I am experiencing some belated cognitive dissonance when I recall WiWavelength's initial test of the LTE rollout. He seemed to detect a threshold that kept LTE alive with a moderately weak signal -- a condition he deliberately tested. I think he was using an EVO LTE. Maybe the threshold setting vary across different devices?

There is FAR more than this going on.. 3/4 of what you plotted as live in Houston is NOT live at all.same for Sprints maps..the ONLY place in Houston I have been able to find a LTE signal is up in Copperfield and it works perfectly.. moves in and out of service and connects to it as primary.anywhere else and it's completely dead.Ive been up and down I-10 all the way from katy to downtown and into the galleria.. all these areas are shown as massive coverage.. and yet we got none..I'm pretty miffed about this rollout so far.. My GF has the ATT S3 and I'm flat embarrased to even use mine as half the time my data connection is worse than my GS2 was. at least it had full wimax coverage down here.the truth is most of the towers flagged as being active just arnt broadcasting LTE.

I have a little bit different take on the situation here in Houston as I use the coverage over most of Houston with the Tri-band modem. The service is almost everywhere I go. I was on LTE yesterday afternoon in Cut and Shoot, Texas!!

First I don't think that they have all the elements adjusted correctly on the towers. I am seeing gaps between the antennas on the same towers.

Second Erricson seems to scrambling madly with issues which I suspect is due to the unusually heavy rain we have had for the last week plus tweaking the towers coverage footprint. I have caught them yanking LTE in and out of service on several towers. I suspect they are trying to get the elements aligned right to fix the coverage gaps.

Robert,

I have a suggestion for Sprint that would help them resolve issues a lot faster than their current method.

In the automotive industry, which is very similar to the wireless industry in implementation, a lot of engineering is done "on the fly" so that sales help fund development. A lot of time the engineers are not given enough testing time to find these issues before hand or the issues just don't show up until used in the "real" world. The leaders in automotive technology realize this is an issue and have figured out a way to combat this at a minimal cost. They identify entities that have the ability to get them lots of feedback quickly....people and businesses that are going to use this equipment more intensively than the average consumer!!

These people get equipment early on with lots of perks to entice them to perform the additional tasks necessary to provide the feedback that the manufacturers need. These perks are equipment at no or low costs, updates free or before everyone else and direct access to advanced support levels allowing the engineers to work directly with the field.

I think that Sprint (and most wireless carriers) could benefit from this type of relationship. What I am seeing right now is that they need a quick way to find issues so they can be resolved quickly without hurting their reputation in the consumers eyes. Which is going to be better for them - having a working agreement with someone who uses a phone 5,000 + minutes a month or listening and trying to decipher 400 support calls from people who use the phone 200 minutes a month. Which way makes the Company look bad in the consumers eyes? Which one is more likely to generate negative comments?

A good example would be my Tri-band modem. I have given them several tips and work arounds to help with some of the issues. I have the 5th unit sold to consumers and first cradle ever sold. I use the unit nonstop 10 hours a day in the worst environment for electronics in the nation. High temps and high humidity!! Just having acces to my GPS and signal strengths would allow them to find issues in half the time since I drive as much as 1,000 miles a week mainly in the LTE areas ni the Houston area. When i call support and lose time on an issue the first things i hear out of the support personnel's mouth are solutions or workarounds that I provided them in prior phone conversations with little or no new solutions.

I bet right now they could find 10 people just like me in every area that are willing to work with Sprint to improve equipment and services. I think network vision could be greatly improved with a little Support Vision!!

Would another possible fix for the carrier and OEM be to enable a 4G toggle like what was on the original Evo 4G? Is that even a possibility when the LTE radio isn't completely separate like it was for wimax? This seems like a better option for anyone who doesn't like the phone deciding when to ditch LTE for EVDO.

Thanks for posting the information, it makes more sense than anything the techies at sprint said in the multiple phone calls I made. I was by my local sprint store today that actually trys to help the customers with good customer service but they admit they're hands are tied on this. I gave the team leader this link which is more info than she's been able to get.

From someone that's been with Sprint a few years she can't begin to fathom why they're so silent on this. A simple text to all of those that bought 4GLTE phones to acknowledge the issue and that they're working hard to correct it would go miles.

She also said the problem is pervasive through their whole LTE phone line. Sometimes (maybe) connect then revert to 3g, sounds exactely like your analysis of the problem. None of the LTE phones are immune.

I just checked and thought wow!!!, it's fixed. Well it did last for about two minutes which was enough for a speed check (see below) then back to 3G. Robert, it's starting to sound like you're right. If you could just get the folks (Sprint tecky's) to acknowledge the problem and maybe do something smart like send everyone with an LTE device a txt that they're activily trying to work out a fix rather than all the mumble jumble when you call in. Here's the speed results, not as fast as my wireless but better than straight 3G.

Test Date: Jul 21, 2012 9:29:15 pm

Connection Type: Lte

Server: Atlanta, GA

Download: 6.61 Mbps

Upload: 2.05 Mbps

Ping: 34 ms

External IP: 66.87.103.191

Internal IP: 30.21.99.191

Latitude: 34.16490

Longitude: -84.08721

I called Sprint today to double-check my upgrade date (9 freaking days away), and immediately I was asked if I was having problems with my sprint coverage. She tried to play it off saying her system showed that I had a good signal and wanted to verify if that was correct, then continued to remind me that if I do have problems, call support (I don't even have the energy to go there right now). I tried over-the-phone gitmo-style interrogation techniques, but she was a fighter. She refused to reveal a reason for her question. Has anyone else been asked this?

I got good LTE signal at home. A few times when I come home, I dont get LTE signal until I toggle the airplane mode on and off.

Why is that? Is there some more tweak that Sprint have to do on the tower and maybe a update on the phone?

I got good LTE signal at home. A few times when I come home, I dont get LTE signal until I toggle the airplane mode on and off.Why is that? Is there some more tweak that Sprint have to do on the tower and maybe a update on the phone?

I would say that it has something to do with the battery saving settings on the phone. If you are in a 3G only area, you are probably not going to want your phone to be constantly searching for 4G and using battery needlessly. Then when you toggle airplane mode, it resets the power saving data, and the phone does its normal routine of looking for 4G first, then 3G, then 1x, then roaming. I would think that when your area fills up with more LTE towers, it will improve the connection time when it does have to switch to 3G for a little bit.

There are many members who have stated that they leave CDMA/LTE toggle on outside LTE areas and don't notice bad battery drain.

I see. There are cook rom out there that will unclock or go to single core when idle. That might help with the battery drain. The big help I got is the bigger battery.

Do you mean the Save Power mode? It is off.

This was posted in another thread, but it deserves notice here. Sprint announced an OTA update today, version L710VPLG4, which among other things promises:

Optimized LTE system selection

Hey Robert Sprint Just name the next four citys to get 4G LTE before Labor Day . One of them is Baltimore MD. the launch of this market will cover the DC area & the north of VA? Or is just for the Baltimore city? Any information about it?

?

Hey Robert Sprint Just name the next four citys to get 4G LTE before Labor Day . One of them is Baltimore MD. the launch of this market will cover the DC area & the north of VA? Or is just for the Baltimore city? Any information about it?

It will cover only the Baltimore market, not the DC market. The DC market will launch a little later.

Baltimore article: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-266-baltimore-network-visionlte-deployment-schedule-update/

DC article: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-271-washington-dc-network-visionlte-deployment-schedule-update/

Robert

Looks live OTAs for the EVO LTE and S3 are coming to fix this: http://phandroid.com/2012/07/27/sprint-galaxy-nexus-and-samsung-galaxy-s3-receive-ota-updates-evo-4g-lte-to-follow/

So i live in Manhattan KS, and am definitely not going to complain, but i was wondering how we end up being one of the early LTE rollouts? We are fairly close (2 hours) away from KC, but Topeka is a larger city, in between us and KC and it doesn't have LTE yet. Just wondering if anyone has any insight in to why. BTW....we do have 4g, it's actually been active for a couple weeks now.

So i live in Manhattan KS, and am definitely not going to complain, but i was wondering how we end up being one of the early LTE rollouts? We are fairly close (2 hours) away from KC, but Topeka is a larger city, in between us and KC and it doesn't have LTE yet. Just wondering if anyone has any insight in to why. BTW....we do have 4g, it's actually been active for a couple weeks now.

The entire Kansas market is being deployed now. However, in order to come live first with LTE, it must have the backhaul complete. The backhaul is being done in advance by several contractors all over the market.

Sites that come live first are the ones that the backhaul vendor were able to get complete early and the site upgrades are done. Manhattan just happens to be lucky in that regard. Its not as if Sprint chose Manhattan over Topeka. Although I happen to like Manhattan better than Topeka, myself.

Robert

Its not as if Sprint chose Manhattan over Topeka. Although I happen to like Manhattan better than Topeka, myself. ;)Robert

Me too. Grew up in Topeka and graduated from K-State.

Any testing or info needed that I can try and provide from this market?

Me too. Grew up in Topeka and graduated from K-State. Any testing or info needed that I can try and provide from this market?

What kind of speeds/pings are you getting from the live Manhattan LTE sites? Are all the sites performing about the same? What kind of battery life are you getting on LTE?

Robert

The only tower I've noticed up for a couple weeks is one in the center of town. (Aggieville area). I got 68ms ping, 14238kbps down, and 10440kbps up to the Overland Park, KS host using speedtest.net's app. That was pretty standard for that tower. I just recently noticed LTE on my way out of town heading East this weekend. Had 4g for a couple miles outside of town, but by the time i noticed it, it was dropping me back to 3g and didn't complete a speedtest.

I'll drive around and try and test out the different towers here in the next day or 2.

I don't have it at my house, and i'm not consistently in an area of LTE in town to give battery life examples.

This is with the gs3 also.

I have an HTC EVO 4G LTE phone in Atlanta and briefly got a signal back during the initial roll-out, then nothing. I have used sensorly, opensignal, and other apps to try and detect LTE but nothing. I finally called Sprint to complain and the representative informed me that there were no reported problems with my model phone that she had the same phone in Dallas and had no problems at all getting LTE on her device. I took my phone to the Sprint repair center in Roswell, GA where the tech rep's are just great. They checked out my phone and indicated they saw no problems with the phone and by using the MSL code could connect to LTE there in the store. However, they were unable to reproduce it working for me in the store. The tech rep. told me there was a known problem with the threshold on the HTC EVO 4G LTE, but I don't know where he got that information. He also said you had to be VERY close to the tower to get the phone to switch to LET. I also saw a Samsung Galaxy S3 in the store that was showing an LTE signal.

The phone rep. called me back and told me that there actually had been an LTE problem in Atlanta that had gone unreported, but that it was now fixed, but I was still unable to get any LTE signal without using the MSL to switch to LTE only mode.

I have a co-worked with the same phone. He indicated he has been able to pick up an LTE signal. We compared all of our version numbers - HW, Software, every number you can compare on the phone. His were all absolutely identical to mine.

This would tend to indicate to me that perhaps this is not a threshold issue unless phones with the same HW rev numbers (003) and SW versions would end up with different thresholds.

Other difference is that my phone is in an Otterbox, his only has a screen protector.

I have also been told that it's only a "handfull" of the HTC EVO 4G LTE customers that have seen this problem and that has been repeated on the Sprint forums.

I am starting to wonder if there is/was a quality control problem with the phones. Either a marginal antenna chip, marginal connections to antenna (cold solder joints, etc...) that could be at the root of this and without some pretty serious diagnostic equipment to hook up the phone to, it will be very hard to determine what is causing this problem.

Does anyone know how to translate a HTC EVO 4G LTE serial number into a build date? HT25DS......

Version Information:

Hardware version: 003

Software version: 2.13.651.1 71ORD

Android Version: 4.0.4

HTC Sense version: 4.1

HTC SDK API level: 4.24

HTC Extension version: HTCExtension_403_1_GA_22

PRI Version: 2.45_003

PRL Version: 25006

Kernel version: 3.0.8-01680-gb6402b4

Baseband version: 1.12.11.0809

Build number: 2.13.651.1 CL99866 release-keys

Browser version: WebKit/534/30

I have an HTC EVO 4G LTE phone in Atlanta and briefly got a signal back during the initial roll-out, then nothing. I have used sensorly, opensignal, and other apps to try and detect LTE but nothing. I finally called Sprint to complain and the representative informed me that there were no reported problems with my model phone that she had the same phone in Dallas and had no problems at all getting LTE on her device. I took my phone to the Sprint repair center in Roswell, GA where the tech rep's are just great. They checked out my phone and indicated they saw no problems with the phone and by using the MSL code could connect to LTE there in the store. However, they were unable to reproduce it working for me in the store. The tech rep. told me there was a known problem with the threshold on the HTC EVO 4G LTE, but I don't know where he got that information. He also said you had to be VERY close to the tower to get the phone to switch to LET. I also saw a Samsung Galaxy S3 in the store that was showing an LTE signal.The phone rep. called me back and told me that there actually had been an LTE problem in Atlanta that had gone unreported, but that it was now fixed, but I was still unable to get any LTE signal without using the MSL to switch to LTE only mode.I have a co-worked with the same phone. He indicated he has been able to pick up an LTE signal. We compared all of our version numbers - HW, Software, every number you can compare on the phone. His were all absolutely identical to mine.This would tend to indicate to me that perhaps this is not a threshold issue unless phones with the same HW rev numbers (003) and SW versions would end up with different thresholds.Other difference is that my phone is in an Otterbox, his only has a screen protector.I have also been told that it's only a "handfull" of the HTC EVO 4G LTE customers that have seen this problem and that has been repeated on the Sprint forums.I am starting to wonder if there is/was a quality control problem with the phones. Either a marginal antenna chip, marginal connections to antenna (cold solder joints, etc...) that could be at the root of this and without some pretty serious diagnostic equipment to hook up the phone to, it will be very hard to determine what is causing this problem.Does anyone know how to translate a HTC EVO 4G LTE serial number into a build date? HT25DS......Version Information:Hardware version: 003Software version: 2.13.651.1 71ORDAndroid Version: 4.0.4HTC Sense version: 4.1HTC SDK API level: 4.24HTC Extension version: HTCExtension_403_1_GA_22PRI Version: 2.45_003PRL Version: 25006Kernel version: 3.0.8-01680-gb6402b4Baseband version: 1.12.11.0809Build number: 2.13.651.1 CL99866 release-keysBrowser version: WebKit/534/30

We have had several members report LTE issues with the EVO LTE where they couldn't connect to LTE in places where another EVO LTE right next to it could. Several of them have had their EVO LTE's changed out and their problems went away.

I would pursue Sprint and get them to switch out your EVO for you. It sounds like you have a defective device to me.

Robert