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Network Vision/LTE - Central Iowa Market (Des Moines and surrounding areas)


sweyers

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I decided to upgrade and while I was doing so, I was able to speak to the local Sprint rep about the upgrade. He told me Samsung is currently working in Eastern Iowa for two months upgrading the backhaul and when they are finsihed there, they will move to Central Iowa. Don't know if it is the truth or a load of crap, but at least it's a little food for thought.

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I decided to upgrade and while I was doing so, I was able to speak to the local Sprint rep about the upgrade. He told me Samsung is currently working in Eastern Iowa for two months upgrading the backhaul and when they are finsihed there, they will move to Central Iowa. Don't know if it is the truth or a load of crap, but at least it's a little food for thought.

 

Samsung is working on the Davenport switch, upgrading equipment and backhaul. As for the sites, those are done on an individual basis and not by Samsung, but by Sprint under separate contracts with several vendors. I'd say for the most part, this is pretty accurate.

 

Field work is already under way in East Iowa at GMO sites. But full build sites will not get moving in earnest for a few more months.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

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That's the tower with WiMAX though. That tower is a long time lease I think it's staying when the store is built, or it will be moved onto the building.

 

yep it is the wimax protection site, didn't mean to gloss over that, was just pointing out it wasn't a sprint site :) and the way the news made it sound the other night the tower will have to be torn down/moved so who knows what will happen. I assume clearwire will need to figure something out to setup another protection site to replace it or they won't be meeting their license requirements anymore.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm happy to see the updates so I know Iowa isn't being forgotten. I wonder if anyone can tell me if the Indianola, IA tower(s) will be upgraded with Des Moines (about 10min south of DSM). I'm not holding my breath but it would be nice it we were simply included with the Des Moines market.

 

I did quite a bit of driving in Des Moines/West Des Moines/Urbandale last weekend and didn't see any LTE connections (ran sensorly while driving). I think just knowing that Sprint is working in this area has made waiting even harder. :) I wasn't expecting any 4G yet but wouldn't mind being surprised...lol

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I'm happy to see the updates so I know Iowa isn't being forgotten. I wonder if anyone can tell me if the Indianola, IA tower(s) will be upgraded with Des Moines (about 10min south of DSM). I'm not holding my breath but it would be nice it we were simply included with the Des Moines market.

 

I did quite a bit of driving in Des Moines/West Des Moines/Urbandale last weekend and didn't see any LTE connections (ran sensorly while driving). I think just knowing that Sprint is working in this area has made waiting even harder. :) I wasn't expecting any 4G yet but wouldn't mind being surprised...lol

 

every sprint tower in the central iowa market is getting NV updates, which includes LTE. actual tower work isn't quite underway yet. They are in the preliminary stages of starting on GMO (ground mount option) sites in central iowa now. unfortunately most GMO sites are outside the des moines metro area and are mostly rural/low capacity sites. Once those go live they will have LTE on them. Most likely sometime this summer is when the full build out of all sites will start in our area. GMO sites initially will only be 3G and LTE on 1900MHz, full build sites will have 3G and LTE on 1900MHz and eventually voice and LTE on 800MHz. Also GMO sites will eventually be upgraded to full build sites too.

 

and just an FYI, if you become a normal sponsor you will have access to a map that has the locations of all sprint towers in iowa as well as the sites completed map that shows what sites have what upgrades done to them. then in the premier sections there is also an additional map that lists the GMO sites.

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Wow, been lurking this site for about a year now, and just now finally found this thread (Yes I know the thread was started in January).

 

Also just donated. Keep up the excellent work!

Edited by Cloud121
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Any word on when actual work will begin ? It sure does take a long time to get permits.

 

GMO sites are beginning work now, the locations of all the GMO towers are in the premier sponsor section. I actually stopped by one of the GMO sites last weekend and it had new cabinets delivered. Going to stop by it again tomorrow night and see if anything else has changed. Full build sites, which is most of the sites that will affect us, won't be starting until sometime this summer though.

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Nothing like the smell of a fresh ban in the morning. Sheesh.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

 

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i stopped by the GMO tower mentioned above last friday and it had the new cabinets installed. Also the ground was marked where underground stuff was so they could trench fiber to the new equipment :)

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Nothing like the smell of a fresh ban in the morning. Sheesh.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

Looks like I missed something go down in my own thread...

I can't find reference to any specific GMO site even though one was mentioned a couple times.

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Looks like I missed something go down in my own thread... I can't find reference to any specific GMO site even though one was mentioned a couple times.

 

yeah i have no idea what happened either.....

 

as to the GMO site, i haven't mentioned its exact location since the GMO tower locations are part of the premier section so i don't think i'm allowed to outside of that section. Just confirming that actual work is happening in central iowa :)

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On a positive note I spotted work starting on the tower at Hickman and MLK. I took a picture and even confirmed with the guy digging the trench for fiber. Now the question is how do I post the picture ? lol

 

very nice! did you ask the guy if it was for sprint? where exactly is the tower you saw? i just want to confirm that its a sprint tower cause if it is that would mean that non-GMO related work was getting underway! as for the pic, you can go to the advanced posting options and there will be an option to attach a pic, otherwise you can upload it to a place like photobucket and then link it from there.

 

PS - you should really consider donating, even if its just a little bit, as it will get you access to the maps that show the locations of every single sprint tower :)

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sweet! hopefully this won't be a case of fiber getting installed and then sitting there for many months waiting for the rest of the work to start! i'll have to take an extended lunch tomorrow and run by that tower and see if i can see any equipment delivered! thanks again for the report! :)

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How long does it usually take to get the equipment ? The guy I talked to thought we would be up and running in a month or two.

 

that is one big unknown. it varies from market to market and tower to tower. plus the fact that up until now i was under the impression that non-GMO tower work was not going to start until mid to late summer. So at this point there could be two possibilities;

 

1) they are starting new backhaul runs to towers ahead of actual tower work being done and the tower work will not start until mid to late summer

 

2) they are starting new backhaul runs to towers ahead of actual tower work being done and the tower work will start any day now

 

so all we can really do is look for the backhaul being installed like you did and then keep an eye on those towers for the rest of the work starting.

 

and just to make sure you know the terms, GMO (Ground Mount Option) sites are low capacity sites that are not getting new antennas installed off the bat (they will sometime later, probably next year). They are however starting now and are starting ahead of full build sites. Full build sites will get all new equipment and antennas installed. So that's why this is potentially exciting with the tower you saw work at. if full build sites are starting now as well then that's ahead of what we originally thought was going to happen! :)

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i'm going to run there over lunch and take a look too :) i forgot to ask, what company was installing the fiber? Data speeds in Des Moines have been hit and miss for me. when i'm at work i have sucky speeds but when i'm out and about like on the weekends sometimes i'll get around 1 meg down and sometimes i'll get crap.

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just got back from visiting that tower, it was definitely a sprint site and had new fiber run to it! :) it did look like there were two carriers there though based on the equipment on the ground, the weird thing was that all the antennas were on the same level up top

 

IMAG0698.jpg

 

is that normal for two different carriers to be sharing the same level? or maybe this is a shared Sprint/Nextel site? Can anyone tell from the pic?

 

anyway, will be stopping by this one on a regular basis to see if/when tower work starts, hopefully it will be sooner rather then later! :)

 

PS i really need to start carrying my good camera with me so i can get better pics!

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just got back from visiting that tower, it was definitely a sprint site and had new fiber run to it! :) it did look like there were two carriers there though based on the equipment on the ground, the weird thing was that all the antennas were on the same level up top

 

IMAG0698.jpg

 

is that normal for two different carriers to be sharing the same level? or maybe this is a shared Sprint/Nextel site? Can anyone tell from the pic?

 

anyway, will be stopping by this one on a regular basis to see if/when tower work starts, hopefully it will be sooner rather then later! :)

 

PS i really need to start carrying my good camera with me so i can get better pics!

 

Looks like a Sprint synergy site where they took off one iDen panel and slap on a pcs panel.

 

Notice the 3 narrow band panels and then the one panel that looks completely different?

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