Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[WiWavelength]

I just flew into Kansas City for the weekend, it will be interesting to see how Chicago and KC markets compare. Already latched on to B26 at the airport. I'll be staying a few minutes from Sprint HQ in Overland Park. So my expectations are high!

 

You picked the right time to visit.  The airport primary site finally got its LTE upgrade acceptance just the other day.  And the area around the Sprint Campus, ironically, was an LTE sore spot until this year.  But that has all been rectified.

 

AJ

[Dkoellerwx]

I just flew into Kansas City for the weekend, it will be interesting to see how Chicago and KC markets compare. Already latched on to B26 at the airport. I'll be staying a few minutes from Sprint HQ in Overland Park. So my expectations are high!

 

Not much Band 41 in that area unfortunately.

[kyle_4thousand]

Not much Band 41 in that area unfortunately.

Yeah, I've only noticed my phone connecting to it once. But B25/26 seem to get the job done around here just fine. I haven't lost LTE connection once on my way from the airport.

[Dkoellerwx]

Yeah, I've only noticed my phone connecting to it once. But B25/26 seem to get the job done around here just fine. I haven't lost LTE connection once on my way from the airport.

Moved things to the KC thread.

[gusherb]

Yeah, I've only noticed my phone connecting to it once. But B25/26 seem to get the job done around here just fine. I haven't lost LTE connection once on my way from the airport.

 

KC's network blew Chicago out of the water when I visited back in May. Watching the network perform after optimization was just absolutely fantastic. I can't wait to see how it is here when we're fully optimized. 

[Joeynach]

KC's network blew Chicago out of the water when I visited back in May. Watching the network perform after optimization was just absolutely fantastic. I can't wait to see how it is here when we're fully optimized. 

What have they done in KC that they haven't done in Chicago?

[Vince]

What have they done in KC that they haven't done in Chicago?

KC is probably one of the most mature band 26 markets. I'm sure most, if not all sites have been optimized for coverage and load balancing.

[gusherb]

What have they done in KC that they haven't done in Chicago?

Its fully optimized, coverage is phenomenal, the network isn't afraid to park you on B26 if need be and the pings were consistently under 40 Ms as low as 18. No random dropoffs to 3G. On I70 I drove for about 60 miles without ever dropping back to 3G, and after that continued on further with uninterrupted LTE until I hit the end of native coverage.

 

It was the best network experience I've ever had on any network. T-Mobile was no slouch either, but it fell to Edge very soon outside of the city.

[jamisonshaw125]

Its fully optimized, coverage is phenomenal, the network isn't afraid to park you on B26 if need be and the pings were consistently under 40 Ms as low as 18. No random dropoffs to 3G. On I70 I drove for about 60 miles without ever dropping back to 3G, and after that continued on further with uninterrupted LTE until I hit the end of native coverage.

 

It was the best network experience I've ever had on any network. T-Mobile was no slouch either, but it fell to Edge very soon outside of the city.

Sounds awesome. I look forward to the optimizing that comes to my market.

[gusherb]

Sprint and T-Mobile went out again by my house today, this is the third time in two weeks that Sprint has lost service and second time for T-Mobile to go out.

 

My nexus 5 is still usable on TMO because I still pick up service from further away, but Sprint is useless with 1-2 bars of 1x.

 

I was also dropping down to 3G like crazy this afternoon on I90 between Gary and Chesterton, and then the same thing back home on 80/94. B26 is still on though.

 

These upgrades can't be over quick enough!

[gusherb]

Went out this evening only to find Sprint and T-Mobile were out in Highland too, on a different tower. Later on I learned AT&T wasn't working either.

 

Just a wild guess but I'm guessing there is a certain backhaul vendor (AT&T) that is having problems with backhaul in certain areas and every carrier uses the one vendor in these spots and are all therefore effected.

 

As of right now T-Mobile and Sprint are still out of service at home (receiving weak signals from far away).

[Joeynach]

Was at Pitchfork festival last night in West Loop (union Park).  Service was actually pretty darn good.  We all know I am B25/CDMA only, but still I was quite pleased and surprised with how well the B25 worked given gripes in the past with large crowds and events.  Not sure the size of pitchfork, maybe 20K people, its not the biggest fest in the world, but I could do things that in the past I couldn't do on B25; Facebook, tweet, Instagram, check fantasy scores, use whatsapp (send pics, vids), etc.  Was all good.

 

Perhaps these are the effects of the 2nd carrier in action, not sure if it was been reported in the West Loop.  Some of the people I was with had VZW.  Their data connections were fine, I saw them taking and uploading pics/vids of Kendrick Lamaar awesome performance with no problems, but they had call drop issues all day.  Which is very frustrating when trying to find people at fests.

[Vince]

I really don't know where to put this, but I've been hearing about this Sprint deal on the radio all day. It appears it's a special pricing deal for Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul customers. $50 for unlimited everything. No framily stuff, just $50. Check it out

 

 

Www.sprint.com/unlimited50

[Joeynach]

I really don't know where to put this, but I've been hearing about this Sprint deal on the radio all day. It appears it's a special pricing deal for Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul customers. $50 for unlimited everything. No framily stuff, just $50. Check it out

 

 

Www.sprint.com/unlimited50

Crazy deal, unfortunately zero meaning for anyone that has Sprint service already.  And the plan requires a full price purchase of the phone, unless u are lucky and own a tri-band phone like the N5 already that u can bring over.  Seems like the promotion is just a gimmick that trades the subsidy in the phone ($200 for $600) for the offset in the monthly plan price.

 

"Pricing for new-line activations only. Requires you to sign up for Sprint Easy Pay^SM installments for your device, pay full MSRP, or bring your own device."

[kojitsari]

Crazy deal, unfortunately zero meaning for anyone that has Sprint service already. And the plan requires a full price purchase of the phone, unless u are lucky and own a tri-band phone like the N5 already that u can bring over. Seems like the promotion is just a gimmick that trades the subsidy in the phone ($200 for $600) for the offset in the monthly plan price.

 

"Pricing for new-line activations only. Requires you to sign up for Sprint Easy Pay^SM installments for your device, pay full MSRP, or bring your own device."

This has already been in discussion in another thread. However look at it like this, depending on if the tos are different of course. I could switch my three lines that are my way(two with unlimited data, one with no data) to this and save 15 bucks for each unlimited line(base cost is split three ways since each progressive line is technically cheaper, unlimited is added on top of that). So unless the TOS are worse in some way I'll probably go ahead and switch just to save even more money.

[SpenceSouth]

I really don't know where to put this, but I've been hearing about this Sprint deal on the radio all day. It appears it's a special pricing deal for Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul customers. $50 for unlimited everything. No framily stuff, just $50. Check it out

 

 

Www.sprint.com/unlimited50

If that was available in Florida I would snatch that up in an instant.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[UnlimitedDataIsInBeta]

The $50/$40 plan is a market test, and it's kind of a pain in the butt. We are under instruction that it is new lines only, and EasyPay is basically required.

 

If you know your local SM really well, you can argue that they make a retention exception for you (handled at the store level), but don't be a dick about it. If they say no, drop the subject and move on.

 

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

[Calvin200]

What do you have to do to show you are local?

[UnlimitedDataIsInBeta]

What do you have to do to show you are local?

It's based on your CSA. We found out the hard way the other day that some Northbrook CSAs don't qualify.

 

There's a list at work of all the eligible CSAs. I'll see if I can grab it next time I'm there.

 

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

[Joeynach]

The $50/$40 plan is a market test, and it's kind of a pain in the butt. We are under instruction that it is new lines only, and EasyPay is basically required.

 

If you know your local SM really well, you can argue that they make a retention exception for you (handled at the store level), but don't be a dick about it. If they say no, drop the subject and move on.

 

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

Maybe you disagree, but I have always viewed the whole EasyPay or finance the phone practice which become the "hot" trend for all carriers in recent years to be kind of predatory.  Most of them are claiming they are offering you the ability to opt out whenever or have no contract commitment in exchange for financing the phone (at full price) for an extended period of time.  But the carriers know not all phones can be used on competitors networks so if you wanted out you still have to pay off your phone to your current carrier at that full price $600 price.  So in some instances the customer is gonna get "stuck" because of the sunk cost/technology change.

[mayhew77]

I mentioned this is in a different thread too but FWIW I was able to change to the $50 U/L plan at a corporate store in the loop. I was out of contract so that may have been a factor but I didn't have to get a new phone or sign-up for a contract extension/easy-pay. I'm essentially still out of contract. The process was relatively straightforward and amicable (i think I had to ask twice).The test market special runs until August apparently.

T&C's look pretty standard from what I can tell - this is a summary of the plan from the subscriber agreement.

FEATURES:

Unlimited Talk and Text,$30 Monthly Charge, (UL data is +$20)

Unlimited Anytime Minutes,Unlimited Messaging,Nationwide

Long Distance Included,America - Roaming Included,Call

Waiting,Three-Way Calling,Voicemail,MRC is not NVP

discountable

ADD ONS:

Unltd 3G/4G Data & Annual Upg

[gusherb]

Currently riding up 94/Bishop Ford into the city and I lost LTE around South Holland and couldn't get it back til entering onto the Dan Ryan. Work being done on the far south side perhaps?

[gusherb]

Band 26 appears to be optimized/getting optimized downtown! I was using B26 on Lakeshore Drive where B25 is very strong, near Oak Street Beach. Just a moment prior to that I had a sub 1 Mbps speed test on B25.

[Joeynach]

Band 26 appears to be optimized/getting optimized downtown! I was using B26 on Lakeshore Drive where B25 is very strong, near Oak Street Beach. Just a moment prior to that I had a sub 1 Mbps speed test on B25.

I wonder if that would correlate to one of the last remaining downtown 3G only sites finally getting its LTE upgrade.  The site on NW Memorial Hospital Building @ St. Clair and Huron.  I'm always over there for treatment and stuck in a 3G hole.  But now I also wonder if B26 is over there and filling in that hole in and around the Hospital Buildings there.

[gusherb]

Downtown along the lakeshore has improved dramatically in the last 6 months, came back down LSD at rush hour in bad traffic and found mostly great speeds around Millenium/Grant Park. I got one speed test up to 20 Mbps on the second carrier! Most other places was between 5-10 Mbps, only a few bad spots where I was stuck to G block LTE and it was still around 1 mbps - still a million times better then before (unusable).

 

6 months ago we were a complete disaster and a year ago I was lucky to get 3mbps anywhere in the city.