Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[Cubbiefan82]

I am visiting family near Philadelphia, and had just bought 2 in-laws shiny new Sprint iPhones. Naturally,  tonight, to teach them how to use the new phones,  I tried calling my and my wife's phones,  which are provisioned in area 815. Total failure. We could call them FROM our phones,  but they could not call us. All 4 phones were in the same room. Oh, crud, I am thinking, I just made a huge $900 flub. Bad words were said. I tried reloading PRLs, rebooting, calling Sprint (got a recording saying there was a known issue), etc., etc. Then,  magically,  they began calling  perfectly. Then, I started seeing posts about the outage. My in-laws now question my sanity. [Well, so do I, but that belongs in another thread.] 

This outage was a weird one, I wonder if sprint will ever tell us what actually happened. Until then, I am still blaming tongboy

[Vince]

They must have been hard at work bringing the additional spark carrier online, and fixing band hand offs when someone spilled coffee on their computer. It happens.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

[jreuschl]

So I wonder what this #sprintforchicago thing is at 1:30PM Monday

 

https://twitter.com/sprintnews/status/582366470941835264

[lilotimz]

So I wonder what this #sprintforchicago thing is at 1:30PM Monday

 

Sprint image rebanding by upgrading its archaic website and look and maybe even a new logo. Get rid of all the leftovers of old Nextel and Sprint Nextel.

 

It's time for Sprint Corporation.

[gnoj]

Sprint image rebanding by upgrading its archaic website and look and maybe even a new logo. Get rid of all the leftovers of old Nextel and Sprint Nextel.

 

It's time for Sprint Corporation.

If they were on the verge of changing the logo, I don't think they'd use it so prominently in the Twitter pic announcing the event, but we'll see.

 

First official market for B41 CA and/or VoLTE would sure be nice. With B25+26 on nearly every site, and the Ocean builds to plug the remaining gaps, a good experience with the latter should be doable. Wishful thinking, I know.

[Vince]

I doubt it's service related. I just don't understand the Chicago connection. Did they Twitter other cities, too?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

[IamMrFamous07]

I doubt it's service related. I just don't understand the Chicago connection. Did they Twitter other cities, too?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

Nope just Chicago

[jreuschl]

https://mobile.twitter.com/Acting_DM_Mike/status/582581706768703488

 

There will be network announcements based on posters, but also Mayor's office has stated a jobs announcement with Sprint coming.

 

Sprint should push their excellent RootMetrics results in Chicago.

[Vince]

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/mayor-emanuel-and-sprint-announce-more-than-300-jobs-and-major-infrastructure-investment-coming-to-chicago.htm

 

A very interesting article. Hundreds of new cell sites, and 115 new stores. Didn't Sprint just close a ton of our stores last year? It doesn't make sense.

 

"Chicago will be the first Sprint city upgraded to an even faster network with the deployment of LTE Advanced technologies. These faster speeds are expected to improve the performance of video and other bandwidth-intensive applications, including new generations of online gaming, virtual reality and advanced cloud services.

 

New cell sites will be located in neighborhoods throughout the city and include the areas around Rush University Medical Center, along Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) subway routes as part of the project to upgrade the wireless network in the City’s system, and areas surrounding Garfield Park."

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

[lilotimz]

--

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

 

^ Project Ocean 

^ RadioShack

^ Samsung FIT market (derp!)

[Vince]

^ Project Ocean

^ RadioShack

^ Samsung FIT market (derp!)

I knew of the FIT and Ocean, but I forgot about the RadioShack deal. Well, good for Sprint and Chicago.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

[lilotimz]

I knew of the FIT and Ocean, but I forgot about the RadioShack deal. Well, good for Sprint and Chicago.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

 

I recall someone saying that the first wave of radioshack buyout stores will be opening soon so it sounds like Chicago has a lot of them. 

[Josh]

It's is nice to see news that sprint is doing something, but this is an underwhelming announcement for the company. They need a flagship city to prove how they will eventually be in every city with a similar deployment... But unless you live in Chicago, this news only means that your city is NOT getting upgraded as fast as we would like to see. I'd rather ser them get to 100% LTE tower completion, but I am going to remain optimistic that we will hear the full nationwide plan soon. 

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to complain about Chicago getting upgraded to LTE-A, just that the are gaping holes in their network & they are improving a relatively good area. 

 

This move was probably to gain some positive press and stop the stock from going lower. It'll be interesting to see not only how the service is after they finish, but how long it actually takes to finish and the costs. This way sprint will have a better idea on how to deploy it nationwide. 

[Deval]

It's is nice to see news that sprint is doing something, but this is an underwhelming announcement for the company. They need a flagship city to prove how they will eventually be in every city with a similar deployment... But unless you live in Chicago, this news only means that your city is NOT getting upgraded as fast as we would like to see. I'd rather ser them get to 100% LTE tower completion, but I am going to remain optimistic that we will hear the full nationwide plan soon. 

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to complain about Chicago getting upgraded to LTE-A, just that the are gaping holes in their network & they are improving a relatively good area. 

 

This move was probably to gain some positive press and stop the stock from going lower. It'll be interesting to see not only how the service is after they finish, but how long it actually takes to finish and the costs. This way sprint will have a better idea on how to deploy it nationwide. 

 

That 100% mark approaches closer every day, just so you know.

 

They pasted 90% on NV 1.0 recently.

[Vince]

I just saw a new advertisement on one of those electronic billboards near O'Hare saying: "now #1 in data at the nations busiest airport." Along with some other text that I didn't get to read because it changed advertisements while passing. Probably something like "according to RootMetrics."

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

[JosefTor]

Did they announce a time line for LTE-advanced? It seems odd that I thought the whole country was more weeks away and Sprint's silence probably means months away in Chicago.

[eduschean]

What will LTE Advanced even mean for Sprint? Can all 3 bands be aggregated? Or only bands 25 and 26?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[S4GRU]

What will LTE Advanced even mean for Sprint? Can all 3 bands be aggregated? Or only bands 25 and 26?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just B41 to itself. Intraband Carrier Aggregation LTE Advanced. Combining multiple B41 20MHz LTE carriers providing 40MHz throughput and later 60MHz throughput.

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

[eduschean]

Wow 60hz! That's very fast. I am a currently a Tmobile customer who is waiting for sprint to 100% complete their upgrades. I know here in Chicago T-Mobile is shy on spectrum so a switch is probably in the plans for me!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gnoj]

The Sprint executive at the press conference is unfortunately not a very good public speaker, and was disappointingly vague with technical details. However, I think we can reasonably infer that "LTE-Advanced" at the very least means a 2nd B41 carrier is beginning to be deployed (old news to local Premiers ), but we can hope this announcement actually covers much more than that, including SON-related software enhancements, small cells, and of course even more B41 carriers.

 

Sprint has also created a Chicago-specific team to be led by a general manager who will focus on the needs of Chicago’s wireless users. The team will work to improve customer service, simplify the purchasing experience, enhance the network, further support the community of Chicago by collaborating with community organizations and sponsoring more Chicago programs and events.

Would be great to find a number to these folks.

[greencat]

That 100% mark approaches closer every day, just so you know.

 

They pasted 90% on NV 1.0 recently.

They announced NV 1.0 "substantially complete" 9, NINE!!!!!, FREAKING MONTHS AGO.

[EvanA]

They announced NV 1.0 "substantially complete" 9, NINE!!!!!, FREAKING MONTHS AGO.

Substantially complete is announced somewhere around 50-60% upgrade completion.

[banananuts87]

That 100% mark approaches closer every day, just so you know.

 

They pasted 90% on NV 1.0 recently.

90% with panels and so forth or 90% with backhaul?

[Cubbiefan82]

For everyone that isn't premier sponsors, now is the time to become one. I know Robert is doing a tax time special, The Chicago premier forum will be tracking the second carrier of band 41.You will be able to see which 8t8r  sites have verified/confirmed second carrier. Such great news for Chicago, love how this market is coming along and becoming the staple for other markets

[greencat]

90% with panels and so forth or 90% with backhaul?

 

Good question

Edited April 1, 2015 by greencat