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First 4G LTE sites start going on-air in Sprint's Boston market

S4GRU

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by Robert Herron

Sprint 4G Rollout Updates

Monday, June 18, 2012 - 7:53 AM MDT

 

Last Friday, we provided a few tease postings on social media about Sprint 4G LTE sites going on-air in Boston. First 4, then a 5th and later a 6th. Now this morning, two more. A total of 8 sites in the Sprint Boston market now are live with 4G LTE.

 

As most S4GRU followers know, Sprint's Network Vision OEM Alcatel/Lucent has been very active in the Boston area for several months. However, until late last week, all the Network Vision completed sites in this market have only had 3G upgrades gone live. These are the first sites to actually have 4G LTE be complete thus far. This is really exciting when you consider that Boston is not even an officially announced market for Sprint.

 

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Live Boston Market 4G LTE sites. This is an overview map showing the location of all 8 Sprint sites

with on-air 4G LTE in the Boston Market as of this morning.

 

The first live sites are scattered around the market. A cluster in Lynn/Saugus area sports four LTE sites. Then a 5th one appeared in Dartmouth, just west of New Bedford. Over the weekend, another site in Rockport was discovered and updated in our Completed Network Vision site maps for Sponsors.

 

This morning, we are happy to report to you a site near Burlington and another on Cape Cod near Yarmouth. This is fast progress in two business days. Expect more in the coming days and weeks. Viva la LTE!!!

 

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On-Air 4G LTE in North Boston Suburbs. In this map you can see all the Sprint 4G LTE sites on air in the Northern Boston suburbs, including: Lynn, Saugus, Burlington and Rockport.

 

We did have a S4GRU member go out to the sites around Lynn this weekend. He was not able to connect to the sites in that area using his EVO LTE. Sprint must still be blocking LTE connections. If you are able to connect to any of the sites in the Boston market, please let us know about it. Or post it in our confirmed LTE sites forum thread.

 

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On-Air 4G LTE in South Massachusetts. These are the two on-air 4G LTE sites in the New Bedford/Cape Cod area of the Boston market.

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Josh

They might be trying to wait until all of the other markets are at 50% or more to announce them (and the boston area has many towers). They realize that these first announced markets are slightly behind schedule, and want to wait to announce other markets until they are sure they can keep the schedule. We knew that there would be a learning curve with the first cities, and all other sites will probably follow the schedule more closely, but that is not to say that they will not experience any other types of setbacks.

One thing that I am excited to see here is that it seems that sprint really will be blanketing everywhere in a market with coverage, not just the metro areas like most of the competitors. We knew that they eventually were going to upgrade every tower in their network, but I thought that they would still launch cities only first, then the rest of the market. This will really increase their competitiveness with the big 2, "we have XXX # of cities covered" or "everywhere your not roaming, you have LTE". Especially once they launch the 800Mhz ESMR LTE after next year, and Clearwire's TDD-LTE lights up in the cities, Speed+Coverage=Great things to come for Sprint.

 

Thanks for keeping us posted Robert!

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jefbal99

Josh, you really need to become a sponsor and look at the maps of what has been done and what is coming up in markets, it is amazing. As Robert has told me many times, Sprint's OEM vendors are doing a "shot gun" roll out, hitting as many places in a market then "shooting" again to hit the gaps. Lather, rinse, repeat :)

 

If you become a sponsor, take a look at Chicago :)

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aerxx

Josh, you really need to become a sponsor and look at the maps of what has been done and what is coming up in markets, it is amazing. As Robert has told me many times, Sprint's OEM vendors are doing a "shot gun" roll out, hitting as many places in a market then "shooting" again to hit the gaps. Lather, rinse, repeat :)If you become a sponsor, take a look at Chicago :)

 

this is so true, the Chicago maps are CRAAAAAZY.

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nmbr1scoobs

I have an EVO LTE and it switches to 4G for a millisecond and then goes back to 3G. Does this show Sprint blocking accessibility.

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S4GRU

I have an EVO LTE and it switches to 4G for a millisecond and then goes back to 3G. Does this show Sprint blocking accessibility.

 

Probably. Some report getting a 4G icon for a moment on blocked sites. Some never see a 4G icon at all. I think it varies between device type and the LTE OEM. Seems like EVO LTE owners in Samsung areas see the icon for a moment when being blocked. But EVO LTE owners in Ericsson areas do not. Welcome to the blocked club!

 

Robert

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Kevster1321

But if memory serves, the EVO 4G does not support CDMA 800.Robert

my bad i need to change my device on here. i have the EVO LTE now

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S4GRU

do i have to be rooted to use the prl. if not how do i load it to my phone?

 

I have not attempted a Custom PRL for the EVO LTE, yet. You will need to Google how to do it. There are a few methods out there. But I don't believe you have to be rooted. But you will need your MSL #.

 

Robert

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BobbyBolduc

How do I become a sponsor? I work 4 streets away from the Dartmouth tower and I actually know the owner of the tower. Id love to see the better maps.

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Spencer_Tucci

I have an Evo 4G LTE and can confirm that the network is up and fast as hell in Lowell, MA and Mansfield, MA. Download speeds of 35MB and upload of 10MB. Insane. I've also connected to the LTE network in Nashua, NH for a brief period of time.

 

I can also confirm that Boston (as of last night) does not have the LTE network up yet as I was there around midnight last night.

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B_Crawford

I have an Evo 4G LTE and can confirm that the network is up and fast as hell in Lowell, MA and Mansfield, MA. Download speeds of 35MB and upload of 10MB. Insane. I've also connected to the LTE network in Nashua, NH for a brief period of time.I can also confirm that Boston (as of last night) does not have the LTE network up yet as I was there around midnight last night.

 

Where in Mansfield have you picked up LTE? I live there an have yet to notice an LTE connection. I also work in Boston, and have started noticing that I am connecting to LTE towers near State St. and Congress St. several times a day, although I can't keep a connection and my speed test speeds are all well under 2MB down.

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ooxcfhxoo

Downtown Boston is live on New Chardon Street. I was pulling 19Mbps down and 8Mbps up; its super fast. Those speeds are as fast as my basic tier cable connection!

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S4GRU

Downtown Boston is live on New Chardon Street. I was pulling 19Mbps down and 8Mbps up; its super fast. Those speeds are as fast as my basic tier cable connection!

 

More and more sites will be going live in the Boston area over the next few weeks. I spent Labor Day weekend in a well deployed LTE area, and it was awesome. Enjoy!

 

Robert

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