Network Vision/LTE - LA Metro Market

[JosefTor]

I've noticed in a few locations where there's a new(er) Sprint B41 site and Clear site relatively nearby that they have either powered down or lowered power on the Clear site.

 

I can see how in general this would make sense, however I know of at least one location where it may have looked good on paper, but in practice it has led to diminished coverage. In the case I'm thinking of the Clear site had better line of sight to the surrounding area. The new Sprint B41 site is blocked by tall office buildings.

This may be the case or a part of the problem. I noticed this was around the same time as they changed the band priorities. It appears to not jump on B41 as fast, to jump off B41 early instead of holding it until ~131, and to jump off LTE altogether at around 118 to 3g (or no signal for a couple seconds and then 3g even though there is strong sprint signal in that location).

[bigmachine]

It appears to not jump on B41 as fast, to jump off B41 early instead of holding it until ~131, and to jump off LTE altogether at around 118 to 3g (or no signal for a couple seconds and then 3g even though there is strong sprint signal in that location).

 

I've been reporting these issues via Sprint Zone.  I may be delusional, but it seems like someone actually pays attention to reports through that.

[ericdabbs]

Good news is that one of the recent NV sites that was accepted and now live in the La Habra/Fullerton area on Imperial Hwy and Harbor blvd has both 800 RRUs and 1900 RRUs installed.  I am glad Sprint did not opt to just install 1900 RRUs and then have to come back and install 800 RRUs.  

 

Hopefully the SB county rebanding effort is almost finished.  I believe SB county was suppose to have a deadline around late August but who knows how strict the FCC is enforcing it given its poor track record.  The data coverage in La Habra is really poor and the LTE 800 is badly needed.

[Dkoellerwx]

I've noticed in a few locations where there's a new(er) Sprint B41 site and Clear site relatively nearby that they have either powered down or lowered power on the Clear site.

 

I can see how in general this would make sense, however I know of at least one location where it may have looked good on paper, but in practice it has led to diminished coverage.  In the case I'm thinking of the Clear site had better line of sight to the surrounding area.  The new Sprint B41 site is blocked by tall office buildings.

 

If there is a Clear site within shouting distance, they often power down the Clear site when a 8T8R site is brought online. It's quite possible the 8T8R is running at lower power for a time after it is initially turned on.

[jasonsteele]

Good news is that one of the recent NV sites that was accepted and now live in the La Habra/Fullerton area on Imperial Hwy and Harbor blvd has both 800 RRUs and 1900 RRUs installed. I am glad Sprint did not opt to just install 1900 RRUs and then have to come back and install 800 RRUs.

 

Hopefully the SB county rebanding effort is almost finished. I believe SB county was suppose to have a deadline around late August but who knows how strict the FCC is enforcing it given its poor track record. The data coverage in La Habra is really poor and the LTE 800 is badly needed.

They did the same at the site on the Advance Fire Protection lot on Lambert west of Idaho. Slow progress is still progress! [emoji106]???? At least 3G is usable again at all the Imperial and Beach shopping centers (let's hope for a new macro here).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk

[nomoresoupforyou]

I went and checked around the area that I've been having issues in Brea and the Clearwire tower that is about half a mile from the Sprint tower is not broadcasting anymore. I drove to the marker on the map in the Sponsors section and never got any B41. That would explain why there is increased traffic on the Sprint tower, but not why B41 is now impossible to receive from said tower unless you are directly across the street from it (when this didn't use to be the case)... which I can only guess that either the broadcast power was turned down or the band prioritization that JosefTor mentioned is causing the issue.

 

Also, I rode Metrolink from ARTIC to Union Station and had either Clearwire or Sprint B41 for nearly the entire duration of the trip 

[Thomas L.]

Good news is that one of the recent NV sites that was accepted and now live in the La Habra/Fullerton area on Imperial Hwy and Harbor blvd has both 800 RRUs and 1900 RRUs installed.  I am glad Sprint did not opt to just install 1900 RRUs and then have to come back and install 800 RRUs.  

 

Hopefully the SB county rebanding effort is almost finished.  I believe SB county was suppose to have a deadline around late August but who knows how strict the FCC is enforcing it given its poor track record.  The data coverage in La Habra is really poor and the LTE 800 is badly needed.

 

I hope that LTE 800 will help your coverage there more than it did in the Bay Area. In my experience, the difference it was sadly negligible. In markets where coverage was never very good, like the Bay Area and LA, I'm convinced that the only thing that is really going to improve the experience and bring it up to par is densification. 

[ericdabbs]

I hope that LTE 800 will help your coverage there more than it did in the Bay Area. In my experience, the difference it was sadly negligible. In markets where coverage was never very good, like the Bay Area and LA, I'm convinced that the only thing that is really going to improve the experience and bring it up to par is densification. 

 

Well that remains to be seen.  Bay Area needs a ton of densification. I look at all the NV sites available in the SF peninsula and it appears to have coverage gaps which I know a single LTE 800 carrier is not going to fix.    Trying to cover LA and SF is already a tall order to ask due to the size of the areas it needs to cover. This is why Sprint needs to not only add a ton of new macro sites as part of its NGN program for densification but it needs to aim for placing LTE 800, 1900 and 2500 at as many existing NV sites as possible.

 

Tmobile has been deploying 700 MHz LTE rather quickly in LA and I would be curious to see what their strategy is in the spacing of their 700 MHz sites.  I know of an area along my route to work where there are 2 Tmobile sites within a 0.5 mile distance and only 1 of them has the 700 MHz panels installed.

[Thomas L.]

Well that remains to be seen.  Bay Area needs a ton of densification. I look at all the NV sites available in the SF peninsula and it appears to have coverage gaps which I know a single LTE 800 carrier is not going to fix.    Trying to cover LA and SF is already a tall order to ask due to the size of the areas it needs to cover. This is why Sprint needs to not only add a ton of new macro sites as part of its NGN program for densification but it needs to aim for placing LTE 800, 1900 and 2500 at as many existing NV sites as possible.

 

Tmobile has been deploying 700 MHz LTE rather quickly in LA and I would be curious to see what their strategy is in the spacing of their 700 MHz sites.  I know of an area along my route to work where there are 2 Tmobile sites within a 0.5 mile distance and only 1 of them has the 700 MHz panels installed.

 

My understanding is that they are trying to eventually deploy it on all sites possible because it will give them another speed boost in some cases, as the latest phones have carrier aggregation enabled for both B4 LTE with B12 and B2 LTE with B12 (Plus B4 with B4 and I think B4 with B2). I am sure that, first, they are strategically adding Band 12 where they've decided they really need it, and that they will then go back and and fill in other sites. I feel like in LA (LA proper anyway and Santa Monica, Culver City, etc) the Band 4 network is so good that Band 12 is icing on the cake. Even on a band 4 only phone my experience is already great in LA. 

[orangeblue]

I've noticed in a few locations where there's a new(er) Sprint B41 site and Clear site relatively nearby that they have either powered down or lowered power on the Clear site.

 

I can see how in general this would make sense, however I know of at least one location where it may have looked good on paper, but in practice it has led to diminished coverage.  In the case I'm thinking of the Clear site had better line of sight to the surrounding area.  The new Sprint B41 site is blocked by tall office buildings.

 

 

I have seen this in the Bay Area and it was really disappointing because the Clear site is still active as WiMax only, no more LTE but provided much better service. I hope they will convert the site and bring it back online.

[ingenium]

I have seen this in the Bay Area and it was really disappointing because the Clear site is still active as WiMax only, no more LTE but provided much better service. I hope they will convert the site and bring it back online.

Do you know which site this was or where it's located?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

[bucdenny]

CA found near Torrance on the 405 during rush hour sitting in traffic.

 

[orangeblue]

Do you know which site this was or where it's located?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

 

Sure, the site is located on top of an office building on McKeever Ave and Maple Ct. in Hayward with three sectors mounted on different sites of the building. It was so nice to see the WiMax / LTE service (WiMax is still super fast) but since B26 went life, there is not much joy in terms of speed. It seems this site was taken down for LTE.

[bigmachine]

CA found near Torrance on the 405 during rush hour sitting in traffic.

 

Sweet!  I've been looking for that 2nd B41 carrier, but it probably makes it a little more challenging not having a CA capable device.

 

How were speeds on that site before the 2nd carrier?

[bucdenny]

Sweet!  I've been looking for that 2nd B41 carrier, but it probably makes it a little more challenging not having a CA capable device.

 

How were speeds on that site before the 2nd carrier?

 

Not sure, never ran a test.. Didn't have a need to haha.  I will run test again when out there with CA and without.

[evancg]

Sorry if this is a little off topic, but this seems like the place people would know - I know nothing about the LA area but have a question for folks in that area that are monitoring the network and upgrades. I recently switched back to Sprint and my brother who lives in LA (I'm in Oregon) is reporting essentially unusable speeds in two zip codes he frequents - 90094 and 90026 using an LG G3. Maybe that doesn't narrow it down enough, but if it does, do those areas currently have a lot of work going on? I asked him to download Speedtest.net just out of curiosity and it reported it would take 40min(!) to download. He's coming from having Verizon for the last 9 months, so I wouldn't expect identical coverage, but I would hope for generally usable web browsing speeds...

[ericdabbs]

Does anyone know what the status is of the San Bernardino 800 MHz rebanding?  Are they freaking finished yet?

[bigmachine]

Does anyone know what the status is of the San Bernardino 800 MHz rebanding?  Are they freaking finished yet?

 

The FCC doc from May 22, 2015 stated an expectation that SBC Board of Supervisors would approve of the plan by August 18, 2015, but I have not seen anything in the public record that reflects that actually happening.  Sprint was supposed to have the agreement in hand by August 21, 2015.

 

Here's a link to the referenced order:

https://www.fcc.gov/document/county-san-bernardino-california-and-nextel-communications-inc

 

Here's a link to the SBC Board of Supervisors agendas:

http://www.sbcounty.gov/main/countydirect.asp

[bigmachine]

 I recently switched back to Sprint and my brother who lives in LA (I'm in Oregon) is reporting essentially unusable speeds in two zip codes he frequents - 90094 and 90026 using an LG G3. Maybe that doesn't narrow it down enough, but if it does, do those areas currently have a lot of work going on?

 

I drove through the Echo Park area recently and didn't experience any noticeable speed issues.  If I remember correctly I was mostly connected to B41.

 

Of course an area as big as a zip code is going to have many different experiences.

[ericdabbs]

The FCC doc from May 22, 2015 stated an expectation that SBC Board of Supervisors would approve of the plan by August 18, 2015, but I have not seen anything in the public record that reflects that actually happening.  Sprint was supposed to have the agreement in hand by August 21, 2015.

 

Here's a link to the referenced order:

https://www.fcc.gov/document/county-san-bernardino-california-and-nextel-communications-inc

 

Here's a link to the SBC Board of Supervisors agendas:

http://www.sbcounty.gov/main/countydirect.asp

 

Ugh so the August 21, 2015 deadline is just a rebanding agreement between SBC and Sprint for 800 MHz?  I thought it was when it was suppose to be finished.  I am not hopeful at all at this point and I think the 600 MHz spectrum will be deployed in LA/OC before the 800 MHz will ever be deployed in LA/OC

[lilotimz]

Ugh so the August 21, 2015 deadline is just a rebanding agreement between SBC and Sprint for 800 MHz?  I thought it was when it was suppose to be finished.  I am not hopeful at all at this point and I think the 600 MHz spectrum will be deployed in LA/OC before the 800 MHz will ever be deployed in LA/OC

 

800 will be deployed before 600. At this point and time 600 mhz is years away (2018-2019 minimum) and there's absolutely nothing prepared or ready (it doesn't even have a band #!).

 

FCC and Sprint will eventually force them off one way with recent comments by FCC giving an insight into how frustrated they are with these hold outs. 

[ericdabbs]

800 will be deployed before 600. At this point and time 600 mhz is years away (2018-2019 minimum) and there's absolutely nothing prepared or ready (it doesn't even have a band #!).

 

FCC and Sprint will eventually force them off one way with recent comments by FCC giving an insight into how frustrated they are with these hold outs.

I know I know...it was a sarcastic comment about 800 MHz . But how can the FCC and Sprint force them off anyways? The FCC can't just give permission to Sprint to just 1 day fire up 800 MHz CDMA and LTE. I don't know if the FCC can't just force SBC to cease and desist ESMR band transmissions can they? Is there even a penalty for SBC to failure to consistently miss deadlines? Its just ridiculous how they can keep getting away with this crap.

[lilotimz]

I know I know...it was a sarcastic comment about 800 MHz . But how can the FCC and Sprint force them off anyways? The FCC can't just give permission to Sprint to just 1 day fire up 800 MHz CDMA and LTE. I don't know if the FCC can't just force SBC to cease and desist ESMR band transmissions can they? Is there even a penalty for SBC to failure to consistently miss deadlines? Its just ridiculous how they can keep getting away with this crap.

 

FCC loves handing out fines to entities that does not uphold the FCC directives.. ruinous fines...

 

That's how Sprint got rid of other eSMR squatters. 

 

 

.

[bigmachine]

Ugh so the August 21, 2015 deadline is just a rebanding agreement between SBC and Sprint for 800 MHz?  I thought it was when it was suppose to be finished.  I am not hopeful at all at this point and I think the 600 MHz spectrum will be deployed in LA/OC before the 800 MHz will ever be deployed in LA/OC

 

There's some ancillary evidence that SBC isn't sitting completely idle.  For example, they're spending $3,000,000 for their Rialto Dispatch Center 800 MHz Antenna Upgrade Project.  This was on their August 11th agenda.  Maybe this project is complete coincidence and unrelated, but it seems like it could be connected.

 

Maybe there's some reason why an agreement with Sprint (a.k.a. "Nextel") hasn't been made public.

[bucdenny]

CA found near Torrance on the 405 during rush hour sitting in traffic.

 

 

One way home yesterday, this site was doing 20-30 single carrier and 50-80 on CA.