New uverse gateway lowered ping significantly?

Hi there!  I'm hoping someone could help me with an interesting question.  I have a friend in the same city as me that just moved (not far, about a mile.)  When he moved, he turned in his old uverse equipment, and got new equipment. Please note that we have the same Uverse internet service.  Now, his ping (latency, this is NOT a bandwidth question or issue) to the exact same game server we play on is significantly less than mine (40ms).  At his old house, we had the exact same ping (we have the exact same uverse service).   I'm wondering how or if this new equipment got his ping lower?  Is there new routing?  Is he somehow on a different network?   Basically, I'd love to have this new lower ping if all that it requires is a new gateway.  

Any help is greatly appreciated.