Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[cab2g]

I'm starting to get depressed here... At work, inside a building super far from any windows, If I take my phone out of my pocket, it recieves LTE reception at around -112 to -115dbm. good enough. But now I'm getting jealous that my home still has no LTE coverage, unless I'm outdoors carrying the phone open palm, sometimes the phone camps on the LTE network. I was happy because up until recently, there was only 3G signal in Evanston, and only 3G signal in Irving Park, but now they both have strong LTE signal!

 

With Sprint buying up all these other companies' infrastructure, when can I expect to get strong LTE signal strength in my house? I wish I could find out exactly where the Sprint, Nextel, Clearwire, and US Cellular antennas were so I could at least reassure myself that in a year's time, one of these other non Sprint LTE antennas will come online.

[Dkoellerwx]

I'm starting to get depressed here... At work, inside a building super far from any windows, If I take my phone out of my pocket, it recieves LTE reception at around -112 to -115dbm. good enough. But now I'm getting jealous that my home still has no LTE coverage, unless I'm outdoors carrying the phone open palm, sometimes the phone camps on the LTE network. I was happy because up until recently, there was only 3G signal in Evanston, and only 3G signal in Irving Park, but now they both have strong LTE signal!

 

With Sprint buying up all these other companies' infrastructure, when can I expect to get strong LTE signal strength in my house? I wish I could find out exactly where the Sprint, Nextel, Clearwire, and US Cellular antennas were so I could at least reassure myself that in a year's time, one of these other non Sprint LTE antennas will come online.

 

Every Sprint tower is recieving the Network Vision upgrades, which includes improved 3G performance, and the 4G LTE network. If you currently have good Sprint service (signal not speed) you will have LTE within a month or two. The Nextel towers are being shut down, I wouldn't worry about them. US Cellular in Chicago will probably be shut down, towers turned off. Clearwire WiMax towers are largely separate from Sprint towers, but if the deal goes through, Sprint will probably incorporate that spectrum onto their existing towers, and WiMax will be shut down in or after 2015. So the only thing you need to know is if you have Sprint service. Which I imagine you do, so it's only a matter of time.

 

Sponsors of this site have access to maps of all Sprint towers across the country, as well as maps of all towers currently upgraded with NV equipment.

[tommym65]

. . . But now I'm getting jealous that my home still has no LTE coverage, unless I'm outdoors carrying the phone open palm, sometimes the phone camps on the LTE network. . . . when can I expect to get strong LTE signal strength in my house? I wish I could find out exactly where the Sprint, Nextel, Clearwire, and US Cellular antennas were so I could at least reassure myself that in a year's time, one of these other non Sprint LTE antennas will come online.

 

Become an S4GRU Sponsor and you will be able to see the exact locations of Sprint towers in McHenry County, and their exact current status. (A hint to the non-sponsors: There are many Sprint towers out here in far suburbia, but the number with operating LTE is somewhat low.) Also, the Sensorly.com Sprint 4G map is a very good indicator of where 4G is all over Chicagoland, because lots of people seem to be doing the mapping. Verizon has better 4G here, but AT&T coverage currently appears to be no better than Sprint, and may not be as good.

 

Also, current Clearwire antennas show up on Clear.com's coverage maps, if you drill down to the right map resolutions. They are often not co-located with Sprint antennas.

[StephanStengel]

Become an S4GRU Sponsor and you will be able to see the exact locations of Sprint towers in McHenry County, and their exact current status. (A hint to the non-sponsors: There are many Sprint towers out here in far suburbia, but the number with operating LTE is somewhat low.) Also, the Sensorly.com Sprint 4G map is a very good indicator of where 4G is all over Chicagoland, because lots of people seem to be doing the mapping. Verizon has better 4G here, but AT&T coverage currently appears to be no better than Sprint, and may not be as good.

 

That's exactly what I did.

 

Using Robert's Sponsor maps, I was able to locate the NV targeted Sprint towers nearest to my home. I then compared that map to the "NV complete sites complete" map. This corroborated the fact that my local tower did not have NV upgrades as of yet.

 

Shortly after my local tower appeared on the NV complete sites map, I did in fact did get LTE at my home...

 

Didn't do anything to speed the process up of course, but at least gives you a clear picture as to what to expect at your location...

[cab2g]

Every Sprint tower is recieving the Network Vision upgrades, which includes improved 3G performance, and the 4G LTE network. If you currently have good Sprint service (signal not speed) you will have LTE within a month or two. The Nextel towers are being shut down, I wouldn't worry about them. US Cellular in Chicago will probably be shut down, towers turned off. Clearwire WiMax towers are largely separate from Sprint towers, but if the deal goes through, Sprint will probably incorporate that spectrum onto their existing towers, and WiMax will be shut down in or after 2015. So the only thing you need to know is if you have Sprint service. Which I imagine you do, so it's only a matter of time.

 

Sponsors of this site have access to maps of all Sprint towers across the country, as well as maps of all towers currently upgraded with NV equipment.

Well I wouldn't necessarily say I have "good" signal at all in my house. But it is signal and it hasn't hopped onto 1x from 3G like my old Verizon phone used to do. Luckily @ home I can just use wifi.

 

I did make a small donation though so hopefully I'll be able to see some of those upgrade maps soon

[Dkoellerwx]

Well I wouldn't necessarily say I have "good" signal at all in my house. But it is signal and it hasn't hopped onto 1x from 3G like my old Verizon phone used to do. Luckily @ home I can just use wifi.

 

I did make a small donation though so hopefully I'll be able to see some of those upgrade maps soon

 

If you've got WiFi, then you don't have anything to worry about in-house, as long as you get at least 1 or 2 bars outside, you should have plenty of LTE coverage when you leave your house.

[ks-man]

Earlier today I had an LTE RSRP of -82 but only got 12.3 down and 7.9 up. I mapped the base station (CDMA Field Test) and it was incredibly close to where I was. Now 12.3 down is certainly fast enough for whatever I would need, but it's pretty depressing that being that close with that strong of a signal is now only getting 12.3 down. Shouldn't that signal be pulling in high 20s? There have been many times where I've had RSRP of -105 to 115 and I'm getting 2-3 down.

 

Is this an indication that as more people start using the Sprint LTE network that the speeds will suffer?

[boomerbubba]

Earlier today I had an LTE RSRP of -82 but only got 12.3 down and 7.9 up. I mapped the base station (CDMA Field Test) and it was incredibly close to where I was. Now 12.3 down is certainly fast enough for whatever I would need, but it's pretty depressing that being that close with that strong of a signal is now only getting 12.3 down. Shouldn't that signal be pulling in high 20s? There have been many times where I've had RSRP of -105 to 115 and I'm getting 2-3 down.

 

Is this an indication that as more people start using the Sprint LTE network that the speeds will suffer?

 

The mapping of the CDMA base station is unrelated to the source of your LTE signal, which may be coming from a different site altogether. Further, for unrelated reasons, even the mapped CDMA coordinates may not reflect the actual CDMA site because some base stations broadcast CDMA coordinates that are far offset from there.

 

So your mapping experience is irrelevant. More important, you empirically logged a pretty strong LTE signal and moderately fast speeds. That could just be load related.

[mellimel2212]

If I can pull this out west I c high hopes for sprint

 

Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Nexus Rockin 4.2.1 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[chicagoepicuser]

Stopped by the Sprint store at Clybourn & Armitage yesterday. I'm looking to upgrade my ancient Epic 4G (I like the build of the Evo LTE, but I've read all the worrying stuff about the signal).

 

Chatted up the sales guy--he said in the last week they got the go-ahead to begin working on the downtown sites in January. Before, they had been told April.

 

The LTE phones were all holding a 4G connection, though it wasn't all that fast (I tested the speed on this site, because I couldn't download a proper app on the demo phones. That may have been behind the slower speeds, I have no idea). On average, the speed was between 1-2 Mbps download.

 

FWIW, I tested the S3, the Evo, and the iPhone 5. All three had similar signal levels (about -80 dB), which was surprising to me (expected the Evo to lag the other two). Obviously, I couldn't test the ability of the phones to connect to the proper network when going in/out of a 3G/4G area.

[ks-man]

 

The mapping of the CDMA base station is unrelated to the source of your LTE signal, which may be coming from a different site altogether. Further, for unrelated reasons, even the mapped CDMA coordinates may not reflect the actual CDMA site because some base stations broadcast CDMA coordinates that are far offset from there.

 

So your mapping experience is irrelevant. More important, you empirically logged a pretty strong LTE signal and moderately fast speeds. That could just be load related.

 

Seems pretty likely that if I'm pulling -82 RSRP and there is an active LTE site across the street that I'm connected to it.

 

I do agree though that the concern is that I had a very strong signal and only moderate LTE speeds.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[drock2750]

More than one LTE site lit up today in Lakeview. I'm indoors at Clark and diversey getting strong LTE signal, and netmonitor is reporting to a 1x tower calling itself 744 w Barry that I've never seen before.

[Dkoellerwx]

 

 

Chatted up the sales guy--he said in the last week they got the go-ahead to begin working on the downtown sites in January. Before, they had been told April.

 

 

Huh? There has been work ongoing in downtown for several months, and there are a large number of completed 4G sites there. Always take CS representatives or sales people's words with a grain of salt.

[S4GRU]

 

Seems pretty likely that if I'm pulling -82 RSRP and there is an active LTE site across the street that I'm connected to it.

 

I do agree though that the concern is that I had a very strong signal and only moderate LTE speeds.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

Noise. Quality of signal. Signal strength is only one factor. I experienced this in Wichita Falls at one site. One sector had a lot of noise and speeds were maxing out around 18-20Mbps with a really strong signal. I went a half mile away on the other side of the tower, the signal quality improved and speeds increased to 35Mbps. Same site, but different sector and out of the noise.

 

Robert via Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[drock2750]

Noise. Quality of signal. Signal strength is only one factor. I experienced this in Wichita Falls at one site. One sector had a lot of noise and speeds were maxing out around 18-20Mbps with a really strong signal. I went a half mile away on the other side of the tower, the signal quality improved and speeds increased to 35Mbps. Same site, but different sector and out of the noise.

 

Robert via Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

I find that even when in weak signal, latency on LTE is sooooooo much better than EVDO was, and that is a huge part of what makes an internet connection seem fast. Latency certainly gets worse with less signal, but it's still remarkably consistent. If netflix HD streams need less than 5 mbps, there's not much to be done with all these megabits...such high speed wireless connections are only useful from a capacity perspective. Phones can't render webpages super quickly anyway vs desktops. Seeing such crazy numbers in speed test sure is fun though! I always felt my WiMax speeds were more than adequate...building penetration issues aside lol

[ks-man]

I find that even when in weak signal, latency on LTE is sooooooo much better than EVDO was, and that is a huge part of what makes an internet connection seem fast. Latency certainly gets worse with less signal, but it's still remarkably consistent. If netflix HD streams need less than 5 mbps, there's not much to be done with all these megabits...such high speed wireless connections are only useful from a capacity perspective. Phones can't render webpages super quickly anyway vs desktops. Seeing such crazy numbers in speed test sure is fun though! I always felt my WiMax speeds were more than adequate...building penetration issues aside lol

 

Just took a look at my screenshot from the example I posted about. My latency was 52ms in that example so very good but not as good as the 25-35ms I sometimes get with strong LTE.

[mellimel2212]

Earlier today I had an LTE RSRP of -82 but only got 12.3 down and 7.9 up. I mapped the base station (CDMA Field Test) and it was incredibly close to where I was. Now 12.3 down is certainly fast enough for whatever I would need, but it's pretty depressing that being that close with that strong of a signal is now only getting 12.3 down. Shouldn't that signal be pulling in high 20s? There have been many times where I've had RSRP of -105 to 115 and I'm getting 2-3 down.

 

Is this an indication that as more people start using the Sprint LTE network that the speeds will suffer?

 

Where are u located

 

Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Nexus Rockin 4.1.2 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[ks-man]

This occurred in Lincolnshire. In the shopping center with Potbelly on Milwaukee.

[mellimel2212]

Lte speeds flip flop more than wimax bro before I pulled that 27 I pulled 11mb Down and 13 before that

 

Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Nexus Rockin 4.1.2 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[LTEKen]

Stopped by the Sprint store at Clybourn & Armitage yesterday. I'm looking to upgrade my ancient Epic 4G (I like the build of the Evo LTE, but I've read all the worrying stuff about the signal).

 

Chatted up the sales guy--he said in the last week they got the go-ahead to begin working on the downtown sites in January. Before, they had been told April.

 

The LTE phones were all holding a 4G connection, though it wasn't all that fast (I tested the speed on this site, because I couldn't download a proper app on the demo phones. That may have been behind the slower speeds, I have no idea). On average, the speed was between 1-2 Mbps download.

 

FWIW, I tested the S3, the Evo, and the iPhone 5. All three had similar signal levels (about -80 dB), which was surprising to me (expected the Evo to lag the other two). Obviously, I couldn't test the ability of the phones to connect to the proper network when going in/out of a 3G/4G area.

 

If you're main concern is ease of connectivity, I don't recommend the EVO LTE. You'll be toggling your radios and doing the airplane mode trick to connect.

 

Although it's supposed to be better since the JB update. I haven't really tested it yet since I just flashed the OTA last night.

[Joeynach]

If you're main concern is ease of connectivity, I don't recommend the EVO LTE. You'll be toggling your radios and doing the airplane mode trick to connect.

 

Although it's supposed to be better since the JB update. I haven't really tested it yet since I just flashed the OTA last night.

 

Wait this Sprint rep told you that no downtown cell sites have received NV upgrades or 4G LTE yet, and that it wasn't originally scheduled until April of 2013, though will commence in January of 2013 now. That goes against post after post after post in this forum, including comments and maps from Robert that show downtown LTE development, while not robust, certainty underway months ago. If they haven't started LTE build-out in the Loop then how is there a ton of Sensorly LTE coverage for Sprint there?

 

[mellimel2212]

 

Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Nexus Rockin 4.1.2 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[btsprintroller]

When I went to sleep, my signal was absolutely atrocious..the worst that it had ever been in my house. I woke up, and now I have almost full bars (it's never been like that here) with 3g going in and out at the moment. The signal has drastically improved, though. Could this be a sign that they are working on a tower in the area, and it's near completion?

[Joeynach]

When I went to sleep, my signal was absolutely atrocious..the worst that it had ever been in my house. I woke up, and now I have almost full bars (it's never been like that here) with 3g going in and out at the moment. The signal has drastically improved, though. Could this be a sign that they are working on a tower in the area, and it's near completion?

 

What is your location?

[btsprintroller]

I'm near Chicago State University. CH03XC175 and CH03XC188 are my closest towers.