Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[AMD64]

Thanx for fast reply ;-)

 

what about Rochelle,and Malta?

[aerxx]

Thanx for fast reply ;-)

 

what about Rochelle' date='and Malta?[/quote']

 

I dont know first hand...but it is highly unlikely. Some of the microwave backhaul dishes for towers out that way feed off of dishes in DeKalb and Sycamore....and the DeKalb and Sycamore backhaul just went up this week. Some towers arent even completed yet.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forum Runner

[aerxx]

Found out why some of the backhaul isn't ready yet.....

 

 

JK.

[aerxx]

I have 800mhz connected pretty much everywhere I go in the western suburbs. Its great looking at my phones signal status and seeing -60dBm.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forum Runner

[theslacker29]

I have 800mhz connected pretty much everywhere I go in the western suburbs. Its great looking at my phones signal status and seeing -60dBm.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forum Runner

That's sweet!

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[ydoucare]

Drove by a tower near my house today and saw a crew mounting a microwave antenna.

[Buck1224]

Chicago is great! Service is now better than ever and it was well worth the wait...I get this all day now!

 

[aerxx]

Agreeded. This was in St. Charles during rush hour. Corner of 64 and Randall.

 

 

 

 

[ATTACH]1969[/ATTACH]

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forum Runner

[mellimel2212]

Central n Ohio Austin area

 

Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Nexus rockin 4.2.1 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[drock2750]

Around 180 N Michigan yesterday I didn't have any 3g or 1x service, but I did have LTE with a relatively strong signal that only gave me 500kbps. Also, in my friend's apartment at Dearborn and Grand, I get tremendous LTE signal strength, but only about 50 kbps max in throughput. It just doesn't seem possible that these sites have been instantly overwhelmed by Sprint LTE users. Has anybody else noticed slow LTE with strong signal?

[ks-man]

Around 180 N Michigan yesterday I didn't have any 3g or 1x service, but I did have LTE with a relatively strong signal that only gave me 500kbps. Also, in my friend's apartment at Dearborn and Grand, I get tremendous LTE signal strength, but only about 50 kbps max in throughput. It just doesn't seem possible that these sites have been instantly overwhelmed by Sprint LTE users. Has anybody else noticed slow LTE with strong signal?

 

Sometimes I have strong LTE and 20Mbps and other times I have strong LTE and only 500kbps. I can't really understand what is going on with Sprint LTE. I don't really think it is tower issues as I'll see this in areas where LTE has been live for 3 months. While Chicago is the most developed Sprint LTE market I really think stable performance throughout the city won't occur until all the empty pockets are filled in. In fairness, most of my experience is in a car where I may be handing off between towers which is probably more difficult to keep steady LTE vs. being in a single spot with strong coverage.

[Dkoellerwx]

Sometimes I have strong LTE and 20Mbps and other times I have strong LTE and only 500kbps. I can't really understand what is going on with Sprint LTE. I don't really think it is tower issues as I'll see this in areas where LTE has been live for 3 months. While Chicago is the most developed Sprint LTE market I really think stable performance throughout the city won't occur until all the empty pockets are filled in. In fairness, most of my experience is in a car where I may be handing off between towers which is probably more difficult to keep steady LTE vs. being in a single spot with strong coverage.

 

Are you actually checking your LTE signal in the LTE Engineering screens? Or are you going off of bars?

[ks-man]

Are you actually checking your LTE signal in the LTE Engineering screens? Or are you going off of bars?

 

I have a Note 2 so the bars are LTE strength. I often will confirm it with the CDMA field test app. I've had the 500kbps even with a RSRP of -85 to -90. Using that app you can also have it show you the RSRP in the upper right hand corner. Typically if I can get that in the -70s (-77 or -78) Ill get the 25Mbps or higher numbers. Realistically though you need to be right next to the tower for that high of an RSRP.

[drock2750]

Are you actually checking your LTE signal in the LTE Engineering screens? Or are you going off of bars?

 

In my case I'm going off the engineering screen...on my phone the bars are only 1x. Sprint wouldn't upgrade equipment and enable LTE before the backhaul for that site could be upgraded would they? A NV tower with LTE served by a few old T-1s would kind of be a lateral move interms of data speed.

[mhammett]

Found out why some of the backhaul isn't ready yet.....

 

 

JK.

 

*yawn* I was hoping I hadn't seen before. :-p Knock on wood, I haven't met too many problems with mother nature on towers. I have had to negotiate ascent with a squirrel a couple times, but nothing bad.

 

 

I have a Note 2 so the bars are LTE strength. I often will confirm it with the CDMA field test app. I've had the 500kbps even with a RSRP of -85 to -90. Using that app you can also have it show you the RSRP in the upper right hand corner. Typically if I can get that in the -70s (-77 or -78) Ill get the 25Mbps or higher numbers. Realistically though you need to be right next to the tower for that high of an RSRP.

 

Not necessarily, it depends on where you are. I've had signal in the 70s and been a couple miles away. This is in a rural area, though, so far less attenuation, multipath, etc. and possibly more power and definitely different downtilts.

[S4GRU]

 

I have a Note 2 so the bars are LTE strength. I often will confirm it with the CDMA field test app. I've had the 500kbps even with a RSRP of -85 to -90. Using that app you can also have it show you the RSRP in the upper right hand corner. Typically if I can get that in the -70s (-77 or -78) Ill get the 25Mbps or higher numbers. Realistically though you need to be right next to the tower for that high of an RSRP.

 

I have the Note 2. It does not show LTE signal strength in bars. The only Sprint Android devices that do are LG. No HTC or Samsungs do. This is your problem. You are assuming you have a good LTE connection when you actually do not.

 

Also, you cannot trust any third party app. If you want to know your actual LTE signal strength, go to the LTE Engineering screen. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2040-bars-lie-for-lte-signal-strength-how-to-determine-your-actual-lte-signal-strength/

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

[ks-man]

I have the Note 2. It does not show LTE signal strength in bars. The only Sprint Android devices that do are LG. No HTC or Samsungs do. This is your problem. You are assuming you have a good LTE connection when you actually do not.

 

Also, you cannot trust any third party app. If you want to know your actual LTE signal strength, go to the LTE Engineering screen. http://s4gru.com/ind...ignal-strength/

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

 

 

Robert, with all due respect, what are you basing this on? Do you have a document or something that says the Note 2 doesn’t show LTE strength? I really feel like my device is showing LTE bars based on my own logical findings. Essentially I will have full 4G bars when I am near known LTE towers. As I move away from those towers the bars will go down until there is only 1 bar or no bars left but I still maintain the 4G icon. Shortly thereafter it will switch over to 3G usually with full or 1 less than full bars.

 

Whenever I have full 4G bars (which I can corroborate with my known towers in my area) I can then check the CDMA Field Test app and see the RSRP and it will typically be between -78 and -90 or so. When I have half 4G bars it is usually around -100 to -110 and if I only have 1 or 0 4G bars it will be less than -110.

 

If I was seeing 1x or 3G strength with my bars it wouldn’t make sense that I always jump from virtually no 4G to full 3G. It would instead go from 0 or 1 bar of 4G to 1 or 2 bars of 3G or I would at times go from full 4G to full 3G as you are claiming I didn’t really have full 4G. None of this ever happens. I do sometimes go from full 3G to full 4G but I think that is b/c my phone will only switch over to 4G when there is a strong signal nearby.

 

Finally, the bulk of the time I have a strong 4G signal (full bars) I will get very strong download speeds and when I have a very weak 4G signal (only 1 bar) it will be much slower. My earlier comment that started the debate is just the occasional finding but what I normally observe with 4G speeds and number of bars only seems to further cement in my mind that I am seeing the correct number of bars for 4G.

 

You definitely are far more knowledgeable about all of this than I am but based on my experience I’m pretty confident that my phone is displaying 4G strength in the bars. I guess I’m just wondering why you believe that the Note 2 doesn’t show 4G bars. Is it b/c you haven’t heard yet of any Samsung device being confirmed as doing this or do you have some notice or information directly from a source that proves this?

[S4GRU]

Robert, with all due respect, what are you basing this on? Do you have a document or something that says the Note 2 doesn’t show LTE strength? I really feel like my device is showing LTE bars based on my own logical findings. Essentially I will have full 4G bars when I am near known LTE towers. As I move away from those towers the bars will go down until there is only 1 bar or no bars left but I still maintain the 4G icon. Shortly thereafter it will switch over to 3G usually with full or 1 less than full bars.

 

Whenever I have full 4G bars (which I can corroborate with my known towers in my area) I can then check the CDMA Field Test app and see the RSRP and it will typically be between -78 and -90 or so. When I have half 4G bars it is usually around -100 to -110 and if I only have 1 or 0 4G bars it will be less than -110.

 

If I was seeing 1x or 3G strength with my bars it wouldn’t make sense that I always jump from virtually no 4G to full 3G. It would instead go from 0 or 1 bar of 4G to 1 or 2 bars of 3G or I would at times go from full 4G to full 3G as you are claiming I didn’t really have full 4G. None of this ever happens. I do sometimes go from full 3G to full 4G but I think that is b/c my phone will only switch over to 4G when there is a strong signal nearby.

 

Finally, the bulk of the time I have a strong 4G signal (full bars) I will get very strong download speeds and when I have a very weak 4G signal (only 1 bar) it will be much slower. My earlier comment that started the debate is just the occasional finding but what I normally observe with 4G speeds and number of bars only seems to further cement in my mind that I am seeing the correct number of bars for 4G.

 

You definitely are far more knowledgeable about all of this than I am but based on my experience I’m pretty confident that my phone is displaying 4G strength in the bars. I guess I’m just wondering why you believe that the Note 2 doesn’t show 4G bars. Is it b/c you haven’t heard yet of any Samsung device being confirmed as doing this or do you have some notice or information directly from a source that proves this?

 

I own and have tested extensively every Samsung Sprint LTE device. None of them show LTE signal strength in the bars, ever. You would have to use a custom ROM to get that to work that way. In a densely deployed area, 1x and LTE signal strength will often be very similar. And this may be why you believe this to be true.

 

I can still remember my most recent experience where I was sitting next to a non Network Vision site where it said 4G and full bars, however, I was connected to a LTE site 4 miles away with a very weak signal of -116dBm and was getting speeds around 2Mbps. I checked the Cell ID of the LTE site, so I know where I was connected.

 

In this location, my Note 2, Victory, GNex, EVO LTE, and Photon Q all showed full bars, and the 4G icon. However, only the Viper showed 1 bar and the 4G icon. That is because LG devices do show the LTE signal strength in the bars.

 

I don't rely on bars, ever. They are just not very accurate or helpful for what I do. I use the Engineering screens. Because the Engineering screens often point to wonky developer created anomalies, like this. With this subject, I am neither mistaken nor confused. The Sprint Note 2 stock ROM does not show LTE signal strength in bars. It is showing the 1x voice signal strength. And when it is accurate, it is only coincidence.

 

Robert

[Feech]

Ultimately, even if you were to use the bar as a indicator.. What would one bar be worth in signal strength? Something to something? If it doesn't give me a number I'm not buying it.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[ks-man]

It's tough for me to get into the engineering screen as usually this is when I'm driving so I don't like doing too much with my phone. There are times when I'm at stop lights or bumper to bumper that I can do a quick glance or pull up the Field Test app.

 

Most of my experience is driving on the highways into Chicago (where I work) and I'll often have my phone running my Slingbox so I can get the audio feed of a sporting event. For most of the ride on one of the major highways there "should be" very good LTE coverage. There are a ton of towers that have been upgraded and were upgraded a while ago so most of the kinks were likely worked out. Despite this I get very poor performance with constant freezes and disconnects. The performance is much worse than what I had with AT&T 3G.

 

My thoughts are with even a weak LTE connection I should be able to hold onto a few hundred kbps of download speed but that doesn't happen and I'll disconnect once I go sub 100. I haven't seen any real improvements over the past few months. I'll get occasional great performance and phenomenal download speeds but for the bulk of the trip it isn't usable.

 

I do realize that this is probably a poor gauge of performance as driving is likely the most difficult thing for a network to handle well do to all the pass-offs between towers but I'm really just comparing what I used to get before switching.

 

Don't misinterpret this post and my past few. I'm very happy to have switched over to Sprint and have no intentions of leaving. I just had thought we'd be getting a little better consistency in the performance considering just how far along the Chicago market is.

[S4GRU]

It's tough for me to get into the engineering screen as usually this is when I'm driving so I don't like doing too much with my phone. There are times when I'm at stop lights or bumper to bumper that I can do a quick glance or pull up the Field Test app.

 

Most of my experience is driving on the highways into Chicago (where I work) and I'll often have my phone running my Slingbox so I can get the audio feed of a sporting event. For most of the ride on one of the major highways there "should be" very good LTE coverage. There are a ton of towers that have been upgraded and were upgraded a while ago so most of the kinks were likely worked out. Despite this I get very poor performance with constant freezes and disconnects. The performance is much worse than what I had with AT&T 3G.

 

My thoughts are with even a weak LTE connection I should be able to hold onto a few hundred kbps of download speed but that doesn't happen and I'll disconnect once I go sub 100. I haven't seen any real improvements over the past few months. I'll get occasional great performance and phenomenal download speeds but for the bulk of the trip it isn't usable.

 

I do realize that this is probably a poor gauge of performance as driving is likely the most difficult thing for a network to handle well do to all the pass-offs between towers but I'm really just comparing what I used to get before switching.

 

Don't misinterpret this post and my past few. I'm very happy to have switched over to Sprint and have no intentions of leaving. I just had thought we'd be getting a little better consistency in the performance considering just how far along the Chicago market is.

 

You can get decent performance with a weak LTE signal when stationary. However, being mobile with a weak LTE signal, performance will likely be hit and miss. Especially while streaming. I have a hard time with weak Verizon LTE and T-Mobile HSPA+ while being mobile too.

 

However, Chicago performance is still improving, even if they haven't been working recently in the areas that you go. So it will likely still get better. The Chicago market still has a large amount of updates every week.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

[aerxx]

You can get decent performance with a weak LTE signal when stationary. However, being mobile with a weak LTE signal, performance will likely be hit and miss. Especially while streaming. I have a hard time with weak Verizon LTE and T-Mobile HSPA+ while being mobile too.

 

However, Chicago performance is still improving, even if they haven't been working recently in the areas that you go. So it will likely still get better. The Chicago market still has a large amount of updates every week.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

 

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm very impressed with how well LTE in the Chicago market works. I'm noticing that since the signals are becoming more dense, it switches EVEN BETTER from 3G to 4G.

[digiblur]

If the weather cooperates tomorrow I will have a test to prove or disprove the fact of the Note2 showing LTE for signal bars or not. Stay tuned...

 

Sent from my little Note2

 

 

[ks-man]

If the weather cooperates tomorrow I will have a test to prove or disprove the fact of the Note2 showing LTE for signal bars or not. Stay tuned...

 

Sent from my little Note2

 

Supposed to be 60 degrees and heavy rain

[aerxx]

Supposed to be 60 degrees and heavy rain

 

I heard hail overnight as well.