Not noticeably.
Just based on my personal experience-- as long as you have speeds similar to that Chelle is seeing on 3G, you won't be very aware of any slowdown in page loads. It takes longer for your request to get to the other end, and for the data to be 'queued up' than for the actual page load. (This based on my experience with FreedomPop's Sprint plans, which were throttled to 1Mbps.)
Anything under 5Mbps feels slow to me lol
A reminder, though: self-throttling via selecting 3G data only reduces data usage for sites that adjust resolution for lower-speed connections, like video and audio streaming. There's no particular data savings for intentionally using a slower speed for general browsing.
For general purpose data savings, you can select a browser that serves pages to you in a compressed format (which may allow you to reduce resolution of pictures or video content). Folks smarter than me have pointed out that content blockers that operate as plug-ins to standard browsers don't save much data, because the decision to not display the selected content takes place after the phone has downloaded the content. (The data is used to download, even if it isn't displayed.)
And one last thing occurred: Approval from CPUC
When does TMobile start using Sprint towers
Merger benefits?
"... T-Mobile is also letting Sprint customers roam freely on their LTE network. That gives them access to double the number of LTE towers they had on Sprint alone. That’s big."
Maybe that's why my Sprint data speeds are greatly improved.
Interesting! I wonder if Sprint MVNOs like Ting and Tello will also benefit from this.
my sprint speeds are still bad.
It's definitely possible that some areas are getting this faster than others.
As an alternative hypothesis, it might have to do with 'how & when' Sprint roams.
A while back, I took my Sprint-Free-Year phone (with data roaming allowed, up to certain limits) to an area that had only fringe Sprint reception. At that time, roaming would have been on Verizon, and there was great Verizon signal available. My Sprint phone could place a call or text, but functionally couldn't access the internet at all, even though I'm used to using low-overhead browser with compression. The phone still refused to roam, since it could 'see' a Sprint signal. (And yes, it was a multi-carrier phone that definitely had Verizon bands.)
Actually, I meant to say my Tello/Sprint data speeds have greatly improved, so if it's because of the merger, I'll take it.
How long for the conversion if you have T-Mobile service that T-Mobile will start using Sprint towers?
Improving signal and strength