Network Vision/LTE - Cleveland/NE Ohio Market

[Joski1624]

Actually, B41 3rd carrier has been around at least since July in our market.  The first ones were spotted on 7/3/2016 in Warren, Canfield and North Lima.

 

Clearwire B41 conversions started in August (a government mandated replacement).  11 have been found so far, but the actual amount is likely much higher.  All of them were found on the west side, so it looks like Sprint is going from west to east.  None have been found yet east of I-77.  Unfortunately, these aren't being converted to full build.  Sprint instead is converting  the sites to what are called mini-macros.  The radios on the towers are being swapped out, but the existing antennas remain.  The Huawei base station equipment is also removed during the conversion.  Each radio acts like a single sector B41 site, so they all have unique GCIs.  This has made it more of a pain to track, but it isn't overly complicated.  The plus side is that these converted sites, in most cases, have B41 2nd carrier and Carrier Aggregation whereas the Huawei equipment was a single B41 carrier.

 

  Most of what is left of our 3G only sites are GMOs.  GMO conversions have happened, but at a painfully slow pace.  Most of the full build iDEN conversions now have LTE.  The last known new full build site to go live, which is in Ashtabula County, had LTE active when it went live.

[Joski1624]

I will mention too that I think we're going to have a B26 launch soon. On one of my devices, I've had B26 only scans running for the last few months. I've had numerous times where I've ended up on B25 since labor day weekend. Nothing has shown in my logs yet, but I suspect that a B26 test mode is active which I think would probably kick off any regular user.

[ingenium]

I will mention too that I think we're going to have a B26 launch soon. On one of my devices, I've had B26 only scans running for the last few months. I've had numerous times where I've ended up on B25 since labor day weekend. Nothing has shown in my logs yet, but I suspect that a B26 test mode is active which I think would probably kick off any regular user.

You should get one of the $25 SDRs and see if you can pick up anything in that frequency. My issue was I didn't have a suitable antenna. I have a feeling you have access to one though [emoji39]

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

[ingenium]

You should get one of the $25 SDRs and see if you can pick up anything in that frequency. My issue was I didn't have a suitable antenna. I have a feeling you have access to one though [emoji39]

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

Actually! I just hooked it up to my phone and the stock antenna works fine for the waterfall. You can see where the B26 carrier in Pittsburgh starts (on the right). I'm guessing 1x is on the left, and the dip is the guard band.

 

I'll be in Youngstown on the weekend of October 1, I can check and see if there's anything there then.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

[belusnecropolis]

http://www.news-herald.com/technology/20160924/new-wireless-pole-projects-prompt-right-of-way-access-ban-while-cities-seek-strategies

Mentor is developing regulations with surrounding municipalities, issues a moratorium for small cells.

[Joski1624]

I may have unintentionally uncovered 10x10 LTE carriers on B25 on the west side and downtown yesterday. I found it via my logs. I have a rooted device, so SCP also logs EARFCNs. 8640 download EARFCN showed up at sites in Rocky River, Lakewood and one downtown. Does anyone out there have an engineering screen that shows the bandwidth? I'd like to verify that this is indeed the 10x10 carrier that's all the rage in Columbus. Speed tests could do it too provided upload is around 20 Mbps or greater.

[clbowens]

I may have unintentionally uncovered 10x10 LTE carriers on B25 on the west side and downtown yesterday. I found it via my logs. I have a rooted device, so SCP also logs EARFCNs. 8640 download EARFCN showed up at sites in Rocky River, Lakewood and one downtown. Does anyone out there have an engineering screen that shows the bandwidth? I'd like to verify that this is indeed the 10x10 carrier that's all the rage in Columbus. Speed tests could do it too provided upload is around 20 Mbps or greater.

 

Try *#0011#

 

This works on my GS6.  It shows the bandwidth there.

[Joski1624]

Try *#0011#

 

This works on my GS6. It shows the bandwidth there.

My guess is that the bandwidth display is a Samsung engineering screen thing, because I saw it too when I briefly had one. My LG and Kyocera devices have identical engineering screens which look different from Samsung. The dialer code did nothing for me.

 

I drove as far west as I-77 and 480 and didn't see the proper EARFCN pop up, but I did find a site in Solon with 26615/8615 which is only 5 MHz away from the G block primary carrier

Edited October 7, 2016 by Joski1624

[Joski1624]

I found lots of 10x10 B25 in Cuyahoga County today. I also found it for the first time in Geauga and Medina Counties. This means much faster speeds on B25. It's great news for those of us without B41.

 

[clbowens]

The Sprint coverage map was updated today.  A lot of the area around Cleveland that were 3G are now filled in with "Best" LTE coverage.  I'll have to go around and test those areas and see if it's real.

[Joski1624]

I hate to say it, but the coverage is inaccurate. "LTE Plus" coverage got torched, and regular LTE is mostly exaggerated, but is very understated in my area. There's actually many areas showing up now as roaming in my neck of the woods. Even the voice coverage maps that were accurate are not anymore. :'(

[tprevett]

Picked up a new 1x800 signal today in North Roseville. Log is attached. Shoot can't attach it.

[Joski1624]

GO TRIBE!!!!  

[Joski1624]

Band 26 update:

 

Last month, Sprint started deployment of B26 in the secondary IBEZ which is a zone that's 100-140km from the Canadian border. This means the cities of Warren, Youngstown, Alliance, Canton, Akron (southern), Wooster and Mansfield are seeing B26 light up. As of this post, there have been 45 B26 sites found so far by 5 guys including myself. 36 of these were found just since November 18th. 1x800 deployment followed the same pattern so far. It was a 6 month gap between secondary IBEZ deployment and everyone else, so it tentatively looks like greater Cleveland will start seeing B26 light up in May 2017.

[Joski1624]

:crickets chirping:

I thought there'd be some interest in the what I thought was a long anticipated development here. Maybe that means Sprint's coverage has become good enough that nobody's concerned about the B26 expansion.

[clbowens]

:crickets chirping:

I thought there'd be some interest in the what I thought was a long anticipated development here. Maybe that means Sprint's coverage has become good enough that nobody's concerned about the B26 expansion.

 

That is most DEFINITELY not the case.  They need B26 here.  To at least make their coverage map believable.

[Joski1624]

That is most DEFINITELY not the case.  They need B26 here.  To at least make their coverage map believable.

I couldn't have said it any better myself in regards to their coverage maps.

[Joski1624]

So I noticed yesterday, February 1st, that several sites in my area now have B26 live. I live in central Geauga county. I traveled to Parkman and then to streetsboro. I only saw one site where B26 was not live. It was the site in Hiram. That one does have 1x800.

 

 

Has anyone else seen B26 elsewhere in the primary IBEZ?

[clbowens]

So I noticed yesterday, February 1st, that several sites in my area now have B26 live. I live in central Geauga county. I traveled to Parkman and then to streetsboro. I only saw one site where B26 was not live. It was the site in Hiram. That one does have 1x800.

 

 

Has anyone else seen B26 elsewhere in the primary IBEZ?

I've seen BC10 for 3G service, but I haven't seen B26 LTE yet.

[Joski1624]

I've seen BC10 for 3G service, but I haven't seen B26 LTE yet.

Keep your eyes peeled. It's still plugging away at my local site this morning.

How far are you from your home site? I'm pretty close at about a 1/2 mile, so I wouldn't have any trouble even with B41.

[clbowens]

Keep your eyes peeled. It's still plugging away at my local site this morning.

Screenshot_20170202-073723.png

How far are you from your home site? I'm pretty close at about a 1/2 mile, so I wouldn't have any trouble even with B41.

I'm about a mile from a site.  I'm in Mayfield Heights during the day.  I doubt I will see B26, since my phone will look for B41 and B25 first.  And when my LTE signal does get weak (when I move away from the windows), it just drops to BC10 3G.

[clbowens]

My phone has been bouncing back and forth between B41, B25 and ....B26! today.  What looks like is happening is that it drop network connection completely then reconnects.  When it reconnects, it's on B26 intially then goes to either B41 or B25.

 

So SCP is contantly showing the 1xRTT connection with the LTE connection.

 

Anybody know of anything that's happening in the area?

[Joski1624]

My phone has been bouncing back and forth between B41, B25 and ....B26! today. What looks like is happening is that it drop network connection completely then reconnects. When it reconnects, it's on B26 intially then goes to either B41 or B25.

 

So SCP is contantly showing the 1xRTT connection with the LTE connection.

 

Anybody know of anything that's happening in the area?

B26 has been lighting up market wide. That's what's been happening 128 129 132 so far have been found. There's much more out there that hasn't yet been found.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Joski1624

[Joski1624]

Here are some general stats of our user finds for our market. We still have 11 GMOs left. The rest are way off the beaten path, so nobody has recorded them.

 

1x800

444/627 Sites Confirmed - 70.81%

 

Band 25

602/627 Sites Confirmed - 96.01%

 

Band 26

132/627 Sites Confirmed - 21.05%

 

Band 41 (8T8R)

363/627 Sites Confirmed - 57.89%

 

Band 41 Mini Macro (formerly Clearwire)

101/155 Sites Confirmed - 65.16%

[clbowens]

B26 has been lighting up market wide. That's what's been happening 128 129 132 so far have been found. There's much more out there that hasn't yet been found.

That's great.  But the problem is when my phone does go to B26, I'll have half my bars, but the data is pretty useless (no data or very slow speeds).

 

Hopefully some optimization will fix that.