Network Vision/LTE - East Iowa Market (Quad Cities, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Dubuque, Waterloo/Cedar Falls)

[njbelf]

I count 10 separate towers with upgrades on the network.sprint.com map but only 3 of those are marked on the sponsor map.

 

Edit: The map here:

Network Vision Site Map - Nebraska/Iowa Markets

 

 

shows all the towers.

 

I think I just answered my question. The NV Sites Complete map only shows a few on the west side of Cedar Rapids as complete. The remainder have not been accepted yet so I guess it will be a while before they turn on LTE.

[bmoses]

I count 10 separate towers with upgrades on the network.sprint.com map but only 3 of those are marked on the sponsor map.

 

Edit: The map here:

Network Vision Site Map - Nebraska/Iowa Markets

 

 

shows all the towers.

 

I think I just answered my question. The NV Sites Complete map only shows a few on the west side of Cedar Rapids as complete. The remainder have not been accepted yet so I guess it will be a while before they turn on LTE.

 

lol, was just going to reply that it looked like you were comparing to the sites complete map the network.sprint.com site includes upgrades to legacy equipment too, its not just for NV upgrades even though it can include those as well. upgrades to legacy sites include additional T1 lines, and extra carriers to allow more voice and data users at the same time. the only way to tell if an upgrade on network.sprint.com is NV related is to check the sites complete map here and see if Robert has received an acceptance report on it and adds it to the map.

[njbelf]

lol, was just going to reply that it looked like you were comparing to the sites complete map the network.sprint.com site includes upgrades to legacy equipment too, its not just for NV upgrades even though it can include those as well. upgrades to legacy sites include additional T1 lines, and extra carriers to allow more voice and data users at the same time. the only way to tell if an upgrade on network.sprint.com is NV related is to check the sites complete map here and see if Robert has received an acceptance report on it and adds it to the map.

 

Thanks.. is there any way to know if they are working on the other towers in town?

[bmoses]

Thanks.. is there any way to know if they are working on the other towers in town?

 

there isn't an easy way no. So far all the accepted towers in the East Iowa market have been GMO sites. full build sites are starting though. to see if work is currently going on you would need to visit each tower and see if there is any signs of work. Otherwise you would have to wait until Robert receives an acceptance report on it and it shows up on the sites complete map.

[njbelf]

That's what I figured. Thanks..

[bkco14]

Anyone noticing any improvements in the Quad Cities? It seems for the past 2-3 weeks my data and voice have gotten worse.

[dangogel]

Is there any news on cedar rapids lte rollout a rep said july

[njbelf]

Is there any news on cedar rapids lte rollout a rep said july

 

I would think July would be pushing it.  A quick speedtest just showed a 236ms ping time and 126kbps down/ 258kbps up on a 3g connection.  I'm up in Hiawatha at the present time.   We'll see though.

[dangogel]

I know but a rep said july 10th is the day they'll turnit on in our area

[njbelf]

I know but a rep said july 10th is the day they'll turnit on in our area

That would be awesome.

[bmoses]

I would think July would be pushing it.  A quick speedtest just showed a 236ms ping time and 126kbps down/ 258kbps up on a 3g connection.  I'm up in Hiawatha at the present time.   We'll see though.

 

 

I know but a rep said july 10th is the day they'll turnit on in our area

 

 

That would be awesome.

 

don't believe any dates a rep says, they unfortunately don't have any concrete info. you will get more accurate info from this site then you will sprint reps. 4G/LTE will go live on towers as they get installed and accepted by sprint, there won't be any date that they all get "turned on". there are a ton of GMO sites that are 3G accepted in the east iowa market now and i've found at least a handful of full build sites that have been 3G accepted. So work is happening all over the east iowa market, its just a matter of time and patience right now for when those first 4G towers go live, could be tomorrow could be 6-8 weeks from now. no one knows for sure but it is happening.

 

speaking of the east iowa market. went from des moines area to st Louis yesterday via 163/34/27 highways and i was on 1x data more than i was on 3G this was even passing some areas that have been accepted 3G complete, so they must not have brought them online yet. didn't pick up any 4G anywhere and was on the west side of the st Louis area and nothing there either. so that area will have a huge shock when they go from 1x to 4G after they get done upgrading the network

[njbelf]

Something is going on because when the site closest to my house was 3G accepted, the download speeds on 3G were in the 1.5Mbps range and the connectivity was 4 bars.   As I sit right now, I barely have 2 bars and the download speeds on 3G are in the 400kbps range.    

[bmoses]

Something is going on because when the site closest to my house was 3G accepted, the download speeds on 3G were in the 1.5Mbps range and the connectivity was 4 bars.   As I sit right now, I barely have 2 bars and the download speeds on 3G are in the 400kbps range.    

 

they either took the 3G accepted tower thats closest to you offline to work on it, forcing your phone to connect to a tower further away with no upgrades, or you phone connected to a tower further away that has no upgrades and is just holding onto that connection instead of switching to the closer tower. best way to test would be to turn on airplane mode for 30 seconds then turn it off. that will force your phone to scan towers again. if the one closest to you is live it will pick it back up, if its not you will go back to the further away tower.

[njbelf]

they either took the 3G accepted tower thats closest to you offline to work on it, forcing your phone to connect to a tower further away with no upgrades, or you phone connected to a tower further away that has no upgrades and is just holding onto that connection instead of switching to the closer tower. best way to test would be to turn on airplane mode for 30 seconds then turn it off. that will force your phone to scan towers again. if the one closest to you is live it will pick it back up, if its not you will go back to the further away tower.

 

Thanks, I'll try that when I get home this evening and report back.

[njbelf]

Thanks, I'll try that when I get home this evening and report back.

 

Did do the 'airplane mode' trick and then ran a speedtest when I got home. I got 1630kbps down and 588kbps up (one of these days I'll be concerned with taking a snapshot) but only had 2 bars of connectivity.    Could they have changed the angle of the antennas such that I no longer get strong voice signal?   Just seems odd that we had full bars not too long ago and now only have two.

[bmoses]

Did do the 'airplane mode' trick and then ran a speedtest when I got home. I got 1630kbps down and 588kbps up (one of these days I'll be concerned with taking a snapshot) but only had 2 bars of connectivity.    Could they have changed the angle of the antennas such that I no longer get strong voice signal?   Just seems odd that we had full bars not too long ago and now only have two.

 

 

bars on your phone only show you your voice signal. also your phone can be connected to 1 tower for voice and another tower for data, but the bars will only show you the voice tower. 3G can also have good data speeds with a low signal strength as long as its a "clean" signal. so in your case either your voice and data were on different towers, or they were on the same tower and just happen to get a good speed test too. it could be that the closer tower is still being worked on and only accepting data connections which would give you the good speed, but your signal seemed low cause it was on a further away tower for voice.

 

really there are so many factors that can affect everything on a normal basis that it will drive you crazy trying to figure out what is going on, plus throw in that they are actively deploying and things will change from day to day based on that, it will just compound things even further. 

[njbelf]

bars on your phone only show you your voice signal. also your phone can be connected to 1 tower for voice and another tower for data, but the bars will only show you the voice tower. 3G can also have good data speeds with a low signal strength as long as its a "clean" signal. so in your case either your voice and data were on different towers, or they were on the same tower and just happen to get a good speed test too. it could be that the closer tower is still being worked on and only accepting data connections which would give you the good speed, but your signal seemed low cause it was on a further away tower for voice.

 

really there are so many factors that can affect everything on a normal basis that it will drive you crazy trying to figure out what is going on, plus throw in that they are actively deploying and things will change from day to day based on that, it will just compound things even further. 

 

That's kinda what I figured.  Thanks for spelling it out.  Hopefully that July time frame for LTE in Cedar Rapids is accurate.

[njbelf]

They're back out running fiber along 16th ave this morning in Cedar Rapids.  I didn't stop to ask what for.   They've been playing in the street for a few weeks on Center Point Road and today I noticed a fiber spool there as well.  Since we have no 3G accepted towers in Cedar Rapids proper, this is probably good news.

[prometheusjp]

I was just told by one of my users that she is able to get 4G on our test hotspot in one corner of her house in Mechanicsville, IA.  Every step closer makes me happy, hopefully Iowa City and CR will light soon.

[bmoses]

I was just told by one of my users that she is able to get 4G on our test hotspot in one corner of her house in Mechanicsville, IA.  Every step closer makes me happy, hopefully Iowa City and CR will light soon.

 

very nice! that would be a first for a lot of things, first 4G in iowa, and both towers that could possibly cover mechanicsville are GMO sites so that would be the first GMO site with 4G too!

[prometheusjp]

very nice! that would be a first for a lot of things, first 4G in iowa, and both towers that could possibly cover mechanicsville are GMO sites so that would be the first GMO site with 4G too!

I will see if I can't get confirmation this week and maybe even get up there to verify on my phone.

[njbelf]

I was just told by one of my users that she is able to get 4G on our test hotspot in one corner of her house in Mechanicsville, IA.  Every step closer makes me happy, hopefully Iowa City and CR will light soon.

 

Drove past Mechanicsville on US30 this past weekend with Sensorly running and got no 4G hits.

[dangogel]

Any towers getting updated to LTE in East Iowa yet. I see all that is done is 3g update

[bmoses]

Drove past Mechanicsville on US30 this past weekend with Sensorly running and got no 4G hits.

 

did you have sensorly running the whole time and were you using the LTE discovery app? i ask because its been seen that if there is an active data connection and you are on 3G your phone will not switch to 4G even if its there. having sensorly running would count as an active data connection. if you swing past there again make sure to at least do airplane mode to force your phone to scan for 4G. then if you get 4G fire up sensorly

[bkco14]

Has anyone heard anything about the Quad City area?