Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[darkstar77]

Most likely it was not the Firmware update that gave them LTE. It was that when a Firmware update is completed, it scans for LTE. You can also force a scan for LTE by updating your PRL, turning on airplane mode and then turning it off, or changing to CDMA only mode and going back to CDMA/LTE mode.

 

LTE has not launched in the Chicago market. Sprint is just allowing the couple of dozen complete sites to be used now. So if you are near a site that is complete, you will now be able to use it. So service in the suburban Chicago market is very spotty right now. But will get a little better every week.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

Thanks Robert. your work is much appreciated.

[ks-man]

Robert,

 

So my wife had a dropped call last night while driving in Highland Park last night on her new iPhone 5. While she isn't freaking out she is very alarmed that even the new hardware isn't fixing the dropped call issues. I'm a bit concerned b/c my understanding is the only thing that will improve the dropped call percentages will be the 800SMR you described in the other thread but I believe that will really only affect indoor performance and not as much when somebody is driving.

 

Is there something else that is going on that will solve these dropped calls (most people complain when they are driving)? While I'm excited about the improved data speeds, first and foremost the network needs to allow phone calls without disconnection as that is the primary function of our phones.

 

Thanks.

[biker1284]

That means you switched sites when you cycled to CDMA only. The only time eHRPD will be slower than EVDO is if the 4G core is beyond capacity. And that is really hard to believe.

 

So if you had been connected to the same exact site both times speed would have been slower on EVDO also

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

 

Looks like that might've been what happened. I occasionally get a gimpse of a different tower.

 

If I stay on the same tower and switch from evdo to eHRPD should I be able to avoid congestion and see increased speeds?

[genjones32]

Just had some LTE love Rockford IL "iPhone 5"

[gnatsstang]

just glad that LTE IS HERE.I hope to be able to connect to a tower in Chicago on Western and Wilson on north side.

And a bit off-topic...

Since Chicago is about half done, is that the 47% Romney is taking about?

Just wondering.

[ipatella]

 

Milwaukee and Lake Cook Rd.

[mellimel2212]

 

I have not seen any correlation between sites that are live and locations of Sprint stores. Anywhere that occurs is coincidence. In fact, Sprint hasn't even put much LTE coverage around their HQ in Overland Park, Kansas yet.

 

And I am not picking on you specifically, but I always find it amazing that people in Chicago who are in an active Network Vision market with 4G LTE popping up all around them, especially today of all days, complain that they are at their breaking point. As the cavalry is riding into town saving them. But they are not the first ones in town to be rescued.

 

I can't help but contrast you folks in Chicago to the poor saps in Phoenix, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Albuquerque, San Diego, etc. that currently suffer severe 3G data problems and don't have any hope of WiMax off haul for themselves or help alleviate the 3G congestion. Sprint customers in any of these markets want to strangle Chicagoans at this point, when they are so close to rescue. And their rescue doesn't even begin for several more months or later next year.

 

All things are relative, I suppose.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

I'm sorry its our Chicago mentality:) we think we DESERVE to get the best lol but me personally I'm only experiencing kinda slow 3g speeds only during 3- 6 (Chicago rush hour and chicago kids get out of school and hop dead on there cell phonesi7

 

Sent from my White Epic 4g Touch rockin Jellybean

[shotymedan]

Looked like Elburn LaFox and Batavia must've been just in testing... went through Saturday morning, had lte. Went through later in the day, no more. Wah wah. We'll see tomorrow morning.

Also I drove into Chicago and no I got no lte anytime I checked in or out on I-88.

[WhiteWidow]

Yorkville Il. Up since Friday 9/23/2012

[nmbr1scoobs]

I just got 4G here in Huntley, IL. 6 down 3 up with about -103 dBm. I don't know if that's good or not with the many variables of LTE being very signal dependent and that maybe the tower has not been through proper testing yet.

[NiteSnow]

I just got 4G here in Huntley, IL. 6 down 3 up with about -103 dBm. I don't know if that's good or not with the many variables of LTE being very signal dependent and that maybe the tower has not been through proper testing yet.

 

What you got is about on par with what you should get at those signal levels.

[TrulyNotSoTweet]

 

I have not seen any correlation between sites that are live and locations of Sprint stores. Anywhere that occurs is coincidence. In fact, Sprint hasn't even put much LTE coverage around their HQ in Overland Park, Kansas yet.

 

And I am not picking on you specifically, but I always find it amazing that people in Chicago who are in an active Network Vision market with 4G LTE popping up all around them, especially today of all days, complain that they are at their breaking point. As the cavalry is riding into town saving them. But they are not the first ones in town to be rescued.

 

I can't help but contrast you folks in Chicago to the poor saps in Phoenix, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Albuquerque, San Diego, etc. that currently suffer severe 3G data problems and don't have any hope of WiMax off haul for themselves or help alleviate the 3G congestion. Sprint customers in any of these markets want to strangle Chicagoans at this point, when they are so close to rescue. And their rescue doesn't even begin for several more months or later next year.

 

All things are relative, I suppose.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

I dont take it personally at all. I've been kosher and all with the crippled service and I am happy that by the end of the year this will be a distant memory, but when I called Sprint and the tech was checking on service in my area they found that the 3 closest towers to me were all essentially down and another 5 towers in my zipcode were also. The size of postal codes to geographic area size in the city proper is fairly small, so they basically made it a deadzone. The tech did say that a repair ticket was showing that it was supposed to be completed by 6pm that same day, and service is a bit better but I have no way to confirm whats been fixed or not.

 

I will say I came across a topic thread on xda about flashing modems/radios for the SIII. Sure enough after reading through the thread and people's recommendatilns I flashed and tried 2 different radios and instantly saw a dramatic improvement in my connection and data speeds. It did cause a bit of a hit in battery life, not that I'm surprised with a ''stronger'' radio, but nothing drastic like you'd see when using wimax. Totally worth the trade off! Then early the next day I found a well respected forum member on xda had finally created a custom kernel for the SIII. I did a full backup of my phone, and crossed my fingers it wouldn't brick me or screw anything up. Updated it without a hiccup, and my battery life and performance has been better than ever!!!

 

So a little time investment on my part has made a dramatic improvement in my phone's performance and service. I'm still missing some calls given all the tower issues in my particular area, but my phone is totally usuable and I can live with that in the short term. I'm getting data speeds of at least 250 with some tests hitting 750+ down and 175+ up even in my place.

 

Anyone interested can search over on xda-

 

I tried modems LEN and Lf9, and settled on using Lf9.

 

The custom kernel AGAT GS3 1.0 kernel

 

And then swapped out the current PRL for the latest (afaik) corporate PRL : 24006

 

I hope its okay to mention it here for anyone else looking to fix their service issues- or at least try, but I'll be happy to edit or delete this post if instructed to do so.

 

 

 

sent from my G III via tapatalk.

[Dave__N]

Not sure if this was coincidental or not, but my wife's LG Viper 4G LTE had to do a manual update PRL before I could get any service. I did so Friday night and got 18 MB down and 5 MG up.

[S4GRU]

Not sure if this was coincidental or not' date=' but my wife's LG Viper 4G LTE had to do a manual update PRL before I could get any service. I did so Friday night and got 18 MB down and 5 MG up.[/quote']

 

All the PRL update did was force scan LTE. Cycling through airplane mode would have resulted in the same thing. Unless you had a custom PRL on that phone. Then clearing it out may have been the problem.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[Hiro11]

In my experience, so far this NV/LTE roll-out continues to be a bust in the vast majority of the Chicagoland area. I had a busy weekend driving around and I didn't get a sniff of LTE anywhere in the western suburbs this weekend. In particular, Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, Warrenville, northern Naperville and parts of Lisle remain basically cell service holes on Sprint. In the vast majority of these areas, even 3G remains unreliable and incredibly slow, let alone LTE. I ran several speed tests and saw on average at most 0.3mbps. Many places simply had no data coverage, as if this is 1992. This is a wide swath of area with a couple hundred thousand local people. Also, the entire 355/290/53 corridor remains spotty in 3G coverage (although better than Wheaton et al) and completely LTE-free, even through densely developed Schaumburg. IMO, this is unacceptable. I really hope the situation starts to improve soon in the western suburbs. I don't recommend Sprint in Chicago if you're up for contract renewal.

[Deval]

Reading all these posts makes me really concerned about porting my family over to Sprint who lives in Chicago.

 

Is it really as bad everyone says?

[tommym65]

Reading all these posts makes me really concerned about porting my family over to Sprint who lives in Chicago.

 

Is it really as bad everyone says?

 

IMHO, Sprint in Chicagoland is not really bad, nor does everyone say it is. I have been on Sprint for over 10 years, and while there have been worse times and better times, I feel that Sprint customer service has been very good, especially recently. WIMAX has been a disappointment, and I haven't yet forked over for LTE, but where I live in the Far Northwest Suburbs, 3G coverage has recently improved (NV is installed all around me), and Robert's update this week shows 2 new 3G/4G sites within 6 miles. I took a drive earlier today, and saw that 4G NV hardware has been installed on several local towers, so should be turned on soon (no visible bird nests!). I am encouraged by reported local LTE sightings (Huntley, Fox River Grove, etc). Also, I travel throughout the western US, and consistently get good coverage in virtually every urban area where I go. BTW, I my family has 3 EVO's, a Samsung, and an IPhone 4S on a family plan, and we are all happy.

[Joeynach]

In my experience, so far this NV/LTE roll-out continues to be a bust in the vast majority of the Chicagoland area. I had a busy weekend driving around and I didn't get a sniff of LTE anywhere in the western suburbs this weekend. In particular, Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, Warrenville, northern Naperville and parts of Lisle remain basically cell service holes on Sprint. In the vast majority of these areas, even 3G remains unreliable and incredibly slow, let alone LTE. I ran several speed tests and saw on average at most 0.3mbps. Many places simply had no data coverage, as if this is 1992. This is a wide swath of area with a couple hundred thousand local people. Also, the entire 355/290/53 corridor remains spotty in 3G coverage (although better than Wheaton et al) and completely LTE-free, even through densely developed Schaumburg. IMO, this is unacceptable. I really hope the situation starts to improve soon in the western suburbs. I don't recommend Sprint in Chicago if you're up for contract renewal.

 

Did you read my earlier post on betting the over/under with another member on Chicago LTE Launch? I took the over on November 1st and was happy to do so. I still think this is a game of patience. I dont find any reason to believe that LTE would be launched in Oct as first predicted or even November. What company do you know meets agressive initial deadlines at will, without delay, or in full. None that I know of, including the ones I have worked for. My opinion has always been given the October/Nov rumors, wait till around Xmas/New Years and then evaluate what you see in terms of market penetration, live sites, and speeds.

[akm1104]

Today Sprint announced 4G LTE live in Waukegan-Lake County. Does anyone know what cities they mean because Highland Parkb is in Lake County yet no 4G according to their coverage map

[Joeynach]

Today Sprint announced 4G LTE live in Waukegan-Lake County. Does anyone know what cities they mean because Highland Parkb is in Lake County yet no 4G according to their coverage map

 

Its just a PR piece man, they had to feed something to the dogs.

[franky_402]

I live in Marseilles, IL which is near Ottawa. We now have eHRPD on and off. There is a tower north of town and a tower south of town. Plus my 3G speeds are around 2mbps pretty consistently. However, I cannot seem to find anywhere that says whether or not I well be getting LTE on those towers or not. I have talked to multiple Sprint reps that say yes but I do not see them on the map, other than stating that 800mhz 1x/3G are complete.

 

Also, there are two antennas in town that belong to Sprint. One says it belongs to Nextel and the other says Sprint. Will these antennas help increase LTE signal in town or do they only help with 1x or 3G? I am mainly concerned about whether or not these antennas will help transmit LTE or not.

 

Thank you in advance for your answers!

 

EDIT: I don't know if it helps or not but the towers are CH03IP816 and CH03IP032

 

Sent from my Evo 4G LTE going through AnthraX withdrawal!

[hayzooos]

Today Sprint announced 4G LTE live in Waukegan-Lake County. Does anyone know what cities they mean because Highland Parkb is in Lake County yet no 4G according to their coverage map

 

No go for actual Highland Park, but if you take a trip over near the Lake County Forest Preserve, I'll bet you pick something up in that area...

[aerxx]

eHRPD in DeKalb. VERY EXCITE!

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forum Runner

[NRenville87]

eHRPD in DeKalb. VERY EXCITE!

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forum Runner

 

What's that? I live in DeKalb. Sorry for being a noob

[92EG8]

No more eHRPD in Waukegan anymore only get EVDO then jumps to 4G then back

 

Sent From EVO LTE