sarjxxx

I had considered this but it still seems odd to me because it's not just one area. It's two different markets and a 45 mile distance between where I work, play, and live, varying between urban and rural areas, and still it sticks to B26 the whole time. In addition I don't think an overburdened network would have given me upwards of 30Mbps speeds on my old B25 device either but I suppose the system might know something I don't...

So as of about a week ago I have finally joined in on the M8 crowd. Picked up my H/K ed. about a week ago and loving it. Hell of an upgrade from my SIII. Pleased to see I'm not having any of the bizzare network problems that were first reported with the M8's. I do find it odd however, that the phone is camping out on B26. I mean all the time everywhere there is a B26 signal. Every now and then it jumps back to B25 for a moment, and when it does I see signifigantly lower signal strengths than I did with my sIII and slower speeds as well, but it does provide me with sufficient speed on B26 for everyday usability which is all that really matters to me but given what I've read about the band priorities, I don't understand why it wants to stay on B26 LTE all the time...

Upgraded to the M8 about a week ago. Loving it, having a good exerience on the network as well just seems odd that it's camping out on B26 everywhere most of the time, and when it's not it doesn't get as strong of B25 reception that my SIII got but hey I still get very useable speeds which is all that matters at the end of the day. Sort of odd to me also however that a couple of places where I used to get LTE I now only get cringingly slow EHRPD....

We went up there a few weeks ago, I was actually roaming on legacy MPCS for a little while in old town area, not too far from the Castillo. Maybe I would have seen more LTE with a more capable Spark device by my SIII was having a bad time up there. Lot's of roaming and 1xRTT. I did notice a ton of 1x800 on the way up from Belleview though. Didn't drop 800 until way out past Silver Springs.

Hmm yeah that sounds right. I was thinking Veteran's park area but I couldn't remember just how much of 40 got it. I do remember being drastically disappointed with WiMax coverage. I was pleasantly surprised to see how fast NV got the LTE running in Ocala after I moved into the SIII however.

Not sure. It's actually odd that you say that because he went back to check for it again, that was the day before your post, he could not only not duplicate the speeds, but also was not picking up LTE at all in that area. He was stuck on 3G only. Airplane Mode resets and power cycles could not get LTE up. But he's sticking to seeing 76/55 up there the first time. IIRC however, I do seem to remember that area being one of the first to recieve any kind of WiMax coverage, so it wouldn't surprise me if they are doing some sort of testing around there for the B41 in Ocala... In other words, my guess is that they were doing some testing, cut it off, had 3G coverage for while, then turned 25&26 back on. Becuase we all know how much they love to do that stuff to us lol. On another note, has anyone noticed a total lack of LTE in ocala over last night / this morning? He said he could not get LTE on his G3 until he got down to Belleview this morning...

no he had just gotten the phone and hadn't figured out how to screenshot yet lol but he will be going back later this week to see if he can recreate it and grab a screencap

I believe you are correct

Also, on a humorous note.... As for that Zaxby's opening up... today was their grand opening, it seems there were people camping outside the store on account of the first 100 customers would recieve free chicken. So I guess we're not the only ones who love Zaxby's lol

Well I just added my friend onto my everything data 1500 a few days ago, and he picked up a G3. Seeing some fantastic coverage around here. Actually picked up 73DL/55UL over by Silver Springs Park a couple days ago. Which means to me that slOcala must be getting some B41 roll out. As for the B26 going down 441 we were actually testing it yesterday afternoon and yes, its defintiely heavy out there. Definitely looking forward to going Spark when I pick up my M8 in a couple weeks. Also seeing some 1x800 on my SIII out on 42 in the Weirsdale area where just a month ago I was Verizon roaming. Unfortunately there's still a lot of dead air out there starting right before the Ocklawaha river and continuing almost all the way to 452. Lot of call dropping and Verizon roaming for both our phones out there. But then again I don't know of any carrier with solid service in that area, it is the sticks after all

" Awesome. Cool to see the B26 in Belleview since that's where I live. I think they just added that because our tower was down for a day and a half about two weekends ago. It's definitely getting better in Bview lately. My SIII actually picked up 26Mbps DL last week on B25 alone over there. Oh yeah I've been waiting on that Zaxby's to open for a while. Grand opening is next week. Will be nice not to have to go all the way out to I75 to get some kickass chicken Also... I can't seem to quote any messages on this site. Are there any known issues with IE11? That's what all our work comps run.

Interesting... I suppose it is possible they may have repurposed a few of the sites.. Like I said that is not my market so I'm not 100% sure but I don know that the area as a whole has not been repurposed yet. Did you see Tmo LTE pop up on those sites at the same time?

Also I don't know if anyone else noticed they are giving away free HK editions through Sprint Zone and on the website until the end of August? I'm waiting to finish up that contest and if I miraculously win one then WOOOHOOO!!!! but otherwise I don't have to be so skeptical about dropping the $230 now.

Well reading through all 1280 posts in this thread was a bit of a project but I have definitely gained some useful information in this thread. I've been terrified of going to Spark on the M8 from all the horror stories I've seen elsewhere, esp on the M8/S5's but it seems to be the case that most of the early problems were caused by bad devices and what isn't that is CSFB issues, and from my understanding in my market's thread we are mostly provisioned so I have laid a lot of doubts to rest and am looking forward to some Tri-Band goodness. In addition to a very sexy upgrade from my SIII

Also, I saw some mentioning a few pages back about TMo picking up better in Ocala and speculation on getting spectrum from MetroPCS but I can tell you this is not the case. Ocala just happens to be one of TMo's fully provisioned areas. I actually work for a Metro dealer in the Orlando market, (Leesburg area) and I can tell you that as far as we are aware, none of the MPCS legacy network has be repurposed yet in FL. There are still too many legacy subscribers for them to shut the network off yet. Which has made it a nightmare for us, trying to get the current customers onto the new network when they are going from LTE on their legacy devices to 2G/EDGE in most areas just as also mentioned earlier, or worse, when they do pick up HSPA+ on our "4G" devices it's running at barely above 3G speeds on the new TMo devices. Now this is just in our market however. The Jax/Ocala market however was fully provisioned from the start and they do have beautiful LTE coverage up there but Leesburg is something of a black hole for all carriers, even my Sprint phone has trouble picking up LTE in two of our stores. But this is a discussion for a different thread/forum... I just wanted to put that clarification out there.