Reality Check: Sprint #1 Network in Two Years?

Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure predicted Sprint will have the top network in the next 18 to 24 months. Claure said that when he started, Sprint's network was "drop-dead last." We decided to see where Sprint has come from and how far it has to go to beat AT&T and Verizon in network performance. These data compare results from tests performed twice a year for smartphones and netbook data cards. The first three rounds of testing were done for 1,200 locations, the second three rounds expanded to 1,990 locations.

Device: Samsung Galaxy 4 (LTE)

1. Overall TCP Failure Rate

Looking at how often a TCP connection fails (TCP is the measurement used most often when comparing speed), data from tests of all four providers showed a slight increase in TCP failure, with T-Mobile and Sprint on the higher end.

2. Locations Where TCP Met "Served" Threshold

For purposes of comparison, we looked at the percentage of tested locations where average TCP downstream met or exceeded 6 megabits per second and average upstream met or exceeded 1.5 megabits per second. This threshold is what we use at the CPUC for determining "served" status. Note that these averages are not adjusted using standard deviation. "Average" in this case averages smartphone & netbook as well as west and east coast servers.

3. Over The Top VoIP Readiness

Using a Mean Opinion Score formula we reported on earlier in this blog, we calculated the number of measurements (1 measurement = 1 location/device/provider combination) where the calculated Mean Opinion Score met or exceeded 4.0.