 to be routed to different DDC's. Especially when you have mixed vendors like Ericsson/Nokia.

 

But when I travel and use B41, I see fast consistent pings on most Sprint B41 sites. However, it is a crap shoot on Clear B41 sites, in my observations. Some will be in the teens, some will be 50-60ms, some will be pushing 100 or more. But don't get me started on AT&T pings. Boy howdy.

 

Using Tapatalk on Note 8.0

At&t pings here are not bad but most certainly not the best. Every band 41 speed test I tried it on was in the Orlando market and not one of them are below 60. From the Villages to downtown Orlando. Must be a lot of  DDC issues in central Florida.

[clbowens]

From my findings that low latency is coming from Sprint's band 25/26. I have rarely seen band 41 below 60ms even on nokia equipment. When band 41 becomes more widely available I believe Sprints download will increase and ping will get worse.

The B41 speeds test here are consistently in the 20s or low 30s ms.  And that's with a around -114 B41 signal strength.

[Terrell352]

The B41 speeds test here are consistently in the 20s or low 30s ms.  And that's with a around -114 B41 signal strength.

Who is Cleveland's vendor?

[clbowens]

Who is Cleveland's vendor?

Samsung, I believe.

[Ascertion]

At&t pings here are not bad but most certainly not the best. Every band 41 speed test I tried it on was in the Orlando market and not one of them are below 60. From the Villages to downtown Orlando. Must be a lot of DDC issues in central Florida.

This is a Sprint one in Jax.

 

Now sure what the deal is but when I switched to the Nexus 5x, my pings went down considerably from my HTC One M8.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

[Terrell352]

Samsung, I believe.

 

 

This is a Sprint one in Jax.

 

 

Now sure what the deal is but when I switched to the Nexus 5x, my pings went down considerably from my HTC One M8.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

That's odd. Has anyone been to Orlando with pings this low? I know in Tampa pings are in the 40's on average with the occasional dip into the 30's

[S4GRU]

At&t pings here are not bad but most certainly not the best. Every band 41 speed test I tried it on was in the Orlando market and not one of them are below 60. From the Villages to downtown Orlando. Must be a lot of DDC issues in central Florida.

The DDC itself may not be the issue. It might be that Tampa and Orlando B41 sites are connected to the same DDC. But if they are using different backhaul vendors, that could be the issue. Or the routing to the same DDC is different, with the slower one having a longer route or going through a problem switch.

 

And I really hate to say 'problem.' As it's just that the routing adds 20-30 ms.

 

Using Tapatalk on Note 8.0

[mnjeepmale]

Think Sprint stock is taking a little hit on this report today.

[dnwk]

That's odd. Has anyone been to Orlando with pings this low? I know in Tampa pings are in the 40's on average with the occasional dip into the 30's

 

Did you realize that on the top of the screenshot, it says LTE band4.

[dnwk]

So what did Sprint do differently to give it a boost on ping?

[Terrell352]

Did you realize that on the top of the screenshot, it says LTE band4.

Yeah. He switched to T-Mobile recently but that was a screenshot of a pic he took back in Jan before he had switched.

 

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[NYC126]

Sprint needs a lot of work, and the pace with that NGN needs to pick up fast. The tech blogs are beating them badly today. I didn't expect anything different since they need a carrier to hate, and Sprint is the one.

 

There are a lot of old Sprint single bands 25 device out there GS3, HTC Evo LTE, and M7. Those devices plus Sprint coverage holes having affecting this study. Also Kevin fitchard is a Sprint hater since his days at Gigaom. I hate to say it but Sprint has a big network perception problem. Pink Mobile can assault Net neutrality, and they will keep getting a pass from these jokers.

[kg4icg]

A little love from Walkersville, MD.

 

Sent from my LGLS996 using Tapatalk

[Ascertion]

So what did Sprint do differently to give it a boost on ping?

IIRC, Sprint has a global IP setup that is utilized I think for shorter transit times (ie: reduced latency.)

https://www.sprint.net/images/network_maps/full/Global-Global-IP.png

 

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

[EvanA]

IIRC, Sprint has a global IP setup that is utilized I think for shorter transit times (ie: reduced latency.)

https://www.sprint.net/images/network_maps/full/Global-Global-IP.png

 

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

Might have a small effect in specific cases, but AT&T and Verizon both have much larger wireline networks and their latencies are worse.

[JonnygATL]

Yeah, this report definitely was a thorn in Sprint's side today.  And, of course, the tech media went rabid with it.

 

With the recent report coming out less than one month ago that Sprint's LTE Plus network is faster on the download than the other 3, I can see how some people might be confused as well.  This open signal report said Sprint's average download speed was less than 7 mbps and that isn't entirely true, depending on the exact metric being employed.  

 

Whereas the Nielsen report measured the download speeds encountered when actively connected to the LTE plus network (thereby removing from the equation any 3G data whatsoever), the Open Signal report sought to identify average download speeds across all technologies across each of the 4 major networks.  I think that is an important distinction that I am sure most of us here are aware of but that the average American certainly does not get.

 

That said, I can understand how many might say that the Open Signal report is more indicative of the true state of the Sprint network as a whole, and they might well be correct.  However, the data speaks for itself from the Nielsen report as well: when connected to a 2xCA enabled site, the Sprint network is faster than the competition.  And that's still a huge deal. 

 

#STILLgettingbettereveryday

[Terrell352]

Yeah, this report definitely was a thorn in Sprint's side today. And, of course, the tech media went rabid with it.

 

With the recent report coming out less than one month ago that Sprint's LTE Plus network is faster on the download than the other 3, I can see how some people might be confused as well. This open signal report said Sprint's average download speed was less than 7 mbps and that isn't entirely true, depending on the exact metric being employed.

 

Whereas the Nielsen report measured the download speeds encountered when actively connected to the LTE plus network (thereby removing from the equation any 3G data whatsoever), the Open Signal report sought to identify average download speeds across all technologies across each of the 4 major networks. I think that is an important distinction that I am sure most of us here are aware of but that the average American certainly does not get.

 

That said, I can understand how many might say that the Open Signal report is more indicative of the true state of the Sprint network as a whole, and they might well be correct. However, the data speaks for itself from the Nielsen report as well: when connected to a 2xCA enabled site, the Sprint network is faster than the competition. And that's still a huge deal.

 

#STILLgettingbettereveryday

Thats true but we still have to factor in that band 41 is only on around 40-50% of Sprint sites while 3G is available on all sites and LTE on 90% of towers. They probably factored in all of the sites limited to b25/26 which greatly decresed speeds. The part that concerned me was the 70% of the time on LTE vs Tmobile 81%. I thought more Sprint users use open signal and if they do then that's not good. Sprint said that more people are connected to LTE than that too so its confusion all over the place. I don't know who to believe.

 

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[BenChase7]

From my findings that low latency is coming from Sprint's band 25/26. I have rarely seen band 41 below 60ms even on nokia equipment. When band 41 becomes more widely available I believe Sprints download will increase and ping will get worse.

I'm just outside of Orlando on business right now; I'm in Lake Mary, at Lake Mary Blvd and the 4.  I am inside a hotel, on the lower level, with a fairly weak B41 signal (-115 - -119), and I have still been getting sub-60ms pings. The test I just ran when I saw your claim was 48ms. Must be something strange going down on your end...

[Terrell352]

I'm just outside of Orlando on business right now; I'm in Lake Mary, at Lake Mary Blvd and the 4. I am inside a hotel, on the lower level, with a fairly weak B41 signal (-115 - -119), and I have still been getting sub-60ms pings. Must be something strange going down on your end...

Note 5 having a issue maybe?

 

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[JonnygATL]

Thats true but we still have to factor in that band 41 is only on around 40-50% of Sprint sites while 3G is available on all sites and LTE on 90% of towers. They probably factored in all of the sites limited to b25/26 which greatly decresed speeds. The part that concerned me was the 70% of the time on LTE vs Tmobile 81%. I thought more Sprint users use open signal and if they do then that's not good. Sprint said that more people are connected to LTE than that too so its confusion all over the place. I don't know who to believe.

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Yea, it is confusing. So many claims, so many twisted numbers. Ain't nobody got time!

 

But, in all seriousness, you have to take each claim with a generous helping of sodium chloride. The truth lies somewhere in between, usually.