Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[nexgencpu]

Tracy Morgan on Saturday Night Live, yes.  Many excellent characters and sketches.  Tracy Morgan playing himself on "30 Rock" and in everyday life, no, hell no.

 

AJ

 "Tracy Morgan playing himself"....I don't think he is ever himself on camera.

 

 

[Vince]

They said they don't have any antennas pointing directly towards my location, but they were able to make marginal improvements.

If you become a sponsor here, you'll see where every Sprint tower is located, and based on the intersection you provided earlier, I can kind of the see the issue you're experiencing. That's fantastic how they sent people to your house to diagnose the problem, and I've personally starting seeing a few Ericson trucks around the area for the first time ever. A few of my dead zones have been slightly improving, so maybe they're finally tuning some sites. Also, that's great news about her acknowledging the problem with HD voice and wifi calling not playing nicely together. That needs to be fixed.

 

 

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[Vince]

The first section of underground subway LTE service has gone online in Chicago, and by the end of the year, we will supposedly have the largest underground LTE network in the country. Do any of our members ride the blue line to test it out?

 

http://abc7chicago.com/technology/4g-wireless-available-in-part-of-blue-line-subway-/1035312/

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6s

[Joeynach]

The first section of underground subway LTE service has gone online in Chicago, and by the end of the year, we will supposedly have the largest underground LTE network in the country. Do any of our members ride the blue line to test it out?

 

http://abc7chicago.com/technology/4g-wireless-available-in-part-of-blue-line-subway-/1035312/

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6s

Noticed yesterday at the Logan Square station.  Couldn't believe my eyes, thought my phone was acting crazy at first.  Going through the tunnels at full 4G LTE bars.

[Joeynach]

While I acknowledge the real victim of Sprint's announcement today are Sprint's employees, our fellow hard working Americans, many of whom will be out of a job or have their promotions revoked, I have a question for our group here.  Given today's announcement of budget cuts, to the tune of about 10% of expenses or $2.5B, is this an admission of sorts of failure of the NV program?  Maybe not from a technology sense, but more from an acknowledgement that NV didn't do for the organization's network operational efficiency, subscriber churn, and new customer acquisition what it was expected to when announced over 4 years ago.  Thoughts?

[nexgencpu]

While I acknowledge the real victim of Sprint's announcement today are Sprint's employees, our fellow hard working Americans, many of whom will be out of a job or have their promotions revoked, I have a question for our group here. Given today's announcement of budget cuts, to the tune of about 10% of expenses or $2.5B, is this an admission of sorts of failure of the NV program? Maybe not from a technology sense, but more from an acknowledgement that NV didn't do for the organization's network operational efficiency, subscriber churn, and new customer acquisition what it was expected to when announced over 4 years ago. Thoughts?

No, its an admission of the run a muck corporate mentality. Sprint has been over spending for years! No reason Sprint's expenditures were substantially more than Tmobiles.

 

I think what Marcelo is doing is ceasing the opportunity to finally curtail the ridiculous overspending going on at Sprint that would have lead to perpetual loses.

 

I'm actually very excited to see the new slimmed down more reactive Sprint, instead of the bloated mess it has become.

 

Son buying property in KC adds a bit of confidence in terms of his long haul mentality.

 

About NV, it was a necessary evil with bad management, no question caused damage in the short term, but the long term benefit is a massive reward.

 

Also, it seems in your market Sprint is probably number 1 right now in performance, proving in time, it was the right move.

[gusherb]

How has everyone's Sprint experience been in Chicago lately? They just got extra competition from AT&T yesterday. They finally bumped band 2 up to 10x10 giving Chicago 3 10x10 LTE bands and NWI 2 10x10's and a 5x5. I've finally broken the 80, 90, and even 100 Mbps barrier with AT&T now, plus fringe service is a lot faster. I can't test Sprint cheaply so I'm curious as to how at&t is comparing now.

[nexgencpu]

How has everyone's Sprint experience been in Chicago lately? They just got extra competition from AT&T yesterday. They finally bumped band 2 up to 10x10 giving Chicago 3 10x10 LTE bands and NWI 2 10x10's and a 5x5. I've finally broken the 80, 90, and even 100 Mbps barrier with AT&T now, plus fringe service is a lot faster. I can't test Sprint cheaply so I'm curious as to how at&t is comparing now.

Good indicator considering he drives around as a job...

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/6471-chicagoland-market-20-premier-spreadsheet-map/?p=452435

[gusherb]

Good indicator considering he drives around as a job...

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/6471-chicagoland-market-20-premier-spreadsheet-map/?p=452435

I'm more interested in real life performance. Not necessarily just what they have deployed. When I was using sprint performance wasn't nearly as good as it should've been considering what they had deployed at the time, so that's why I wanna know what real world is.

[nexgencpu]

I'm more interested in real life performance. Not necessarily just what they have deployed. When I was using sprint performance wasn't nearly as good as it should've been considering what they had deployed at the time, so that's why I wanna know what real world is.

That is real world, he just picked up the latest iPhone and he is very active around these parts.

 

Also, he mentions his actual experience as being unbelievably good. I seriously doubt ATT is competition to Sprint in chicagoland today.

[nexgencpu]

I'm more interested in real life performance. Not necessarily just what they have deployed. When I was using sprint performance wasn't nearly as good as it should've been considering what they had deployed at the time, so that's why I wanna know what real world is.

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/6471-chicagoland-market-20-premier-spreadsheet-map/?p=452620

[gusherb]

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/6471-chicagoland-market-20-premier-spreadsheet-map/?p=452620

Ok maybe I wasn't specific enough. I particularly wanna know what the typical peak, average and low speeds are. Not across the whole city either, just in personal use for various users.

With AT&T for me, the peaks would be between 80-105mbps, average around 20-40mbps, and low about 5-7 Mbps. Just a few months ago it could barely break 30 in most places in my suburban corner.

 

Although maybe bringing comparisons up in terms of speed is a bad idea cuz some people take that as means to start a pissing match.

 

What I get from the Chicago Premier thread is that things are going very well for the sprint network, I wanna know how they're comparing to others right now though.

[tongboy]

What kind of comparison are you looking for? We can all cherry pick speeds from all carriers. Sprint works well enough that I never have to run speed tests anymore because it just works. If the signal is dead it's because we are in an old concrete building (schools built in the 60s) where no carrier works, and shouldn't be expected to work. T-Mobile has some issues penetrating deep into buildings, but that is entirely dependant on an individuals location and if you never go into buildings built in the 60s you may not notice.

 

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[always_learner]

Ok maybe I wasn't specific enough. I particularly wanna know what the typical peak, average and low speeds are. Not across the whole city either, just in personal use for various users.

With AT&T for me, the peaks would be between 80-105mbps, average around 20-40mbps, and low about 5-7 Mbps. Just a few months ago it could barely break 30 in most places in my suburban corner.

 

Although maybe bringing comparisons up in terms of speed is a bad idea cuz some people take that as means to start a pissing match.

 

What I get from the Chicago Premier thread is that things are going very well for the sprint network, I wanna know how they're comparing to others right now though.

Personally,

High: 90-110

Average: 10-20

Low: 2-5

 

Sprint may not be as good as AT&T when considering how many subscribers each has on its network, but Sprint is definitely a viable option.  Really, all the carriers in Chicago do a pretty good job.

 

Give it a couple weeks: Rootmetrics is going to be releasing 2H2015 report.  That would be the best way to answer your question.

[gusherb]

Personally,

High: 90-110

Average: 10-20

Low: 2-5

 

Sprint may not be as good as AT&T when considering how many subscribers each has on its network, but Sprint is definitely a viable option.  Really, all the carriers in Chicago do a pretty good job.

 

Give it a couple weeks: Rootmetrics is going to be releasing 2H2015 report.  That would be the best way to answer your question.

Thanks, that's what I was looking for. If they did the testing for 2H2015 before yesterday (which it sounds like they did if you say results will be out soon), they'll be missing the widening of band 2 for at&t, and make them look worse than they actually are as of yesterday. Not that I really care, I hate AT&T as a company and only have used them because they're the best balance of price and service for me.

[always_learner]

Thanks, that's what I was looking for. If they did the testing for 2H2015 before yesterday (which it sounds like they did if you say results will be out soon), they'll be missing the widening of band 2 for at&t, and make them look worse than they actually are as of yesterday. Not that I really care, I hate AT&T as a company and only have used them because they're the best balance of price and service for me.

Yeah, I see what you're saying.  AT&T seems to be doing an impressive job from what you said.

 

I might add though that cell phone providers are always improving.  You mentioned that AT&T recently bumped up B2 to 10x10.  Well Sprint also barely started bumping up the second B25 carrier to 10x10; there's also 2xCA on B41 that still has a while to be even close to fully deployed.

 

Thus, both AT&T and Sprint Rootmetric results will not exactly match current real world performance, but it's the best we have.

[gusherb]

Yeah, I see what you're saying.  AT&T seems to be doing an impressive job from what you said.

 

I might add though that cell phone providers are always improving.  You mentioned that AT&T recently bumped up B2 to 10x10.  Well Sprint also barely started bumping up the second B25 carrier to 10x10; there's also 2xCA on B41 that still has a while to be even close to fully deployed.

 

Thus, both AT&T and Sprint Rootmetric results will not exactly match current real world performance, but it's the best we have.

Just this past spring I considered Verizon the benchmark to be beaten in the area. Now at&t and sprint have done that. T-Mobile in Northwest, IN has remained steady since they went to 15x15 in June. I think they are or soon will be the slowest carrier in the area again.

[lilotimz]

Just this past spring I considered Verizon the benchmark to be beaten in the area. Now at&t and sprint have done that. T-Mobile in Northwest, IN has remained steady since they went to 15x15 in June. I think they are or soon will be the slowest carrier in the area again.

 

The third 2.5 carrier (or even more) is on the Horizon after Wimax is decomissioned which is happening in 2 days!

[gusherb]

The third 2.5 carrier (or even more) is on the Horizon after Wimax is decomissioned which is happening in 2 days!

Oh yes! I almost forgot! Good riddance! Can't wait to hear about the 3rd carrier popping up. I'm sure that will only be in super busy areas at first and slowly work its way out.

[lilotimz]

Oh yes! I almost forgot! Good riddance! Can't wait to hear about the 3rd carrier popping up. I'm sure that will only be in super busy areas at first and slowly work its way out.

 

Considering Chicago is well known to be one of the few markets where every site is maxing out in terms of spectrum allocation, I wouldn't be surprised if most 2.5 sites will be configured as high capacity sites supporting 6 TDD carriers along with split sectors. That's some immense backhaul requirements though (2gig+ per site) but well worth for maintaining capacity and drowning everyone in spectrum. A plus is it's all software configuration (and backhaul to be capable) so hopefully no shennanigans with delays on Sprints part this time. 

[Vince]

With AT&T for me, the peaks would be between 80-105mbps, average around 20-40mbps, and low about 5-7 Mbps. Just a few months ago it could barely break 30 in most places in my suburban corner.

 

For me, at least, this basically mirrors my Sprint experience at this point in time in our market. This was from my couch the other day:

 

 

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[Vince]

And for the peen-swinging purposes, here's a Clearwire site 2 hours ago in Chicago at 79th and Western. Sprint has their ish together these days, and these are finally those golden days they've been speaking about for years.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6s

[S4GRU]

And for the peen-swinging purposes, here's a Clearwire site 2 hours ago in Chicago at 79th and Western. Sprint has their ish together these days, and these are finally those golden days they've been speaking about for years.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6s

No one swings a peen like you, my friend. Whoa.

 

Using Tapatalk on Note 8.0

[Hmight]

No one swings a peen like you, my friend. Whoa.

 

Using Tapatalk on Note 8.0

 

This is amazing.  Now, I really look forward to 3x CA late next year. Crossing my fingers.

[UnlimitedDataIsInBeta]

It's not 100 down, but last month this was a cellular dead zone on 1x. Non-congested B25.

 

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