Earlier this morning Sprint announced its new “cut your bill in half” promotion, which aims to once again save customers 50 percent on their phone bills by switching from Verizon, T-Mobile, or AT&T over to the Sprint network. Sprint began teasing this announcement yesterday stating that CEO Marcelo Claure had something “major” to share with customers, but saving customers money isn’t the only thing Sprint wants to do. They also want to ensure that subscribers are getting the fastest LTE speeds possible and it aims to deliver with the newly announced LTE Plus network, which Sprint says is available today in 77 markets across the country.
Utilizing both carrier aggregation and antenna beamforming, Sprint says that LTE Plus is delivering some of the wireless industry’s most advanced technologies. It expects that customers should see noticeable differences in performance, boasting capabilities of being able to handle double the capacity while pumping out speeds that are twice as fast as before. If customers are using a compatible device, potential download speeds could reach up to as much as 100Mbps according to Sprint. LTE Plus is also supposed to be a stronger and more reliable network with a signal that reaches further, so subscribers should be able to use the network in more places than before, although personal experiences are sure to vary market by market.
LTE Plus works off of Sprint’s triband setup, meaning that it runs on three different frequencies including band spectrum at 800MHz, 1.9GHz, and 2.5GHz. That last frequency, 2.5GHz, is what Sprint attributes to the faster network speeds, while 80MHz should help keep it equipped to penetrate buildings easier and resulting in better service inside. Lastly there’s the 1.9GHz spectrum which Sprint states is so that the LTE Plus network allows for a wider reach in regards to coverage areas, expanding out to more subscribers. Most major market should already have LTE Plus live including Oregon and Southwest Washington, San Francisco, San Diego, L.A. Metro, Utah, Colorado, San Antonio, Houston, New York City, Orlando, and more. There are also 13 devices in total which currently support LTE Plus, one of which is the Samsung Galaxy S6. While LTe Plus is already available in Sprint’s largest markets, there is no word on when it will begin to roll out to smaller markets or how long it will take.