OpenSignal numbers call into question the future of Sprint

A new report into the performance of the major carriers into the performance of US carriers has given T-Mobile US more fuel to continue squawking, and another reason for Sprint to reach for the aspirin.

Opensignal’s ‘State of Mobile Networks: USA’ has been released for January, and just as the rise of T-Mobile US is becoming more predictable, the decline of Sprint to non-relevance is becoming more worrying. Such statistics will be worrying for the Sprint management team, but they should also be a concern for the consumer. Sprint’s woeful network performance essentially means competition is dwindling; who is going to actively pursue a subscription with such an underperforming product? Is the US becoming a three player market?

Looking specifically at the areas which were judged by Opensignal, using 5,928,296,946 measurements across the country, on 237,213 devices between October 1 and December 30, T-Mobile US leads the rankings. The magenta army took first place in five of the six categories, with only AT&T winning in the 4G Latency category.

Not winning a single award wouldn’t be considered a massive disappointment, there are only six after all, but looking at the breakdown of each one would be a concern for Sprint. Sprint came last in four of the six, only beating Verizon in the 4G and 3G Latency categories. The phrase ‘one legged man in an ar*e kicking content’ comes to mind.

Of course, for every loser there has to be a winner, and T-Mobile US CEO John Legere doesn’t generally need too much encouragement to stick the boot into the ‘duopoly’. In most of the categories, you can see them all at the bottom of the article, T-Mobile US was a convincing winner.

“Wireless customers have spoken again, and it’s time for the Carriers to face facts! Billions of real customer tests prove we’ve built America’s best network!” said Legere. “That’s why T-Mobile customers are the happiest in wireless. We’ve built our whole company – including the network – around delivering the best experience, and we. won’t. stop.”

The report certainly adds fuel to the magenta fire, but it also raises another interesting question; how does Sprint actually have any customers?