Network Vision/LTE - Central Iowa Market (Des Moines and surrounding areas)

[hagerwarrior]

yep one of those is a sprint tower, not sure which one as i can't tell from google maps. i'm not sure about all of the carriers, but several years ago sprint sold all of its towers to different tower companies and then leases them back from them. if you get a chance to go back out there and take some pics of the base cabinets and also the panels up on the tower and post them, we can see if we can tell which set is sprints and if there is any new equipment delivered/installed yet or not

 

Will do. The one closest to hubbell that has only one set of antenna on the top is At&ts

[hagerwarrior]

Hope this is what you want don't know what im look at

[bmoses]

Hope this is what you want don't know what im look at

*snip*

 

thanks for the pics! i'm no expert but i believe sprint is on the top rack of the tower with 3 racks. also i don't see any signs of new equipment yet. Keep an eye on it though and let us know if you see anything new show up! i posted a few pics in this thread of what the new base cabinets look like so thats what you will want to watch for.

[bmoses]

found another tower over lunch thats getting fiber run to it

 

its by lower beaver and the interstate.

 

so far i've only seen backhaul and GMO work being done. still waiting for the day i stop by a tower and there is a nice new bundle of equipment sitting there ready to be installed

Edited May 6, 2013 by Dkoellerwx

[moffitj]

A week ago I spent an hour downloading the facebook application while at work (12Mb) and got about 25% of the way through. Today while sitting in the same location I was able to get solid 100kb speeds.

 

This is near the intersection of 70th and Douglas.

[bmoses]

A week ago I spent an hour downloading the facebook application while at work (12Mb) and got about 25% of the way through. Today while sitting in the same location I was able to get solid 100kb speeds.

 

This is near the intersection of 70th and Douglas.

 

at that intersection you would most likely be connected to the merle hay tower (i posted some pictures of it in this thread). That tower is always hit or miss if data is good. sometimes i can get around 1 meg down from it, other times i can barely get anything to work. as soon as it gets converted to NV it will be all good though

[cerebasan]

So any news? I'm trying out Tmobile prepaid here in Des Moines. I work downtown and Sprint's data is pretty bad. I'd like to see this get fixed in the next 60 days. Sounds like from the thread that it's possible.

[bmoses]

So any news? I'm trying out Tmobile prepaid here in Des Moines. I work downtown and Sprint's data is pretty bad. I'd like to see this get fixed in the next 60 days. Sounds like from the thread that it's possible.

 

no concrete news. basically backhaul is getting installed at the sites right now and at some point in the next few months they will start installing the equipment on the towers. Once that starts happening and the new equipment goes live you will start the notice improvements on a site by site basis. I'm guessing 2-3 months for the first accepted sites to show up and then a good 6-8 months before the whole area is complete.

[cerebasan]

Let's hope they work on downtown first. The airport needs some Sprint love too. I'm sure the Sprint store on University will get it soon too. And maybe Jordan Creek.

[S4GRU]

Let's hope they work on downtown first. The airport needs some Sprint love too. I'm sure the Sprint store on University will get it soon too. And maybe Jordan Creek.

 

The order does not go by Sprint's preference. The order will be determined by which sites are zoning approval/permitting and new upgraded backhaul ready. It will be all over the place. But one by one they will get converted.

 

Robert

[cerebasan]

Hmm that's interesting. I didnt know that. I work at Centurylink in the MOE group doing fiber to the cell and sprint doesnt have anything going on that way. I'm assuming they are going to feed the LTE via T1/T3s.

[bmoses]

Hmm that's interesting. I didnt know that. I work at Centurylink in the MOE group doing fiber to the cell and sprint doesnt have anything going on that way. I'm assuming they are going to feed the LTE via T1/T3s.

 

interesting, maybe sprint isn't using centurylink for their fiber? i don't know how all those things work but i have witnessed that orange tubing they use to bury fiber in being run to a few sites over the past few weeks.

 

all NV towers are being upgraded to either fiber, microwave, or some form of AAV for backhaul. I don't know the requirements but from other things i've read it sounds like it needs to be at least 40meg down (a site robert ran into was using bonded DSL) and be easily expandable if more bandwidth is required.

[Justindcarter79]

Anything new going on in Des Moines ? Still no activity as far as equipment being delivered to the tower they ran fiber to at Hickman and MLK. I will be sure and let you guys know when I see it coming in.

[bmoses]

Anything new going on in Des Moines ? Still no activity as far as equipment being delivered to the tower they ran fiber to at Hickman and MLK. I will be sure and let you guys know when I see it coming in.

 

nothing new yet, still just backhaul getting installed at sites. I haven't seen any equipment show up at the sites i've visited yet, other than GMO sites. i'm thinking we are still a good 4 weeks or so away from tower work starting. I'm guessing they want to get as much backhaul in place first so when they start tower work they don't have to wait around on backhaul to get done.

[dleewee]

Got on LTE in St. Joseph, MO today and a few observations.

 

Fast. Crazy fast. 20mbps down / 8 up was pretty consistent. Also signals very solid along the interstate. I held 4g until well outside of town.http://www.speedtest.net/android/457303998.png

 

Makes me super stoked for this to hit Des Moines. I am really impressed with my first experience on LTE. I got on Wimax in Des Moines near Sams Club and speed and signal was nowhere near this good.

[technicholas]

Update from Winterset, Iowa site looks like they ran fiber optics got a chance at looking at one of the boxes that was open.

 

 

[bmoses]

Update from Winterset, Iowa site looks like they ran fiber optics got a chance at looking at one of the boxes that was open.

 

 

*snip*

 

very nice! you are even closer to having that new NV equipment fired up and getting some LTE goodness! i'm still waiting for the couple of GMO sites i've seen around here get backhaul installed. All the equipment is there, just need backhaul and then have it hooked up and switched over.

[technicholas]

I am waiting for them to get LTE whenever I call they tell me this is a old "non network vision site"

Not sure what they are talking about if they have LTE cabinets and fiber.

 

 

Nicholas

[Justindcarter79]

_{Has anyone seen any new towers going in the 50595 zip ? I am not showing any towers in this town.}

[sweyers]

Speed tests at Costco Jordan Creek today -

Verizon LTE - ~10mbps down

AT&T HSPA+ - ~2mbps down

T-Mobile HSPA+ ~6mbps down

US Cellular - wasn't available, but they have LTE here...approx. Verizon speeds in my past experience

*Sprint (my Note 2) - 0.2mbps = 200kbps down

 

This has not been unusual performance for Sprint in the Des Moines area.

 

I have always had faith in Sprint and their commitment to unlimited data. I know that they will eventually fix their over saturated network. They have given me glimmers of hope (A 20mbps speed test at 70mph in Owatonna, MN comes to mind) but I need one closer to home. My patience is waning, we all pay too much to Sprint to put up with this garbage any longer. It's been going on entirely long enough. I regret to say that if US Cellular keeps their unlimited option when they get the iPhone (the rest of my family has them), and Sprint hasn't noticeably improved by that time, that we may have to seriously reconsider our choice in carriers. For what we need, we would pay roughly the same after employee discount with USCC.

 

And before someone says it, this is not an anti Sprint post. I like Sprint. A lot. I like their plans, and their prices. I like their customer service. I like their coverage by area. My only major issue is their currently deplorable network, numbers simply do not lie. I can't wait for the day that I can recommend Sprint once again in Iowa. So here's one more voice hoping we see some major improvement in Des Moines and across Iowa, and FAST!

 

I would not be writing this post if the 3G speeds averaged what they advertise.

[hagerwarrior]

I ran down to the hubbell euclid tower that i posted pic of weeks ago and took some time to look around. i Figured out that i took picks of t-mobiles ground equipment not sprints there are three fence in areas around the one tower. Now i know witch is sprints equipment  so i can tell if anything changes in the coming months.

[cerebasan]

Let's hope hagerwarror. I'm downtown and I'm ready to jump ship from Sprint. We need LTE here fast. Even EVDO + would be a start. Most times I can't use my phone even outside by the downtown library. Full bars, no data. I think too that the high school downtown slows data down too.

[Guest mbrinson]

Today I wrote on the Sprint facebook complaining about how slow my 3G services have been as lately (found out there was outages) but also found out some news that a few of us will be happy about! So if what the sprint rep says is true it sounds like they are going to be starting 4g installation soon. I live on the east side of Des Moines 50317.

Edited May 28, 2013 by mbrinson

[bmoses]

Today I wrote on the Sprint facebook complaining about how slow my 3G services have been as lately (found out there was outages) but also found out some news that a few of us will be happy about! So if what the sprint rep says is true it sounds like they are going to be starting 4g installation soon. I live on the east side of Des Moines 50317.photo.PNG

 

yep its coming, we don't know when for sure but we should start seeing 4G go live over the summer here. i've found several towers myself that have had new backhaul run to them, still waiting on new equipment to be delivered and installed though.

[Justindcarter79]

Looks like a new tower is up I'm Mitchellville and wire is run. There was a building so I don't know if equipment has been delivered.