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Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market


thesickness069

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B26 may be deployed but T-Mobile's AWS LTE still blankets better then B26. I still drop off LTE a lot, and when I am on B26 it performs rather poorly. The numbers may look great but user experience is where it really counts.

Off to tmobile you go.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

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Off to tmobile you go.

Sent from my Nexus 5

I still have 5 more days with the phone, I'm not entirely convinced yet lol. But they do put up a strong argument against sprint, even with only 10x10 of LTE.

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I still have 5 more days with the phone, I'm not entirely convinced yet lol. But they do put up a strong argument against sprint, even with only 10x10 of LTE.

With only 10x10 I really don't see them as a true long term competitor.

 

Prepaid month to month is the way to do T-Mobile until they become strained under the traffic pressure then move on to a better option.

 

Or better yet, stick with Sprint, I hear its pretty good in Chicagoland plus sweet LTE-A support any day now doesn't hurt.

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With only 10x10 I really don't see them as a true long term competitor.

 

Prepaid month to month is the way to do T-Mobile until they become strained under the traffic pressure then move on to a better option.

 

Or better yet, stick with Sprint, I hear its pretty good in Chicagoland plus sweet LTE-A support any day now doesn't hurt.

If you think they'll be 10x10 for much longer, you're sorely mistaken. T-Mobile is aggressively refarming AWS HSPA for LTE and will probably do that in Chicago before the end of the year.
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If you think they'll be 10x10 for much longer, you're sorely mistaken. T-Mobile is aggressively refarming AWS HSPA for LTE and will probably do that in Chicago before the end of the year.

Unless they acquire more AWS from somewhere that means finally shutting down AWS HSPA. Somewhere I read a rumor that they'll be upgrading LTE to 15x15 in June. After what they did in Indianapolis to get to 10x10 I wouldn't be surprised if Chicago's next.

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If you think they'll be 10x10 for much longer, you're sorely mistaken. T-Mobile is aggressively refarming AWS HSPA for LTE and will probably do that in Chicago before the end of the year.

 

It really doesn't matter though considering Sprint will more than likely be running a second Band 41 carrier and aggregating that with the initial Band 41 carrier. Once that happens, Sprint will likely take the #1 spot in Chicago outright. T-Mobile running a 15x15 is going to help, but it won't put it above Sprint.

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It really doesn't matter though considering Sprint will more than likely be running a second Band 41 carrier and aggregating that with the initial Band 41 carrier. Once that happens, Sprint will likely take the #1 spot in Chicago outright. T-Mobile running a 15x15 is going to help, but it won't put it above Sprint.

What about the consistency in service though? Right now in Chicago AT&T and even T-Mobile are far more consistent then Sprint (minus T-Mo's weak indoor coverage) in overall network experience.

 

Just sitting in the same spot I was seeing speeds anywhere from 20 to 2 Mbps because of the way the phone was hunting around on different bands. In far more places then I wanted to, I saw B41 running at just 1-3 Mbps which surprised me.

And switching from B41 to B25 or 26 is like dropping off a cliff in most places, I thought they would all even out more or less with load balancing.

 

BTW I saw a good bit of second carrier B41 up on the northside of the city on the weekend.

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What about the consistency in service though? Right now in Chicago AT&T and even T-Mobile are far more consistent then Sprint (minus T-Mo's weak indoor coverage) in overall network experience.

 

Many in this thread who have tried other providers say that Sprint is now superior in Chicago -- especially superior to T-Mobile.  I am not a Chicagoan and have not visited the Windy City since 2011.  I will let others speak for themselves, but from the array of recent anecdotal reports here, you and your experience seem to be outliers.  That happens, generally a product of specific location(s).

 

AJ

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Anyone notice a lack of HD voice on Sprint to Sprint calls the last few days?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes. It's hit or miss lately, but when I connect with my wife, it seems more instant as opposed to that cut after like 3 seconds while it's switching over.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

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It has been working Ok for me as far as I can tell. Do you see the HD symbol when in a call when it doesn't work?

Do you have an Android? I don't think iPhones differentiate between HD voice and non HD voice calls in the log, so I can't really tell unless I hear it on the call.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

Cricket: I was pleasantly surprised about how well AT&T's network worked. I've never been on their network before, and had to try it because everyone I know with them, never, ever loses LTE. Band 17 is an absolute monster. It's so strong, and I was thoroughly impressed. They're running 10x10 b17 and 5x5 b4 here in Chicago. I saw b2 when I was in Minooka, so I don't know where their pcs licenses really are. Speeds were consistent, even in Chicago.

 

My problem with them was the throttle, the pings, and the 20gb limit. I use 25gb a month without even trying, so it was tight with them. I've been a Sprint customer since the Nextel days, and that's where I'll stay for the foreseeable future.

 

 

 

AT&T is now running AWS on 10x10 in Chicago. The engineering screen on my phone confirmed it up the Skyway and around Bridgeport. They must've shut down the Leap network already. 

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AT&T is now running AWS on 10x10 in Chicago. The engineering screen on my phone confirmed it up the Skyway and around Bridgeport. They must've shut down the Leap network already.

Is that recent? B4 was only 5x5 when I was testing cricket last month. Man, I was thoroughly impressed with the strength and reliability of AT&T's network. The only thing that bothered me was the latency and the lack of an unlimited plan. If those were changed, my money would be going there every month.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

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Is that recent? B4 was only 5x5 when I was testing cricket last month. Man, I was thoroughly impressed with the strength and reliability of AT&T's network. The only thing that bothered me was the latency and the lack of an unlimited plan. If those were changed, my money would be going there every month.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

Latency is significantly higher on AT&T than any other network. Consistently whatever market I go to. I don't get it.

 

It must be at the MSC/DDC level where it is occurring. For me, it makes no difference, though. It more than meets my needs. Anything under 180-200ms meets my needs. I'm not a gamer.

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

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Is that recent? B4 was only 5x5 when I was testing cricket last month. Man, I was thoroughly impressed with the strength and reliability of AT&T's network. The only thing that bothered me was the latency and the lack of an unlimited plan. If those were changed, my money would be going there every month.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

It must be, and I'm the first one in the area to report on it. I was just at Canal & Roosevelt and AWS is 10x10 here too so I'm lead to assume that it's the same across the city.

 

The funny thing is they haven't deployed the Leap AWS in NWI yet but they clearly have in the city. They have a grand total of 50 MHz of spectrum deployed on LTE on the Illinois side of the border but only a total of 30 MHz (so far) in NWI.

 

The network has been fantastic for me, I'm actually impressed, and surprised a little because when I left them in September of 2012 my experience had grown quite bitter at the time. B17 has impressive propagation, seemingly stronger then band 5 WCDMA in some places.

 

Edit: I just found an article from January with a list of Leap markets to be shut down April 15th 2015 and Chicago was one of them: https://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/2015/01/09/att-confirms-september-shutdown-of-cricket-cdma-network/

So it appears AT&T wasted NO time at all putting that newly vacated AWS spectrum to use.

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Latency is significantly higher on AT&T than any other network. Consistently whatever market I go to. I don't get it.

 

It must be at the MSC/DDC level where it is occurring. For me, it makes no difference, though. It more than meets my needs. Anything under 180-200ms meets my needs. I'm not a gamer.

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

Especially Cricket with their proxy servers 2500 miles from Chicago. 130ms was the best I saw.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

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Latency is significantly higher on AT&T than any other network. Consistently whatever market I go to. I don't get it.

 

It must be at the MSC/DDC level where it is occurring. For me, it makes no difference, though. It more than meets my needs. Anything under 180-200ms meets my needs. I'm not a gamer.

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

I would post some screenshots but that appears to not be allowed in this thread. Most of my speed tests are coming in with pings under 40 ms. One speed test on CA today came in at 23 ms!
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I would post some screenshots but that appears to not be allowed in this thread. Most of my speed tests are coming in with pings under 40 ms. One speed test on CA today came in at 23 ms!

That's because you're postpaid. Go to www.iplocation.net and see where you're connected to. It will list a city. On cricket, it was always in California or Texas.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

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I'm post paid, but most of my pings on my Nexus 5 and Moto X 2014 are between 70-130ms. I have seen 40-70, but it's uncommon for me. My market is almost always in that 70-130 range. However, when I travel, I see anywhere from 60-180 on ATT LTE. I did find a few sites in MSP earlier this year that were 40-70. It may be lower in Chicago because you are closer to an ATT DDC.

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

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Is that recent? B4 was only 5x5 when I was testing cricket last month. Man, I was thoroughly impressed with the strength and reliability of AT&T's network. The only thing that bothered me was the latency and the lack of an unlimited plan. If those were changed, my money would be going there every month.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6+

AWS is 10x10 In Orland too, I'm here today and getting fantastic network performance.

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