Sprint Boosts 4G LTE Coverage in Homes with Magic Box

Mobile coverage seems to get worse when you get home, and for people that use their cell phone as the primary communications solution, this can be a problem. Voice over IP communications with cable broadband is an alternative, but more and more people are also cutting the cable cord, instead only opting for wireless service. In order to address many of the coverage issues consumers face, Sprint has announced the launch of the world's first all-wireless small cell it calls Magic Box (News - Alert), which will, according to the company, densify its 4G LTE Plus network.

Sprint (News - Alert) is offering this small factor plug and play device for consumers and businesses so they can improve the speed and data coverage indoors on average by 200 percent. No bigger than a shoebox, Magic Box is a self-configuring small cell that you plug into your wall without additional implementations, installation or rental cost for the user.

Once it is plugged in, all a user has to do is place it near a window and it automatically connects to the closest Sprint cell site; it then starts providing coverage to deliver better streaming video and other applications and services. The coverage the box provides extends to other customers in the area, which can be as much as 30,000 square feet indoors and 100 meters or around 300 feet outdoors to improve street–level 4G LTE (News - Alert) network performance.

Sprint said this is part of the company's network densification strategy using outdoor small cells, three-channel carrier aggregation and new High Performance User Equipment (HPUE) smartphones. This, the company says, is improving performance and establishing the groundwork of 5G network deployment.

Using the Sprint dedicated 2.5 GHz spectrum with backhaul provided by Sprint’s outdoor macro cell sites, it delivers a low-cost and effective solution to improve the company's overall 4G LTE network performance. The result has been improved download speeds in cities where Magic Box has been deployed

“Sprint Magic Box is going to quickly transform our network, and it is key to delivering an amazing experience to customers today as we build the kind of dense urban infrastructures needed for 5G. By leveraging our deep spectrum trove, Sprint has the ability to blanket its network with an all-wireless small cell that delivers this kind of dramatic performance boost with zero backhaul, permitting, and engineering costs,” said Dr. John Saw, Sprint CTO.

Magic Box is now available in Denver, San Francisco, Indianapolis, New York, Chicago and Houston.