USA’s fourth largest carrier Sprint achieved a feat which has never been achieved more. It smashed all records of fastest internet speed by clocking in at a mind-boggling speed of 300 Mbps on a Samsung Galaxy S7. This speed was observed in a series of tests conducted in the company’s network labs.
This will be a significant improvement over current data speed which the different carriers offer right now if it becomes operational. OpenSignal, a group which monitors carrier coverage and traffic had reported Sprint’s LTE data speed at around 6 Mbps in the 3rd quarter of 2015. In Tom’s Guide’s testing, Sprint clocked at an average speed of 11.2 Mbps in a test conducted in six cities which placed it fifth among the nine carriers.
It is not very uncommon to get data speeds up to 40 Mbps or even more when one is in a good signal area. The national average, however, is 12 Mbps according to OpenSignal. Considering this, what Sprint has achieved is commendable and is a huge improvement over the current standards. Although, it must be noted that it is still a lab test and it may take a while before Sprint would be able to deliver such speeds on a wide scale.
This feat has been achieved through three-channel carrier aggregation. According to Sprint, this technology allows a wider lane so that more traffic can travel at faster rates. The latest flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S7 support this three-channel carrier aggregation.
Sprint currently uses 40Mhz of a spectrum on 2.5GHz cell sites with the two-channel aggregation and it has said that it can deliver performance up to 100Mbps in 150 “LTE Plus” markets by integrating the current two-channel carrier integration.
This test was conducted in Sprint’s lab in Reston, Virginia using the carrier’s three-channel carrier aggregation. The company is looking forward to providing this three-channel carrier aggregation to devices which can support this.
Sprint, however, hasn’t given any timeline yet regarding when it will release this service on a wide scale. We’re eagerly waiting for it because, with the development of VR contents and 4K media, we seriously need some great data speed.