Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[Deval]

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

 

New cell site equipment. Backhaul is getting there, slowly, but the physical rip and replace is getting closer and closer to 100% daily.

[Josh]

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

 

They pasted 90% on NV 1.0 recently.

 

I'm talking about LTE availability, not panel & base station installs. The actual amount of coverage that the average sprint subscriber sees. Using the numbers available here, 77% off towers have LTE which sounds good, but it is the more rural areas that make up a large geographic area that have yet to be graced with LTE. 

Plus don't forget that there are some areas that are 99% upgraded with LTE and others that are 50-60% some (western pa) only GMO's with no real time line for upgrades.  There are holes, and until they start addressing that, the perception is going to be that sprint isn't as good as its competitors... No matter how awesome Chicago is. 

[S4GRU]

I'm talking about LTE availability, not panel & base station installs. The actual amount of coverage that the average sprint subscriber sees. Using the numbers available here, 77% off towers have LTE which sounds good, but it is the more rural areas that make up a large geographic area that have yet to be graced with LTE.

Plus don't forget that there are some areas that are 99% upgraded with LTE and others that are 50-60% some (western pa) only GMO's with no real time line for upgrades. There are holes, and until they start addressing that, the perception is going to be that sprint isn't as good as its competitors... No matter how awesome Chicago is.

Sprint actually has a lot of rural LTE coverage. It's very impressive. It's just very noteworthy in GMO areas. Like Western PA, Eastern IA, Alabama/Mississippi, New Mexico. Most other places have good rural deployments. Places like Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, Kansas, Texas, California, Massachusetts, North Carolina and many others Sprint has significant rural LTE deployments. Better than Tmo, and sometimes even better than the Duopoly. It's all about geography and economics.

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

[JossMan]

Sprint actually has a lot of rural LTE coverage. It's very impressive. It's just very noteworthy in GMO areas. Like Western PA, Eastern IA, Alabama/Mississippi, New Mexico. Most other places have good rural deployments. Places like Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, Kansas, Texas, California, Massachusetts, North Carolina and many others Sprint has significant rural LTE deployments. Better than Tmo, and sometimes even better than the Duopoly. It's all about geography and economics.

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

Yep I can confirm this Sprint has LTE service in the middle of Cherokee National Forest, Band 25 was hovering around 29Mbps last time I visited.  

[Deval]

I'm talking about LTE availability, not panel & base station installs. The actual amount of coverage that the average sprint subscriber sees. Using the numbers available here, 77% off towers have LTE which sounds good, but it is the more rural areas that make up a large geographic area that have yet to be graced with LTE. 

Plus don't forget that there are some areas that are 99% upgraded with LTE and others that are 50-60% some (western pa) only GMO's with no real time line for upgrades.  There are holes, and until they start addressing that, the perception is going to be that sprint isn't as good as its competitors... No matter how awesome Chicago is. 

 

You are aware that without the panel and base station work, LTE wouldn't exist for Sprint. What I'm trying to say is that at least the hardware is there for it, and backhaul remains the challenge. 

[Joeynach]

Sprint actually has a lot of rural LTE coverage. It's very impressive. It's just very noteworthy in GMO areas. Like Western PA, Eastern IA, Alabama/Mississippi, New Mexico. Most other places have good rural deployments. Places like Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, Kansas, Texas, California, Massachusetts, North Carolina and many others Sprint has significant rural LTE deployments. Better than Tmo, and sometimes even better than the Duopoly. It's all about geography and economics.

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

Similar sentiments.  I have TMO and Sprint.  My TMO LTE has been great in cities, not so great once I venture out.  I mean like drive 80 miles outside of the city to hit the slopes or go camping/hiking, no LTE.  Sprint has better coverage out away from the Urban centers and LTE coverage where TMO falls to HSPA or even EDGE. 

[jman02]

Hi everyone,

 

I was hoping to get some insight from some Chicagoland Sprint users. I left Sprint for Tmobile February of last year and the Tmobile speeds have been great. However, now that so many have jumped ship, my speeds at work are now dismal. I now experience .2-.5 mbps during the workday, where they used to be 7-12 mbps.

 

My questions for you guys are...

 

1. Has Sprint rolled out VoLTE in Chicago?

2. Can I expect to travel throughout Chicagoland (Elgin, Naperville, Lakeview) without dropping down to 3G?

3. What are the consistent average speeds seen on Sprint these days? This can be broken down by band if need be.

 

Thank you!

[EvanA]

 

 

Hi everyone,

 

I was hoping to get some insight from some Chicagoland Sprint users. I left Sprint for Tmobile February of last year and the Tmobile speeds have been great. However, now that so many have jumped ship, my speeds at work are now dismal. I now experience .2-.5 mbps during the workday, where they used to be 7-12 mbps.

 

My questions for you guys are...

 

1. Has Sprint rolled out VoLTE in Chicago?

2. Can I expect to travel throughout Chicagoland (Elgin, Naperville, Lakeview) without dropping down to 3G?

3. What are the consistent average speeds seen on Sprint these days? This can be broken down by band if need be.

 

Thank you!

1. There is no VoLTE anywhere on the Sprint network at this point.

 

2. I'll let the in market guys answer

 

3. Best to examine the RootMetrics report http://www.rootmetrics.com/us/rsr/chicago-il. They report median download, which is a better metric for mobile networks.

[gusherb]

Hi everyone,

 

I was hoping to get some insight from some Chicagoland Sprint users. I left Sprint for Tmobile February of last year and the Tmobile speeds have been great. However, now that so many have jumped ship, my speeds at work are now dismal. I now experience .2-.5 mbps during the workday, where they used to be 7-12 mbps.

 

My questions for you guys are...

 

1. Has Sprint rolled out VoLTE in Chicago?

2. Can I expect to travel throughout Chicagoland (Elgin, Naperville, Lakeview) without dropping down to 3G?

3. What are the consistent average speeds seen on Sprint these days? This can be broken down by band if need be.

 

Thank you!

I just reactivated my TMO SIM in my N5 and have been testing them again lately side by side with my sprint iPhone 6.

 

I don't have any super scientific answers for you but I have been all over the city the past couple days, and what I've noticed is that in more crowded areas like near Grant/Millennium park in Chicago I was seeing around 2-3 Mbps on TMO and 5-10 on sprint, and this trend repeated all the way up LSD to the northside just north of Devon on Clark and back down Clark through Lincoln Park.

I also drove out to Orland Park yesterday and LaGrange road near the Orland Square Mall during early rush hour was the same thing, TMO started at like 8 Mbps and sprint was running along 21 on B41, and later on TMO was down to 3mbps and sprint was running at 8 mbps in this vicinity.

 

So I think to sum it up for you, what I've observed is sprint seems a bit faster overall and there have been far more places where I've seen TMO slower then sprint then vice versa (that wasn't the case 9 months ago lol)

I gotta say though, for one 10x10 LTE carrier TMO seems to be handling the crowds very well.

[nexgencpu]

Hi everyone,

 

I was hoping to get some insight from some Chicagoland Sprint users. I left Sprint for Tmobile February of last year and the Tmobile speeds have been great. However, now that so many have jumped ship, my speeds at work are now dismal. I now experience .2-.5 mbps during the workday, where they used to be 7-12 mbps.

 

My questions for you guys are...

 

1. Has Sprint rolled out VoLTE in Chicago?

2. Can I expect to travel throughout Chicagoland (Elgin, Naperville, Lakeview) without dropping down to 3G?

3. What are the consistent average speeds seen on Sprint these days? This can be broken down by band if need be.

 

Thank you!

This gives you a general idea in what direction things are going in chicagoland...

 

 

Sprint’s median download speed increased from 7.4 Mbps to 10.5 Mbps since April, and Sprint’s median upload speed increased from 3.7 Mbps to 6.5 Mbps.

T-Mobile’s median download speed decreased from 18.9 Mbps to 14.6 Mbps.

[EvanA]

This gives you a general idea in what direction things are going in chicagoland...

 

Sprint’s median download speed increased from 7.4 Mbps to 10.5 Mbps since April, and Sprint’s median upload speed increased from 3.7 Mbps to 6.5 Mbps.

T-Mobile’s median download speed decreased from 18.9 Mbps to 14.6 Mbps.

Yeah T-Mobile is in a bind in Chicago because wider LTE carriers require them to shut down AWS HSPA.

[jman02]

A source in their Tmobile's engineering area told me they're going to rollout 15 + 15 LTE in mid June, but I don't know if that will help enough. Anyone have any information on when Chicago would get VoLTE? Also, one of my biggest issues when I was with sprint was that on the move, I couldn't stream video due to it dropping down to 3g. Is this resolved now, are hand offs improved?

[nexgencpu]

A source in their Tmobile's engineering area told me they're going to rollout 15 + 15 LTE in mid June, but I don't know if that will help enough. Anyone have any information on when Chicago would get VoLTE? Also, one of my biggest issues when I was with sprint was that on the move, I couldn't stream video due to it dropping down to 3g. Is this resolved now, are hand offs improved?

Sprint is about to get LTE-A switched on, and with it brings 20+20 CA support and higher X MIMO for improved at edge performance. 

 

Together with the site density they already have, Sprint should easily be a no-brainer for most Chicagoan's 

 

But you should get some first hand experiences from local users as well.

[Deval]

I'm not in Chicago, but even in a market like NYC, locally I'm able to stream Youtube just fine while on the subway, handing off between cell sites.

[lou99/maximus1987]

A source in their Tmobile's engineering area told me they're going to rollout 15 + 15 LTE in mid June, but I don't know if that will help enough.

Any more info on this?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jman02]

Such as? Tmobile would increase their current 10 + 10 band 4 LTE carrier to 15 +15 in Chicago in mid June.

[lilotimz]

Such as? Tmobile would increase their current 10 + 10 band 4 LTE carrier to 15 +15 in Chicago in mid June.

 

Meanwhile Sprint sets up another 20 mhz B41 carrier.. and another... and another... and adds small cells everywhere ...

 

Sprints FDD-LTE allocation of 5x5 LTE 800, 5x5 PCS B LTE 1900, and 5x5 PCS G LTE 1900 already matches the capacity of a "wideband" tmobile market of 15x15. A single 20 mhz B41 carrier which is damn like everywhere in a place like Chicago is about equal to a 10x10 FDD-LTE carrier.

 

No one can touch Sprint in Chicago with the raw amount of spectrum currently active and to come at this place and time.  

[nexgencpu]

Meanwhile Sprint sets up another 20 mhz B41 carrier.. and another... and another... and adds small cells everywhere ...

 

Sprints FDD-LTE allocation of 5x5 LTE 800, 5x5 PCS B LTE 1900, and 5x5 PCS G LTE 1900 already matches the capacity of a "wideband" tmobile market of 15x15. A single 20 mhz B41 carrier which is damn like everywhere in a place like Chicago is about equal to a 10x10 FDD-LTE carrier.

 

No one can touch Sprint in Chicago with the raw amount of spectrum currently active and to come at this place and time.  

Tim,

 

Will the current crop of 2XCA capable devices need software updates to enable the feature? 

[lilotimz]

Tim,

 

Will the current crop of 2XCA capable devices need software updates to enable the feature? 

 

Yes... 

 

I've mentioned that many times. 

[nexgencpu]

Yes... 

 

I've mentioned that many times. 

Somehow I missed that, good to know. 

 

Cheers  

[jman02]

Is the Nexus 6 hardware ready for CA with Sprint? Any rough timelines on CA and VoLTE for Sprint in Chicago?

[nexgencpu]

Is the Nexus 6 hardware ready for CA with Sprint? Any rough timelines on CA and VoLTE for Sprint in Chicago?

N6 does not support CA,

 

Samsung Note Edge

Samsung GS6 and edge models

LG G Flex 2

HTC M9 

(hopefully didnt miss any)

 

and most phones from this point forward....

 

 

VoLTE is probably a year away more or less..

[jman02]

So are there any options for voice and data on Sprint, without using Wifi?

[Joeynach]

Hi everyone,

 

I was hoping to get some insight from some Chicagoland Sprint users. I left Sprint for Tmobile February of last year and the Tmobile speeds have been great. However, now that so many have jumped ship, my speeds at work are now dismal. I now experience .2-.5 mbps during the workday, where they used to be 7-12 mbps.

 

My questions for you guys are...

 

1. Has Sprint rolled out VoLTE in Chicago?

2. Can I expect to travel throughout Chicagoland (Elgin, Naperville, Lakeview) without dropping down to 3G?

3. What are the consistent average speeds seen on Sprint these days? This can be broken down by band if need be.

 

Thank you!

You could also go to sensorly.com and load and check out the LTE coverage and speed tests map views for Chicago and compare the carriers that way. 

[nexgencpu]

So are there any options for voice and data on Sprint, without using Wifi?

Yup, do full G voice integration and use hangouts dialer to dial out and you will still have access to your data connection. 

 

Also, since Sprint is the only carrier that supports full integration you can use your carrier number to make and receive calls from Hangouts.