Network Vision/LTE - Lower Central Valley Market (Fresno, Bakersfield, Visalia)

[bjarabian]

I was surprised that there was zero service on route 1 between Morro Bay and Carmel, not even roaming 1x.

 

And you have to actually get into Carmel for data

That is a dead zone for most carriers.  You may only have 500 people on the Big Sur at any one time.  Caycus & MB has 4G.  Not fast but do-able.

[Oedipus]

I've heard that AT&T has poopy coverage in the Big Sur area as well.

[Nexel49]

Look at these sweet Spark Speeds

 

[Nexel49]

Look at these sweet Spark Speeds

 

Next should be turbo can't wait to see what those speeds are like

[trapaz]

How long has Mendota had Band 41 active?!

[TechEric]

I really hope that VoLTE is on its way.  Also just got done talking to a Sprint rep on Twitter after asking about WiFi calling with the Nexus 6, since TMobile should be getting the update to activate it shortly, and they said they are looking into adding WiFi Calling to the Nexus, I think it's smart of the carriers to offput some of the load to WiFi, this would mean a more reliable mobile network for those who are out of WiFi coverage, and it would eliminate the need for an AirRave.  Hopefully Sprint adds more phones to WiFi Calling.  (if this does not belong on this thread please let me know)

[nexgencpu]

I really hope that VoLTE is on its way.  Also just got done talking to a Sprint rep on Twitter after asking about WiFi calling with the Nexus 6, since TMobile should be getting the update to activate it shortly, and they said they are looking into adding WiFi Calling to the Nexus, I think it's smart of the carriers to offput some of the load to WiFi, this would mean a more reliable mobile network for those who are out of WiFi coverage, and it would eliminate the need for an AirRave.  Hopefully Sprint adds more phones to WiFi Calling.  (if this does not belong on this thread please let me know)

You are aware that your able to enable full Google voice integration (Sprint is the only carrier to support this awesome feature, you can use your own number to make calls) and use Hangouts dialer(basically VoLTE or Wifi) to make and receive unlimited calls from your N6, also has the added benefit of being able to use data and voice simultaneously.

 

It surprises the hell out of me when people dont know about it.

 

 

It works amazingly well...

[Oedipus]

I really hope that VoLTE is on its way.  Also just got done talking to a Sprint rep on Twitter after asking about WiFi calling with the Nexus 6, since TMobile should be getting the update to activate it shortly, and they said they are looking into adding WiFi Calling to the Nexus, I think it's smart of the carriers to offput some of the load to WiFi, this would mean a more reliable mobile network for those who are out of WiFi coverage, and it would eliminate the need for an AirRave.  Hopefully Sprint adds more phones to WiFi Calling.  (if this does not belong on this thread please let me know)

 

In this area at least, VoLTE is a nonstarter until we at least have 800 LTE. It works great on Verizon!

[Nextel49]

I really hope that VoLTE is on its way.  Also just got done talking to a Sprint rep on Twitter after asking about WiFi calling with the Nexus 6, since TMobile should be getting the update to activate it shortly, and they said they are looking into adding WiFi Calling to the Nexus, I think it's smart of the carriers to offput some of the load to WiFi, this would mean a more reliable mobile network for those who are out of WiFi coverage, and it would eliminate the need for an AirRave.  Hopefully Sprint adds more phones to WiFi Calling.  (if this does not belong on this thread please let me know)

you do know that you call anyone for Free through 2 apps on your phone using cellular data or WIFI right & those are FB Messager or Hangouts Dialer all 100% Free to call anyone anytime on any type of network these have been around quite a while hope this helps you use it more & stop waiting for Wifi calling apps

[Nexel49]

How many people in Bakersfield/Fresno dealing with Roaming for the past 4 days

[mrjeff]

You are aware that your able to enable full Google voice integration (Sprint is the only carrier to support this awesome feature, you can use your own number to make calls) and use Hangouts dialer(basically VoLTE or Wifi) to make and receive unlimited calls from your N6, also has the added benefit of being able to use data and voice simultaneously.

 

It surprises the hell out of me when people dont know about it.

 

 

It works amazingly well...

 

 

I like the idea of Google Voice but IIRC Google Voice integration does not support HD voice and there is also additional latency (delay) introduced into your call.  Those two things made me disable it.

[Nextel49]

 enjoy

[snarf]

 

enjoy

Wow how's Fresno?

[MacinJosh]

Wow how's Fresno?

 

I have never had a chance to find Spark in Fresno yet. Hopefully someone will be able to post a speed test soon.

[snarf]

Got a lg volt on boost.  So far at home seems like 800mhz isnt active yet in fresno

 

 

Near ashlan and first

Edited January 25, 2015 by snarf

[Mikeclar]

Definitely not Ashlan and First. I Work very near there and that neighborhood is still mostly 3g. No towers nearby enough. It will on rare occasion kick over to 4g but never indoors.

[Volaris]

For anyone wondering why the main downtown/Costco flag pole tower in Merced hasn't been touched, it seems Sprint has been working with the city to change the design (to a T bar monopole) to avoid a GMO. 

 

---

Special thanks to mj1108 at HoFo for finding these cool documents (he was checking to see why T-Mobile hadn't upgraded this tower from 4G to LTE). He's also seen T-Mobile install and test 700MHz LTE in Merced, so hopefully Sprint is soon next with 800MHz LTE.

---

 

First attempt in Jan 2014 was to keep it as a flag pole but with a fat top cover. I believe AT&T uses this design in Fresno?

https://www.cityofmerced.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=13382

 

Second attempt in Oct 2014 was to change it to a regular T bar monopole.

https://www.cityofmerced.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=14142

 

It seems like they approved the last option with conditions (odd, I think it looks worse than the first option). Hopefully that means it'll be upgraded to LTE soon... that tower could really use it. Also, you can see the "real" indoor / car / street coverage map of Merced in those documents, for anyone interested. 

[snarf]

Definitely not Ashlan and First. I Work very near there and that neighborhood is still mostly 3g. No towers nearby enough. It will on rare occasion kick over to 4g but never indoors.

Yea towers are sparse here

 

Hopefully 800 fixes that

Edited January 26, 2015 by snarf

[Oedipus]

For anyone wondering why the main downtown/Costco flag pole tower in Merced hasn't been touched, it seems Sprint has been working with the city to change the design (to a T bar monopole) to avoid a GMO. 

 

---

Special thanks to mj1108 at HoFo for finding these cool documents (he was checking to see why T-Mobile hadn't upgraded this tower from 4G to LTE). He's also seen T-Mobile install and test 700MHz LTE in Merced, so hopefully Sprint is soon next with 800MHz LTE.

---

 

First attempt in Jan 2014 was to keep it as a flag pole but with a fat top cover. I believe AT&T uses this design in Fresno?

https://www.cityofmerced.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=13382

 

Second attempt in Oct 2014 was to change it to a regular T bar monopole.

https://www.cityofmerced.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=14142

 

It seems like they approved the last option with conditions (odd, I think it looks worse than the first option). Hopefully that means it'll be upgraded to LTE soon... that tower could really use it. Also, you can see the "real" indoor / car / street coverage map of Merced in those documents, for anyone interested. 

 

Yes, almost every AT&T site in fresno looks like that. It makes them very easy to spot.

[snarf]

Sprint postpaid doesn't limit streaming video to 3g speeds?

[S4GRU]

Sprint postpaid doesn't limit streaming video to 3g speeds?

 

Most new plans since My Way and Unlimited Guaranteed have a clause in their Terms and Conditions that says Sprint reserves the right to throttle streaming video down to 1Mbps.  Presumably when needed for network capacity. 

 

I have yet to see anything credible showing that Sprint is throttling someone's video speeds.  Because if the network is running so poor that they need to throttle video, the improvement will not likely be much.  The streaming video is de facto throttled by virtue of the site already being slow.

 

The only time that throttling streaming video to 1Mbps would like have noticeable site improvement is if quite a few people were streaming at the same time.  Then converting all of them to a 1Mbps stream may suddenly boost speeds for other users.

 

But there is just not a big scale of video throttling that has happened yet.

[cmdr_keen]

At the risk of sounding like the boy who cried wolf, I think Sprint has finally lit up the tower at Akers and 198 in Visalia with LTE. I thought they were working on them last January, but as Oedipus pointed out, Sprint's towers were second from the bottom. 

 

I've seen a sky trak there the last couple weeks, and I can confirm that there are new panels on that rack, and today I am on 4G. I took some Sensorly tracks and speed tests. It's certainly not Spark but still better than 3G. 

 

 

[MacinJosh]

At the risk of sounding like the boy who cried wolf, I think Sprint has finally lit up the tower at Akers and 198 in Visalia with LTE. I thought they were working on them last January, but as Oedipus pointed out, Sprint's towers were second from the bottom.

 

I've seen a sky trak there the last couple weeks, and I can confirm that there are new panels on that rack, and today I am on 4G. I took some Sensorly tracks and speed tests. It's certainly not Spark but still better than 3G.

That sure took long enough to get done. Spark should be broadcasting from the Clearwire equipment on the same tower or the other tower at that school, so it could be a while before we see Band 41 8T8R equipment on that tower.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk 3.1.1

[Volaris]

 

At the risk of sounding like the boy who cried wolf, I think Sprint has finally lit up the tower at Akers and 198 in Visalia with LTE. I thought they were working on them last January, but as Oedipus pointed out, Sprint's towers were second from the bottom. 

 

I've seen a sky trak there the last couple weeks, and I can confirm that there are new panels on that rack, and today I am on 4G. I took some Sensorly tracks and speed tests. It's certainly not Spark but still better than 3G. 

 

Woohoo! As someone that goes between Visalia and Hanford quite a bit, this is a welcome addition. Slightly better indoor data at the Orchard Walk stores would also be awesome.

[Nextel49]

here is a Video for those that may not know what are some of the Lingo is for Sprint enjoy  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKPiThLWgMg