How Sprint’s Network Performance Continues to Improve

Network performance is the key factor that affects customer retention for any telecom company. Sprint’s (S) network continues to improve and has actually been performing at best-ever levels, despite reductions in its capital expenditure or capex.

Sprint’s management expects network densification to improve churn, and the company’s LTE (long-term evolution) Plus network has now been rolled out in 250 markets, as compared to 237 one quarter previously. Notably, Sprint improves network speeds via carrier aggregation and a denser deployment of 2.5 GHz spectrum.

Sprint won 52% more first place RootScore Awards in 70 markets, as measured in the second half of 2016, as compared to its awards the first half of 2016. This amounts to 137 first place awards during the second half of 2016, as compared to 90 first place awards in the first half of 2016.

PC Magazine’s Fastest Mobile Networks report indicated that Sprint offered faster average download speeds than both AT&T (T) and T-Mobile (TMUS). Sprint also beat Verizon Communications (VZ) in terms of reliability.

According to the 2016 US Wireless Network Quality Performance Report by J.D. Power, Sprint is ranked as having the second-highest network quality in five out of six geographic regions of the US. As a result, third-party data and its record-low postpaid phone churn of 1.37% in fiscal 2Q16 demonstrate that Sprint’s network improvement has been continuing.