Speed

[laqn1283]

It looks like in markets where 2x Ca is avalaible, Sprint should have a total of 90 MHz for Lte ( 80 from band 41 and 10 from band 25). I still do not understand why their speeds are still slower then the other carriers who have less than 60 MHz dedicated to Lte.

[laqn1283]

Sorry that is 40 MHz of band 41 still 50 MHz dedicated to Lte is more or equal to the other 3 carriers but speed still slower.

[tyroned3222]

It looks like in markets where 2x Ca is avalaible, Sprint should have a total of 90 MHz for Lte ( 80 from band 41 and 10 from band 25). I still do not understand why their speeds are still slower then the other carriers who have less than 60 MHz dedicated to Lte.

Density is often the issue...some cities need more towers others are fine with small cells... once u are further from the tower at the edge of the cell site, ya speeds are still betweeen 10 to 20 mbps, but slower then the competition (as yu mentioned).

 

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[eljayyy91]

40 MHz b41, 10mhz of b25, and 10 mhz of b26. For a total of 60 mhz deployed. At least from my minimum understanding of spectrum holdings.

[laqn1283]

Exactly more than the other carriers but sprint speeds are still slower

[WiWavelength]

This thread is not needed.  It is far too generally titled as "Speed."  Staff will find a place for it and merge it into another thread.

 

Whenever you seek to start a new thread, consider whether it is necessary and distinct from existing threads.  If so, give it an appropriate title, not just one or two vague words.  Unlike Reddit, S4GRU does not support 500 different threads on the same topic.  We would rather have one 500 page thread on the topic.  That assists search engine indexing, making it easier for people both inside and outside of S4GRU to find relevant info in one location.

 

AJ

[Volaris]

The problem is 2.5GHz (so the vast majority of LTE speed capacity) is not available everywhere, so many times you end up on band 25/26, which are generally on the slow side. As Sprint densifies, this will fix itself. I really want to see those mini-macros deployed on power poles - should really help their 2.5GHz coverage and LTE speeds. Consequently, markets with good 2.5GHz tower density (ex Clear markets) are generally the ones performing well.

Edited March 24, 2016 by Volaris

[Tengen31]

40 MHz b41, 10mhz of b25, and 10 mhz of b26. For a total of 60 mhz deployed. At least from my minimum understanding of spectrum holdings.

sprint owns up to 120 mhz for band 41. areas that have 2xca will start to get 3xca online soon. Thats 60 mhz right there. band 25 in most areas is 5x5. some markets are now seeing 10X10. they are swapping PCS spectrum with att,vzw and, tmobile and, will allow for more 10x10 at somepoint and, maybe even some areas will see 15X15. In my area of Minnesota sprint has already trimmed down a hugh amount of CDMA spectrum. they must have some LTE plans for that.

[Arysyn]

I just wrote a post in the T-Mobile thread describing my experiences with T-Mobile and with Sprint, in comparision. Here, I'll get more into describing my experiences with Sprint last year.

 

When I was new to this site last year, I tried Sprint not being aware that while Sprint was and still is transforming their network to primarily use band 41 whenever/wherever possible, the main spectrum still is PCS. It has been PCS for many years, and because of that, many longtime Sprint enthusiasts have an affinity for that band. It has been a staple of the Sprint brand for so long. So, when I tried Sprint and during the times it was connected with band 41, everything was fine, and even sometimes excellent. This was before carrier aggregation was implemented, so I'm sure with ca it is even better.

 

However, whenever the band changed to PCS, it was a pretty miserable experience. Usually under 3mbps of speed, but often even 2mbps or 1mbps. Streaming music quite often had to buffer on it, the speeds were so bad. Whenever I went into a Sprint store (always corporate stores), they'd blame the network itself as being bad, never mentioning the spectrum. Actually, I was surprised they even blamed the network. So, I went here to S4GRU to explain the situation. Some people took my words the wrong way as though I was dissing Sprint, when I was only trying to relay what the store employees were telling me. Others here on S4GRU were much more helpful to me by going over different possiblities of what could be the issue.

 

What I discovered/learned, was that in areas where it wasn't connecting to band 41, everything else was being routed to 5x5 PCS. That is when I realized the problem. I then thought perhaps Sprint could try to sell PCS for other spectrum, or try swapping spectrum for more PCS to where it would be better usable. Turns out, that is what Sprint did. They now have much more PCS spectrum in many markets, including where I live in the Chicago market, which now is 10x10. While 10x10 isn't great, as I used 10x10 AWS on T-Mobile prior to T-Mobile upping it to 15x15, their is a difference in that T-Mobile doesn't have any great supplementary spectrum, where Sprint does with their band 41 spectrum. So, 10x10 PCS ought to be plenty good enough in the meantime, while hopefully Sprint continues to densify band 41 to minimze traffic on PCS. Doing so will continue to make PCS better by freeing it from as much traffic.