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

[mhenry_dsm]

Played a round at Waveland Golf yesterday and I saw activity at the tower.  They were on the lowest rung.  Assume band 41 upgrades, if that's sprint's.  By the time I got to #15 (i think that's the hole the tower is on?) they were gone. 

[bmoses]

Played a round at Waveland Golf yesterday and I saw activity at the tower.  They were on the lowest rung.  Assume band 41 upgrades, if that's sprint's.  By the time I got to #15 (i think that's the hole the tower is on?) they were gone. 

 

thanks for the report! its been awhile since i've been to that tower so i can't remember what rack sprint is on, i *think* it might be the bottom rack. AT&T is doing upgrades in the area too and they are on that tower as well, so it could have been them. If i get a chance i'll swing out that way sometime and take a look

[bmoses]

went and took a look at it wasn't anything related to Sprint the middle rack is sprint at that tower and all it had was the NV panels and the legacy panels. Not sure who the bottom rack is though.

[pocketsophist]

Hi all!

 

Happy to report that I've been able to pull fantastically fast speeds in many areas of Des Moines in the past few months.  I live & work downtown, and mostly have no problems.  This evening I was even able to pull 31mb down/12 up in a speedtest. Awesomely fast.

 

I do have one annoying issue that has been happening lately -- in my home, I will be using my data for a fairly decent amount of time and then it seems like my connection "resets" even though my signal strength stays at full bars.  Try as I might, the only thing I can do to fix this is to reset the data connection by going in and out of airplane mode.  My s/o has to do the same thing.  It's confusing to me as I'm able to pull such high data speeds in my house, yet can't maintain a consistent connection.  It doesn't appear to have anything to do with the activity either - as it can happen anywhere from reading emails to streaming videos and everything in between.

 

FWIW, I'm on an iPhone 5s, and I don't even use WIFI at home because generally my data speeds are faster (thanks Centurylink) than my internet connection.  

 

Any insight?  It's gotten annoying enough that I'm considering testing some alternative carriers, as much as I don't want to have to go that route.

Edited September 4, 2014 by pocketsophist

[bmoses]

Hi all!

 

Happy to report that I've been able to pull fantastically fast speeds in many areas of Des Moines in the past few months.  I live & work downtown, and mostly have no problems.  This evening I was even able to pull 31mb down/12 up in a speedtest. Awesomely fast.

 

I do have one annoying issue that has been happening lately -- in my home, I will be using my data for a fairly decent amount of time and then it seems like my connection "resets" even though my signal strength stays at full bars.  Try as I might, the only thing I can do to fix this is to reset the data connection by going in and out of airplane mode.  My s/o has to do the same thing.  It's confusing to me as I'm able to pull such high data speeds in my house, yet can't maintain a consistent connection.  It doesn't appear to have anything to do with the activity either - as it can happen anywhere from reading emails to streaming videos and everything in between.

 

FWIW, I'm on an iPhone 5s, and I don't even use WIFI at home because generally my data speeds are faster (thanks Centurylink) than my internet connection.  

 

Any insight?  It's gotten annoying enough that I'm considering testing some alternative carriers, as much as I don't want to have to go that route.

 

hello and welcome

 

where is the nearest street intersection to your house? There are still a couple of GMO (sites that didn't get new panels and don't have LTE yet) sites left in the metro that can cause some weird data issues, of course thats usually on 3G not LTE. I have had issues with data not working on 3G but its always cause of a GMO site. when on LTE i haven't had any issues you are describing. does your s/o have an iphone 5s too? anyone else you know on sprint with a different model phone come over and have the same issues?

 

also you might want to prepare yourself as you will probably get chastised for not using wifi at home and continuing to use data on the sprint network. it doesn't matter to me what you do, but there are strong opinions about that on here so just be prepared

[pocketsophist]

hello and welcome

 

where is the nearest street intersection to your house? There are still a couple of GMO (sites that didn't get new panels and don't have LTE yet) sites left in the metro that can cause some weird data issues, of course thats usually on 3G not LTE. I have had issues with data not working on 3G but its always cause of a GMO site. when on LTE i haven't had any issues you are describing. does your s/o have an iphone 5s too? anyone else you know on sprint with a different model phone come over and have the same issues?

 

also you might want to prepare yourself as you will probably get chastised for not using wifi at home and continuing to use data on the sprint network. it doesn't matter to me what you do, but there are strong opinions about that on here so just be prepared

 

Thanks for the quick reply.  I'm located at 2nd & Grand, just down the street from Wells.  My s/o uses a regular iPhone 5.  I would be curious to know how an Android performs in the same vicinity.

 

Sorry about the no-Wifi to those that may be offended.  Centurylink really is the pits, and so are their wireless routers.  My house isn't wired for cable internet so we're stuck on DSL. Please take pity on me

[bmoses]

Thanks for the quick reply.  I'm located at 2nd & Grand, just down the street from Wells.  My s/o uses a regular iPhone 5.  I would be curious to know how an Android performs in the same vicinity.

 

Sorry about the no-Wifi to those that may be offended.  Centurylink really is the pits, and so are their wireless routers.  My house isn't wired for cable internet so we're stuck on DSL. Please take pity on me

 

hmmmm..... well i'm not going to be much help as i have no idea what would be causing that issue. You don't have any GMO sites around you and you are like 2 blocks from a tower so you probably don't connect to any other towers than that one.

 

at this point you can either just live with it or continue trying to narrow it down. its either a tower issue or a device issue. things i can think of to try and eliminate variables is, do you have the issue when you aren't near downtown? like if you go out to west des moines do you have the issue happen? on the device side you would have to find someone you know with an android phone to come over and see if they have it happen while connected to the same tower.

 

you could also try posting in the iphone 5/5s threads to see if other people have had this problem, that will get a little more exposure from people and could help narrow it down to device or tower.

 

i just had this issue happen this morning, but i was on 3G and connected to a GMO site. everything on my phone looked like it was connected but nothing would work data wise. had to do airplane mode to get it going. i'm on my phone on 4G almost all day at work and i've never seen it happen while connected to 4G

[gtpred99]

Hi all!

 

Happy to report that I've been able to pull fantastically fast speeds in many areas of Des Moines in the past few months.  I live & work downtown, and mostly have no problems.  This evening I was even able to pull 31mb down/12 up in a speedtest. Awesomely fast.

 

I do have one annoying issue that has been happening lately -- in my home, I will be using my data for a fairly decent amount of time and then it seems like my connection "resets" even though my signal strength stays at full bars.  Try as I might, the only thing I can do to fix this is to reset the data connection by going in and out of airplane mode.  My s/o has to do the same thing.  It's confusing to me as I'm able to pull such high data speeds in my house, yet can't maintain a consistent connection.  It doesn't appear to have anything to do with the activity either - as it can happen anywhere from reading emails to streaming videos and everything in between.

 

FWIW, I'm on an iPhone 5s, and I don't even use WIFI at home because generally my data speeds are faster (thanks Centurylink) than my internet connection.  

 

Any insight?  It's gotten annoying enough that I'm considering testing some alternative carriers, as much as I don't want to have to go that route.

I have the same issue at work (E4th and Grand). If I toggle airplane mode on/off, my lte works for a breif time, then the spark wheel doesn't move, connection times out, then switches to 3g(it's a good thing i have wifi at work). This has been going on for over a month and i've called sprint 3 times on this issue but nothing seems to get fixed. At first I though it was a devise issue, I have the HTC One M8, but a guy I work with has a S3 and has the same problem at work. Yes, it is very annoying,

[bmoses]

sounds like a tower issue then, at E 4th and Grand you would most likely both be connected to the same tower.

[WiWavelength]

FWIW, I'm on an iPhone 5s, and I don't even use WIFI at home because generally my data speeds are faster (thanks Centurylink) than my internet connection.

Sorry about the no-Wifi to those that may be offended.  Centurylink really is the pits, and so are their wireless routers.  My house isn't wired for cable internet so we're stuck on DSL. Please take pity on me

 

Even if connected to 3-6 Mbps ADSL, your home Wi-Fi is still plenty fast enough for almost any legitimate uses on your smartphone.  Do not get hung up on e-penis speed test results.  Instead, please use Wi-Fi at home and conserve macro network capacity for mobile users who actually need it.  Otherwise, you just contribute to unnecessary network congestion, which ultimately comes home to roost for everyone.

 

AJ

[pocketsophist]

I have the same issue at work (E4th and Grand). If I toggle airplane mode on/off, my lte works for a breif time, then the spark wheel doesn't move, connection times out, then switches to 3g(it's a good thing i have wifi at work). This has been going on for over a month and i've called sprint 3 times on this issue but nothing seems to get fixed. At first I though it was a devise issue, I have the HTC One M8, but a guy I work with has a S3 and has the same problem at work. Yes, it is very annoying,

sounds like a tower issue then, at E 4th and Grand you would most likely both be connected to the same tower.

 

This is a bummer to hear.  Is there any way to get Sprint's attention so they can look into it?  I paid more attention to my data connection today while I'm at work, and didn't notice any of the same behavior.  I work on the other side of downtown near the Western Gateway, so I'm assuming I'm connecting to a different tower while I'm at work.

 

Even if connected to 3-6 Mbps ADSL, your home Wi-Fi is still plenty fast enough for almost any legitimate uses on your smartphone.  Do not get hung up on e-penis speed test results.  Instead, please use Wi-Fi at home and conserve macro network capacity for mobile users who actually need it.  Otherwise, you just contribute to unnecessary network congestion, which ultimately comes home to roost for everyone.

 

AJ

 

You got it, boss.

[DsmIowaGuy]

I have to concur with AJ. My century link is very slow at home (because I'm cheap and got rid of my good cable modem - 4Mbps/.765 is fine for me.)  I do speed tests once in a while to either give me excitement or for testing and then use WiFi everywhere I can. I just know that overall it's better for all of us.

 

As to your issue.  Happens all the time to me on my iPhone 5 and working in the E Village or various other places around town. Frankly though I'm not on it consistent enough to know for sure how often it happens but does happen pretty much like you describe. Happens to me both on LTE and 3G.  

 

Just a touch more info for this..  What direction would your phone generally get signal from while you're at 2nd/Grand (ie.. Do you have windows that be on the West side of your place?  If you're in Apts there are you more on the West side towards 3rd St, etc ?

 

We can't go into details about tower locations outside of the member section but out of curiosity and thoughts about maybe a tower issue that we could dive into.  

 

Also..   Welcome to S4GRU 

[Guest mbrinson]

I know it's been awhile since I've posted and I was headed back towards the Eastside of Des Moines and noticed they're doing some tower work on which I think is a sprint WiMAX tower.

[bmoses]

I know it's been awhile since I've posted and I was headed back towards the Eastside of Des Moines and noticed they're doing some tower work on which I think is a sprint WiMAX tower.

Was it 1 of the 2 towers right off university and 235 there? If so was it he one on the north or south side of university? The north one is the wimax protection site and the south one is a Sprint site.

[Guest mbrinson]

It was the one on the north side of East University right next to I-235

[bmoses]

Damn, it was probably for Verizon then. They have been doing a lot of upgrades around here recently.

[DsmIowaGuy]

Damn, it was probably for Verizon then. They have been doing a lot of upgrades around here recently.

 

There has been a ton of work off and on for weeks on that tower North of E University on the East side of the freeway by the sign company.  I have spotted there several times and hoped the crews would get free'd up and maybe work on more sprint stuff soon 

[Trout74]

I am a new Sprint customer as of today.  I purchased a 64Gig iPhone 6 and the iPhone for life program, unlimited everything.  I actually live in Waukee, Ia.  Suburb of Des Moines.  I had Verizon for three years with great coverage and good speeds pretty much everywhere.  Recently, last 4 months, I have noticed reduced speeds on Verizon and occasional call issues, though not terrible by any means.  But at home I was only getting 1-1.5Mbps download.   I was intrigued by the unlimited data with Sprint, as I was going over my allotted 4 Gigs regularly.  Well I took the plunge today and so far I'm HAPPY.  At home I connect to Band 26 here in Waukee with -98Db and got download speeds of 5mbps and upload of about the same.  Voice quality is super and I love the iPhone 6.  I haven't traveled around town too much yet, and will report back when I have, but VERY happy with Sprint and the unlimited data and 60$ a month cheaper bill is a no brainer.  Looking forward to Spark someday, but I have been throughly testing the download speeds with movies and music and I am impressed.  I have better speed in my house than I have for 4 months with Verizon.  

 

This site helped persuade me to switch, thank you.

 

Trout

[Mr.Nuke]

This site helped persuade me to switch, thank you.

 

Trout

Welcome to the site! As you find your way around you'll find this site is a tremendous resource for information on the Sprint network. Your fellow Central Iowans have an extensive map and spreadsheet about every Sprint site in the Central Iowa area at the sponsor level. I'm going to move this post to the regular Central Iowa thread.

[NGeorge]

I am a new Sprint customer as of today.  I purchased a 64Gig iPhone 6 and the iPhone for life program, unlimited everything.  I actually live in Waukee, Ia.  Suburb of Des Moines.  I had Verizon for three years with great coverage and good speeds pretty much everywhere.  Recently, last 4 months, I have noticed reduced speeds on Verizon and occasional call issues, though not terrible by any means.  But at home I was only getting 1-1.5Mbps download.   I was intrigued by the unlimited data with Sprint, as I was going over my allotted 4 Gigs regularly.  Well I took the plunge today and so far I'm HAPPY.  At home I connect to Band 26 here in Waukee with -98Db and got download speeds of 5mbps and upload of about the same.  Voice quality is super and I love the iPhone 6.  I haven't traveled around town too much yet, and will report back when I have, but VERY happy with Sprint and the unlimited data and 60$ a month cheaper bill is a no brainer.  Looking forward to Spark someday, but I have been throughly testing the download speeds with movies and music and I am impressed.  I have better speed in my house than I have for 4 months with Verizon.  

 

This site helped persuade me to switch, thank you.

 

Trout

 

I spend a lot of time in that area, and have friends in Waukee as well as Clive, and bounce around the state quite a bit when I go there a number of times a year. I used to curse Sprint when I'd head to Iowa... it really, truly, was one of their horrible markets (I think it was originally an affiliate area). That said, in the last year, they've done AWESOME... lots of Band Class 10 as well as Band 26 LTE -- it's basically made what was a bit too widely spaced PCS network into a fairly dense SMR network with PCS available whenever you can get it to keep the SMR from completely choking up... and it's on LOTS of sites. In other words, what they are doing in Iowa is what I'm looking forward to across the entire network.

 

That said, if you plan on lots of driving, nothing beats USCC and Verizon in Iowa... nothing -- but I'd say the SMR now puts them on par with AT&T which is PCS-only for voice and does fairly good. If you don't stray too far into the corn you'll be happy -- but if you do, you'll have roaming on both USCC and Verizon. Luckily your Sprint phone won't flip between native and roaming nearly as often as it would before.

 

The only way Sprint can improve in Iowa is if they ever snap up USCC when they get the chance -- and I hope they do

 

N

[bmoses]

I am a new Sprint customer as of today.  I purchased a 64Gig iPhone 6 and the iPhone for life program, unlimited everything.  I actually live in Waukee, Ia.  Suburb of Des Moines.  I had Verizon for three years with great coverage and good speeds pretty much everywhere.  Recently, last 4 months, I have noticed reduced speeds on Verizon and occasional call issues, though not terrible by any means.  But at home I was only getting 1-1.5Mbps download.   I was intrigued by the unlimited data with Sprint, as I was going over my allotted 4 Gigs regularly.  Well I took the plunge today and so far I'm HAPPY.  At home I connect to Band 26 here in Waukee with -98Db and got download speeds of 5mbps and upload of about the same.  Voice quality is super and I love the iPhone 6.  I haven't traveled around town too much yet, and will report back when I have, but VERY happy with Sprint and the unlimited data and 60$ a month cheaper bill is a no brainer.  Looking forward to Spark someday, but I have been throughly testing the download speeds with movies and music and I am impressed.  I have better speed in my house than I have for 4 months with Verizon.  

 

This site helped persuade me to switch, thank you.

 

Trout

 

hello and welcome! i'm from this area too and am glad you are having such a good experience so far! just like any network though, there will be holes and problem spots, but overall sprint is much much better than it used to be. i switched to sprint when the original EVO came out and service, data wise, is much better now than it was before. voice has always been great on sprint around here and continues to be great after the network update.

 

and you are right about verizon going downhill! my work phone is verizon so i'm always comparing the two and while there are plenty of spots that verizon will beat sprint, i'm finding more and more where sprint is beating verzion

 

and as NGeorge said above, as long as you stick to the metro service will be great, sprint has the interstates covered pretty good, but outside of that service in rural areas isn't the best and does need some work. with softbank backing them though there is no where to go but up

 

EDIT: also, if you feel so inclined to donate to this site and become a sponsor, follow the link in my signature as we have been making our own maps and have a pretty up to date picture of the towers around here

[Trout74]

I was driving west on highway 6, Hickman, and don't know where the tower is, but between Stivers ford and the new hy-vee, I got full bars, so I pulled over and did a speed test. 10.19mbps down and 5.41mbps up. Those are good numbers. I looked around but didn't see a tower, only thing that looks like tower is on top of the old Carrier air condition building across from Dahls to the north.

 

On another note, I would like to donate to the site. How much do you have to donate to have access to the tower maps etc?

 

Thanks.

 

Trout

[lilotimz]

I was driving west on highway 6, Hickman, and don't know where the tower is, but between Stivers ford and the new hy-vee, I got full bars, so I pulled over and did a speed test. 10.19mbps down and 5.41mbps up. Those are good numbers. I looked around but didn't see a tower, only thing that looks like tower is on top of the old Carrier air condition building across from Dahls to the north.

 

On another note, I would like to donate to the site. How much do you have to donate to have access to the tower maps etc?

 

Thanks.

 

Trout

We have no hard limits but we need approximately $20 per new sponsor every month to pay for the thousand dollar upkeep costs of the site.

 

Less is also accepted because we understand not all are in the best of situations with regards to finances and Robert (aka s4gru) will work with you to overcome any obstacles that may be present.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Cubbiefan82]

I am a new Sprint customer as of today.  I purchased a 64Gig iPhone 6 and the iPhone for life program, unlimited everything.  I actually live in Waukee, Ia.  Suburb of Des Moines.  I had Verizon for three years with great coverage and good speeds pretty much everywhere.  Recently, last 4 months, I have noticed reduced speeds on Verizon and occasional call issues, though not terrible by any means.  But at home I was only getting 1-1.5Mbps download.   I was intrigued by the unlimited data with Sprint, as I was going over my allotted 4 Gigs regularly.  Well I took the plunge today and so far I'm HAPPY.  At home I connect to Band 26 here in Waukee with -98Db and got download speeds of 5mbps and upload of about the same.  Voice quality is super and I love the iPhone 6.  I haven't traveled around town too much yet, and will report back when I have, but VERY happy with Sprint and the unlimited data and 60$ a month cheaper bill is a no brainer.  Looking forward to Spark someday, but I have been throughly testing the download speeds with movies and music and I am impressed.  I have better speed in my house than I have for 4 months with Verizon.  

 

This site helped persuade me to switch, thank you.

 

Trout

Welcome!! As everyone else said, would love to see you as a sponsor(paid member). You get so much more access, then you will want more access and end up upgrading to premier. All the levels are worth it, also I started with a small donation and look at me now. I am a Premier member . We all understand that money can be tight, yet think about the money your saving now and remember this website made you become a fan of sprint .

[Mr.Nuke]

On another note, I would like to donate to the site. How much do you have to donate to have access to the tower maps etc?

 

Thanks.

 

Trout

I see that you've donated which we appreciate and just want to make sure you find your way to the right spot here. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4711-nebraska-iowa-market-spreadsheets-and-maps/