LOS ANGELES, Dec. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Sprint’s (NYSE: S) Next-Gen Network investment is taking hold across Los Angeles. As the company prepares to launch Sprint 5G in Los Angeles in the first half of 2019, customers today are experiencing Sprint’s best-ever LTE Advanced network with new independent tests showing Sprint has the most improved network and fastest download speeds.

In recent testing by RootMetrics®, Sprint demonstrated the fastest download speeds in Los Angeles.1 Indoor and outdoor testing was conducted during peak-usage hours during the day in the busiest areas of Los Angeles. Samples were collected in iconic tourist areas, top travel destinations, business districts, retail shops, major entertainment areas, and other high-traffic areas. The end result is testing that shows how carriers perform in the busiest parts of Los Angeles, and the results also evaluate how well networks are prepared for upcoming 5G and IoT deployments.

Additionally, analysis of Nielsen drive test data shows Sprint has the most improved network in Los Angeles with an 87% increase in download speeds year-over-year.2

Sprint’s Next-Gen Network Investment in Los Angeles

This year, Sprint has spent billions on its Next-Gen Network build, unleashing the company’s strong spectrum holdings to dramatically improve coverage, speed and reliability for its customers. Across Los Angeles, Sprint continues to add new cell sites and upgrade existing cell sites to use all three of its spectrum bands (800 MHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz) to improve coverage and provide its fastest, most reliable service. The company recently deployed 800 MHz service on more than 800 cell sites in Southern California and Los Angeles (with more on the way) to extend voice and data coverage into more locations, including indoors where the majority of wireless traffic is generated.

Sprint has also added hundreds of indoor and outdoor small cells in downtown Los Angeles to deliver even more coverage, capacity and speed than before using unobtrusive units on telephone poles, street lights and other infrastructure. And Sprint continues to enhance service in Los Angeles’ public venues. This year the company upgraded to LTE Advanced systems covering the LA Convention Center, LA Forum, StubHub Center, Staples Center and Disneyland. Sprint also continues to add coverage to the LA Metro Rail system as lines continue to expand.

In addition, Sprint has rolled out LTE Advanced technologies including 256 QAM, 4X4 MIMO, enhanced Beamforming with Transmission Mode 9 (TM9) and two- and three-channel Carrier Aggregation for faster data speeds than before. In addition, Sprint is enhancing its upload speeds with capabilities such as Uplink Carrier Aggregation, 64 QAM and High Performance User Equipment (HPUE).

These technologies provide the foundation for Sprint’s LTE Advanced capabilities, now available nationwide and delivering up to 2X faster speeds on capable devices.3 They have also helped make Los Angeles one of 225 cities where Sprint offers incredible Gigabit Class LTE performance for customers on capable devices.

“LA is now home to some of the most advanced technologies in wireless, giving Sprint customers an even better data experience today as we prepare to launch 5G in the first half of 2019,” said Eamon O’Leary, Sprint’s vice president for Network, West Region. “Customers’ demand for data continues to grow, and we’re excited to offer even faster movie, music and game downloads all on a network that’s built for unlimited.”

Sprint 5G Coming to LA!

Sprint’s execution of its award-winning 5G strategy is well underway. The company is deploying 5G-ready Massive MIMO radios in Los Angeles to launch its mobile 5G service in the first half of 2019.

Massive MIMO is a breakthrough technology that dramatically improves the capacity of Sprint’s LTE Advanced network with equipment that is software upgradable to 5G. Sprint’s 64T64R Massive MIMO radios support split-mode, enabling the company to offer LTE and 5G simultaneously on the same radio. Initial results from early deployments show Massive MIMO is driving a 4X average increase in capacity and speed with peak increases up to 10X over LTE.

5G promises new levels of innovation and progress to connect people, places and the billions of things Sprint customers do with blazing fast speed and ultra-reliable wireless connectivity. With Massive MIMO at the foundation of its mobile 5G service, Sprint can keep meeting its customers’ demand for unlimited data and high-bandwidth applications.

To follow Sprint’s Next-Gen Network build out and its road to 5G, visit http://newsroom.sprint.com/network/.

About Sprint:

Sprint (NYSE: S) is a communications services company that creates more and better ways to connect its customers to the things they care about most. Sprint served 54.5 million connections as of Sept. 30, 2018 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; leading no-contract brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Today, Sprint’s legacy of innovation and service continues with an increased investment to dramatically improve coverage, reliability, and speed across its nationwide network and commitment to launching the first 5G mobile network in the U.S. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

1 RootMetrics Los Angeles, CA Metro testing: 2H 2018. Chart represents Median Downlink Throughput speed. Tested with best commercially available smartphones on 4 national mobile networks across all available network types. Your experiences may vary. The RootMetrics award is not an endorsement of Sprint. Visit www.rootmetrics.com for more details.

2 Sprint’s analysis of Nielsen’s Drive Test data in Los Angeles MSA for GET3 speeds (10 seconds 1GB parallel file download testing network capability) comparing 2017 D1 to latest drive.

3 Compared to Sprint 4G LTE.

SOURCE Sprint