Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[Vince]

Went out to Orland Park today...

Ah, my home town. Band 26 is definitely live in Orland, without a doubt. It probably isn't strong enough yet to penetrate the mall.

[WiWavelength]

Today, I was in Chana, IL...

 

Better to be in Chana, IL than China, AL.  Southerners who shop at Walmart would get quite confused at the latter.

 

 

AJ

[kyle_4thousand]

Better to be in Chana, IL than China, AL. Southerners who shop at Walmart would get quite confused at the latter.

 

 

AJ

There is a China, IL. But its a TV show on Adult Swim!

 

[Vince]

There is a China, IL. But its a TV show on Adult Swim!

 

Probably better than Sandwich, IL. Mmm

[gusherb]

It's hard to tell, my service has been excellent since I switched to my N5 from the 5S. Idk if it's coincidence or the iPhone sucks that much.

I would go with the last thing you said

Probably the latter.

I think the lack of B26 optimization wreaks havoc with it, causing it to fallback to 3G a lot. (In places my old 5 never did).

So I don't think it was the iPhones fault... I was falling back to 3G a lot today on my N5...

 

In other news I walked in a building that is a Sprint dead spot and picked up B41 LTE instead of the usual weak 3G. This Is one of those cases where there was a nearby Clear site and no Sprint. I just thought it was amusing, it was quite usable too despite being weak itself.

[Cubbiefan82]

How did peoples cell service hold out during the great storm that ripped though elgin all the way up to the northeast burbs?? I will say I had no issues with my data or cell service, I even drove home from milwaukee last night. To my parents in elgin. a few weaker then normal signals, but I thought over all not bad for what happened.

[gusherb]

How did peoples cell service hold out during the great storm that ripped though elgin all the way up to the northeast burbs?? I will say I had no issues with my data or cell service, I even drove home from milwaukee last night. To my parents in elgin. a few weaker then normal signals, but I thought over all not bad for what happened.

Didn't phase any cell providers at all here. Hell I had to run through the sideways rain for 10 seconds to my car and drive home in it. My car was being rocked by the strong wind gusts and the rain was so heavy you couldn't see. It was kinda fun actually.

It really takes a natural disaster to screw up service, the only times we ever had service messed up was the tornado of August 2008, and the floods a month later that year screwed service up bad.

[kyle_4thousand]

No issues, and I was in the hard hit area near Palatine. Plus I think most cell sites have back up generators now a days too.

[AMD64]

Another storm on the way

[gusherb]

Been having lots of texts fail to send on my Nexus 5 today, when sending over LTE or 1x. Is it me or some kind of network issue?

[kyle_4thousand]

Been having lots of texts fail to send on my Nexus 5 today, when sending over LTE or 1x. Is it me or some kind of network issue?

I had one text fail today, but nothing beyond that. Hit resend and it worked right away.

[Cubbiefan82]

I have a lot of issues with texts last night, I thought it was me at first. One of the persons I was texting was on the sprint also would send me double texts, hopefully it is just a network vision 2.0 upgrade issue or a one time thing . I wouldn't just let me retry sending the same text, I would have to edit the message or just re type it then it would work.

[gusherb]

I'm not having any issues as of yet today. It was letting me resend as soon as it said message send failed. This was across all carriers.

 

I've had double text issues on and off since I switched to them two years ago. It was real bad at the beginning.

[Joeynach]

I'm not having any issues as of yet today. It was letting me resend as soon as it said message send failed. This was across all carriers.

 

I've had double text issues on and off since I switched to them two years ago. It was real bad at the beginning.

I am still getting 1XRTT only in many loop locations that were in the past LTE.  This started up about a month ago when others noticed some changes in coverage due to possible signal optimization.  Not sure if the two are related or not, but B25 LTE has disappeared from many indoor locations I frequent in the loop. 

[gusherb]

I noticed today while driving down a stretch of road by my house that is distant from all Sprint sites that I was getting fairly good B26 signal instead of weak 3G like usual. I managed to pull 5 Mbps down in that area. I'm thinking optimization finally?!

[gusherb]

At Southlake mall in Merrillville right now, sitting out in the parking lot and both band 25 carriers are pretty well saturated. Pictured below is on the second carrier.

 

The mall and surrounding area is very crowded, this is a very high traffic area that is tough for all the carriers and Sprint was useless when it had only PCS G. Now can't wait for B41 to go live!

[tommym65]

At least 3 Sprint COWs at Chicagoland Speedway today for Sprint Cup. Speeds varied from mediocre to high 20's,  texts were working without any problems. (No visible COW's from any of the other guys.)

[Vince]

At least 3 Sprint COWs at Chicagoland Speedway today for Sprint Cup. Speeds varied from mediocre to high 20's, texts were working without any problems. (No visible COW's from any of the other guys.)

I forgot to note that I didn't find the 8t8r turned on across the street when I drove by Friday evening. Hopefully, those got turned on. I know that site has all 3 5x5's broadcasting. Last year, it was only one 5x5. My family said service was miserable during that really long rain delay.

[tommym65]

I forgot to note that I didn't find the 8t8r turned on across the street when I drove by Friday evening. Hopefully, those got turned on. I know that site has all 3 5x5's broadcasting. Last year, it was only one 5x5. My family said service was miserable during that really long rain delay.

 

Without violating the Sponsor rules, I can say that I was on both B25 bands and on B26 (in fact, I was on B26 most of the time I was there), but so no B41 at any time, according to Signal Check.

[Vince]

Without violating the Sponsor rules, I can say that I was on both B25 bands and on B26 (in fact, I was on B26 most of the time I was there), but so no B41 at any time, according to Signal Check.

That's surprising that band 41 wasn't present. That's their bread and butter for capacity. It wasn't on the air show cows, either. I don't get it.

[tommym65]

That's surprising that band 41 wasn't present. That's their bread and butter for capacity. It wasn't on the air show cows, either. I don't get it.

 

There were some B41-ish looking antennas on the COWs, but SCP saw no B41 GCIs at all.  I would guess that the COWs can't do Clear B41, and don't have 8t8r yet.  Just a guess.  I have  COW picture, but won't be able to post it until tomorrow.

[kyle_4thousand]

Da Bearsss

[mhammett]

At least 3 Sprint COWs at Chicagoland Speedway today for Sprint Cup. Speeds varied from mediocre to high 20's, texts were working without any problems. (No visible COW's from any of the other guys.)

I know the guy that owns the on-site tower. It's busy.

That's surprising that band 41 wasn't present. That's their bread and butter for capacity. It wasn't on the air show cows, either. I don't get it.

Issue getting enough bandwidth to a temp site?

[Vince]

I know the guy that owns the on-site tower. It's busy.

Issue getting enough bandwidth to a temp site?

It may be a temp site, but wouldn't too much bandwidth be better than not enough? Especially at a massive race with Sprint branding everywhere? I mean, if only one provider is going to succeed there, shouldn't it be Sprint?

[tommym65]

Example speeds: 11:33 am 28.53 down 6.11 up 54 ms ping, outside near a COW.

 

12:14 pm 5.33 down 3.94 up 48 ms ping, seated near turn 4, race hadn't started yet.

 

2:23 pm 0.65 down 1.08 up 54 ms ping, yellow flag, EVERYBODY was on their phones trying to figure out what was going on - my phone was still responsive. This was the lowest speed I saw all day, and only briefly was it this slow.

 

3:20 pm 1.20 down 3.06 up 49 ms ping, green flag, less phone use.

 

4:18 pm 10.74 down 1.68 up 49 ms ping, walking out after the race, under the grandstand.

 

4:38 pm 21.43 down 5.77 up 48 ms ping, after race, outside, near the COW again.

 

Overall, pretty impressive results. There were at least 70,000 attendees. Unfortunately, everyone in our group was on Sprint, so I couldn't see what the other carriers' performance was. I WAS on B26 almost all the time, but both B25 carriers were present, so I would bet that all Sprint LTE users got reasonable speeds and responsiveness.