Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[tommym65]

False alarm in Crystal Lake today. 3 crews working furiously on the Bard Rd water tower site. I had my hopes up that this was the long-awaited NV upgrade, as this particular site has had no visible NV equipment, even though it was supposedly upgraded to 3G NV almost a year ago. Unlike most sites in the area it also has not been broadcasting 800 SMR, and like all 5 local Sprint sites,a not a hint of LTE.

 

As I talked to a couple of the crews, i was told that this is a co-located Sprint/TMo/VZW site. Unfortunately, all the hubbub was removal and relocation of everybody's antennas because the city is about to paint the #%?$ water tower. TMo put up a new steel monopole and has 6 antennas very tightly mounted in 2 levels directly on the pole, and were taking down their antennas from the water tower as I watched. Couldn't figure out where VZW is going, but a crew was also taking down their antennas.

 

Sprint had already removed theirs, and had placed them (are you sitting down?) on a wooden utility pole about 60 or 70 feet shorter than their previous location at the top of the tower. (This, of course, is my home tower, and may help explain why my 3G coverage has totally gone to hell lately.)

 

As I was watching and taking pictures, the crew chief for one of the contractors walked over and began asking me questions (do you think he might have been suspicious?), and as we talked , I found out that he is bringing in a crane tomorrow to pull the top tier of supports, and said he plans to replace it with a corral (his term) on top of the tower after it has been painted. Maybe then, the long-postponed full NV upgrade will happen.

 

2 other tidbits: First, he said that USCC had already been pulled from the site (which I thought was interesting because the Sprint purchase of USCC spectrum in Chicago isn't supposed to be final until January 2014). And second, he said the there was already fiber pulled to the site and that Sprint was on it, Which could make sense as I was getting sub-90 ms pings and DL speeds up to 2 Mbps, far better than I have gotten on the local "microwave-ready" sites like the one at Rts 14 & 31 (where, for example, I got over 250 msec pings and worse than 100 Kbps DL tonight from across 14 in plain view of the tower).

 

I have pix of Sprint's wooden "monopole" which I will post when I am not on my iPad.

[tommym65]

This is the wood monopole mentioned in the post above:

 

According to the mechanical contractor on the site, the wood pole hosts Sprint.  The worker on the right clinging to the water tower is supposedly removing VZW equipment.

 

Sprint's original location was at the top of the water tower, at least 60 or 70 feet higher.  The mechanical guy says Sprint will be restored to that location when the water tower paint job is completed.

 

 

A closer zoom shows more detail.  Note the sophisticated down-tilt mechanism.

 

 

And, finally, the new TMo installation.  They seem to have crammed a lot of stuff into a very small space:

 

 

[drock2750]

Running list has been updated...at the pace we've seen LTE sites come online in the past few months it would be a couple years before all sites in the Chicago market were broadcasting LTE. 1% per month has held steady for some time now. Yikes.

[Dkoellerwx]

This is the wood monopole mentioned in the post above:

Sprint-Pole.jpg

 

According to the mechanical contractor on the site, the wood pole hosts Sprint.  The worker on the right clinging to the water tower is supposedly removing VZW equipment.

 

Sprint's original location was at the top of the water tower, at least 60 or 70 feet higher.  The mechanical guy says Sprint will be restored to that location when the water tower paint job is completed.

 

Bard Rd.jpg

 

A closer zoom shows more detail.  Note the sophisticated down-tilt mechanism.

 

Sprint-Antennas.jpg

 

Looks like the "towers" we have here. Nearly all the sites covering Springfield, MO are on short utility poles. Coverage really suffers, not just EVDO but 1x too.

[tommym65]

Looks like the "towers" we have here. Nearly all the sites covering Springfield, MO are on short utility poles. Coverage really suffers, not just EVDO but 1x too.

I might have expected "telephone pole" towers in the back hills of [place name deleted to protect from flames], where some of my ancestors were born, but Springfield?!?! There is actual civilization there! Do all the carriers engage in the same insanity?

[Dkoellerwx]

I might have expected "telephone pole" towers in the back hills of [place name deleted to protect from flames], where some of my ancestors were born, but Springfield?!?! There is actual civilization there! Do all the carriers engage in the same insanity?

 

No just Sprint ... or ... rather Republic wireless which built the network that Sprint then bought out. Something about them not being able to get zoning permits or building permits or whatnot for actual towers. The majority look like the below. We only have 3 "towers" in town. 

[tongboy]

No just Sprint ... or ... rather Republic wireless which built the network that Sprint then bought out. Something about them not being able to get zoning permits or building permits or whatnot for actual towers. The majority look like the below. We only have 3 "towers" in town.

They couldn't get permits for a real structure but they could build that?

[mhammett]

Thank your local government for ridiculous legislation.

 

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[Dkoellerwx]

They couldn't get permits for a real structure but they could build that?

 

Almost all of them are on City Utilities property (our power, water, gas and sewage company). I think they got City Utilities to put them up, and then lease them, or something.

[mhammett]

I love how local government does whatever they can to block towers or make it difficult, then leases out their own assets at an inflated price.

 

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[bucdenny]

How is Chicagoland?  NV completing next month?

[gnoj]

How is Chicagoland?  NV completing next month?

 

Here's a numerical summary of the market from a few days ago. The projected September completion date is for when all 892 sites in the market will have had NV equipment installed and accepted. If the last 15 or so legacy sites do indeed get their new equipment up by the end of next month, then Chicago will probably be the first market to reach that milestone.

 

However, NV 1.0 would still be a few months away from being entirely complete, as many more sites still need backhaul for LTE. Then there is NV 2.0 to look forward to, with the addition of carrier cards for 800 LTE, new panels for 2600 LTE, and the installation of small cells for TD-LTE throughout the area. Don't worry, this thread will still be active for awhile...

[Joeynach]

How is Chicagoland?  NV completing next month?

Yeah, with 108 towers still to go to bring 4G LTE up we got a ways to go.  I made the point earlier, most of those 100 or so towers without LTE are in very heavily packed downtown areas or densely populated neighborhoods close to downtown.  We have dozens of towers still stuck in "3G Only" in the Loop, Mag Mile (Michigan Ave), West Loop (United Center), McCormick Place Convention Center, O'hare Airport.  It ain't over yet. 

 

There continue to be been tons of backhaul delays and issues in outer areas like Porter County, IN, and Lake County, IL and Dekalb, IL.  These are all regions where NV tower upgrades came through months ago, but without backhaul are still stuck on 3G only "upgrades".

[Wes]

What a bloody mess out here in Dekalb area... Forget 4G, you cant even get basic 3g to work right. I'd say I have 3g (that is actually usuable) maybe 25% of the time. The rest of the time you either just dont get anything, or its sub dial up speeds. The roller coaster continues.

[mhammett]

Data does suck in a lot of areas. I mean, slow in a lot, but there's just no evdo or ehprd in some areas.

 

Also, it isn't entirely backhaul. There are two sites directly connected via microwave to sites with active LTE. There's no good reason they can't be turned on.

 

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[gnoj]

Data does suck in a lot of areas. I mean, slow in a lot, but there's just no evdo or ehprd in some areas. Also, it isn't entirely backhaul. There are two sites directly connected via microwave to sites with active LTE. There's no good reason they can't be turned on.

 

Maybe they decided to switch them to fiber and decided to wait until that's hooked up to turn on LTE? Either that or the microwave equipment somehow broke already or wasn't installed properly. Those are the only things I can think of since the LTE core appears to be working fine in that area.

[mhammett]

Maybe they decided to switch them to fiber and decided to wait until that's hooked up to turn on LTE? Either that or the microwave equipment somehow broke already or wasn't installed properly. Those are the only things I can think of since the LTE core appears to be working fine in that area.

 

I haven't had time to do extensive testing, but I believe one of them was using the microwave backhaul as I was able to use my phone as a hotspot and it had very good performance.

 

That said, they could just turn on the microwave and add fiber later if that was the end-goal. The microwave gear is already in place, just use it.

 

The towers that are LTE-enabled are working great.

[mhammett]

I'm used to stuff like this. Great 800 MHz signal. The others, not so much. ;-)

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/elrlbvjnv7zjmpe/2013-08-30%2019.56.14.png

[mhammett]

#YaySprint http://db.tt/WkHR4SiR

 

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[tongboy]

I am starting to notice some MW fed sites that have languished for some time come online. For instance the one on the water tower in Island Lake is now up. I scoured the the fcc database and for some reason the licenses for the MW Backhaul were only granted in late December, and the builds were completed long before that. I am not sure what happened, but I really expect those sites to come online any day now.

 

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[runagun]

I'd like to have my little black book back

 

 

fuck database

 

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[tongboy]

I'd like to have my little black book back

 

 

 

Lol! I can't believe autocorrect did that. Fixed.

 

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[mhammett]

#YaySprint @sprintcare pic.twitter.com/jCbxNzUJnD

— Mike Hammett (@mhammett) August 31, 2013

@mhammett Tower there is showing some data blocks, and looks like LTE is scheduled in the coming months. I can report this for you. *NRA

— Sprint Care (@sprintcare) September 1, 2013

[tongboy]

Coming months. Blah

 

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[tommym65]

I am starting to notice some MW fed sites that have languished for some time come online. For instance the one on the water tower in Island Lake is now up. I scoured the the fcc database and for some reason the licenses for the MW Backhaul were only granted in late December, and the builds were completed long before that. I am not sure what happened, but I really expect those sites to come online any day now. Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 4

 

When was LTE accepted on the Island Lake tower?  I have been watching the CL sites, but not Island Lake.  Also, in your license scour, did you happen to notice anything about the 2 hopelessly delayed CL sites (14@31, 14@176)?

 

If you keep giving us interesting information, I'll have to take back all the bad things I've said about LITH! (   )