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Raleigh/Durham Network Vision/LTE Deployment schedule update


S4GRU

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by Robert Herron

Sprint 4G Rollout Updates

Monday, July 2, 2012 - 6:00 AM MDT

 

The next market in our Network Vision/LTE deployment schedule update series is ...Raleigh/Durham. The Raleigh/Durham market has yet to be announced by Sprint, but is expected to be announced in the near future. Perhaps around the time of the first market launches.

 

The Sprint RDU market encompasses most of Eastern North Carolina, except the coastal areas. This includes the Research Triangle/Raleigh-Durham metro area, Fayetteville/Fort Bragg, Southern Pines/Pinehurst, Rocky Mount, Wilson, Greenville, Kinston and Goldsboro. Sprint's Network Vision OEM Alcatel/Lucent is scheduled to begin mobilizing their subcontractors around the market this month. The first completed Network Vision sites are scheduled to start coming online in August.

 

Raleigh/Durham Market Launch

 

It was Sprint's original plan to launch markets when they reached 50% of sites converted to Network Vision. However, it has now been determined that Sprint will move up launches sooner than 50% completion in several markets. This is likely to maintain a Mid 2012 launch in markets that have already been announced. However, in an unannounced market like Raleigh, we don't know if they will resume pushing back market launches to 50%, or if they will now settle on a 40% completion to be the new normal for market launches.

 

If Sprint waits for 50% completion to launch this market, it would make the launch approximately January (should the OEM stay on schedule). If they plan on a 40% market completion for launch, that would be December. You may think that 40% - 50% site completion is not enough to launch LTE service, but it would provide pretty good coverage. Even Verizon doesn't launch on all sites in a market initially. Usually less than 50%, then filling in with more and more sites every few months.

 

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Anticipated Sites Complete at Market Launch. According to the Network Vision schedules that S4GRU has reviewed, if Sprint launched the market in December, these are the anticipated sites that would likely have LTE complete at that time. This would provide fairly good LTE coverage over many parts of the market.

 

Schedule details and the bottom line

 

Sprint has not selected a date to formally "launch" LTE service in Raleigh/Durham, yet. It is difficult to try to pick a date now this far out, but we will take a stab at it. In looking at the schedule as of today, it would indicate a December or January market launch (going on a 40% - 50% completion for launch). But there is no way to know if AlcaLu and their subcontractors will actually hit their schedule dates this early in the deployment for this market. We will be able to gauge better after a few months of production.

 

Alcatel/Lucent needs to hit a production rate of only 35 sites per month to stay on schedule. This is a pretty low rate. This market shouldn't have problems staying on time, or maybe even getting ahead of schedule.

 

S4GRU has examined the schedule in great detail in this market and sees that most of the sites will be complete by August 2013. However, there may be a few sporadic sites that will linger past the completion.

800px-Downtown_Raleigh.jpg

Photo of the Downtown Raleigh provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

 

NOTE: S4GRU Sponsor Members can track regular updates of

Network Vision sites completed nationwide. Completed sites are shown in an interactive Google Maps interface. Information about sponsorship can be found here: S4GRU Sponsorship

16 Comments


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Glad to hear this info. I was starting to consider switching to Verizon once my contract was up but if we'll get a preview within a month or two I might stick around. Do you know if the towers coming online in August will be LTE only at that time or will they have the upgraded 3G as well?

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Glad to hear this info. I was starting to consider switching to Verizon once my contract was up but if we'll get a preview within a month or two I might stick around. Do you know if the towers coming online in August will be LTE only at that time or will they have the upgraded 3G as well?

 

Doesn't look like it. First 3G site is scheduled for August 9th and the first LTE site is scheduled for September 8th.

 

Robert

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its almost comical to read "first 3G site" in 2012.... i know its not exactly what you mean, but it pretty much is... sprints 3G has been fart gas for many years now.

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I along with many others have been having issues receiving calls with the new EVO LTE in some of the Raleigh areas. Fuquay Varina and Clayton areas are two that I know. The phones have no issues calling out, but will not receive ANY calls. If the phone is switched to Verizon towers it does just fine. I have had many conversations with tech support and they have indicated that upgrades have been moved up to July because of the extreme need in Fuquay. It seems there is some issue with these new LTE equipped phones that do not receive calls off certain towers. Users have switched back to their OG EVO's with no issues. Hope these upgrades provide some answers for my phone or I am history unfortunately.

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I have seen word tonight that the issue of 'not receiving calls' in Fuquay Varina may have been fixed......some have reported getting calls finally on their LTE devices. I have not verified yet, but will tomorrow.

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"Now data is another issue."

 

You aren't kidding. My 3G is almost unusable for Rdio, and I haven't even bothered opening Netflix on 3G in a year. Even Google Voice fails to work sometimes. I'm definitely ready to see some improvements, or for people to switch carriers. I blame the iPhone. :)

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Problem in Fuquay was fixed...and still works. I have seen a very little improvement in data speeds in Fuquay, must have made a few upgrades there.

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"Now data is another issue."You aren't kidding. My 3G is almost unusable for Rdio, and I haven't even bothered opening Netflix on 3G in a year. Even Google Voice fails to work sometimes. I'm definitely ready to see some improvements, or for people to switch carriers. I blame the iPhone. :)

I have a few good spots in Raleigh but they are almost always dependent on traffic. In other words they are pretty fast at night and sometimes not usable during the day.

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Doesn't look like it. First 3G site is scheduled for August 9th and the first LTE site is scheduled for September 8th. Robert

Any idea within this region LTE will be live Sept 8th?

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