Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[btsprintroller]

More perspective. Before, I was catching 95-103 dBm. Now I'm catching 73-80 dbm. I'm sitting here watching my network type switch between eHRPD and something called 1xRTT:6. I don't know what's going on, but it's making me very excited..

[drock2750]

http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/19/sprint-lte-chicago/

 

Does anybody know if this is just an official announcement of things that have already happened, or are they announcing new equipment coming online today?

[Dkoellerwx]

http://www.engadget....nt-lte-chicago/

 

Does anybody know if this is just an official announcement of things that have already happened, or are they announcing new equipment coming online today?

 

Things that have already happened. Work continues in all the announced places.

[ks-man]

Mapped my trip on Sensorly today and never dropped 4G the entire time from the 90/94 junction all the way through Congress. First time I've seen that.

[jls203]

Looks like the tower by Pulaski and archer might finally have LTE. I noticed something new on the tower between the panels but haven't taken a closer look. I currently have a 4g icon on my evo lte with -92dBm signal. While I dont have data coming in yet, might mean its barely getting started. Please correct me if I'm wrong, especially since the maps don't show the tower yet.

[Luke0536]

speeds at u.s. 30 and taney place, merrillville Indiana. used two different servers

[ChicagoMafia]

I'm still not seeing and LTE in Six Corners area of Chicago. I'm literally right at Irving Park Road, Milwaukee, and Cicero Avenues. I'm surrounded by towers but none are really close by me. I know it's not my phone because it automatically lights up with LTE once I get close by work. But it drops back to 3G once I get off the expressway from Niles.

[mellimel2212]

FYI if u are getting good prices with uscc I'll suggest staying till the buyout is complete. It would be cheaper for u

 

Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[Jamal46409]

i-90 & Broadway (Gary, IN)

 

[nahum365]

i-90 & Broadway (Gary, IN)

 

 

Dat upload. Highest I've ever seen is 6Mbpsnor so.

[tommym65]

At Lake in the Hills Airport this morning:

 

 

 

I had 3 consecutive tests over 30 Mbps, so the download speed is not a fluke. I could see the tower from my car window.

 

LTE is slowly creeping to the Far Northwest Suburbs!

[bkrodgers]

I'm a bit concerned by what I experienced in the last week while up visiting my parents on the North Shore (Wilmette and Glenview, mainly). There were small pockets where 3G was pretty good -- 1-1.2 Mbps. But for the most part, speeds were still pretty terrible. Very often under 500 Kbps, and often under 100. And often it'd just outright fail. Today as I left town, driving down the Edens, through the Kennedy, and onto I-55 south, it was hideous the whole way. I would periodically kick off a batch of a few Rootmetrics continuous tests for a few minutes, and I was consistently getting an average of 100-200 Kbps, with only a ~60% success rate. I didn't see over 500 Kbps until I hit Joliet.

 

I did stop by the Sprint store on Willow in Glenview, and in that store my phone (OG Evo) got a solid > 1Mbps, and the Optimus I was playing with had LTE getting about 8Mbps. But half a mile from the store, right before I got there, I was getting 130 Kbps.

 

I'm contemplating a move from St. Louis to Chicago, and the promise of the new network that's 75% complete had me holding out hope that there would be a solid network once I got there. But unless the 25% they haven't done includes most of the north shore, Edens, Kennedy, and I-55 corridors, I'm extremely disappointed. What would explain this?

[S4GRU]

I'm a bit concerned by what I experienced in the last week while up visiting my parents on the North Shore (Wilmette and Glenview, mainly). There were small pockets where 3G was pretty good -- 1-1.2 Mbps. But for the most part, speeds were still pretty terrible. Very often under 500 Kbps, and often under 100. And often it'd just outright fail. Today as I left town, driving down the Edens, through the Kennedy, and onto I-55 south, it was hideous the whole way. I would periodically kick off a batch of a few Rootmetrics continuous tests for a few minutes, and I was consistently getting an average of 100-200 Kbps, with only a ~60% success rate. I didn't see over 500 Kbps until I hit Joliet.

 

I did stop by the Sprint store on Willow in Glenview, and in that store my phone (OG Evo) got a solid > 1Mbps, and the Optimus I was playing with had LTE getting about 8Mbps. But half a mile from the store, right before I got there, I was getting 130 Kbps.

 

I'm contemplating a move from St. Louis to Chicago, and the promise of the new network that's 75% complete had me holding out hope that there would be a solid network once I got there. But unless the 25% they haven't done includes most of the north shore, Edens, Kennedy, and I-55 corridors, I'm extremely disappointed. What would explain this?

 

Lots. First off, 3G is only complete in the Exurbs. There are massive amounts of 3G NV work still to be done in the urban parts of the City and the Inner Suburbs. Around late September, they stopped focusing on 3G and went into 4G deployment overdrive. Skipping lots of sites from getting 3G upgrades and prioritizing LTE deployment. They are just now starting to go back and pick up the 3G sites they skipped in the Inner parts of the market. If you were a Sponsor, you'd see the maps showing where 3G and 4G work has been done around the Chicago market to date.

 

Additionally, there is one big problem in Chicago with Sprint 3G even beyond Network Vision. Spectrum availability. Chicago has been a spectrum constrained market for Sprint for a long time. Even at a Network Vision upgraded site, if that site already has the maximum amount of EVDO carriers that the available amount of spectrum can support, nothing more can be done. However, only about 10-15% of sites in the Chicago market are maxed out like this. But as traffic grows, more and more will be affected.

 

Sprint does have a long term solution to the spectrum problem. They recently announced that they are purchasing another 20MHz of PCS spectrum from USCC in the Chicago area. This will give them the ability to add more EVDO and LTE carriers in th Windy City for years to come. But it will be awhile before Sprint gets ahold of that spectrum and can start deploying it.

 

In the interim, if you are a Sprint customer in the Chicago market for the next few years you will need a LTE device. Because when you encounter one of those spectrum maxed out 3G sites, you will need to be on LTE to be able to keep your data moving. And LTE may even offer some relief on those 3G sites that cannot have capacity increased in time.

 

The LTE network has more options that can be deployed sooner to keep it more robust. Like additional carriers on 800 SMR and TD-LTE on 2600. Those can start being deployed in just 6-7 months.

 

Robert

[tommym65]

I'm contemplating a move from St. Louis to Chicago, and the promise of the new network that's 75% complete had me holding out hope that there would be a solid network once I got there. But unless the 25% they haven't done includes most of the north shore, Edens, Kennedy, and I-55 corridors, I'm extremely disappointed. What would explain this?

 

Additionally, although 75% of Chicagoland sites have had some NV work done, far fewer than 50% are NV-complete. Thus, a given site may have 4G LTE or 3G improvements or 800 voice, but may be waiting for additional improvements.,

 

[Robert: What the heck are you doing posting replies at 2:45 in the morning? You, young man, should be asleep! ]

[S4GRU]

 

Additionally, although 75% of Chicagoland sites have had some NV work done, far fewer than 50% are NV-complete. Thus, a given site may have 4G LTE or 3G improvements or 800 voice, but may be waiting for additional improvements.,

 

[Robert: What the heck are you doing posting replies at 2:45 in the morning? You, young man, should be asleep! ]

 

It was a late night last night followed by an early morning this morning. I think I need another cup of coffee.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

 

[Luke0536]

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?

 

Are you able to get 4 g in Valparaiso yet? Have you noticed anyother up grades in the area?

[Wes]

Picked up LTE for about 15 minutes in Cortland, which is just a couple miles outside of DeKalb. Down was about 14 Mbps

[aerxx]

Picked up LTE for about 15 minutes in Cortland, which is just a couple miles outside of DeKalb. Down was about 14 Mbps

 

DeKalb/Sycamore area is starting to pop, Ive seen a couple towers that have the new radios installed, and one tower that is west of DeKalb just had new fiber ran to it. I would say another month and we can start to see 4G popping up, then another 3 weeks until the radios are adjusted properly for correct tilt.

[kevhed]

Are you able to get 4 g in Valparaiso yet? Have you noticed anyother up grades in the area?

 

I haven't seen any 4G in Valpo. I work right next to the tower I mentioned before, so when it goes live I should know pretty quickly. I dont think there is any 4G activity East of I-65 right now (except merrillville). I'll be sure to update this when I do see something.

[bkrodgers]

Thanks Robert, that is great information and helps reassure me a bit. I didn't realize that they weren't doing 3G alongside LTE in some sites. I knew about the spectrum constraints too and about the USCC purchase, but as you said, that won't help for awhile. I'm hoping it's more that 3G hasn't been done on the sites in that area. I'll probably go ahead and donate soon to check that out -- do the sponsor maps show the 4G and 3G status of the sites separately?

 

I of course do plan to get an LTE device. In fact I'm beyond frustrated to still be using the Evo. I'm just not willing to sign a new contract with Sprint (or give up WiMax) until I see improvements in the area I'm living. In St. Louis, where I live now, the network is unusable, and I'd been looking to my trip to Chicago (assuming I go through with a move there) to help give me some hope that sticking it out with Sprint is worth doing. But if 4G is further along than 3G, my tests didn't really tell me much. I do know there's a lot of reason for hope for their future. It's just a question of whether I can stick it out (my only motivation to do so being a legacy plan), or whether I go another route for 2 years and evaluate them again in 2015.

[S4GRU]

do the sponsor maps show the 4G and 3G status of the sites separately?

 

Yes. Each site that has 3G, LTE and 800MHz upgrades accepted from the OEM is shown.

 

Robert

[ydoucare]

They're still having a fun time turning 800 on and off down here. Seems like it flip flops about every day or every other day.

[mellimel2212]

Thanks Robert, that is great information and helps reassure me a bit. I didn't realize that they weren't doing 3G alongside LTE in some sites. I knew about the spectrum constraints too and about the USCC purchase, but as you said, that won't help for awhile. I'm hoping it's more that 3G hasn't been done on the sites in that area. I'll probably go ahead and donate soon to check that out -- do the sponsor maps show the 4G and 3G status of the sites separately?

 

I of course do plan to get an LTE device. In fact I'm beyond frustrated to still be using the Evo. I'm just not willing to sign a new contract with Sprint (or give up WiMax) until I see improvements in the area I'm living. In St. Louis, where I live now, the network is unusable, and I'd been looking to my trip to Chicago (assuming I go through with a move there) to help give me some hope that sticking it out with Sprint is worth doing. But if 4G is further along than 3G, my tests didn't really tell me much. I do know there's a lot of reason for hope for their future. It's just a question of whether I can stick it out (my only motivation to do so being a legacy plan), or whether I go another route for 2 years and evaluate them again in 2015.

 

Let me tell u that if u move to Chicago u are gonna love the service here. And for only 50ish% lte I have it pretty much everywhere I go

 

Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Nexus rockin 4.2.1 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[aerxx]

Let me tell u that if u move to Chicago u are gonna love the service here. And for only 50ish% lte I have it pretty much everywhere I go

 

Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Nexus rockin 4.2.1 using Tapatalk 2

 

Chicago market is 75% completed according to the running list located here.

[dsstrainer2]

Getting unbelievable speeds in Roselle/Bloomingdale yesterday.. Corner of Lake and Gary I got

27932kpbs down

8883kbps up

46ms ping

 

But Financial district in the Downtown Loop (specifically right near the CBOT) is completely broken.

3G is around 113kbps down/164kbps up

4G comes on occasionally and every time I get about 26kbps... YES! 26k! slower than friggin Dial up.

I have to actually turn CDMA only on to do anything while here.

 

Not tried other spots in the city yet... but I'm guessing the remaining 25% of the Chicago work needs to be done in the Loop.

Edited January 4, 2013 by dsstrainer2