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Austin Network Vision/LTE Deployment schedule update


S4GRU

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by Robert Herron

Sprint 4G Rollout Updates

Friday, June 15, 2012 - 12:40 PM MDT

 

S4GRU has now completed schedule updates for all the official Sprint announced markets, but we will keep trekking along with schedule updates on the unofficial markets. The next market in our Network Vision/LTE deployment schedule update series is...Austin, Texas. This market has not been announced by Sprint, but it is on the way for an August launch, and work is already under way in this market.

 

Sprint's Network Vision OEM Ericsson initially deployed to the Austin market quite early, starting work back in December 2011. Ericsson established their 4G LTE FIT (field testing) areas around Waco. There are already 20 sites in the Greater Waco area with live LTE. And work is just about to begin in other parts of the market, including in the Austin Metro area.

 

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Network Vision Sites in the Austin market. Twenty sites are complete in the market around Waco. All of these broadcasting Sprint LTE, and many of them are not even being blocked at this time.

 

Market Launch and Remaining Schedule

 

It was Sprint's original plan to launch markets when they reached 50% of sites converted to Network Vision. However, in recently seen correspondence, Sprint has decided to move up launches sooner than 50% completion in many instances. This is likely to maintain a Mid 2012 launch in markets that have already been announced. However, in an unannounced market like Austin, we don't know if they will resume pushing back market launches to 50%, or if they will now settle on a 30% - 40% completion to be the new normal for market launches.

 

If Sprint waits for 50% completion to launch the Austin market, it would make the launch month in September (should Ericsson stay on schedule). That being said, if Sprint should launch around August 1st (as we suspect), then the market would be well under 50% complete. This doesn't sound like enough, but it would provide pretty good coverage. A little known item is not even Verizon launches on all sites in a market initially. Usually less than 50%, then filling in with more and more sites every few months.

 

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Anticipated Sites Complete at Market Launch. According to the Network Vision schedules that S4GRU has reviewed, if Sprint launched the market in August, these are the anticipated sites that would have LTE complete at that time. This would provide fairly good LTE coverage over many parts of the market. Waco coverage would not change. Also, the College Station/Bryan areas are not scheduled to start until October.

 

At market launch, some areas will be well covered with LTE, and others may be kind of spotty. However, more sites will come online every week until the whole market is complete. And even with one or two bars of LTE signal on your device, you will still get speeds that are double to triple that of well performing 3G EVDO in most instances.

 

And speaking of 3G EVDO, Sprint is reporting that most of the Network Vision sites around Waco have both 3G EVDO and 4G LTE complete. It is not known at this time if the sites due around Austin soon will have both 4G and 3G complete at the same time. Most of the other Ericsson markets are only reporting 4G LTE live at NV sites at the moment.

 

The bottom line...

 

We currently do not have a date that Sprint will formally "launch" the Austin market. We believe they are targeting a launch month of August based on reports internally within Sprint. LTE deployment is just about to really take off in the market here in Mid June and into July. Hopefully as these LTE sites complete, Sprint will allow them to be usable by Sprint LTE device holders in the area.

 

Sprint's Network Vision schedule for this market currently has 20 Network Vision sites complete. Ericsson is plotting continual progress from here with production increasing up to a rate of almost 70 sites per month. S4GRU has poured over the schedule in this market and sees a November 2012 completion date. In our estimation of the schedule, Ericsson may be challenged to complete such a high rate of sites monthly, but it is possible with the appropriate amount of resources.

 

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Photo of Austin skyline provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

 

NOTE: S4GRU Sponsor Members can track regular updates of

Network Vision sites completed nationwide. Completed sites are shown in an interactive Google Maps interface. Information about sponsorship can be found here: S4GRU Sponsorship

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Robert, just curious if you plan to do market updates for all the first round markets in the upcoming weeks? I would be curious about LA and SF Bay articles.

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Robert, just curious if you plan to do market updates for all the first round markets in the upcoming weeks? I would be curious about LA and SF Bay articles.

 

Every one that I have schedules for. Which is almost all of them. And yes, they include LA Metro and SF Bay.

 

Robert

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Every one that I have schedules for. Which is almost all of them. And yes, they include LA Metro and SF Bay.Robert

 

=D

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Why do they even call this the Austin market, Waco is REALLY far from Austin.

 

You show downtown Austin, yet there are no NV sites within 100mi...

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Why do they even call this the Austin market, Waco is REALLY far from Austin.You show downtown Austin, yet there are no NV sites within 100mi...

 

Waco has to be put into one of the 97 Sprint markets. The way the Sprint network is configured, it makes the most sense to put Waco into the Austin market than the other Texas markets.

 

On your other point, you must be misreading the maps. We do not show any live sites in Austin. We only show live sites in Waco. The map that shows Austin depicts the sites that are expected to be converted to NV/LTE by the time the market formally is launched by Sprint.

 

Robert

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Based on what I've read in the forums, am I correct in assuming that the 3g speeds will increase in the Austin market as the sites are converted to NV (whether due to backhaul improvements, etc.)?

 

If so, what will the practical/noticeable effects be? Although I'm not constantly running speed tests, when I do, I tend to average less than 400kbs (just tested right now at 84kbs down and 9kbs up). Ocasionally I will see speeds around 700-800kbs, and I've had 1,000+ just a couple of times.

 

I know speeds vary based on location and congestion, but I'm just wondering if improvements will be noticeable under "average" conditions. I only surf the web a couple of times per day, and I don't do much file downloading, so I don't know how much I'll be impacted. But any speed increase will probably help.

 

Thanks for your continued coverage of this market.

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Based on what I've read in the forums, am I correct in assuming that the 3g speeds will increase in the Austin market as the sites are converted to NV (whether due to backhaul improvements, etc.)?If so, what will the practical/noticeable effects be? Although I'm not constantly running speed tests, when I do, I tend to average less than 400kbs (just tested right now at 84kbs down and 9kbs up). Ocasionally I will see speeds around 700-800kbs, and I've had 1,000+ just a couple of times.I know speeds vary based on location and congestion, but I'm just wondering if improvements will be noticeable under "average" conditions. I only surf the web a couple of times per day, and I don't do much file downloading, so I don't know how much I'll be impacted. But any speed increase will probably help.Thanks for your continued coverage of this market.

 

3G speeds should improve dramatically in post NV converted sites. Sprint's average posted 3G speeds should be exceeded (600k to 1Mbps). So far, in post NV sites where the backhaul has been upgraded, we are seeing speeds between 1.4Mbps and 2.6Mbps. But peak times on heavy used sites will likely fall around 1Mbps.

 

Robert

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Thanks Robert. I appreciate the quick response, and I'm very happy to hear about the potential speed increase. Keep up the good work.

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Hello Robert. These updates are really helpful for anyone considering a new Sprint phone. Can you provide another update on the Austin Market build-out-- not the "official" market launch date but the estimated coverage. In June you posted that there were "20 Network Vision sites complete." Do you see updated completion numbers? Can you speculate on the percentage of the Austin Area covered at this point-- and can you break out Waco versus Austin Metro? Thanks again for the continued reporting.

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Hello Robert. These updates are really helpful for anyone considering a new Sprint phone. Can you provide another update on the Austin Market build-out-- not the "official" market launch date but the estimated coverage. In June you posted that there were "20 Network Vision sites complete." Do you see updated completion numbers? Can you speculate on the percentage of the Austin Area covered at this point-- and can you break out Waco versus Austin Metro? Thanks again for the continued reporting.

 

I have not had an update of any more information on the Austin market since posting this article. In our Sponsors section, we post completed NV sites as we receive the information approximately every 7 to 10 days.

 

Robert

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long time reader, first time poster. is there a map of all the towers in austin that will be getting the LTE upgrade and any dates given of when they will be at each site doing the installs?

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long time reader, first time poster. is there a map of all the towers in austin that will be getting the LTE upgrade and any dates given of when they will be at each site doing the installs?

 

We have a maps in our Sponsor section that show all the Network Vision sites that will receive LTE upgrades around the whole country. Additionally, we also have in our Premier Sponsor section NV schedule maps. For more information about becoming a S4GRU sponsor, you can visit this link: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1195-information-about-s4gru-sponsorship-levels-and-how-to-become-a-sponsor/

 

Robert

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