Apple’s iPhone 4S has been a huge success for Sprint since its launch on October 14, breaking both opening day sales and activation records. For many customers, however, life with the latest iPhone on Sprint isn’t all that fun, with painfully slow data speeds throttling the iPhone’s capabilities when away from a Wi-Fi connection. According to the carrier, however, its data speeds match those offered by its competitors.
Although it was rumored that Sprint was working closely with Apple to fix the “issue” causing slow data speeds on the network, Sprint has been quick to quash these reports and insists that its network is no slower than that of its rivals.
In a statement issued to The Next Web, Sprint said:
Overall, iPhone performance on the Sprint network is consistent with our expectations and the rest of our high-end portfolio. Sprint also did bench-marking of Sprint’s iPhone against competitor’s iPhones and the testing showed little to no performance difference. We are seeing a very low return rate for this device but we are watching the reports of speed issues very closely. We do see opportunities to optimize performance, specifically in high network capacity areas. We see this as typical optimization work and do not have any specific area of concern. Sprint is committed to providing the best possible experience for our customers. We are listening to our customers and working closely with our partners at Apple to ensure optimal performance of iPhone devices on our network.
As you can see from the screenshot below, however, some users are suffering with dreadfully slow data connections on the Sprint network, even when they have full signal on the 3G network.
It’s reassuring for these users that Sprint is “watching the reports of speed issues,” and hopefully it will identify the issue and rectify it before too long.
Have you been suffering with slow data speeds with your iPhone 4S on Sprint?
