Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[briank101]

Thanks for the DL/UL numbers. If 3 or 4 airplane toggles don't show it, 2nd carrier is not likely enabled yet. Hopefully Sprint is trying to target the high traffic sites first with the 2nd carrier on band 25 as most still don't have access to the other LTE bands. The tower I'm near is nearly always fast but that may not be the case this week when we have our Lisle Balloon Fest. Pity Sprint didn't have the 2nd band 25 LTE carrier in, in time for the annual PC Mag speed comparison. That's what Joe Public will read to pick his provider.

[Vince]

 

 

Thanks for the DL/UL numbers. If 3 or 4 airplane toggles don't show it, 2nd carrier is not likely enabled yet.

 

Not necessarily. It depends on a lot of things, like how the site is configured, and the traffic load on the site. While I'm at home, I'll occasionally bounce between the 02 and 05 sectors of my home tower while just sitting on the couch. Although, it does appear to be random at times, almost like that second carrier is on some kind of 50/50 algorithm. Having incoming connections, and people ending phone calls and being randomly placed on one of two carriers after reconnecting to LTE seems like a good way to divvy up LTE traffic, then let the load balancing manage the idle connections. I don't think Sprint purchased that spectrum to pick and choose where it will be deployed. They want every subscriber in the purchased spectrum area to benefit from a better data experience. I'm pretty sure it will be on every Chicago market site, although, they might deploy it in a certain order based on traffic patterns.

[gusherb]

Sitting in Munster, IN waiting for fireworks at Centennial Park and this year Sprint is doing fantastic on my 5S because of band 26! Band 25 is just about dead, my mothers iP5 has been forced down to 3G and EVDO has been gone for almost an hour at least. Band 26 is getting about 3 Mbps right now.

 

T-Mobile HSPA and LTE are just about done for but still working slowly. No idea about the big two.

 

Last year band 25 crashed pretty early on at this thing.

[gusherb]

Another update: speeds picked up alot during the show as expected. One issue I had was that my phone was still favoring B25 while idle and when open apps it wouldn't switch over to B26 so to get it to go I had to open a web page in the browser. They still need to optimize this as I feel I should've been parked on B26 the entire time. My mothers iP5 was kicked to EVDO/1x most of the time except during the show. TMO eventually crashed completely on HSPA and LTE for a moment but not for long. 

[Dkoellerwx]

Another update: speeds picked up alot during the show as expected. One issue I had was that my phone was still favoring B25 while idle and when open apps it wouldn't switch over to B26 so to get it to go I had to open a web page in the browser. They still need to optimize this as I feel I should've been parked on B26 the entire time. My mothers iP5 was kicked to EVDO/1x most of the time except during the show. TMO eventually crashed completely on HSPA and LTE for a moment but not for long.

Its by design that you don't idle on B26 so that its open for those that need it. However, any data activity should be enough to get it to kick over to B26.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

[Vince]

Just checked my phone. I'm actually idling on 26 for the first time ever. It's stuck there. I saw a white Ford Taurus parked at my home tower today. Maybe it was a tech doing something.

[WiWavelength]

Just checked my phone. I'm actually idling on 26 for the first time ever. It's stuck there. I saw a white Ford Taurus parked at my home tower today. Maybe it was a tech doing something.

 

Better a white Ford Taurus than a white Ford Bronco.

 

If the LTE does not fit, then you must acquit.

 

AJ

[S4GRU]

The problem with being handed over to 3G on the second PCS LTE carrier is likely due to a failure to configure neighboring cells properly.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Vince]

The problem with being handed over to 3G on the second PCS LTE carrier is likely due to a failure to configure neighboring cells properly.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Neighboring cells are also doing this, too. I wonder if it's a simple fix?

[WiWavelength]

Neighboring cells are also doing this, too. I wonder if it's a simple fix?

Let S4GRU take over network management. There is the simple fix.

 

AJ

[always_learner]

The Joliet area went live with B26 this week I believe.  First day, signal strength was about the same as B25.  By the third day, signal strength was about 10-12 dBm better than B25.

[Vince]

The Joliet area went live with B26 this week I believe. First day, signal strength was about the same as B25. By the third day, signal strength was about 10-12 dBm better than B25.

I haven't been to the Joliet area in a week, but I know some exact sites that were broadcasting 26 that I tracked down; mostly along 80 and 55. I was at the rail yard near 55 and arsenal late at night when a few of the sites there went live with 26. It's great because there is so much government land out there, that the surrounding towers have to reach very, very far. I'm actually going camping tonight near Kankakee. Hopefully, the nearest site has 26 live. It's about 2 miles from the campground. I'd like to have some service to stream some tunes.

[mhammett]

The Joliet area went live with B26 this week I believe. First day, signal strength was about the same as B25. By the third day, signal strength was about 10-12 dBm better than B25.

I have no idea if this is what they do you or not, but what would make sense is to start with the antennas electrically set at a very low elevation and slowly creep up to best determine network performance.

[jamisonshaw125]

I have no idea if this is what they do you or not, but what would make sense is to start with the antennas electrically set at a very low elevation and slowly creep up to best determine network performance.

This has been how it's happening all over the country.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[WiWavelength]

I have no idea if this is what they do you or not, but what would make sense is to start with the antennas electrically set at a very low elevation and slowly creep up to best determine network performance.

 

Viagra.

 

AJ

[EvanA]

Got a report from a friend who lives in the Antioch IL area that a tower was knocked out due to the storms a few days ago. He's been having an extremely bad experience with service either not working at all or even idling on 1x. Hopefully they get that tower fixed up soon.

[Vince]

Quite a bit of band 26 in Naperville. Haven't been out here in a long time.

[Vince]

Had band 26 down i-57 from before monee to about Kankakee. Even some second pcs carrier on that stretch. Holy smokes. It basically goes to the southern edge of our market towers.

[eljayyy91]

At six flags today and data is usable for once! B26 is doing it's job! Still running at about 3 mbs but that is just fine with me!

[eljayyy91]

My experience at six flags this year was great compared to last year! Last year no data all day calls took minutes to connect and failed texts. This year b26 everywhere (only spot I would lose it was bat man in the tunnel but still just a airplane toggle away). Calls and txts worked no problem. God what nv can do... Evdo was unusable still and b25 was faint but still useable at about 1mbs. And there were crazy amounts of people there today. Busiest I've seen it. 3 hrs to get on goliath. 2 and a half for raging bull... It even took me an hour to get on the damn wizzer! Lol but from a cell phone point of view I was very impressed. From last year it's like night and day.

[dkyeager]

I will be several months before my next planned Chicago trip.  I was wondering about your second band 25 LTE channel.  I understand from this thread that it uses different GCI sectors of 03, 04, 05.  I was wondering if it also uses an additional RRH and antennas per sector. Thanks

[Vince]

 

 

I will be several months before my next planned Chicago trip. I was wondering about your second band 25 LTE channel. I understand from this thread that it uses different GCI sectors of 03, 04, 05. I was wondering if it also uses an additional RRH and antennas per sector. Thanks

No. Just the single panel. I've actually never seen a capacity site around here, but I think I discovered one the other day. I'll need to investigate further. No other sites are nearby, two separate gci's, both with very low dBm.

[saywhatman]

I will be several months before my next planned Chicago trip. I was wondering about your second band 25 LTE channel. I understand from this thread that it uses different GCI sectors of 03, 04, 05. I was wondering if it also uses an additional RRH and antennas per sector. Thanks

As far as I know, the second carrier installation is just an additional carrier card in in the base station. Still 1 RRU and panel.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[kyle_4thousand]

I saw a crew taking down what I assume to be old USCC or Nextel equipment on a tower in Lake Barrington today. I'm really hoping that when they take the USCC equipment down on the water tower near me Sprint will take over the lease and put up NV. There's no Sprint tower in Fox River Grove (with the exception of a Clear B41 site) and the other carriers all have equipment on that water tower, so service is pretty spotty. Do we know of any sites from USCC that Sprint has or will take over? I know it wasn't in the agreement to take over the sites, but I'm hoping they do take over this one in particular.

[Fraydog]

I saw a crew taking down what I assume to be old USCC or Nextel equipment on a tower in Lake Barrington today. I'm really hoping that when they take the USCC equipment down on the water tower near me Sprint will take over the lease and put up NV. There's no Sprint tower in Fox River Grove (with the exception of a Clear B41 site) and the other carriers all have equipment on that water tower, so service is pretty spotty. Do we know of any sites from USCC that Sprint has or will take over? I know it wasn't in the agreement to take over the sites, but I'm hoping they do take over this one in particular.

I'm scanning STL for this and so far, we have not seen any USCC conversions to Network Vision. I definitely have a few places where Sprint could use USCC sites in rural Randolph County in Sparta and near the World Shooting Complex to cover travelers who are coming in town for that facility's big event, the Grand American.