Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[mellimel2212]

Keep tryin to tell yall that sprint knows what its doin haha. I'm lovin my service in Chicago

 

Sent from my Incredible 4g LTE using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[Joeynach]

Question for Robert and other Admins. So why is Chicago in comparison to like DC, Philly, NY, and really the whole North East corridor, getting mainly LTE buildout and those markets look like its mainly 3G only upgrades. If you look at the NV sites complete Google Map and go over towards the eastern seaboard and zoom out a bit you see a sea of Red and some Yellow pins. The red would be 3G, the Yellow would be mixed 3G/4G right, so why does Chicago get the 4G and LTE goodness, but not DC, Philly, Baltimore, NY....that whole corridor.

[tommym65]

So why is Chicago in comparison to like DC, Philly, NY, and really the whole North East corridor, getting mainly LTE buildout and those markets look like its mainly 3G only upgrades?

 

In a word, "Samsung".

[S4GRU]

Question for Robert and other Admins. So why is Chicago in comparison to like DC, Philly, NY, and really the whole North East corridor, getting mainly LTE buildout and those markets look like its mainly 3G only upgrades. If you look at the NV sites complete Google Map and go over towards the eastern seaboard and zoom out a bit you see a sea of Red and some Yellow pins. The red would be 3G, the Yellow would be mixed 3G/4G right, so why does Chicago get the 4G and LTE goodness, but not DC, Philly, Baltimore, NY....that whole corridor.

 

Difference in vendors. Every vendor is installing both 3G and LTE equipment at each site at the same time. However, the 3G upgrades have to be brought online in clusters. LTE does not need to be brought online in clusters.

 

So Samsung and Ericsson decided to bring up their LTE first. Alcatel Lucent decided to bring up their 3G clusters first and then come back and bring up LTE. I'm not certain of the reasons behind the decision. It's just the way every AlcaLu market has been, except Norfolk, Raleigh/Durham and Charlotte.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

[Joeynach]

Difference in vendors. Every vendor is installing both 3G and LTE equipment at each site at the same time. However, the 3G upgrades have to be brought online in clusters. LTE does not need to be brought online in clusters.

 

So Samsung and Ericsson decided to bring up their LTE first. Alcatel Lucent decided to bring up their 3G clusters first and then come back and bring up LTE. I'm not certain of the reasons behind the decision. It's just the way every AlcaLu market has been, except Norfolk, Raleigh/Durham and Charlotte.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

 

Huh, well, aren't we the lucky ones. Thanks for the info.

[hayzooos]

Keep tryin to tell yall that sprint knows what its doin haha. I'm lovin my service in Chicago

 

Sent from my Incredible 4g LTE using Tapatalk 2

 

Out of curiosity, how much do you use your phone to talk? I ask because my wife and I are right now doing everything possible to try and get rid of Sprint. I've been one of the biggest backers/supporters, etc for Sprint during this whole ordeal, but it's come to it's head now. Now that we're actually getting phone calls (which previously, would frequently just show up as a voicemail or we wouldn't even know people called) the majority of the time when they call us, they can't hear anything. Example, someone calls me, I answer and say "hello". Nothing. I can hear them and they can't hear me. I'll call them back right away and everything is fine.

 

It's been like this for months, and I simply cannot take it anymore. We run a business through our phones, and this just can't happen anymore. If we used it mostly for data, I'd be happier than a pig in slop, but when it comes to actually using your phone as, you know, a phone, it's absolutely horrendous.

 

Robert, any idea why this might happen? We both have GS3s, and she's had hers replaced twice now because they keep thinking it's the phone. It's not the phone. It used to only happen at our house, now it's all over the place. We live out near Elgin/Hoffman Estates.

 

Got an airave at our place too. Problem is, phones only connect to it maybe 20% of the time, and when the phone is connected to the airave, text messages will only be sent out maybe 10% of that time.

 

She's at home most of the time where the problem happens almost all the time, so I'm going to try and get her setup with GrooveIP so calls will go through wifi instead. It's our only choice for now as their voice service is absolutely atrocious.

 

EDIT: For what it's worth, I believe the two towers we would have the best chance to connect to at home would be CH13XC509 & CH03XC493.

[mellimel2212]

 

Out of curiosity, how much do you use your phone to talk? I ask because my wife and I are right now doing everything possible to try and get rid of Sprint. I've been one of the biggest backers/supporters, etc for Sprint during this whole ordeal, but it's come to it's head now. Now that we're actually getting phone calls (which previously, would frequently just show up as a voicemail or we wouldn't even know people called) the majority of the time when they call us, they can't hear anything. Example, someone calls me, I answer and say "hello". Nothing. I can hear them and they can't hear me. I'll call them back right away and everything is fine.

 

It's been like this for months, and I simply cannot take it anymore. We run a business through our phones, and this just can't happen anymore. If we used it mostly for data, I'd be happier than a pig in slop, but when it comes to actually using your phone as, you know, a phone, it's absolutely horrendous.

 

Robert, any idea why this might happen? We both have GS3s, and she's had hers replaced twice now because they keep thinking it's the phone. It's not the phone. It used to only happen at our house, now it's all over the place. We live out near Elgin/Hoffman Estates.

 

Got an airave at our place too. Problem is, phones only connect to it maybe 20% of the time, and when the phone is connected to the airave, text messages will only be sent out maybe 10% of that time.

 

She's at home most of the time where the problem happens almost all the time, so I'm going to try and get her setup with GrooveIP so calls will go through wifi instead. It's our only choice for now as their voice service is absolutely atrocious.

 

EDIT: For what it's worth, I believe the two towers we would have the best chance to connect to at home would be CH13XC509 & CH03XC493.

 

I stay on the westside of Chicago Austin neighborhood and I talk on my phone daily. Me and all my friends experienced the no call issue a couple times but not often but never the in call issues u are having. Sprints voice quality is top notch.

 

Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Nexus rockin 4.2.2 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[S4GRU]

 

Out of curiosity, how much do you use your phone to talk? I ask because my wife and I are right now doing everything possible to try and get rid of Sprint. I've been one of the biggest backers/supporters, etc for Sprint during this whole ordeal, but it's come to it's head now. Now that we're actually getting phone calls (which previously, would frequently just show up as a voicemail or we wouldn't even know people called) the majority of the time when they call us, they can't hear anything. Example, someone calls me, I answer and say "hello". Nothing. I can hear them and they can't hear me. I'll call them back right away and everything is fine.

 

It's been like this for months, and I simply cannot take it anymore. We run a business through our phones, and this just can't happen anymore. If we used it mostly for data, I'd be happier than a pig in slop, but when it comes to actually using your phone as, you know, a phone, it's absolutely horrendous.

 

Robert, any idea why this might happen? We both have GS3s, and she's had hers replaced twice now because they keep thinking it's the phone. It's not the phone. It used to only happen at our house, now it's all over the place. We live out near Elgin/Hoffman Estates.

 

Got an airave at our place too. Problem is, phones only connect to it maybe 20% of the time, and when the phone is connected to the airave, text messages will only be sent out maybe 10% of that time.

 

She's at home most of the time where the problem happens almost all the time, so I'm going to try and get her setup with GrooveIP so calls will go through wifi instead. It's our only choice for now as their voice service is absolutely atrocious.

 

EDIT: For what it's worth, I believe the two towers we would have the best chance to connect to at home would be CH13XC509 & CH03XC493.

 

I have no idea what to tell you. But if you run a business, you cannot let it be held hostage to a wireless carrier. You've got to do something. If Sprint cannot meet your needs, you either need to get an additional carrier or replace your carrier.

 

S4GRU is a business too, albeit not to make money. Whereas you probably like to make money with yours. It requires me to be connected wherever I go. Sprint did not provide me usable coverage in all the places I go. We had to buy a Verizon hotspot to supplement our data so I can stay connected to S4GRU in more places. It's not optional. I have to stay connected with our members and the needs of the community. And Sprint could not provide the wireless connectivity in my instance. It's not personal, it's a business decision.

 

If Sprint cannot provide acceptable wireless service for you to communicate with your customers, then you should consider an alternate provider...whether supplemental, temporary or replacement. Maybe call Sprint retentions and explain to them that you'll have no choice but to leave if they cannot alleviate your problem. Beyond this, I'm at a loss.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

[hayzooos]

I have no idea what to tell you. But if you run a business, you cannot let it be held hostage to a wireless carrier. You've got to do something. If Sprint cannot meet your needs, you either need to get an additional carrier or replace your carrier.

 

S4GRU is a business too, albeit not to make money. Whereas you probably like to make money with yours. It requires me to be connected wherever I go. Sprint did not provide me usable coverage in all the places I go. We had to buy a Verizon hotspot to supplement our data so I can stay connected to S4GRU in more places. It's not optional. I have to stay connected with our members and the needs of the community. And Sprint could not provide the wireless connectivity in my instance. It's not personal, it's a business decision.

 

If Sprint cannot provide acceptable wireless service for you to communicate with your customers, then you should consider an alternate provider...whether supplemental, temporary or replacement. Maybe call Sprint retentions and explain to them that you'll have no choice but to leave if they cannot alleviate your problem. Beyond this, I'm at a loss.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

 

That's unfortunately the same conclusion I've come to as well. Right now, the problem seems to be worst at our house, so I bought GrooveIP to route calls though wifi instead. It's only been this morning, but so far so good. I REALLY want to keep Sprint because I like my unlimited data and I honestly think they'll have the best network in Chicago in a short period of time, especially with the US Cellular deal going through as well. I've been with them for about 12 years now, and I just don't want to quite put up the white flag yet.

 

I like what T-Mobile is doing with their plans (especially since you can get phones off contract and their prices seem pretty solid) so they're an option, but I question their nationwide coverage as well.

 

Verizon is going to be the best of the best, but I don't like how they treat their customers, nor do I care for their practices of castrating phones and severely limiting what you can do. I can live with their prices, although I do believe they're quite high.

[Joeynach]

That's unfortunately the same conclusion I've come to as well. Right now, the problem seems to be worst at our house, so I bought GrooveIP to route calls though wifi instead. It's only been this morning, but so far so good. I REALLY want to keep Sprint because I like my unlimited data and I honestly think they'll have the best network in Chicago in a short period of time, especially with the US Cellular deal going through as well. I've been with them for about 12 years now, and I just don't want to quite put up the white flag yet.

 

I like what T-Mobile is doing with their plans (especially since you can get phones off contract and their prices seem pretty solid) so they're an option, but I question their nationwide coverage as well.

 

Verizon is going to be the best of the best, but I don't like how they treat their customers, nor do I care for their practices of castrating phones and severely limiting what you can do. I can live with their prices, although I do believe they're quite high.

 

Are certain here that your dropped calls, straight to voice-mail, text messages not sending/receiving is solely b/c of signal strength? I mean its the obvious choice, but it seems so......retro. I mean I remember having similar problems in the days of Motorola startac, Amertitech Cellular, Cellular One, and Cingular. But at the time, everyone knew cellular networks were in there infancy, had many many dead zones (especially outside of metro areas), and part of doing business was poor coverage and dropped calls. Today that seems to be an issue of a different era. Have you actually been able to measure your signal strength, in dB, like from the engineering screen. That way you could measure the variance in signal strength inside your house, outside your house, around your neighborhood, in your neighbor's house. At least this way you could figure out is it your house that's causing a potential low signal, is it Sprint's coverage in your neighborhood, is it your block, etc etc.

 

You should also be asking the question if this isn't a signal strength issue then what could it be; your device, the geography or topography of your neighborhood, the location of Sprint's tower, the capacity of Sprint's tower, the density of sprint users in your neighborhood, the location of other carrier's towers, etc etc.

[Mobilesolutions]

Do you have an airwave? Many of us live in older homes built from brick and 1900mhz can't penetrste. I get no reception in the house and about 4 bars on my front porch. Sprint's airave gives me 5 bars inside my house and I don't think I've ever dropped a call on it,whereas I use to have to be outside. If you tell sprint of your situation they may offer you one.

[digiblur]

Nothing old about brick!

 

Sent from my little Note2

 

 

[Joeynach]

Do you have an airwave? Many of us live in older homes built from brick and 1900mhz can't penetrste. I get no reception in the house and about 4 bars on my front porch. Sprint's airave gives me 5 bars inside my house and I don't think I've ever dropped a call on it,whereas I use to have to be outside. If you tell sprint of your situation they may offer you one.

 

I have seen this to be the case right now actually. Doesn't ATT operate their LTE on 700 MHZ, compared to Sprint's on mainly 1900 MHZ. I have noticed many times where I have strong Sprint LTE around Chicago, when I go indoors, especially into an older building or building with metal roof I lose my LTE immediately and get a few 3G bars. When my friends on ATT, still have their LTE pumping away b/c I assume the 700 MHZ signal is doing a better job penetrating into the structure. As soon as I go back outside I'm back on good LTE signal strength. Again, I assume this is the difference between ATT's LTE in 700 Mhz and Sprint's on 1900 Mhz.

 

That being said when I use the NV Site complete map and see a 4G/800 site, like for example the one right near Ogilvy station, I think how smart of Sprint to recognize the needs of users of a highly dense area such as Ogilvy and Union station and to provide them the 800 Mhz more indoor penetrating band in that location given the vastness of the station buildings and underground nature of a train station.

[Mobilesolutions]

You are correct,all variables equal 700mhz penatrates structure better than 1900mhz. I believe 1900mhz serves a good purpose for LTE,if I remember reading right it's one of the bands least suceptable to interferance. I'm not entirely sure if its just "naturally" stable or if its because its a niche band and sees very little use aside from Sprint. (I'd need AJ to set that straight) but a clean (interference free) airlink is required for each user's connection and the LTE ecosystem overall.

[Fraydog]

700 has flaws too.

 

In a larger city with more interference issues, PCS or AWS may well be better served for more reliable LTE usage. As hetnets get more deployed, indoor usage will be less of an issue over time.

[drock2750]

The new police station in Lakeview by Wrigley has had a massive tower (by city standards) on it with no antennas since construction. A few days ago, the sidewalk was marked with orange spray paint reading "Sprint" all the way around the building to the telephone pole in the alley. Coincidence? I hope not.

 

I have also noticed that I am frequently without data connectivity while in motion and moving from tower to tower. Even with strong 1x signal, when 4G disappears I will be left completely without data rather than the graceful transition back to 3G that I used to have. The phone engineering screen will say "GPRS service disconnected" or "connecting" during this time. I have never had functional 1X data with this phone...when I am underground on the red line and roaming on USC, I can talk and SMS, but absolutely no data for me. For certain apps like NPR News, this interrupts the session and is very frustrating, not to mention I am a google voice user and for me no data means no texting. Sometimes it will fall back to 3g as it should, but this is not the rule anymore in my experience, though the problem certainly seems to occur more in the city vs the burbs. On the bus ride up Michigan ave at very low speed, this is very apparent and my phone will be without data for a minute or two MANY times before getting to Lake Shore. I realize that the Evo Lte has not sold as well as the GSIII, but surely somebody at Sprint must use this phone...I thought this would resolve itself in a month or so... it baffles me that it is not getting any better. It really started with the second and most recent jelly bean update. As a reader of this forum, I'm interested to know what the problem is, but the paying customer in me just wants it fixed regardless of whether it is HTC or Sprint.

[Joeynach]

The new police station in Lakeview by Wrigley has had a massive tower (by city standards) on it with no antennas since construction. A few days ago, the sidewalk was marked with orange spray paint reading "Sprint" all the way around the building to the telephone pole in the alley. Coincidence? I hope not.

 

I have also noticed that I am frequently without data connectivity while in motion and moving from tower to tower. Even with strong 1x signal, when 4G disappears I will be left completely without data rather than the graceful transition back to 3G that I used to have. The phone engineering screen will say "GPRS service disconnected" or "connecting" during this time. I have never had functional 1X data with this phone...when I am underground on the red line and roaming on USC, I can talk and SMS, but absolutely no data for me. For certain apps like NPR News, this interrupts the session and is very frustrating, not to mention I am a google voice user and for me no data means no texting. Sometimes it will fall back to 3g as it should, but this is not the rule anymore in my experience, though the problem certainly seems to occur more in the city vs the burbs. On the bus ride up Michigan ave at very low speed, this is very apparent and my phone will be without data for a minute or two MANY times before getting to Lake Shore. I realize that the Evo Lte has not sold as well as the GSIII, but surely somebody at Sprint must use this phone...I thought this would resolve itself in a month or so... it baffles me that it is not getting any better. It really started with the second and most recent jelly bean update. As a reader of this forum, I'm interested to know what the problem is, but the paying customer in me just wants it fixed regardless of whether it is HTC or Sprint.

 

So you think this Tower on Addison near the Police Station is going to be a new Sprint tower? Hmmmmm. Well Sprint just finished their NV upgrades to the tower on Clark & Addison (CH01XC372), but its 3G/800, not LTE. Also, I know for a fact that this tower only supplies service to the South (the stadium is across the street to the North), so really it helps the Clark St and Wrigleyville bar crowd, but not the Wrigley Field patrons at all. Sprint told me this, they said the tower that is designed to cover Wrigley Field (with LTE) is up on Irving Park and Clark, pretty far away from the density of the Wrigley crowd on game days.

 

So to me, it would totally make sense if Sprint were planning to add capacity and LTE service to Wrigley via the tower you took a picture from on Addison, lord knows the density of that area, especially during ball games and nights out could really high, and could def use some capacity help. The only other thing I know is that there is a tower on School & Ashland (CH03XC009), a bit to the west of Wrigley that is the only one in the area not to receive its NV upgrades yet. So I'm sure with the completion of that tower (fingers crossed) and perhaps this new tower on Addison, service and capacity has no where to go but up for the whole LakeView area.

[drock2750]

So you think this Tower on Addison near the Police Station is going to be a new Sprint tower? Hmmmmm. Well Sprint just finished their NV upgrades to the tower on Clark & Addison, but its 3G/800, not LTE. Also, I know for a fact that this tower only supplies service to the South (the stadium is across the street to the North), so really it helps the Clark St and Wrigleyville bar crowd, but not the Wrigley Field patrons at all. Sprint told me this, they said the tower that is designed to cover Wrigley Field (with LTE) is up on Irving Park and Clark, pretty far away from the density of the Wrigley crowd on game days.

 

So to me, it would totally make sense if Sprint were planning to add capacity and LTE service to Wrigley via the tower you took a picture from on Addison, lord knows the density of that area, especially during ball games and nights out could really high, and could def use some capacity help. The only other thing I know is that there is a tower on School & Ashland, a bit to the west of Wrigley that is the only one in the area not to receive its NV upgrades yet. So I'm sure with the completion of that tower (fingers crossed) and perhaps this new tower on Addison, service and capacity has no where to go but up for the whole LakeView area.

 

I generally have LTE when standing in front of Wrigley, but it must be from another tower. Do we know why the decision would be made to upgrade a site to 3g/800 but not LTE? What would the holdup be in that scenario?

 

The tower on the police station is so tall they'd need some serious downtilt! Very unusual to have a suburban/nowheresville style tower in the middle of the city.

[Joeynach]

I have no idea why the tower was upgraded to 3G/800 not LTE. Perhaps it has something to do with its location, I think its on top of the Goose Island Brewery building on Clark. There are some lofts or apartments up above and on the top you can see the cell receptors, right above whatever billboard is there now. I can see why its on southern facing given the geometry of the building and the cell site location. I have no idea why its not LTE.

[njjdnt]

I have no idea why its not LTE.

Backhaul maybe isn't connected yet?

[casterus]

Hi everyone.I'm new to this forum.Any info about palatine area (60074) rand/53 please?I will move to there at the end of april. Thanx

 

Adam

[Joeynach]

Backhaul maybe isn't connected yet?

 

I just assumed it wasn't earmarked for LTE, just 3G/800. Could be wrong.

[Jamal46409]

Ready to see if the "warmer weather equates to more sites getting done quicker" theory will ring true for the Chicago area.

[njjdnt]

Ready to see if the "warmer weather equates to more sites getting done quicker" theory will ring true for the Chicago area.

Chicago is so far along I don't see the weather having a great impact.

[chgoguy80]

So you think this Tower on Addison near the Police Station is going to be a new Sprint tower? Hmmmmm. Well Sprint just finished their NV upgrades to the tower on Clark & Addison (CH01XC372), but its 3G/800, not LTE. Also, I know for a fact that this tower only supplies service to the South (the stadium is across the street to the North), so really it helps the Clark St and Wrigleyville bar crowd, but not the Wrigley Field patrons at all. Sprint told me this, they said the tower that is designed to cover Wrigley Field (with LTE) is up on Irving Park and Clark, pretty far away from the density of the Wrigley crowd on game days.

 

So to me, it would totally make sense if Sprint were planning to add capacity and LTE service to Wrigley via the tower you took a picture from on Addison, lord knows the density of that area, especially during ball games and nights out could really high, and could def use some capacity help. The only other thing I know is that there is a tower on School & Ashland (CH03XC009), a bit to the west of Wrigley that is the only one in the area not to receive its NV upgrades yet. So I'm sure with the completion of that tower (fingers crossed) and perhaps this new tower on Addison, service and capacity has no where to go but up for the whole LakeView area.

 

Lakeview East=42,727 people per square mile on non-game/non-weekend/festival days I'm at Addison/Lake Shore, they could really use another tower there or at least much more capacity (USCC LTE carriers hoping for soon) , would not only help Wrigley but the other sectors would add capacity along halsted and broadway to the south and south east plus maybe the backsides of all the high rises along lake shore since the tower is tall. Has the tower always been there? It might have been used originally for police communication at the station and now can be used for cellular?