Newsletter 
Sprint has released a new update to the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the HTC U11 that will eliminate the unnecessary dropping off from the carrier’s Band 41 LTE network. This carrier utilizes the aforementioned frequency to offer fast data speeds to its subscribers through the Sprint LTE Plus network. It seems that the problem was first observed with the Samsung flagships devices, as the carrier worked with Qualcomm and Samsung initially to find the cause of the relatively slower speeds that the device owners experience. After quite some time, it was discovered that a bug in the radio code of the Snapdragon 835 is responsible for drop-offs. Since it is the chipset’s code that was the culprit behind the slow data speeds, it is likely that similarly-equipped devices might be affected by the bug. It was the discovered that the HTC U11 is also suffering from reduced data speeds compared to other Band 41-capable devices.
In order to get good data speeds on Sprint’s network, it is important that the devices connect reliably to the carrier’s LTE network running on Band 41 (2,500MHz). The carrier owns a substantial portion of the said spectrum across the United States, with the firm holding licenses to around 160MHz of the said band in the top 100 markets. Sprint utilizes 60MHz of the aforementioned spectrum in order to offer three-way carrier aggregation to supported devices. In addition, the carrier has begun offering devices with High Performance User Equipment (HPUE) technology to allow the carrier to match the coverage of its Band 41 signals to that of its Band 25 network (1900MHz).
Once device owners install the new firmware update, they should expect increased download speeds when connected to Sprint’s network. Network speed data gathered by PCMag from Ookla has shown big jumps in average download speeds after the updates were installed in most of the affected devices. In the case of Samsung Galaxy S8, the download speeds went up by 4.5Mbps, allowing the device to reach average download speeds of 26.4Mbps. Meanwhile, HTC U11 units running on Sprint’s network also saw a rise in average download speeds with handset owners experiencing average download speeds of 27.9Mbps. This translates to an increase of 8.7Mbps.
