Sprint has today announced that its average download speeds are now 28-percent faster than seven months ago. Sprint makes this statement based on an interpretation it has made of data obtained via Ookla. Adding to that, Sprint also now asserts that the Ookla data highlights that Sprint is the number one carrier in fifteen cities when it comes to fastest average download speeds. Some of the cities listed as examples include Atlanta, Denver, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City and Seattle.
Along with the announcement, Sprint has also provided the image below which looks to highlight the improvement reflected in this announcement. The data in the image is relative to the period between December 2016 and July 2017, and also highlights how the other carriers are doing in the same respect. It is important here to note that the data is not showing actual data speeds, or their respective carrier rankings, but instead highlighting the change in average download speeds for each carrier – it is a ‘within-carrier’ metric. In other words, if a carrier was already offering blazing download speeds then it would be less likely to show a significant change in score over time, as there would be little room for improvement. Likewise, as these are average scores, they are unlikely to be representative of an individual experience.
As the image below suggests, AT&T and Verizon have both seen a slowing in their average speeds over the same period. A recent report did attribute this to the introduction of unlimited data, which is a sentiment that Sprint (and previously T-Mobile) has also picked up on, stating that Sprint has been offering unlimited data “for nearly 10 years” now and that history has helped the carrier to ensure “our speeds are improving while others have slowed.” Sprint has also taken the opportunity to tout its spectrum stockpile stating that Sprint “has far more spectrum capacity than any other U.S. carrier” while also noting that general speed and performance will continue to improve going forward, as the company continues to make use of its 2.5 GHz spectrum. In addition, Sprint also points out that its ‘Sprint Magic Box’ has been another aspect that has helped to contribute to improvements in data speeds received by its customers in select areas.