Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[TrulyNotSoTweet]

 

Distants might be a factor for you, I live near route 20 and Randall rd,

Here is a map of towers https://network.sprint.com/search/60123/

 

If I'm near the tower on larkin and mclean rd I get about 2.3 download on 3G, but by my house it's peaks about 1.3 download. There is an improvement.

 

That's weird- when I checked the map for my zip code (60610) it shows no upgrades in the last 6 months, and no planned upgrades for the next 6 months even though there's got to be some for LTE and Network Vision... ?

 

sent from my G III via tapatalk.

[Rizm1989]

 

 

That's weird- when I checked the map for my zip code (60610) it shows no upgrades in the last 6 months, and no planned upgrades for the next 6 months even though there's got to be some for LTE and Network Vision... ?

 

sent from my G III via tapatalk.

 

The map update is old back in may or June, Elgin is done. Just posted to show fatonuseni the nearest tower near him. But you are in the heart of Chicago, to be honest I don't see any updates coming out your way for at least another month. See sprint is working out to in, example they'll start really out west, south and north of Chicago suburbs and work there way to the city, which has the most towers.

[MacinJosh]

I can't see this happening. I am willing to entertain bets on this (where permissible by law).

 

Robert

 

It's too soon after the release of the GS3. Samsung would be foolish to release the 4.

 

Sent from my LG Viper 4G LTE using Forum Runner

[S4GRU]

network.sprint.com does not show Network Vision upgrades. It only shows network maintenance work. Also, network.sprint.com does not show every Sprint site. Only the sites with network maintenance work scheduled in a six month rolling window. We have maps in our Sponsor section that show locations of all Sprint sites in the country.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[djmiro83]

Hey guys' date=' just wanted to provide a bit of an update. I was driving north on Barrington Rd today, and I remembered the posting here about the intersection of Barrington and Schaumburg. I passed right by it as I was heading north (even saw the Noodles & Co referenced) but no luck. I had my phone's screen on just to see, and shortly after I passed that intersection, there wasn't a 3G icon anymore...sure enough, 4G icon came up.

 

I pulled over into a parking lot (Casey's Automotive I think it was called) and ran a few speed tests. Not too shabby IMO, I would love to see these as a consistent speed. It jumped back to 3G just before I hit Bode Rd.[/quote']

 

One thing I'm finding strange with these speedtest screenshots are the download vs upload speeds on LTE. Seeing quite a few instances where the upload speed is faster than download. Is this how it's going to be or just a side effect of the Chicago market still being actively deployed?

 

Sent from my JB iPhone 4S using Forum Runner

[S4GRU]

 

One thing I'm finding strange with these speedtest screenshots are the download vs upload speeds on LTE. Seeing quite a few instances where the upload speed is faster than download. Is this how it's going to be or just a side effect of the Chicago market still being actively deployed?

 

Sent from my JB iPhone 4S using Forum Runner

 

Its probably temporary prior to launch. I had the same issue here in NM with VZW LTE on pre launch sites. I was pulling 15Mbps upload, but only 7-8Mbps down. After launch it went to normal. I never understood why.

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

[hayzooos]

I'm still hoping Sprint 'caps' it around the 8-12Mbps range. I would love to get those speeds consistently throughout the day. I don't care if I can get 30+Mbps at 3:00am, I'd rather get 8-12 all the time. An upload speed in that neighborhood would be pretty great as well.

 

I'm with fat though, I haven't seen any backhaul updates in the Elgin area whatsoever. The 3G speed is still horribly slow. I was running Pandora in my car yesterday and as I was heading West on Shoe Factory near Toastmaster, it took literally a minute between songs. That's pretty bad. I had forced over to VZW 3G last weekend and the switch between songs was almost instantaneous.

[supert0nes]

The limiting factor will probably be distance from the tower, not congestion. I don't really see a need for caps with their new back-haul and existing tower density.

[Rizm1989]

I'm still hoping Sprint 'caps' it around the 8-12Mbps range. I would love to get those speeds consistently throughout the day. I don't care if I can get 30+Mbps at 3:00am, I'd rather get 8-12 all the time. An upload speed in that neighborhood would be pretty great as well.

 

I'm with fat though, I haven't seen any backhaul updates in the Elgin area whatsoever. The 3G speed is still horribly slow. I was running Pandora in my car yesterday and as I was heading West on Shoe Factory near Toastmaster, it took literally a minute between songs. That's pretty bad. I had forced over to VZW 3G last weekend and the switch between songs was almost instantaneous.

 

You in Elgin/Hoffman estates area, I know that area pretty well it's a dead zone for almost all networks, it's not a back haul issue for you.

In the last 5 years I have had AT&T, tmobile, and now sprint and can never get good coverage out there. Never had Verizon or US cellular but have heard the same from friends that there data hardly works out there. If you live in that area sorry for you Bro, but Service just sucks no matter who you have. You should be able to get good voice service still but not data

Edited September 8, 2012 by Rizm1989

[supert0nes]

I believe it's still in all likelihood a NV upgrade / back-haul issue. This should be resolved when the back-haul is hooked up and more Network Vision towers are upgraded. They have enough towers in that area, and that is right at the edge of where Network Vision upgrades are happening.

[strav22]

You in Elgin/Hoffman estates area, I know that area pretty well it's a dead zone for almost all networks, it's not a back haul issue for you.

In the last 5 years I have had AT&T, tmobile, and now sprint and can never get good coverage out there. Never had Verizon or US cellular but have heard the same from friends that there data hardly works out there. If you live in that area sorry for you Bro, but Service just sucks no matter who you have. You should be able to get good voice service still but not data

 

I live in the schaumburg/hoffman area. I agree that this area has always had slow data problems no matter what network I was on. If I go north a few miles to Palatine I received 1.2 down there on my iPhone.

 

I'm sure that this area will be fixed when NV is complete. Just not sure why this area has been a problem and continues to be a problem during the NV roll out.

[dannible]

DA BEARS!!!

[wtsguy]

Still no improvements in the Winfield, Warrenville, and Wheaton areas in the suburbs. Driving down Winfield road and Naperville road are outstandingly bad because the data signal drops entirely, you can't even get 1x. There are a few random towers here and there that push decent speeds, but the pockets of good and bad make it impossible to stream music on my commutes. It has been really frustrating and more so as I have to continually read about how close we're getting to launching a Chicago market when my service is as bad and spotty as ever.

 

Based on real world experience, I can't imagine the Chicago market launching this year - unless it's a "launch" in name only.

[TrulyNotSoTweet]

It's probably nothing more than my wishful thinking and hopes they will upgrade the towers by me sooner than later as the data connection by my place the last few weeks has become useless, and now I've come to find out I'm missing calls as people have tried to reach me but my phone never rings, and I'll often get a handful of texts or new emails after completing an outgoing call. This only has been recent and before I had what I would consider a pretty good connection before.

 

So this morning I was playing with the netmonitor app and was checking out the map of my surrounding towers that I was connecting to when I noticed that the 2 closest towers to me highlighted in red and then I was connecting to a few other towers considerably further away from the 2 closer towers....

 

Any significance to this or just my phone or the app being screwy? Like I said, I'm probably just wishing they were in the process of upgrades, but I'm really pretty close to the loop and it's my understanding that they won't be starting work in the city for a little while longer as they're starting outside and working inwards.

 

sent from my G III via tapatalk.

[ydoucare]

Traveling to Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet this weekend for the race, so i'll be running some speed tests throughout the day if LTE is still live there. Interested in seeing how it holds up with having thousands of people in one small area.

[Wolvan]

Sprint has a small trailer with mini cell tower set up at the raceway on Laraway road. (I live like 3 miles down the road and drive by it every day..I hate race weekends) that usually gives good service in the area right around the track. They hadn't turned it on yet as of last week, I'll check it on the drive home. They have done it every big race weekend for the last few years.

[ydoucare]

Sprint has a small trailer with mini cell tower set up at the raceway on Laraway road. (I live like 3 miles down the road and drive by it every day..I hate race weekends) that usually gives good service in the area right around the track. They hadn't turned it on yet as of last week, I'll check it on the drive home. They have done it every big race weekend for the last few years.

At least one person has posted in this thread not long ago about driving by the track and having LTE. According to the NV Sites Complete map, there is an actual tower on 53 and Dollar Tree Ln (not a CoW) right across from the track that is 3G/4G complete. I know Sprint, being the sponsor of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, brings at least one CoW to every track/race that doesn't have existing equipment installed at the track. Do you have an LTE phone to test? I'm guessing not if you still have an Epic 4G?

[Wolvan]

Yep, I have seen the tower and on and off have gotten very good 3G download speeds from it. However, as you surmised, I do not have an LTE phone yet. I've been holding out for the crop coming this fall. I'm close to getting the S3, but the new Note 2 looks sexy plus other phones coming out. By the middle of October I will pull the trigger and get something.

 

The current mini-trailer on your picture above is right at the 12 o'clock position of the raceway where the little drive out goes to the main road (Laraway). When you drive by your literally about 30 feet from the van with its mini-tower.

[fatonuseni]

I got some strange results today. I work near Gail Borden library in Elgin. I was getting great speeds this morning. 1.9D 07U with a 100ms ping. I was ecstatic after seeing Sprint press release today thinking that they hooked up the new backhaul. Then, around lunch time the speeds and ping deteriorated to the norm of what I’ve been getting the last 5-6 months of 0.2D 0.4U with a 280ms ping or worse. Now I’m about to leave and the speeds are spotty, sometimes good. Sometimes bad. Sometimes in between. I really do know what to make of this. I don’t know if I need to blame my phone for being crappy. I haven't upgraded my OG Epic and I’m waiting on the iPhone 5 announcement to make a decision. Or is it they are testing the towers near me to see what load they can handle?!? Or is the area overloaded and additional backhaul is needed?!?

 

I have no idea and want to know if anyone has any insight on the matter??

[S4GRU]

I got some strange results today. I work near Gail Borden library in Elgin. I was getting great speeds this morning. 1.9D 07U with a 100ms ping. I was ecstatic after seeing Sprint press release today thinking that they hooked up the new backhaul. Then, around lunch time the speeds and ping deteriorated to the norm of what I’ve been getting the last 5-6 months of 0.2D 0.4U with a 280ms ping or worse. Now I’m about to leave and the speeds are spotty, sometimes good. Sometimes bad. Sometimes in between. I really do know what to make of this. I don’t know if I need to blame my phone for being crappy. I haven't upgraded my OG Epic and I’m waiting on the iPhone 5 announcement to make a decision. Or is it they are testing the towers near me to see what load they can handle?!? Or is the area overloaded and additional backhaul is needed?!?

 

I have no idea and want to know if anyone has any insight on the matter??

 

There is no way to know for certain. You could have been connected to a different site than normal when performance was good this morning. They could have been testing something. It's possible that they have hooked up the new backhaul but not installed additional carriers yet. We just can't know for certain at this point. We just know that the area is actively still being worked on and just about anything can happen.

 

Robert

[CriticalityEvent]

I got some strange results today. I work near Gail Borden library in Elgin. I was getting great speeds this morning. 1.9D 07U with a 100ms ping. I was ecstatic after seeing Sprint press release today thinking that they hooked up the new backhaul. Then, around lunch time the speeds and ping deteriorated to the norm of what I’ve been getting the last 5-6 months of 0.2D 0.4U with a 280ms ping or worse. Now I’m about to leave and the speeds are spotty, sometimes good. Sometimes bad. Sometimes in between. I really do know what to make of this. I don’t know if I need to blame my phone for being crappy. I haven't upgraded my OG Epic and I’m waiting on the iPhone 5 announcement to make a decision. Or is it they are testing the towers near me to see what load they can handle?!? Or is the area overloaded and additional backhaul is needed?!?

 

I have no idea and want to know if anyone has any insight on the matter??

 

 

This would actually happen to me as well. I would get to work around 9:30, have great speed and no connection issues, then by 11, it was all gone. You could almost set your watch to it. I chalked it up to working near Six Flags in Gurnee. Of course, I work between the tower that is closest to the park and the park itself, so I’m sure there’s quite a load being placed on it.

 

What would be awesome is if there was an app that allowed you to manually choose which tower you would like to connect to. Yes, more often than not, the phone can choose the best tower, but sometimes… yeah… no…

[preyloood]

Been out of town for a couple of months, anybody have luck in Lombard/Glendale Heights/Bloomingdale areas?

[nextohel]

Still no improvements in the Winfield, Warrenville, and Wheaton areas in the suburbs. Driving down Winfield road and Naperville road are outstandingly bad because the data signal drops entirely, you can't even get 1x. There are a few random towers here and there that push decent speeds, but the pockets of good and bad make it impossible to stream music on my commutes. It has been really frustrating and more so as I have to continually read about how close we're getting to launching a Chicago market when my service is as bad and spotty as ever.

 

Based on real world experience, I can't imagine the Chicago market launching this year - unless it's a "launch" in name only.

 

Ah yes, the "black hole" of Winfield!

[Wolvan]

On that upgraded tower right by the racetrack on Rt 53 @ Laraway that he shows above.

 

2012 kbps down, 537 kbps up while driving by it on my way home.

Also got 1509/370 kbps and 1739/586 kbps as I went farther east on Laraway.

 

Of course right by the temporary trailer tower I lost all signal (inside the bubble?) for a quarter mile or so.

[ks-man]

Last night there was a very noticeable clicking on my office handset when I was talking to my wife on her cell phone (she was at home). Later she was using our landline to talk to her mother who also has Sprint and was on her way to our house (likely connected to the same tower) and heard the same type of clicking that I described. Has anybody else experienced this when their towers were being switched on or is this likely just some technical issues going on with the tower?