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Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market


thesickness069

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I live in Marseilles, IL which is near Ottawa. We now have eHRPD on and off. There is a tower north of town and a tower south of town. Plus my 3G speeds are around 2mbps pretty consistently. However, I cannot seem to find anywhere that says whether or not I well be getting LTE on those towers or not. I have talked to multiple Sprint reps that say yes but I do not see them on the map, other than stating that 800mhz 1x/3G are complete.

 

Also, there are two antennas in town that belong to Sprint. One says it belongs to Nextel and the other says Sprint. Will these antennas help increase LTE signal in town or do they only help with 1x or 3G? I am mainly concerned about whether or not these antennas will help transmit LTE or not.

 

Thank you in advance for your answers!

 

EDIT: I don't know if it helps or not but the towers are CH03IP816 and CH03IP032

 

Sent from my Evo 4G LTE going through AnthraX withdrawal!

 

It seems highly likely, as Robert has already answered your question here:

http://s4gru.com/ind...5198#entry45198

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What's that? I live in DeKalb. Sorry for being a noob

 

It's the protocol that is used to seamlessly hand off 3G and 4G connections. This is a network mode that is usually seen ahead of 4G rollouts in many markets.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forum Runner

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Reading all these posts makes me really concerned about porting my family over to Sprint who lives in Chicago.

 

Is it really as bad everyone says?

 

 

 

I may have been concerned just recently given unique circumstances, but to be fair and sum up my feelings of service in Chicago I would say has been overwhelmingly positive. I have had Sprint for over 15 years and service in Chicago for a large portion of that, and would say until recently the service was good everywhere I needed it in the city and often I found I could get service in large buildings or underground in spots when other people's providers weren't connecting.

 

So, if you're worried then just wait a month or 2 and things should be humming along quite nicely with a fabulous network and speeds, but by no means would I say you should be worried long-term about Sprint for your provider for your family's service.

 

sent from my G III via tapatalk.

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In my experience, so far this NV/LTE roll-out continues to be a bust in the vast majority of the Chicagoland area. I had a busy weekend driving around and I didn't get a sniff of LTE anywhere in the western suburbs this weekend. In particular, Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, Warrenville, northern Naperville and parts of Lisle remain basically cell service holes on Sprint.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way. I wouldn't call it the "vast majority", but it certainly does feel that way if that's where you live and work. I was downtown Naperville today for lunch and the entire time there my Evo LTE had 0-1 bars outside, and the entire time I was inside eating my phone was on digital roaming. I feel like I'm being too negative on these forums lately, but it's really frustrating hearing about all the good things and I'm roaming in the middle of Naperville.

 

For the record, I've seen little to no improvement in all the areas you've mentioned. All of the western suburbs are a crap shoot. I would add West Chicago, Winfield, Carol Stream, Bartlett, and parts of Aurora to your list. Downtown Aurora is especially poor, and Winfield / Warrenville are complete dead zones for me.

 

I'm starting to think it's my phone, because I've read people are getting 4G in Yorkville and St. Charles as well, but I've been through both those towns this weekend and saw nothing.

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I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way. I wouldn't call it the "vast majority"' date=' but it certainly does feel that way if that's where you live and work. I was downtown Naperville today for lunch and the entire time there my Evo LTE had 0-1 bars outside, and the entire time I was inside eating my phone was on digital roaming. I feel like I'm being too negative on these forums lately, but it's really frustrating hearing about all the good things and I'm roaming in the middle of Naperville.

 

For the record, I've seen little to no improvement in all the areas you've mentioned. All of the western suburbs are a crap shoot. I would add West Chicago, Winfield, Carol Stream, Bartlett, and parts of Aurora to your list. Downtown Aurora is especially poor, and Winfield / Warrenville are complete dead zones for me.

 

I'm starting to think it's my phone, because I've read people are getting 4G in Yorkville and St. Charles as well, but I've been through both those towns this weekend and saw nothing.[/quote']

 

The market hasn't launched for a reason...

 

just when this forum starts to get informative, it goes right back to a pity party.

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On Sanders/294/lake cook area. 32 Down

is pretty fast. It seemed to max in one particular area. Probably REALLY close to tower for this test. I had a passenger running speed test constantly. This gave is an idea of how close to the towers we were. Speeds were consistent 28-32down

post-4338-0-76226800-1348541865_thumb.png

Edited by dhunt4949
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On Sanders/294/lake cook area. 32 Down

is pretty fast. It seemed to max in one particular area. Probably REALLY close to tower for this test. I had a passenger running speed test constantly. This gave is an idea of how close to the towers we were. Speeds were consistent 28-32down

 

Not sure where your test started and stopped but according to the GPS coordinates you were still 1000-1500 ft. from the tower so I guess you could still see 40+ down...

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EHrpd just showed up around me about a week ago' date=' before that I was averaging about 1 up and down. Since the switch my speeds have been down[/quote']

 

Completely coincidence. There is nothing about eHRPD that is slower. It is just a software upgrade that allows EVDO to maintain the same IP as LTE for seamless hand offs.

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

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Then it consistently dropped to slower but still acceptable speeds

 

Were these all taken in the same place, or while driving around?

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

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Completely coincidence. There is nothing about eHRPD that is slower. It is just a software upgrade that allows EVDO to maintain the same IP as LTE for seamless hand offs.

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

 

Progress is progress. I was getting occasional bursts of LTE before I even started seeing the eHrpd, I'm still waiting for it to come back now that I know about the debug menu. Can't wait to see the signal strength to see if LTE is going to be possible in my house.

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Microwave back-haul being installed in Valparaiso, IN as I type this. It's been going on for most of the day actually....2 microwave antennas are up and mounted. They were here about 2 weeks ago installing 3 brand new and larger antennas on the same tower. Looks like Sprint is moving right along. I can't wait for some 4G awesomeness!!

 

Anybody have any idea how long it takes for them to activate the back-haul/new equipment?

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Microwave back-haul being installed in Valparaiso, IN as I type this. It's been going on for most of the day actually....2 microwave antennas are up and mounted. They were here about 2 weeks ago installing 3 brand new and larger antennas on the same tower. Looks like Sprint is moving right along. I can't wait for some 4G awesomeness!!

 

Anybody have any idea how long it takes for them to activate the back-haul/new equipment?

Good deal, glad to see Valpo getting some love!

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