Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[tongboy]

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! ( )

All the licenses were approved on the same date. 14 and 31 had a ton of licenses associated with it, mostly because is seems like that site is the heart of the ring that Sprint is installing. The chain for all those Crystal Lake sites starts at the 4g/3g excepted tower between Rawson Bridge Rd and Crystal Lake Rd. Do you know how long that one has been 4g excepted?

 

The Island Lake tower I think has only been 4g for at most a month. I'm not sure the exact date. It is served by the tower on 31 just south of McHenry.

 

When I get around a computer I will post what is in the fcc database.

 

 

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 4

 

[tommym65]

All the licenses were approved on the same date. 14 and 31 had a ton of licenses associated with it, mostly because is seems like that site is the heart of the ring that Sprint is installing. The chain for all those Crystal Lake sites starts at the 4g/3g excepted tower just east of silver Lake Rd and North of 176. Do you know how long that one has been 4g excepted?

 

The Island Lake tower I think has only been 4g for at most a month. I'm not sure the exact date. It is served by the tower on 31 just south of McHenry.

 

 

Do you mean east of Silver Lake Rd. just north of Crystal Lake Rd?  If so, I mapped it on Sensorly in late April or early May, just after it showed up in one of Robert's maps, so it's been live for 3-4 months.

 

The site south of McHenry (31 at Bull Valley Rd.) has shown as LTE accepted since at least May, and obviously has a full set of NV gear mounted, but has never shown up at all on Sensorly.  I rode about 1/2 mile west of it on my bicycle (and I ride slow) about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and never saw a blip.  This was just after the site in McHenry north of 120 was accepted, and that site lit up my phone like a Christmas tree (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little).

 

The site at 14 & 31 has at least 2 MW antennas installed.

 

I wonder if the local delay is somehow related to the work being done at Bard Rd in CL, where they are replacing everything due to the water tower painting.  From observation, that site has a very fast ping for 3G (90 msec, sometimes better), and according to one of the tower guys has fiber.  Could it be some sort of missing link in the MW chain/ring?

[tongboy]

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! (   )

 

 

 

Here are the licenses - Site ID was removed and replaced with a discription since that is the rules!   The FCC database lists them however.

 

The Cog Circle site licenses

LO|3430203|||WQQH451||F|T|1|||6905 COG CIRCLE|CRYSTAL LAKE|MCHENRY|IL||||277.9|42|13|46.9|N|88|17|23.1|W|||||||||||1056304|46.3|48.8|MTOWER||CogCircleSiteID||||||||LO|3430203|||WQQH451||F|R|2||||||||||278.9|42|14|57.9|N|88|20|36.9|W||||||||||||||||176&14||||||||LO|3430203|||WQQH451||F|R|3||||||||||279.4|42|13|20.5|N|88|21|59.6|W||||||||||||||||LakewoodSite||||||||LO|3430203|||WQQH451||F|R|4||||||||||259.0|42|14|7.5|N|88|14|12.5|W||||||||||||||||SiteBetweenCLandRBRd||||||||

Site licenses for the site I think originates everything

LO|3430204|||WQQH452||F|T|1|||1916 Crystal Lake Rd|Cary|MCHENRY|IL||||259.0|42|14|7.5|N|88|14|12.5|W|||||||||||1269519|55.0|59.4|LTOWER||SiteID||||||||LO|3430204|||WQQH452||F|R|2||||||||||274.3|42|15|14.0|N|88|17|9.0|W||||||||||||||||176&31||||||||LO|3430204|||WQQH452||F|R|3||||||||||277.9|42|13|46.9|N|88|17|23.1|W||||||||||||||||CogCircle||||||||

[mhammett]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f1qjf9l15w0mwg6/ULSGis%20%2810%29.gif

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p70ijajhomb9w9f/ULSGis%20%2811%29.gif

[tongboy]

Do you mean east of Silver Lake Rd. just north of Crystal Lake Rd?  If so, I mapped it on Sensorly in late April or early May, just after it showed up in one of Robert's maps, so it's been live for 3-4 months.

 

The site south of McHenry (31 at Bull Valley Rd.) has shown as LTE accepted since at least May, and obviously has a full set of NV gear mounted, but has never shown up at all on Sensorly.  I rode about 1/2 mile west of it on my bicycle (and I ride slow) about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and never saw a blip.  This was just after the site in McHenry north of 120 was accepted, and that site lit up my phone like a Christmas tree (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little).

 

The site at 14 & 31 has at least 2 MW antennas installed.

 

I wonder if the local delay is somehow related to the work being done at Bard Rd in CL, where they are replacing everything due to the water tower painting.  From observation, that site has a very fast ping for 3G (90 msec, sometimes better), and according to one of the tower guys has fiber.  Could it be some sort of missing link in the MW chain/ring?

 

You started replying to my post before I was able to edit it.  My bad.  It seems to all originate from the site between CL road and Rawson Bridge road. 

 

Bard rd. site shouldn't effect much:

LO|3429913|||WQQH322||F|T|1|||8707 Bard Road|Crystal Lake|MCHENRY|IL||||279.4|42|13|20.5|N|88|21|59.6|W||||||||||||54.9|54.9|TANK||SiteID||||||||LO|3429913|||WQQH322||F|R|2||||||||||277.9|42|13|46.9|N|88|17|23.1|W||||||||||||||||CogCircleSite||||||||

[tongboy]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f1qjf9l15w0mwg6/ULSGis%20%2810%29.gif

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p70ijajhomb9w9f/ULSGis%20%2811%29.gif

 

That is awesome!  Thanks!

[mhammett]

The one on Crystal Lake Rd. "near" the golf course appears to have the fiber drop. It has a 271 megabit link (maybe two or maybe they had to change frequencies?) to the one near 31 and 176. It has a 215 megabit (again, maybe two) to the tower near 14 and 31. The tower at 176 and 14 connects to the one at 14 and 31 with a 215 megabit link. 14 and 31 also connects to one on Huntley road at 215 megabit.

 

Well, licensed for anyway. You'll have to tell me what's actually there.

 

(Data is from the ULS.)

[tommym65]

That is awesome!  Thanks!

 

It is awesome!  My thanks, too.

 

The one on Crystal Lake Rd. "near" the golf course appears to have the fiber drop. It has a 271 megabit link (maybe two or maybe they had to change frequencies?) to the one near 31 and 176. It has a 215 megabit (again, maybe two) to the tower near 14 and 31. The tower at 176 and 14 connects to the one at 14 and 31 with a 215 megabit link. 14 and 31 also connects to one on Huntley road at 215 megabit.

 

Well, licensed for anyway. You'll have to tell me what's actually there.

 

(Data is from the ULS.)

 

Since the Crystal Lake Rd. site has fiber and is broadcasting LTE, and the sites at 14/31 and 14/176 have NV equipment and appear to have the MW dishes and links to CL Rd., is there a logical reason why the latter 2 are not broadcasting LTE?  And, there is a site at 31 and 176 which appears to be NV upgraded and shows 3G and 800 SMR updates which also appears to be linked to the CL Rd site: Is there . . .  okay, I'll stop repeating myself.  Just my frustration showing.

[gnoj]

Since the Crystal Lake Rd. site has fiber and is broadcasting LTE, and the sites at 14/31 and 14/176 have NV equipment and appear to have the MW dishes and links to CL Rd., is there a logical reason why the latter 2 are not broadcasting LTE?  And, there is a site at 31 and 176 which appears to be NV upgraded and shows 3G and 800 SMR updates which also appears to be linked to the CL Rd site: Is there . . .  okay, I'll stop repeating myself.  Just my frustration showing.

 

This seems to be a common situation in the area. Since Sprint is preparing to begin deploying 800 LTE in the Chicago market within the next 30 days, perhaps they are looking to save a couple bucks and just send someone out once to activate both LTE bands. It is also possible that more bandwidth needs to be ordered for the core fiber-fed site (the one on CL Rd. in this case) to ensure that all of the 200+ Mbps airlinks to the other sites are fully leveraged to support the two (and eventually three) LTE bands during peak hours there.

 

Under ideal conditions a 3 sector site could theoretically dish out 235 Mbps by itself ((37.5*3)*2 + (3.1*3) + <1 for 1x). In the real world throughput won't get that high, so 200 Mbps would almost certainly be enough to plan around until LTE 2600 gets put in. If the core site feeds two other sites, that's 600 Mbps needed right there, and the CL road site may only be provisioned for the standard 100 Mbps at the moment.

[Vince]

Is there a word on when Chicago 800 LTE gets activated? Are we one of the first markets?

[mhammett]

It is awesome!  My thanks, too.

 

 

Since the Crystal Lake Rd. site has fiber and is broadcasting LTE, and the sites at 14/31 and 14/176 have NV equipment and appear to have the MW dishes and links to CL Rd., is there a logical reason why the latter 2 are not broadcasting LTE?  And, there is a site at 31 and 176 which appears to be NV upgraded and shows 3G and 800 SMR updates which also appears to be linked to the CL Rd site: Is there . . .  okay, I'll stop repeating myself.  Just my frustration showing.

 

Welcome to the party! I've been watching the stuff out in DeKalb for quite a while and it just doesn't make any sense.

[tommym65]

Is there a word on when Chicago 800 LTE gets activated? Are we one of the first markets?

Potentially starting this month; and, yes.

[Cubbiefan82]

Anyone else in the chicago market not connecting to band class 10 for voice?? My phone the last few days has been band class 1, I have updated it and shut down. Still connects to band class 1

[aerxx]

You really should check the completed maps since you're a sponsor, this will let you know if there are even any 800 voice towers near where you're not getting connection.

[tongboy]

What type of phone? My experience with the evo lte is it will go back and forth from PCS to BC10 if it the band it is connected to gets weak. There isn't a reasonable way to force it onto a band.

 

I connected fine earlier today and all weekend.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 4

 

[tongboy]

You really should check the completed maps since you're a sponsor, this will let you know if there are even any 800 voice towers near where you're not getting connection.

I agree with you although keep in mind there are a lot of towers broadcasting BC10 without being excepted.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 4

 

 

[gnoj]

Anyone else in the chicago market not connecting to band class 10 for voice?? My phone the last few days has been band class 1, I have updated it and shut down. Still connects to band class 1

Although I usually idle on SMR, I've noticed that my phone will sometimes revert back to PCS on its own, usually overnight or when in range of an Airave. A quick PRL refresh will send it back to 800. For phones that prioritize PCS over SMR (e.g. the iPhone and most feature phones) the only way to get on SMR is to completely lose PCS reception by insulating the phone or traveling to the edge of a coverage area. There is no easy way I can think of to do the reverse of manually placing a phone back on to PCS.

[Joeynach]

A few more Loop and River North sites have showed up on the NV Sites complete map.  Unfortunately, most of them are still shown in 3G Only or 3G/800 mode, but at least they showed up.  The only Loop sites I still see completely missing from the map are two sites near Millennium Park and Randolph/Michigan.  As we speak right now:

 

35 sites within the Loop and River North

11 of these sites (31%) labeled 3G or 3G/800

24 of these sites (69%) labeled 4G or 3G/4G

 

So still a good 30% of downtown waiting for 4G coverage.  Still waiting for 4G at McCormick Place towers, still waiting for 4G in two West Loop (Fulton Market) towers.

 

[Joeynach]

One of the two towers at McCormick Place now 4G, the last tower in Lakeview that was 3G, at School/Ashland, is now 4G. Slow, albeit it progress is progress.

[drock2750]

I hope some of the progress in the past week has been loop related!

[ChiWestLoop]

It seems the new iPhones (5C and 5S) will support the new Sprint 800MHz band. I just checked the devices' tech specs. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[ipatella]

It seems the new iPhones (5C and 5S) will support the new Sprint 800MHz band. I just checked the devices' tech specs. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Seems like you're right. Missing TD-lte though. 

 

Can we expect the 800/2500 rollout in the same fashion? Far suburbs inward?

[Joeynach]

Seems like you're right. Missing TD-lte though. 

 

Can we expect the 800/2500 rollout in the same fashion? Far suburbs inward?

I don't know about the 2500Mhz, but most of the towers labeled 3G/4G/800 are located from the loop outward to city neighborhoods.  Once you get outside of the city limits there aren't many 800Mhz towers ready to go, they are located within the city limits and within the most dense urban neighborhoods.

[jman02]

Does anyone here in the Chicago market have a more direct way of logging network tickets with Sprint? It seems like one has to jump through hoops to log one and often times I don't think they are actually worked. Anyone more familiar with the process on Sprint's end as far as their escalations / work process?

 

Most of the issues I am facing are with towers that are broadcasting LTE, but no data can be sent or recieved. Sometimes this is the entire tower and sometimes just one sector. Thanks.

 

Also, as a side note, I was at a Cubs game this Saturday and could not send or recieve any data for the entire game. Does Sprint not care about these situations? Do they take any steps to increase capacity in the area?

[Joeynach]

Also, as a side note, I was at a Cubs game this Saturday and could not send or recieve any data for the entire game. Does Sprint not care about these situations? Do they take any steps to increase capacity in the area?

 

I have yet to attend a major sporting event or Stadium in the City of Chicago where Sprint service works well, or even works at all.  For a reason I can't explain Sprint's service and capacity seems to be more impacted by the crowds of events than other carriers.