Network Vision/LTE - Richmond & Southern Virginia Markets

[DanielB]

Still last place in data speeds though. I wonder if that's because Sprint just can't get enough fiber to its cell towers. Even band 41 doesn't seem to be particularly fast. 

 

Could be. Richmond market also has a lot of Sprint users. I think the Baltimore/Richmond/Hampton Roads band is one area Sprint is really going to target with small cells for densification. I know a couple of folks handling RFPs for the big project right now - next 24 months for us looks very promising.

[izzo2924]

Has there been any network issues as of late? Noticing a bit slower network even in LTE. Just for example...IG...snapchat not uploading as normally would...

[JosefTor]

Has there been any network issues as of late? Noticing a bit slower network even in LTE. Just for example...IG...snapchat not uploading as normally would...

If your market is anything like the California market now, Sprint appears to have adjusted the load balancing between bands to make the phones not jump to B41 as often. I rarely jump to B41 now where I used to jump at every moment my smartphone got. Have you noticed this on your phone?

[DanielB]

My lines are still working fantastically in RVA. That's all over western/central Henrico and western Chesterfield, as well as Richmond. Don't venture too far into Hanover County too often, but it's working well in the two places I go.

[Dkoellerwx]

If your market is anything like the California market now, Sprint appears to have adjusted the load balancing between bands to make the phones not jump to B41 as often. I rarely jump to B41 now where I used to jump at every moment my smartphone got. Have you noticed this on your phone?

 

I'm not sure that's actually been a change. I certainly have not noticed this. 

[GoWireless]

Is there any way on the N5X that I can tell which LTE bands are currently broadcasting? Sprint tells me they have enabled B26 on the tower I am on. I am almost certain they providing me with incorrect information but I would like to check for sure if I can (the reason I am suspicious is that besides experiencing no coverage improvement whatsoever when losing B25 signal indoors, about a year and a half ago for example we lost B25 completely on the same tower and it took Sprint almost a month to fix it, while for the first two or three weeks they were insisting there was no problem at all when there most certainly was, with everyone with Sprint I know of having lost their LTE signal during that time).

Edited October 29, 2015 by GoWireless

[kojitsari]

 

 

 

Signalcheck lite/pro or engineering screens can tell you what band you're connected to. Otherwise you can look at the b26 maps in your area (if you're a premier sponsor, or crappatalk so cannot tell xD).

[GoWireless]

Signalcheck lite/pro or engineering screens can tell you what band you're connected to. Otherwise you can look at the b26 maps in your area (if you're a premier sponsor, or crappatalk so cannot tell xD).

Yes, I am aware I can tell what band I am presently on. Sprint claims B26 is already lit though so I would like some way of verifying this as I strongly suspect what they are telling me is wrong.

[kojitsari]

Yes, I am aware I can tell what band I am presently on. Sprint claims B26 is already lit though so I would like some way of verifying this as I strongly suspect what they are telling me is wrong.

There are massive amounts of maps for just about (if not every market) on S4GRU, feel free to support the site and upgrade your membership level (not sure if you've been a sponsor in the past or not). Maps for b26 should be Premier Sponsor level access unless it's changed. The most you can get without having access yourself is a 'yes there's b26 in your market' which is pretty much what Sprint will tell you, although information here tends to be a bit better.

 

Other than that, to the best of my knowledge, there isn't some special method for phones to just 'know' what signals are in the area unless they're connected to them or pick them up when they scan for them (logging in SignalCheck can help with this if you do not like to/cannot keep an eye on your phone constantly like most of us).

[GoWireless]

There are massive amounts of maps for just about (if not every market) on S4GRU, feel free to support the site and upgrade your membership level (not sure if you've been a sponsor in the past or not). Maps for b26 should be Premier Sponsor level access unless it's changed. The most you can get without having access yourself is a 'yes there's b26 in your market' which is pretty much what Sprint will tell you, although information here tends to be a bit better.

Other than that, to the best of my knowledge, there isn't some special method for phones to just 'know' what signals are in the area unless they're connected to them or pick them up when they scan for them (logging in SignalCheck can help with this if you do not like to/cannot keep an eye on your phone constantly like most of us).

Thanks but checking maps isn't that much help in this case because Sprint itself is already claiming that this SPECIFIC site is broadcasting B26 publically. However, I have seen 0% improvement in in-building recpetion in a building that's located less than half a mile from the site. When 1x800 rolled out a year ago it solved all of the voice issues in this building although I do realize that 1x is a more robust signal than LTE but like I said, if what Sprint is telling me is true, I would have expected to have at least seen some improvement but I have seen none at all.

[S4GRU]

Thanks but checking maps isn't that much help in this case because Sprint itself is already claiming that this SPECIFIC site is broadcasting B26 publically. However, I have seen 0% improvement in in-building recpetion in a building that's located less than half a mile from the site. When 1x800 rolled out a year ago it solved all of the voice issues in this building although I do realize that 1x is a more robust signal than LTE but like I said, if what Sprint is telling me is true, I would have expected to have at least seen some improvement but I have seen none at all.

B26 coverage does not improve over B25 until optimization. Which occurs between 3 months and one year after initial activation.

 

Sent using Nexus 6P on Tapatalk

[ajbrad71]

I have the note 5 and since this new 4g lte plus announcement my signal has been trash. Am I tripping or has it for worse.

 

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[nexgencpu]

I have the note 5 and since this new 4g lte plus announcement my signal has been trash. Am I tripping or has it for worse.

 

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Don't know what you mean by "trash" but can install signal check and upload a screen shot so we can have a better idea.

[ajbrad71]

Don't know what you mean by "trash" but can install signal check and upload a screen shot so we can have a better idea.

 

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[lilotimz]

 

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http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-308-rssi-vs-rsrp-a-brief-lte-signal-strength-primer/

 

TLDR: FANTASTIC signal strength. The "bars" are borked. 

[nexgencpu]

Have you done a speed test? Your signal is actually not too bad, -90dBm. The SNR is a bit low, also, if your speeds are slow it could be your connected to a congested site.  B25 is only 5x5 wide, so if there aren't any B41 sites to offload its traffic, it can easily get congested.

 

Try not to pay your signal bars any mind. Use this application to get a real indication of what your real signal strength is.

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[ajbrad71]

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-308-rssi-vs-rsrp-a-brief-lte-signal-strength-primer/

 

TLDR: FANTASTIC signal strength. The "bars" are borked.

this is what I eat by trash

 

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[ajbrad71]

Mean, dam spell check

 

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[nexgencpu]

this is what I eat by trash

 

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The site is congested, Your signal is actually quite good. Report your slow speed to Sprint through the Sprint Zone app asap. 

[cshiffy]

Seems like this Richmond thread is kinda dead! Been a year since there has been activity. Anyone else in this market having issues? No service at Zion Crossroads or Louisa. Verizon roaming only

 

 

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[shannonbrian]

Near Richmond yesterday mostly 10x10 band 25 and couple band 41 founded.avearge speeds 30 to 40 mbps.

[nexgencpu]

Just spent a day in Richmond, every B25 site I hit was 10x10 and also hit quite a few 3xCA sites.

[Paynefanbro]

Reviving this to say that I found n41 in Virginia Beach.

[JimBob]

My parents are moving to Richmond/Henrico area this winter.  Is there good coverage/service there?

[Paynefanbro]

I was in Richmond for about a week two weeks ago. I spent most of my time Downtown with one brief trip to The Diamond (not the baseball stadium but the industrial/commercial area near it). I had the opportunity to test Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T while there. My findings were:

1. Verizon has clearly spent a lot of time and money trying to get their network up to snuff to match T-Mobile. Most sites had C-band but not all and they're virtually the only carrier with a mature small cell deployment in the city. They have a ton of them, both mmWave and CBRS. They also have DAS set up inside many of the office buildings in Downtown Richmond which meant that I always had strong signal indoors, even if it wasn't that fast. A lot of the building DAS were ancient Band 13/66 nodes even in the "newer" buildings. Outdoors I was seeing average speeds in the 300Mbps range with peak speeds over over 2Gbps when I could connect to a mmWave node. Unfortunately despite the immense amount of effort Verizon has gone through to deploy mmWave small cells, they're still not easy to connect to at all. Another thing I noticed is that because Verizon has relatively low macro density, I couldn't connect to C-band indoors. It was always either n5 or LTE via DAS.
    
2. In contrast T-Mobile has the densest macro network (thanks to a ton of Sprint conversions) and the fastest average speeds. I believe they control the entire of BRS/EBS in the market and it shows. I connected to multiple gig+ sites in my short time there and had average speeds in the 500-600Mbps range. Unfortunately where T-Mobile falls apart is indoors because unlike Verizon, they don't have any indoor DAS in any of the buildings I went into. T-Mobile's great macro density meant that unlike Verizon indoors I could connect to n41 indoors virtually everywhere and even on the 18th floor of a highrise but my signal would be super weak. For example I'd have 1 bar of n41 with 240Mbps speeds but Verizon would have full signal and 40Mbps coming from the DAS. While fast speeds are a nice to have, having a reliably strong signal for text/voice is also necessary. I hope that with T-Mobile's push into the business/enterprise market they understand the need for DAS to supplement their strong macro network.
    
3. AT&T was simply not competitive with Verizon or T-Mobile. They have poor macro density, virtually no C-band deployed, no in-building DAS, and 5G is not available half the time. This is mostly their own fault because they really should have C-band and DoD deployed but it's also partially due to the fact that Verizon controls the entire Cellular band so AT&T has no n5 in the city. Instead they're using DSS n2 to provide 5G service to customers and it's really hit or miss. Sometime you'll connect and get 50Mbps and other times it'll only be 5Mbps. In my opinion if you live/work in Downtown Richmond AT&T is simply not an option.