Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[WiWavelength]

Downtown along the lakeshore has improved dramatically in the last 6 months, came back down LSD...

 

What did you use to come back down from LSD?  That could have helped me out a lot in the 60s.

 

AJ

[Joeynach]

What did you use to come back down from LSD?  That could have helped me out a lot in the 60s.

 

AJ

Prolly some quaaludes, which I didn't know existed until Wolf of Wall St.

[Joeynach]

Downtown along the lakeshore has improved dramatically in the last 6 months, came back down LSD at rush hour in bad traffic and found mostly great speeds around Millenium/Grant Park. I got one speed test up to 20 Mbps on the second carrier! Most other places was between 5-10 Mbps, only a few bad spots where I was stuck to G block LTE and it was still around 1 mbps - still a million times better then before (unusable).

 

6 months ago we were a complete disaster and a year ago I was lucky to get 3mbps anywhere in the city.

Agree with everything here, things are improving.  I even recently noticed more B25 LTE for me in my office building downtown.  I never used to get LTE except for in the lobby and it was still sub 500K.  Now I am noticing I am holding more LTE all over the building and speeds are better.  This is a great improvement.  Big challenge next weekend, Lolla is back!

[Joeynach]

Anyone know what this makeshift site is right over by Wrigley, it's located on Patterson/Clark in the Enterprise rental car lot right there..  I have seen it there since the Winter, I think I remember it going up around the time of Teebox in December.  Someone is feeding more capacity to the Wrigley stadium and bars area.  It looks like a 3G only stack, I don't think its Sprint's, would have shown on the NV map right?  There were no markings on it to giveaway who is the owner/operator. 

 

[gusherb]

Was in Michigan City today and found plenty of B26 and some great speeds! Last time I was out there last summer I was stuck on full bars of 1x and now I'm getting 20 Mbps on B26 and optimization appears to have possibly hit as I was on B26 almost line of sight of the tower. 

 

Sprint outperformed at&t and T-Mobile. at&t didn't have LTE live near Lighthouse mall for some reason so it was just fairly strong, speedy HSPA and then I'd pick up useless LTE from afar and T-Mobile had lots of dead spots. 

[Joeynach]

Tomorrow starts the big weekend in Chicago, its Lollapalooza time.  Anyone else going besides me?  Big test for Sprint, not so much for me and my single band GS3, but for you tri-band folks out there.  I am really curious to see if those un-congested B26 and B41 bands can offer the unthinkable, useable data service at Lolla.  And who knows, perhaps there will be some service for us B25 only folks too.  Only one way to find out.

[kyle_4thousand]

Tomorrow starts the big weekend in Chicago, its Lollapalooza time. Anyone else going besides me? Big test for Sprint, not so much for me and my single band GS3, but for you tri-band folks out there. I am really curious to see if those un-congested B26 and B41 bands can offer the unthinkable, useable data service at Lolla. And who knows, perhaps there will be some service for us B25 only folks too. Only one way to find out.

I'm going on Saturday. I'll be looking forward to seeing how the network performs as well on my Nexus 5. It has to be better than the shitshow of a network I experienced at Bonnaroo this year. Anyone know how service is at Grant Park on a normal day? I haven't been since last summer and don't remember how it was back then either

[lilotimz]

My advice is to expect the worse and be surprised.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[UnlimitedDataIsInBeta]

Those of you with an M8 can disable B25 to check B26/B41 coverage while you're there. I'm not going this year, sadly, but I do want to see speed tests from congested sectors.

[gusherb]

I'm going on Saturday. I'll be looking forward to seeing how the network performs as well on my Nexus 5. It has to be better than the shitshow of a network I experienced at Bonnaroo this year. Anyone know how service is at Grant Park on a normal day? I haven't been since last summer and don't remember how it was back then either

Yeah I was just in that area last week. I was getting 6-10 Mbps during rush hour.

[Vince]

Sprint had the COWs out there for the taste. I'm sure they'll have them for lolla.

[Joeynach]

Sprint had the COWs out there for the taste. I'm sure they'll have them for lolla.

Are those COWS for 3G only or do they broadcast any kind of LTE?

[Vince]

Are those COWS for 3G only or do they broadcast any kind of LTE?

Absolutely. They pull the backhaul via microwave from the nearest site (usually), so it should be sufficient enough to pump out an LTE carrier. As far as band 26, or our second pcs carrier, I'm not sure.

[cdk]

Are those COWS for 3G only or do they broadcast any kind of LTE?

All the cows that I have come across have had LTE. Not to say that there might be some that don't.

[S4GRU]

Most Sprint COWS nowadays have at least B25/B26 LTE.  They can only broadcast B26 in appropriate areas, of course.  I haven't seen any reports of B41 COW's, yet.  Maybe soon.

 

Robert

[DsmIowaGuy]

Hey Guys regarding your cow conversation....

Welcome to the Iowa State Fair !   Here is a pic of one they delivered last week and I would guess will be turned on in the next couple days. Our Fair starts on the 7th.  We get around 100K daily in attendance.  Ps. A couple posts ahead of this you can see the other type of cow that is popular over here 

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4711-nebraska-iowa-market-spreadsheets-and-maps/?p=345205

[kyle_4thousand]

Impressive speeds today on the second carrier at the Lincolnshire Corporate Center as everyone is leaving work. The network performs superb in this area!

[Joeynach]

Lolla day one in the books.  Service was useable, not great, but not bricked phones either.  I actually turned my LTE off to save battery.  Though sometimes I needed to try a couple times my calls, texts, whatsapp messages, and IG uploads did all go through for send and receive.  Didn't even bother testing speed, as long as I could use the phone to find and meet people which is what is most important so I was happy.

[Vince]

Lolla day one in the books. Service was useable, not great, but not bricked phones either. I actually turned my LTE off to save battery. Though sometimes I needed to try a couple times my calls, texts, whatsapp messages, and IG uploads did all go through for send and receive. Didn't even bother testing speed, as long as I could use the phone to find and meet people which is what is most important so I was happy.

I'm just catching up on the videos. Eminem killed it. Glad there was useable service.

[gusherb]

Service was nothing but erratic along the lakeshore in Beverly Shores and again in Portage at the riverwalk/beach. These areas are VERY challenged signal wise due to the lack of cell sites, dense foliage and the sand dunes that tend to get in the way. Overall I was actually surprised to see band 26 LTE in many of the places I did! When I was at Portage beach I had 3 bars of 3G but couldn't make a call or send a text, this reminded me of my iPhone 3G days on AT&T... Wasn't an overloaded sector though, think it had more to do with the concentration of people and odd terrain.

 

I had my Nexus 5 with an att sim in it with me too, this didn't do any better despite having CLR 850 available. Idk if this is because the iPhone 5S grabs signal much better then the nexus or cuz att just wasn't any better. Never had a problem with calls or texts at any time though.

[kyle_4thousand]

Lolla day one in the books. Service was useable, not great, but not bricked phones either. I actually turned my LTE off to save battery. Though sometimes I needed to try a couple times my calls, texts, whatsapp messages, and IG uploads did all go through for send and receive. Didn't even bother testing speed, as long as I could use the phone to find and meet people which is what is most important so I was happy.

Agreed. I was able to text, send picture messages, and make calls about 80 percent of the time. I only found myself on B41 once and the second carrier a handful of times. No B26 there, which could have been helpful. My sister on her iPhone 4 had a less than stellar experience as she couldn't send any texts via SMS, but her iMessages were working just fine on 3G. My friend with Verizon was stuck on 1x most of the time, so that make me a little warm and fuzzy on the inside. Next year I'm expecting an even better experience. Later this month I'm going to North Coast, so it will be interesting to see how the network performs there too.

 

Edit: I also did not lose LTE once. That right there is a win as well!

[Cubbiefan82]

Did sprint or any other carriers have cows in the area??

[kyle_4thousand]

Did sprint or any other carriers have cows in the area??

I did see some COWs but couldn't really tell what carriers they were for. Didn't really look at them too much either because honestly my mind was elsewhere... Lol

[Vince]

I'm switching to band 26 way more at home than I ever have. Its happening while idle and during a data transfer. It even jumps around while on wifi. They must have tweaked something. Maybe optimization has begun? I hope so, because I drop to 3G in way too many places. Especially those pesky pocket LTE drops.

[Cubbiefan82]

I did see some COWs but couldn't really tell what carriers they were for. Didn't really look at them too much either because honestly my mind was elsewhere... Lol

I bet!! Between the music and the girls. Who wouldn't be looking at other things then the cows lol