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Network Vision/LTE - Upper Central Valley Market (Sacramento, Stockton, Redding, Eureka & Reno/Lake Tahoe)


iwalkthrowwalls

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  • 2 weeks later...

What's the indication of 2x CA?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

EARFCN 41176. Original EARFCN is 40978. 

 

Also new GCI endings of 03/04/05 are being found. Original carrier GCI ending is 00/01/02.

 

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It is basically your best bet if you wish to have a Sprint signal of any type now or in the future.

 

I spent the past 3 days overlaying the Clear site locations over Sprint locations via a map for the premier sponsors in my area that are still around. Knowing how to use GIS Parcel data comes in handy.

 

Anyways the red are the non-redundant clearwire sites while the light blue represent Sprints own sites. This should give you a pretty good idea on why I have very high confidence in Sprint keeping them..

 

Update to our previous discussions a couple of months ago:

 

I'm in Patterson, California, had been a Clearwire customer, and switched to Sprint in April 2015 when Clearwire shut off email services.  I've been calling the Sprint network support folks monthly to check on the status on their tower conversion.  So far, no maintenance on my local Clearwire tower is planned.  When I checked the coverage map this morning, the coverage area has shrunk even more than it was before.

 

There is a Clearwire tower in the area and Sprint indicated that the Clear service would be shut down in early November when Clear goes dark nationwide.  That is the tower that I am presently talking to (the closest tower to me; 4km away).  

 

According to the Clearwire messages going out to Clear users:

 

Sprint will cease operating the CLEAR 4G (WiMAX) Network and Clearwire Expedience Network on November 6, 2015 at 12:01AM EST

 

 

According to the maintenance schedule, there doesn't appear to be anything planned yet to upgrade the Patterson Clearwire tower to Sprint service:

 

https://www.sprint.net/maint_view.php

 

 

The thing is, I've watched the coverage map here in Patterson get worse and worse over time, and yet the Sprint Network Support folks say that everything is fine and nothing has changed since October 2014.

 

In spite of the coverage map, I do indeed get service on Band 41 since I have a 24dBi antenna bolted to my chimney (30' up) pointed at that tower.  Without that, I basically would get no coverage at all.

 

2015-09-20 11:53:57:554 PST LTE Signal Info: RSSI -80 SINR 5.2,RSRP -109,RSRQ -9

2015-09-20 11:53:57:553 PST Active Tech: LTE Band 41

 

Speedtest says that I get a paltry 6Mbps.  I have a Sprint branded Netgear 6100D tri-band unit (Band 25, Band 26, Band 41) and the antenna does indeed support these bands (a 6-foot long Yagi antenna).

 

 

I'm surprised that there doesn't appear to be any info about the Clearwire-to-Sprint tower conversions widely available.  Seems that Sprint would be touting this as some grand expansion in service and capability...

 

 

Barkada, in post 2048 of the following thread, commented that the conversion may be experiencing a slowdown:

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4950-sprint-spark-official-name-for-the-tri-band-network-was-sprint-to-demo-its-25ghz-network-technology/page-103

 

 

Scott

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.

 

 

I'm surprised that there doesn't appear to be any info about the Clearwire-to-Sprint tower conversions widely available. Seems that Sprint would be touting this as some grand expansion in service and capability...

 

Scott

I would argue the recent coverage maps update has made it more realistic compared to before (but still quite optimistic).

 

Sprint is in no position to make anymore grand announcements. Too many broken promises and delays already said these past many years.

 

It'll be done when it's done is the motto they're adopting. We'll know it here (s4gru) first as usual and I'll know.

 

Don't expect anything substantial to commerce til next year. Funding has not flowed down to this (and most) lower priority market yet.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

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And finally got to grab the LG G4 to a CA enabled tower..

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile this is my Nexus 5 which is not CA capable

 

 

 

Capacity is always nice!

Which area is this at?

 

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Haven't been here in days (last time i visited, the Warriors weren't even champions). Anyways, I upgraded from a note 2 to a note 5 and the difference as far as data goes is pretty substantial. Living in Davis, my note 2 was more or less unusable during 2013 and only started flirting with 4g in late 2014. Some parts were 4g and rolling, other parts were trash. As of now, it seems like there's LTE everywhere, so that's a great sign. Speeds seem pretty amazing from what they once were. Is sprint done with the Davis area, or is there still more work to do?

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Haven't been here in days (last time i visited, the Warriors weren't even champions). Anyways, I upgraded from a note 2 to a note 5 and the difference as far as data goes is pretty substantial. Living in Davis, my note 2 was more or less unusable during 2013 and only started flirting with 4g in late 2014. Some parts were 4g and rolling, other parts were trash. As of now, it seems like there's LTE everywhere, so that's a great sign. Speeds seem pretty amazing from what they once were. Is sprint done with the Davis area, or is there still more work to do?

 

Desnfiication will be required.

 

There are many clearwire sites to convert (Davis has far outgrown the Sprint network) and definitely small cells to deploy. Think the city also constructed a DAS network that Sprint hasn't hooked into yet so that's also an option. Coverage is half decent but speeds are nothing to brag about. Just usable which is quite a vast improvement from before so I won't complain about that. 

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Desnfiication will be required.

 

There are many clearwire sites to convert (Davis has far outgrown the Sprint network) and definitely small cells to deploy. Think the city also constructed a DAS network that Sprint hasn't hooked into yet so that's also an option. Coverage is half decent but speeds are nothing to brag about. Just usable which is quite a vast improvement from before so I won't complain about that.

 

Nice, I'm glad to hear there's room for improvement. Are those clearwire conversions and small cells being deployed as of now, or are they still waiting to start work? Any timeline as to what we can expect around here?

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Nice, I'm glad to hear there's room for improvement. Are those clearwire conversions and small cells being deployed as of now, or are they still waiting to start work? Any timeline as to what we can expect around here?

 

Sometime next year probably is my guess. Hopefully sooner than later. It depends on the Next Gen Network™ funding that was approved by Softbank this past summer. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would argue the recent coverage maps update has made it more realistic compared to before (but still quite optimistic).

 

Sprint is in no position to make anymore grand announcements. Too many broken promises and delays already said these past many years.

 

It'll be done when it's done is the motto they're adopting. We'll know it here (s4gru) first as usual and I'll know.

 

Don't expect anything substantial to commerce til next year. Funding has not flowed down to this (and most) lower priority market yet.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

Well, the coverage map here in Patterson dramatically changed again (Oct 10).  Now it is showing a very extensive Spark area.  However, my signal level is exactly the same as it has been for the past several months. 

 

So I went to my bookmarked Sprint network map link (http://network.sprint.com) to see about any tower upgrades, but the Network map isn't there any more.  It just goes to a generic page.

 

Then I checked the Maintenance page (https://www.sprint.net/maint_view.php), but there's nothing specific to Patterson there either.

 

 

So it looks like the coverage map has been changing quite a bit (reduced coverage area, then a few months later greatly expanded), but my signal level has been exactly the same.

 

I have the 120GB/month plan.  So a faster bit rate would indeed make a difference.  At this point, I'm still stuck at 6 Mbps (Band 41, RSRP -109) and the Spark icon is on, but I certainly am not getting Spark'ing speeds.  

 

Perhaps things will change after November 5.

 

Scott

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Well, the coverage map here in Patterson dramatically changed again (Oct 10).  Now it is showing a very extensive Spark area.  However, my signal level is exactly the same as it has been for the past several months. 

 

So I went to my bookmarked Sprint network map link (http://network.sprint.com) to see about any tower upgrades, but the Network map isn't there any more.  It just goes to a generic page.

 

Then I checked the Maintenance page (https://www.sprint.net/maint_view.php), but there's nothing specific to Patterson there either.

 

 

So it looks like the coverage map has been changing quite a bit (reduced coverage area, then a few months later greatly expanded), but my signal level has been exactly the same.

 

I have the 120GB/month plan.  So a faster bit rate would indeed make a difference.  At this point, I'm still stuck at 6 Mbps (Band 41, RSRP -109) and the Spark icon is on, but I certainly am not getting Spark'ing speeds.  

 

Perhaps things will change after November 5.

 

Scott

 

Just FYI, that sprint.net site is for Sprint's WIRELINE network, not WIRELESS.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just drove the grapevine on the 99 and did not drop LTE at all until I got to my hotel. Pretty good showing for Sprint. I got quite a bit of B41. Shocked that I didn't hit B26 at all though.

There's very very few areas which is not covered by LTE on i5/99 going north once you enter the UCV market until you hit the Oregon border area. Almost all sites are full builds here. They've come a long way here so now it's Just capacity is a bit of an issue.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally purchased a triband phone nexus 6p. What type of lte speed should I expect in Sacramento?

I have run Speedtests in South sac near gerber Rd, downtown near I-5, and North natomas and was expecting much faster speed. The fastest test was 5.25 mbps but most much slower. Signal check says that I am connected to B26 and B41.

Is it my phone? So far it is only slightly faster than my old phone and that could be due to better processor and more ram.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

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I finally purchased a triband phone nexus 6p. What type of lte speed should I expect in Sacramento?

I have run Speedtests in South sac near gerber Rd, downtown near I-5, and North natomas and was expecting much faster speed. The fastest test was 5.25 mbps but most much slower. Signal check says that I am connected to B26 and B41.

Is it my phone? So far it is only slightly faster than my old phone and that could be due to better processor and more ram.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Speeds can range from anywhere from low single digits to triple digits depending on the time of the day and what band you are connected to. Most Sprint sites have Band 41 of some type with many having 2nd B41 carrier + carrier aggregation enabled in addition to a ton of Clearwire Band 41 sites dotted all about. 

 

If you're connected to Clearwire Band 41 site then think of those as temporary coverage sites instead of super high speed ones (though many of them may be quite speedy) as many of them have not have upgraded backhaul and run on the same setup they did when they were wimax only (tops out 15-20 mbps maximum with avg speeds in single digits). 

 

In this market, due to site density and our lack of extra PCS spectrum for another Band 25 LTE carrier Band 25/26 will be relatively "slow" most of the time. For B25/26 and Clearwire band 41, expect single digits (ie 1-9 mbps). For Sprint Band 41 you can expect 10+ to all the way to ~140 if you have a good connection and the sector have normal to low loads. 

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Very helpful explanation. I found an area of town or time of day where I reached 10 mbps. I was connected to clearwire B41 and now understand the difference.

 

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You welcome! 

 

If you see Sprint B41 or B41² on SCP it's highly likely you'll have CA active and have speeds well into double digits and maybe even triple digits. Feel free to check sensorly or rootmetric speedtest results to see my results and others. 

 

Sprint has filed some permits to convert Clearwire Band 41 / Wimax sites to Sprint Band 41 sites but no work has really started yet due to the injunction going on which prevents Sprint from shutting down wimax.

 

 

Hopefully it gets resolved soon though! Clearwires equipment in our market is obsolete and pretty much inferior to Sprints 2.5 equipment but they have a ton more sites since they built out much later (2009-2011) and fills in a lot of dead spots since Sprint itself stopped building out around 2007-8 which is why I call Clearwire Band 41 sites coverage sites. 

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This goes into a little more detail about the injunction that lilotimz mentioned:

 

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sprint-shutdown-suspended-nonprofits-win-preliminary-injunction-protect-internet-for-300000-americans-300173565.html

 

I had been a happy Clear customer for several year (at 5 Mbps), but made the switch in April to Sprint when Sprint/Clear dropped email service.  Then my family found that our Oppo bluray player does Netflix and the rest is history.  I'm on the Sprint 120GB/month plan, but only getting 8 Mbps.

 

I'm desperately waiting for Sprint to upgrade my Clear tower.

 

Thanks,

 

Scott

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