Sprint says new tech bolsters network speeds, coverage

Sprint has been aggressively trying to alter wide-held perceptions that its network lags other carriers—it has built an advertising campaign around the fact that its network reliability is within 1% of Verizon’s. On Dec 12, Sprint unveiled new technology that promises to take the nation’s fourth largest carrier well on the way towards superior next generation “5G” network coverage.

The tech is called High Performance User Equipment, HPUE for short, a geeky moniker that the company claims will bolster its high band 2.5 GHz spectrum coverage by up to 30%, including indoors where the company says most wireless traffic is generated. “The knock on high-band spectrum has been propagation and reach,” says John Saw, Sprint’s chief technology officer. “But at the same time we also know that high band spectrum is the future for the industry (and 5G.)” Saw says the limiting link for strong coverage is typically the uplink, that is the connection from your handset back up to the base station. “If we can improve that link it means that you can stretch coverage out even further,” he says. That’s the promise behind HPUE.