Sprint CEO, on recent earnings call, said supply for Magic Box can’t keep up with demand
With plans to pass 1 million deployments in the coming months, Sprint is continuing to put more of its Magic Box LTE small cells onto its network despite a supply and demand imbalance the carrier’s CEO Marcelo Claure bemoaned on a recent earnings call.
Developed by Airspan in partnership with Sprint and SoftBank, the Magic Box uses LTE relay instead of Ethernet or fiber to connect to the Sprint network. It can be deployed anywhere that power is available and good cell service isn’t.
In partnership with the Denver Housing Authority, Sprint has connected the Magic Box in five, 10-story residential buildings with an average per box coverage capacity of 30,000-square-feet. The DHA buildings are home to between 75 and 200 people per building. At the Barney Ford Heights building, average download speed has increased from 23 Mbps to 36 Mpbs, and, at a North Lincoln building, the same measure has gone from 6 Mbps to 26 Mbps.
DHA Director of Digital Inclusion Tony Frank said access to broadband “is a bridge to the future and high-quality, reliable connectivity is key for our families. He said residents were using the service to “navigate school resources, complete homework, apply and jobs and much more. It is a bridge to opportunity.”
The success of this project is in line with how Claure described the product on an Aug. 1 call. “The Magic Box works so well that the demand far exceeds the supply and the ability to manufacture. For any Sprint customers…[who]put a Magic Box in your home, it’s a life-changing experience. The speed you get, the coverage you get…it’s truly magical.”
Adding that he personal uses the Magic Box, Claure said it’s an “interesting phenomenon” that 25% of the requests are “coming from competing carriers [customers]complaining about indoor coverage. ‘Would you guarantee me great indoor coverage?’ Now it’s a matter of basically supplying, and also sending [the device]to customers who have threatened to churn. You send them a Magic Box; they send you a letter about how excited they are. We could not be happier in terms of the performance.”
