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Orlando Network Vision/LTE Deployment schedule update


S4GRU

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by Robert Herron

Sprint 4G Rollout Updates

Friday, June 29, 2012 - 8:59 AM MDT

 

The next market in our Network Vision/LTE deployment schedule update series is The City Beautiful...Orlando. The Orlando market has yet to be announced by Sprint, but is expected to be announced in the near future. Perhaps around the time of the first market launches.

 

The Sprint Orlando market encompasses all of the East Central portion of the Florida peninsula. Including the Orlando metro area, Melbourne/Palm Bay area, Port St. Lucie, Daytona Beach/Port Orange Area, Lakeland/Winter Haven, Palm Coast, Titusville/Cocoa Beach/Space Coast, Deltona and Vero Beach. Sprint's Network Vision OEM Ericsson is scheduled to begin mobilizing with its subcontractors in July. Completed Network Vision sites are scheduled to start coming online in September. However, if they mobilize in July, sites may start actually coming online in August.

 

Orlando Market Launch

 

It was Sprint's original plan to launch markets when they reached 50% of sites converted to Network Vision. However, it has now been determined that Sprint will move up launches sooner than 50% completion in several markets. This is likely to maintain a Mid 2012 launch in markets that have already been announced. However, in an unannounced market like Orlando, we don't know if they will resume pushing back market launches to 50%, or if they will now settle on a 40% completion to be the new normal for market launches.

 

If Sprint waits for 50% completion to launch this market, it would make the launch approximately January (should the OEM stay on schedule). If they plan on a 40% market completion for launch, that would be December. You may think that 40% - 50% site completion is not enough to launch LTE service, but it would provide pretty good coverage. Even Verizon doesn't launch on all sites in a market initially. Usually less than 50%, then filling in with more and more sites every few months.

 

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Anticipated Sites Complete at Market Launch. According to the Network Vision schedules that S4GRU has reviewed, if Sprint launched the market in December, these are the anticipated sites that would likely have LTE complete at that time. This would provide fairly good LTE coverage over many parts of the market.

 

Schedule details and the bottom line

 

We currently do not have a date that Sprint will formally "launch" LTE service in Orlando. It is difficult to try to pick a date now this far out, but we will take a stab at it. In looking at the schedule as of today, it would indicate a December or January market launch (going on a 40% - 50% completion for launch). But there is no way to know if Ericsson and their subcontractors will actually hit their schedule dates this early in the deployment for this market. We will be able to gauge better after a few months of production.

 

Ericsson will need to hit a production rate of 65 sites per month to stay on schedule. This is an achievable rate in our opinion. If properly prepared and equipped and if backhaul is ready timely, this market shouldn't have problems staying on time.

 

S4GRU has examined the schedule in great detail in this market and sees that most of the sites will be complete by May 2013. However, there may be a few sporadic sites that will linger past the completion.

800px-OrlandoNightSkyline.jpg

Photo of the Orlando skyline provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

 

NOTE: S4GRU Sponsor Members can track regular updates of

Network Vision sites completed nationwide. Completed sites are shown in an interactive Google Maps interface. Information about sponsorship can be found here: S4GRU Sponsorship

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funny you updated this today, I just received a postcard in the mail from Sprint as I was leaving for the office and right on the front it said that "4G LTE is coming to your city very soon!"

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funny you updated this today, I just received a postcard in the mail from Sprint as I was leaving for the office and right on the front it said that "4G LTE is coming to your city very soon!"

 

Any chance you can scan it and post it? I'd love to see it. Thanks in advance.

 

Robert

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I don't have a scanner at the moment, but looking it over again as I only had a quick glance yesterday, its actually a newsletter regarding the Network Vision/LTE loadout. Though something I have noticed, there's a tower about a block away from my residence that has been off the Sprint network update map for about the past two weeks, and there's been quite a bit of activity going on around it. Don't know if its pertaining to NV, but I'll try and get over there this weekend and see if I can get some pics

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Our family has traveled to the Cocoa Beach area (and now the Disney area) for years...and we just returned from yet another journey to these Central Florida areas. We have three Sprint phones...and the Sprint service (especially data) was virtually useless at the Cocoa Beach, Universal Studios resort, and Epcot center resort areas...over a weeklong period.

 

In addition, the battery life, while in the Disney area, suffered dramatically...for all three phones...to a level that I estimate to be 50% of normal. Upon our return home, the 3G data speeds and the normal battery life returned.

 

Does any of this make sense?

 

(first post)

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Our family has traveled to the Cocoa Beach area (and now the Disney area) for years...and we just returned from yet another journey to these Central Florida areas. We have three Sprint phones...and the Sprint service (especially data) was virtually useless at the Cocoa Beach, Universal Studios resort, and Epcot center resort areas...over a weeklong period.In addition, the battery life, while in the Disney area, suffered dramatically...for all three phones...to a level that I estimate to be 50% of normal. Upon our return home, the 3G data speeds and the normal battery life returned.Does any of this make sense?(first post)

 

Yes. The network in the Orlando area is very poor and needs to be upgraded (especially in the high density tourist areas). Battery life can really suffer when you are in areas with poor signal or overburdened, because your device is constantly searching for a better connection and your data usage takes longer and more battery life to complete the same tasks.

 

Next year's trip will probably be vastly different as Network Vision will be wrapping up in this area when you go back. They desperately need the upgrade.

 

Robert

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Thanks for the quick response, Robert. Your website is wonderful...and we're a ten-year Sprint family. I will look to sponsor. Thanks again.

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Hello to all. I just switched to sprint from at&t. I stream a lot of internet radio and sprint defanatly does not do well streaming 128 KBPS streams in the altamonte/orlando area. I'm not complaining just making an observation. I was just sick of paying at&t 100 dollars a month for capped iphone service. I switched to sprint to save money. I really hope their network vision is complete here soon. I do love the sprint service so far minus the slow data speeds. Lower bit rate stream do much better. Bare in mind, this 100 dollars a month business was just for one person to have a freaking iphone. That 300 mb plan did not cut it for me. So i'm very curious to see sprint's LTE here. So far I have not come across sprint LTE from altamonte, the universal area, downtown or the ucf area.

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Hello all. A bit of an update. I have seen no LTE as of yet but I can tell you that 3g seems to be doing a lot better. I take a trip to the UCF area about once a week and now 128 KBPS streams seem to be streaming a lot better than 2 or 3 weeks ago. Anyone seen LTE in the Orlando area yet? Thanks a lot.

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no LTE yet, 3G appears to have dropped down to less than 600kbps from the 1-2 mbps connections I was getting a few weeks ago. Not sure if its from work on the towers, but hope the technicians are doing something.

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no LTE yet, 3G appears to have dropped down to less than 600kbps from the 1-2 mbps connections I was getting a few weeks ago. Not sure if its from work on the towers, but hope the technicians are doing something.

 

I received confirmation this morning that Ericsson is working in the market. First LTE sites will start going live very soon.

 

Robert

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I received confirmation this morning that Ericsson is working in the market. First LTE sites will start going live very soon.Robert

 

oh thank god, service has been absolutely abysmal down here. Thanks for the info Robert!

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Do you know if there are any plans to add LTE coverage in the Disney area? I can generally get decent voice coverage and very slow 3g coverage (combination of bad network and lots of tourists using said bad network). I've always found it odd that Sprint had no Wimax coverage at Disney, despite having an agreement to put towers on Disney property.

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So i was driving home on Saturday from the mall and playing with my phone and i noticed it switched over to LTE. I live in oviedo, so i was highly shocked that in the middle of know where i was getting lte. It was 2 bar so i did a speed test and got 9 down .6 up.

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Melbourne/Cocoa Beach area is terrible! I have only been a sprint customer for a month and I am very unpleased with the service. I consistently get 40kbps-150kbps download speeds, even with full signal. Data is completely unusable and simple webpages and facebook will time out consistently

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...I posted in early September '12 about our Sprint service in both Cocoa Beach and Disney/Lake Buena Vista, after my family's August visit to these areas. To recap--Sprint service (both phone/messaging and data) was unusable...and our battery life (in three different devices) suffered greatly.

 

We have just returned from a return visit to both areas, and indeed, Robert was correct when he responded to my initial post with a hopeful note. The Sprint service at the Disney resorts and parks, as well as Cocoa Beach (in the RonJons area) was much-improved. I do not have a 4G device, but I can say that the 3G Sprint service was much better, in January '13, than it was in August '12.

 

Thanks for this wonderful service.

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LTE keeps appearing and disappearing in the Melbourne/Merritt island area. That is a good sign. I just got 15 mb download with LTE. 5 mins later in the same spot it was back to 3g and the speed test timed out and couldn't even connect to a server. Maybe we are closer than we know, but it still concerns me that 3g is unusable during the upgrade

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LTE is starting to light up in various places in Brevard county. Northwest Melbourne (got 28 MBs there.) Cocoa Beach (15MBs there.) Rockledge (8MBs there). Of course it isnt where I work or live yet, but now I am hopeful. I will add more locations as I find them.

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