DsmIowaGuy

It is used year around with huge events on many weekends much like State Fair Park. Their own internal systems show the issue that bmoses is talking about with the main area of the fairgrounds being in between two sectors and with the huge dirt filter (hill) between the site and the main part of the fairgrounds it just would be impossible. Some lower management levels in certain divisions are full aware but like any huge company it's hard to get a&b talking to c, d, e and f. Either way Sprint is doing a nice job around town with deployments over the past few years and are doing quite a bit of B41 so we can't loose sight of the good they have going and huge strides they've made. It's pretty amazing in some ways due to the rip and replace they had to face ! btw, I hope you had a few cream puffs and a brat from the leinie lodge I have had a guinea grinder and pork chop on a stick so far and will have a corn dog on one of my next visits out here before it's over.

For years no cow or augmentation and basically unusable phones. Then they got cows in there the past three years but have never gotten it right for a few reasons. They are paying contractors lots of money to include installing then removing the backhaul each year, seems like actual Sprint folks should hold some payments back for non compliance! It's too bad as they are really deploying a great network around here and have been for sometime now and at a huge event like this where they could shine they sort of allow things to not be better seems so odd to me.

Hello Everyone, I will try to recap what I've found for cellular around the ISF for the 2015 season. Here is the main site on the NW Corner of the speedway; USCC has a permanent tower located behind in this picture. They did add that lower rack this year with another huge panel antenna pointing basically SW. Verizon again brought in a COLT and Sprint has a COLT and a newer one than last year. Sorry for the bad picture. I have a good pic of the Sprint panels at least since that is what we're here for As for their backhaul they are doing that through the SE 18th Heartland Coop site again just like the last couple years. AT&T brought in the same trailer they brought last year, however.. Quite the new antenna and tower they have. They spent some coin for sure on this tower/antenna system install. They got booted along with other carriers from "Cellular Hill" so things are different all around this year. AT&T is just inside the campground NE from the old Cellular Hill Site. Here is Verizon's SW site near E 31st/Dean on the fairgrounds property - just as it has been since they launched LTE in the Des Moines market with a COLT. Here was a surprise this year, outside the fairgrounds in one of their fair parking lots near SE 33rd/Carr is another Verizon site ! Here is Verizon's permanent site at the fair, flagpole disguise. Last but not least one more VZ small cell was installed this year which (near as I can find makes a total of 3) Those stay up all year. They have been installing these all over the metro in the past year.

Nice makeover. Look forward to more as time goes on

Yep looked like it to me. Good it was a low enough to get him with a bucket, no big rope rescue operation needed !

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-worker-wearing-harness-dangles-from-cell-tower-20141204-story.html

Anyway at all we can check on whether that backhaul has been done. I know at one time there wasn't, didn't know if something had been identified that we could look for. I know some towers with newly installed fiber boxes weren't really a tell tale sign in the past as it seemed like maybe that was installed but truly waiting for the underground dig to happen at times.

Most towers that I have checked in the rural areas I travel are still GMO but upgraded backhaul or at least tied T1 lines. The speed tests are most often 2.5Mbps down and 1Mbps up. FAR different "3G" than what they used to call 3G. For that - I'm grateful in what they have done.

Welcome to S4GRU I've had a lot of fun on this site tower spotting and talking back and forth about the Sprint system. Thanks for donating. I too donated slowly and eventually couldn't resist continuing to the premier level We'll see you around in the threads on here.

There has been a ton of work off and on for weeks on that tower North of E University on the East side of the freeway by the sign company. I have spotted there several times and hoped the crews would get free'd up and maybe work on more sprint stuff soon

I have to concur with AJ. My century link is very slow at home (because I'm cheap and got rid of my good cable modem - 4Mbps/.765 is fine for me.) I do speed tests once in a while to either give me excitement or for testing and then use WiFi everywhere I can. I just know that overall it's better for all of us. As to your issue. Happens all the time to me on my iPhone 5 and working in the E Village or various other places around town. Frankly though I'm not on it consistent enough to know for sure how often it happens but does happen pretty much like you describe. Happens to me both on LTE and 3G. Just a touch more info for this.. What direction would your phone generally get signal from while you're at 2nd/Grand (ie.. Do you have windows that be on the West side of your place? If you're in Apts there are you more on the West side towards 3rd St, etc ? We can't go into details about tower locations outside of the member section but out of curiosity and thoughts about maybe a tower issue that we could dive into. Also.. Welcome to S4GRU

NW Corner of the racetrack by gate 13

Hey Guys regarding your cow conversation.... Welcome to the Iowa State Fair ! Here is a pic of one they delivered last week and I would guess will be turned on in the next couple days. Our Fair starts on the 7th. We get around 100K daily in attendance. Ps. A couple posts ahead of this you can see the other type of cow that is popular over here http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4711-nebraska-iowa-market-spreadsheets-and-maps/?p=345205

Spider Pig

Same boat in a couple weeks ! (except with an iPhone 5 I only get residual affects!!)