Sprint network lags in OpenSignal tests

Despite network advances, a new study shows Sprint customers see the slowest LTE data speeds and coverage among the four national carriers.

Verizon provides the most reliable network, according to the report by OpenSignal Inc., and T-Mobile “just barely edged out” Verizon for speed.

OpenSignal thumped AT&T’s wireless network along with Sprint’s in its report based on customers’ experiences in October, November and December.

“AT&T and Sprint hardly even factored in the (speed) contest,” the report said.

OpenSignal’s report runs counter to testing results by the Nielsen Co. during the same three months. Overland Park-based Sprint has promoted the Nielsen tests as showing its network produced the fastest download speeds.

Nielsen, Sprint said, found that Sprint’s LTE Plus speeds “beat Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile by delivering the fastest LTE download speeds.” Sprint touted the Nielsen report because its methods test “how real customers are actually experiencing the network.”

The difference between the two outcomes reflects the narrower LTE Plus focus of the Nielsen results that Sprint has highlighted.

“We're measuring the experience on the whole LTE network, not just on LTE Plus connections,” OpenSignal analyst Kevin Fitchard said in an email.

In an email Tuesday, Sprint noted the Nielsen results emphasized that its network is competitive and said its prices offer consumers a viable choice.

“We’ll keep working hard to provide the best experience for our customers, but we also know that network performance differences are often indiscernible to most customers in most markets,” it said.

“For example, in this report there’s a three second difference for downloading a 7MB file, comparing T-Mobile’s speed versus Sprint’s. However, when it comes to value, there’s a huge difference between carriers. Sprint is the clear winner with its 50 percent off offer,” it said.

Sprint’s half-off deal promises to charge customers who switch from the other national carriers half the other carriers’ rate plan for the same amount of data. Executives have said most choose instead to pay about the same but receive more data that their previous carrier provided at that price.

“Customers no longer have to choose between a good network and one they can afford — at Sprint, they can have both,” Sprint said.

Sprint’s LTE Plus signal is available in 150 markets and runs faster than its more widely available original LTE signal. LTE Plus is faster because it incorporates additional technology and wireless spectrum not available in markets that still rely on Sprint’s regular LTE signal.

Also, only newer models of cellphones on the Sprint network can use all of the LTE Plus technology. OpenSignal’s tests included customers with newer and older phones.

These were points that PC Magazine writer Sascha Segan made recently when he wrote that Sprint’s promotion had overreached by “touting some very selective Nielsen results” to claim its speed superiority. Still, he said, Sprint’s network is improving.

OpenSignal made its report available to the media under an embargo, but not to Sprint. The research firm rejected The Star’s request to discuss the results with Sprint during the embargo period.

Other reports have measured progress by Sprint’s network.

Last summer, RootMetrics ranked Sprint’s network performance in Kansas City as tied for first place with Verizon. The ranking, which looked at speed, reliability and other measures, was based on testing done in May.

Since then, RootMetrics dropped Sprint to third in Kansas City, behind Verizon and T-Mobile in a tie for first. But RootMetrics noted in its latest Kansas City report that Sprint’s data speeds here had increased since the May tests.

Network performance is a key element of Sprint’s plans for attracting and retaining customers. The company has posted better subscriber results on both fronts in recent quarters, including during the time the OpenSignal and Nielsen tests covered.

Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure recently retweeted this item from Houston showing download speeds on Sprint’s LTE Plus signal at more than 100 megabits per second.

Claure’s comment was that Sprint’s network is “flying in Houston. Faster than your cable broadband. Time to cut the cord and consume content in your phone.”

OpenSignal’s tests, however, found Sprint customers’ overall experience with LTE lags the other carriers nationally and within the largest markets.

In its tests of 11 cities, Sprint’s only win came in Houston, where the four carriers tied for the fastest download speeds.

OpenSignal also tested how much of the time each carrier’s customers were able to get an LTE signal, which it called coverage. It didn’t rely on maps or populations of covered areas. Instead, its app — downloaded to 181,927 cellphones by their owners — searched in the background every 10 to 15 minutes for which network signals the phones could receive.

Tests also looked at how much data speeds slowed when customers couldn’t get LTE signals and had to rely on back up signals using older 3G technology.

OpenSignal also measured how long it took for data to “make a round trip through the network,” both for the LTE and the backup 3G signals.

Verizon and T-Mobile tied for fastest LTE speeds. Verizon won the coverage test — its customers had LTE signals 86.7 percent of the time, more than the other carriers’ customers did. Sprint’s was lowest at 70 percent.

T-Mobile won the backup tests for 3G speeds and round-trip times, called latency.

Sprint won the round-trip, or latency, test for LTE that OpenSignal said helps customers two ways. Shorter latency periods, which Sprint has, means a requested Web page starts to load more promptly, even if Sprint’s slower data speeds mean it takes longer to complete the download.

The other benefit to short latency comes during phone calls that travel on the LTE technology on carriers’ networks. OpenSignal said that most voice traffic travels on older 2G technology but that T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T have begun using voice-over-LTE technology, or VoLTE.

“Surprisingly, though, the operator with the lowest latency is the one major provider that currently has no VoLTE services, Sprint,” OpenSignal said.

OpenSignal’s test results

Coverage (percentage of time customers have an LTE signal)

Verizon 86.7%

AT&T 82.6%

T-Mobile 81.2%

Sprint 70.1%

Speed (how fast data download, in megabits per second)

T-Mobile 12.26 Mbps

Verizon 11.98 Mbps

AT&T 7.93 Mbps

Sprint 6.56 Mbps

Latency (how soon a requested Web page begins to download, in milliseconds)

Sprint 66.06 ms

Verizon 73.65 ms

T-Mobile 77.44 ms

AT&T 85.03 ms

Source: OpenSignal

This story was originally published February 1, 2016 at 11:02 PM with the headline "Sprint network lags in OpenSignal tests."