Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[mhammett]

Greater upload than download simply means that the download is saturated and the upload is not.

[dedub]

going to be in chicago early next week, looking forward to seeing how well the network is holding up in the downtown & millennium park areas in particular, and the route between stl and chicago in general, and how it compares to stl's current state.

[Vince]

going to be in chicago early next week, looking forward to seeing how well the network is holding up in the downtown & millennium park areas in particular, and the route between stl and chicago in general, and how it compares to stl's current state.

What kind of phone? I can say with certainty that you'll have our second carrier and band 26 all the way up 55 as soon as our market officially begins, all the way into the city.

[bitslizer]

going to be in chicago early next week, looking forward to seeing how well the network is holding up in the downtown & millennium park areas in particular, and the route between stl and chicago in general, and how it compares to stl's current state.

 

Commenting the route between STL and chicago, assume you meant STL to be St. Louis? 

 

In that case, you pretty much have LTE coverage almost all the way, except for the stretch by Springfield, and maybe occasional deadspot depending on your phone's reception.

 

 

In downtown if you are using the N5 in your signature, you should be happily sucking data through B41 when you aren't deep inside a building.

[Joeynach]

going to be in chicago early next week, looking forward to seeing how well the network is holding up in the downtown & millennium park areas in particular, and the route between stl and chicago in general, and how it compares to stl's current state.

 I can't think of a single instance where Chicago >> St. Louis is not true, including Sprint service.  You will see.

[Joeynach]

Commenting the route between STL and chicago, assume you meant STL to be St. Louis? 

 

In that case, you pretty much have LTE coverage almost all the way, except for the stretch by Springfield, and maybe occasional deadspot depending on your phone's reception.

 

 

In downtown if you are using the N5 in your signature, you should be happily sucking data through B41 when you aren't deep inside a building.

What have you noticed the drop off points difference between B41 and B25 to be?  Any difference?  Let's say excluding regular outdoors or in your car coverage cuz that's rather default for good service no matter what band.

[bitslizer]

What have you noticed the drop off points difference between B41 and B25 to be?  Any difference?  Let's say excluding regular outdoors or in your car coverage cuz that's rather default for good service no matter what band.

 

I have an one max, the reception is pretty bad on it actually compare to the N5 (my wife have a none-spark GS4 and for B25 it consistently carry 5-10dbi better than my One max at the same location).

 

With that in mind, my personal experience with the One max has been, In a typical office building, (unless you happen to be right next to a tower...) if you have B41 outside, moving more than 10 ft from a external windows would drop to B25, another 10 ft or so or if there are some walls easily drop into B26... inside elevator pretty much lucky to get 3G.

[S4GRU]

I can't think of a single instance where Chicago >> St. Louis is not true, including Sprint service. You will see.

Chicago even beats St. Louis in murders. That's tough to do!

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[S4GRU]

I have an one max, the reception is pretty bad on it actually compare to the N5 (my wife have a none-spark GS4 and for B25 it consistently carry 5-10dbi better than my One max at the same location).

 

With that in mind, my personal experience with the One max has been, In a typical office building, (unless you happen to be right next to a tower...) if you have B41 outside, moving more than 10 ft from a external windows would drop to B25, another 10 ft or so or if there are some walls easily drop into B26... inside elevator pretty much lucky to get 3G.

Yeah, elevators are tough. I almost never get even 700MHz or 850MHz in an elevator unless it's 1x or EDGE. Low frequency LTE can only typically make it in an elevator shaft if the shaft walls are not solid concrete and the site is really close by.

 

But modern building codes have really tough fire rating requirements for elevator shafts, as they can easily spread fires from floor to floor quickly. So nowadays, most interior elevator shafts are 8" or thicker concrete. Radio signals can't get through except for door openings and the roof of the elevator shaft.

 

The best elevators to get signals in are the ones on the exterior wall of a building. As only the walls that abutt the building would need to be fire rated. Oh, and of course, glass elevators are always nice.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[dedub]

I alternate between n5 and HK/M8.

 

Since the recent release of google now launcher to the majority of modern phones, I may stick with the M8 due to the better battery life and b41 performance (at least in the stl area), although I dearly love my n5.

 

I have heard about the crime rate in stl, however my understanding is that it is greatly inflated due to the fact that st louis city is its own separate entity vs st louis county and the surrounding suburbs and counties. Whereas most big cities are part of the county, like chicago is part of cook county. St Louis city is kind of like Washington DC.

 

In any case, missouri is a pro gun state in which it is legal to open carry without permits and relatively simple to get a concealed carry permit, and they recognize all other states concealed carry permits. As opposed to illinois where they don't recognize any other states permits, and barely let residents have guns at all.

[dedub]

 I can't think of a single instance where Chicago >> St. Louis is not true, including Sprint service.  You will see.

 

I have been to chicago many times, I will still take st louis any day of the week and twice on sunday.

 

Also, F tollways.

[kyle_4thousand]

Yeah, elevators are tough. I almost never get even 700MHz or 850MHz in an elevator unless it's 1x or EDGE. Low frequency LTE can only typically make it in an elevator shaft if the shaft walls are not solid concrete and the site is really close by.

 

But modern building codes have really tough fire rating requirements for elevator shafts, as they can easily spread fires from floor to floor quickly. So nowadays, most interior elevator shafts are 8" or thicker concrete. Radio signals can't get through except for door openings and the roof of the elevator shaft.

 

The best elevators to get signals in are the ones on the exterior wall of a building. As only the walls that abutt the building would need to be fire rated. Oh, and of course, glass elevators are always nice.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

When I'm in the elevator in my office building I tend to drop B25 right at the ground floor and then I switch to B26 at around -90 dBm. Outside the elevator I'll bounce back to B25 at around -75 dBm. For some reason signal is really good in my building on the main floor but once I go outside and am up in my office on the 5th floor it drops off a bit. Makes me wonder if we have a DAS somewhere.

 

In our Orlando office it was completely opposite as my signal strength would improve outside and going higher in the building it would also improve.

[UnlimitedDataIsInBeta]

This thread got dark quickly. Can we go back to talking about hot girls and B26?

[Fraydog]

I can't think of a single instance where Chicago >> St. Louis is not true, including Sprint service. You will see.

St. Louis is beating Chicago on Band 26 coverage.

[Vince]

St. Louis is beating Chicago on Band 26 coverage.

Proof? I've been to nearly every corner of our market recently and in between, and band 26 is everywhere. If I had to pin a number on it, I would say 70-80% of our towers have band 26.

[S4GRU]

The proof is in the pudding. At least that's what my Mom always told me. Which is actually a pretty stupid expression.

 

"Mom!!!!"

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[mhammett]

The proof is in the pudding. At least that's what my Mom always told me. Which is actually a pretty stupid expression.

 

"Mom!!!!"

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

I want pudding.

[gusherb]

I drove through St Louis in late June and never saw any B26 on I44 driving into the city.

[kojitsari]

I drove through St Louis in late June and never saw any B26 on I44 driving into the city.

Which part of 44? Its blanketed every portion I drive, excluding where towers don't have LTE.

[gusherb]

Which part of 44? Its blanketed every portion I drive, excluding where towers don't have LTE.

All of Missouri. I had B26 up through Missouri although it wasn't perfect blanket coverage it was pretty good. Up near St Louis I never saw it and B25 & EVDO kept crapping out whenever I'd drop down a hill.

Once I reached the city itself it was all B25.

 

I definitely experience much better on Chicago interstates even when it was only B25. So if St Louis is supposed to be great idk why I didn't experience it. Perhaps an off day? (Been getting a lot of those here since NV 2.0 started)

[kojitsari]

All of Missouri. I had B26 up through Missouri although it wasn't perfect blanket coverage it was pretty good. Up near St Louis I never saw it and B25 & EVDO kept crapping out whenever I'd drop down a hill.

Once I reached the city itself it was all B25.

 

I definitely experience much better on Chicago interstates even when it was only B25. So if St Louis is supposed to be great idk why I didn't experience it. Perhaps an off day? (Been getting a lot of those here since NV 2.0 started)

From the highway 100 exit to downtown st Louis you shouldn't drop LTE almost anywhere. My n5 on the latest radio never goes below a -105dbm signal. Its been like that for a couple months, so that's very weird to hear. I haven't been up to Chicago since I got Sprint service so I can't compare the two, but I don't see any city being as good as Kansas city is.

[gusherb]

From the highway 100 exit to downtown st Louis you shouldn't drop LTE almost anywhere. My n5 on the latest radio never goes below a -105dbm signal. Its been like that for a couple months, so that's very weird to hear. I haven't been up to Chicago since I got Sprint service so I can't compare the two, but I don't see any city being as good as Kansas city is.

If the engineers hit the nail on the head in the suburbs when optimizing they will surpass KC IMO. It won't be so hard in the city cuz the network is very dense but the holes in the suburbs will be harder.

[Vince]

So, I'm going to the air and water show this weekend, along with 2 million other people. I'm curious how Sprint will handle this event. I just heard this on the news about AT&T installing this high-tech, 18 beam mega high capacity temporary cell site to handle their capacity problems. I wonder if Sprint will answer with a few COWs? This is the first deployment of this antenna in the country. Check it out:

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20140811/lincoln-park/whats-that-on-lake-shore-drive-biggest-baddest-data-tower-around

[gusherb]

So, I'm going to the air and water show this weekend, along with 2 million other people. I'm curious how Sprint will handle this event. I just heard this on the news about AT&T installing this high-tech, 18 beam mega high capacity temporary cell site to handle their capacity problems. I wonder if Sprint will answer with a few COWs? This is the first deployment of this antenna in the country. Check it out:

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20140811/lincoln-park/whats-that-on-lake-shore-drive-biggest-baddest-data-tower-around

Keep an eye on AT&T! I'm curious to see how they do. I'm feeling more pessimistic about Sprint though hahaha.

[Vince]

Why doesn't Sprint have a mega capacity sphere thingy? 1 million on a beach is going to destroy cellular towers in the area. In the years past, data was barely usable enough for me to view twitter (to see which planes have taken off from Gary and are en route) and to run a low bit rate data stream of the play-by-play/cockpit audio. I should just buy a handheld scanner and do it the old fashioned way.