The Sprint network is hitting its stride. We’re seeing a significant improvement in performance resulting from our 800MHz and 2.5GHz build, our relentless focus on cell site optimization, and our targeted deployment of LTE Advanced features like carrier aggregation and beamforming. As a result, we’re today unveiling the Sprint LTE Plus network.
LTE Plus, available today in 77 major markets, takes advantage of our rich triband spectrum portfolio, and it uses some of the world’s most advanced technologies in wireless such as carrier aggregation and antenna beamforming. Key benefits to our customers include:
- Faster service with double the network capacity and speed, and peak speeds in excess of 100Mbps on capable devices
- Stronger service with smart antenna technology that extends the cell signal further at 2.5GHz
- More reliable service utilizing three bands of spectrum – 1.9GHz for broad coverage, 800MHz for better indoor service, and 2.5GHz for even faster data speeds
Carrier aggregation allows us to bond multiple spectrum channels together to build a fatter pipe with double the capacity and speed. Beamforming is a signal processing technique that directs signals from multiple antennas towards where our customers are. Our 2.5GHz LTE system with 8 Transmit 8 Receive (8T8R) radios is the sweet spot for enabling smart antenna beamforming. Simply stated, while our competitors are sending LTE data meant for a specific customer to everyone in a sector, we are able to transmit more directive beams to exactly where our customers are located. As shown in the chart below, the combination of carrier aggregation and beamforming is giving our customers a much improved throughput experience, especially at the cell edges and indoors. We’re proud to be one of the first operators in the world to roll out two key functionalities of LTE Advanced: carrier aggregation and beamforming. We have relentlessly pushed to get those two LTE Advanced features deployed to our customers and today we’re happy to share that this functionality is available in 77 of our largest markets.
Source: Sprint (By Dr. John Saw, CTO, Sprint)
