Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure told attendees at Recode’s Code Conference that the carrier will be ranked as the first or second wireless carrier for network quality within two years, according to published reports.
CNet reported that Claure later qualified his remarks to specify that he meant the top ranking for quality in major markets.
Sprint is under significant pressure to improve its competitiveness and is holding on to its position as the No. 3 wireless carrier by its fingernails. Sprint is on largely equal footing with T-Mobile US in terms of subscriber base, with a small gap maintaining Sprint’s position. Sprint said it added 1.2 million net connections during its fourth fiscal quarter ended March 31, pushing its total connection base to 57.1 million at the end of the quarter. That is just ahead of the 56.8 million net connections reported by T-Mobile US at the end of the same period.
Sprint has been slower to roll out LTE than its larger competitors, with recent reports indicating that Sprint and T-Mobile US are also in a dead heat in LTE coverage. The company is expected to make an announcement soon regarding network upgrades. Claure has spent time in Japan with parent company Softbank discussing the future of Sprint’s network, and there have been rumors that the company is planning to add 20,000 small cells to its network, which could be part of its plan to improve coverage in major markets.
Sprint has been testing the waters to bring significantly higher speeds to its network and better leverage its 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings through its ongoing Spark initiative. Earlier this year it achieved a TD-LTE speed record in a test of a single link with Nokia Solutions and Networks, reaching up to 2.6 Gbps using 120 megahertz of spectrum.
According to Root Metrics’ most recent report, Sprint has already been making significant improvements in network quality. The company concluded that although Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility still come out on top, “all networks are getting better” and specifically singled out Sprint.
“The biggest improvement stories belong to T-Mobile and, especially, Sprint with its marked call improvement. Although T-Mobile finished lower in our national results, it recorded the third most awards at the metro level and remained ahead of Sprint at this level of our testing. The upgrades from these two networks are clearly starting to take hold and are impacting performance, in particular, at the metro level,” Root Metrics said.
Despite those improvements in Root Metrics’ testing, Sprint has some undeniable heavy lifting ahead in improving its reputation for network quality to top-rank status. In JD Power’s most recent survey of network quality published in March, Sprint ranked dead last in five out of six regions, and came in third in the sixth.
