Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[aerxx]

 

If you don't mind me asking' date=' what part of the east side of st chas were you by?[/quote']

 

 

 

 

 

St. Charles

 

 

 

[ATTACH]479[/ATTACH]

 

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[shotymedan]

4g in elburn and lafox so far! Getting 10 Mbps down!!

[aerxx]

4g in elburn and lafox so far! Getting 10 Mbps down!!

 

I had 4G this morning traveling east on RT. 64 between RT. 47 and through all of St. Charles. Ended at Powis Rd.

 

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[aerxx]

Also I saw some brave individual at tower CH03XC518 putzing around in the high winds yesterday afternoon at the top....after I drove by this morning I saw a small dish was installed. Yay backhaul! And the tower has eHRPD AND its the tower I connect while Im at work! :-D

 

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[efranco1]

On the map of completed sites. I don't see any in Chicago that seem to be completed. Is that possibly true? So, no sites are ready in the city of Chicago? : (

[pyroscott]

On the map of completed sites. I don't see any in Chicago that seem to be completed. Is that possibly true? So, no sites are ready in the city of Chicago? : (

 

That is why they are not planning to "launch" the market for a while yet. They have to have coverage within the city and not just the suburbs and the rest of the market.

[S4GRU]

On the map of completed sites. I don't see any in Chicago that seem to be completed. Is that possibly true? So' date=' no sites are ready in the city of Chicago? : ([/quote']

 

Like I have said repeatedly, work is just starting in the city. LTE deployment in the city will be faster to get up and running. Because they can just focus on a couple of dozen sites to cover a densely populated area. Then they will just continue adding more and more sites in the city making the LTE service denser and denser.

 

This is not a surprise. We have been reporting since last February that inside The Loop will be the last part of Network Vision upgrades in the Chicago market.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[ydoucare]

Saw a couple trucks at one of the towers out here in the sticks while on my way to work this morning.

[aerxx]

4G in Geneva. Fabayn Parkway and Randall.

 

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[djmiro83]

You know what surprises me a lot here... some of these places people are seeing 4G, are the same places where 3G is still painful. In my head, if 4G works, then the site is totally updated.... panels, RRUs, backhaul...etc. Why would 3G still be so slow? I'm trying not to sound negative here... it's just a little frustrating

[S4GRU]

You know what surprises me a lot here... some of these places people are seeing 4G' date=' are the same places where 3G is still painful. In my head, if 4G works, then the site is totally updated.... panels, RRUs, backhaul...etc. Why would 3G still be so slow? I'm trying not to sound negative here... it's just a little frustrating [/quote']

 

Two things come to mind. One...for whatever reason, the 3G is not hooked up the new backhaul yet. Two...your site does not have backhaul problems, but capacity problems. Chicago is a spectrum constrained market for 3G. If your site has the maximum number of carriers deployed, then 4G will be needed to offload and provide relief for 3G. Sprint has a lot more 4G spectrum options in the long run than 3G.

 

I think what would be a good way to try to determine if your site has upgraded backhaul connected to 3G is to run speed tests in the middle of the night. If they are consistently over 2Mbps, but drop off really low during the day on the same site, then you likely have a capacity problem and not a backhaul problem. If it only goes up to 1.4 or less with little to no burden, then you do not have upgraded backhaul.

 

Just make sure you go to the EVDO Engineering screen and make sure you are always on the same site when making these comparisons. Its possible that you think you are on a site with 4G completed, but you may be being shunted to another site with less usage nearby.

 

I have a theory that this happens more often with the iPhone, because I think it may have a stronger radio. It has more sites it can connect to. And often they get stuck on a poorer performing distant site. My theory this is the biggest cause for all those people who report their Sprint iPhone was slower than their Android handset running right beside it.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[agazzyiscool]

I surprisingly picked up 4G signal in the Joliet Junior College parking lot area.

Here are the speeds I got:

 

Not as impressive as most of yours, but it's a start. Just glad it's way better than the 3G speeds I've been getting.

 

Galaxy Nexus, Jelly Bean AOKP ROM.

[Zombiebbq]

4G in Geneva. Fabayn Parkway and Randall.

 

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good news for me then thanks

[S4GRU]

I surprisingly picked up 4G signal in the Joliet Junior College parking lot area.

Here are the speeds I got:

 

Not as impressive as most of yours' date=' but it's a start. Just glad it's way better than the 3G speeds I've been getting.

 

Galaxy Nexus, Jelly Bean AOKP ROM.[/quote']

 

LTE performance is very signal strength dependent. You likely had a pretty weak LTE signal at those speeds. Bars on top never show you the LTE signal strength: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2040-bars-lie-for-lte-signal-strength-how-to-determine-your-actual-lte-signal-strength/

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[ydoucare]

Fastest speedtest I've ever gotten on 3G here at home. Ran 3 or 4 back to back all over 2 meg. 5.2 mi from the tower as the bird flies.

 

[fatonuseni]

Fastest speedtest I've ever gotten on 3G here at home. Ran 3 or 4 back to back all over 2 meg. 5.2 mi from the tower as the bird flies.

 

now that's a back haul upgrade!

 

 

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[Joeynach]

Well sprint speeds are getting better even though I haven't gotten an LTE signal yet. Use to get 0.7 Mbps in my house and now getting twice that speed. The fastest was 2.1 Mbps and I stay in Chicago by Archer and Pulaski close to midway airport. Thanks again Robert, this site helped me stay longer on Sprint and I know it'll be worth it!!!

 

I ditto that, I probably would be bailing on Sprint by now if it wasn't for this site, but Ill be patient for a brand new uncongested LTE network.

[Joeynach]

Like I have said repeatedly, work is just starting in the city. LTE deployment in the city will be faster to get up and running. Because they can just focus on a couple of dozen sites to cover a densely populated area. Then they will just continue adding more and more sites in the city making the LTE service denser and denser.

 

This is not a surprise. We have been reporting since last February that inside The Loop will be the last part of Network Vision upgrades in the Chicago market.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

And being that they probably won't "launch" until they have Loop coverage my over on the over/under launch date of Nov 1st is looking pretty good.

[TrulyNotSoTweet]

I have two points to make. First I went to the Sprint Store in the Loop on Lasalle and Clark to get some service done on my phone. While waiting I was messing around with their demo LTE phones; Galaxy S3, Photon Q, EVO LTE. I ran speed tests on all of them, they were connected to 3G and got between 40-80K on all devices. I even said something to the Sprint tech rep I spoke with and he was like yea, thats what the iPhone 4 (a 3G only device) has done to our 3G network right there. Yeah its that bad, and this was at like 11am too.

 

Second, I went to cubs game at Wrigley last night, the stadium was empty maybe 15K people there tops. Anyway, I had my phone in 3G mode cuz my batter was low and damn WiMax sucks battery life. Point being I couldnt do anything in 3G mode, couldnt make calls, access the web, no data connection for apps (they all timed out). Could this be an indication that NV has finally hit Chicago neighborhood towers such as in Wrigleyville? Anyone else notice something similar.

 

P.S. If I went back to 4G WiMax the phone worked fine, points to NV on the 3G Sprint towers IMO.

 

I literally live about a minute walk from that Sprint store that's located on Clark and Division, and I'm praying the fact that they have a Sprint store there will mean that anything will be moved along at a faster pace - even just the closest tower being updated faster which I believe is just at the corner or so of LaSalle and Division, unless there is one just to the east of the store that's closer, but I dont think there is that's closer when I've walked the area with netmonitor.

 

I'm at my breaking point- the slow speeds I will begrudgingly suffer through, but as of this last week and a half I missed calls and texts show up 5-6 hours late. I can't have this going on for an extended period of time, so it was my hope that this extreme in terrible service would be a sign of impending upgrades and a resolution to this limbo of service I've been living in!

 

 

sent from my G III via tapatalk.

[Joeynach]

I literally live about a minute walk from that Sprint store that's located on Clark and Division, and I'm praying the fact that they have a Sprint store there will mean that anything will be moved along at a faster pace - even just the closest tower being updated faster which I believe is just at the corner or so of LaSalle and Division, unless there is one just to the east of the store that's closer, but I dont think there is that's closer when I've walked the area with netmonitor.

 

I'm at my breaking point- the slow speeds I will begrudgingly suffer through, but as of this last week and a half I missed calls and texts show up 5-6 hours late. I can't have this going on for an extended period of time, so it was my hope that this extreme in terrible service would be a sign of impending upgrades and a resolution to this limbo of service I've been living in!

 

 

sent from my G III via tapatalk.

 

Well I live near Diversey and Lincoln in LP, my roommate just brought home a new Galaxy S3 last night. Obviously its only getting 3G, I did three speed tests around 11pm last night, I got 120K down, 350K Down, and one time 750K down. Not in that order.

[S4GRU]

 

I literally live about a minute walk from that Sprint store that's located on Clark and Division' date=' and I'm praying the fact that they have a Sprint store there will mean that anything will be moved along at a faster pace - even just the closest tower being updated faster which I believe is just at the corner or so of LaSalle and Division, unless there is one just to the east of the store that's closer, but I dont think there is that's closer when I've walked the area with netmonitor.

 

I'm at my breaking point- the slow speeds I will begrudgingly suffer through, but as of this last week and a half I missed calls and texts show up 5-6 hours late. I can't have this going on for an extended period of time, so it was my hope that this extreme in terrible service would be a sign of impending upgrades and a resolution to this limbo of service I've been living in!

 

sent from my G III via tapatalk.[/quote']

 

I have not seen any correlation between sites that are live and locations of Sprint stores. Anywhere that occurs is coincidence. In fact, Sprint hasn't even put much LTE coverage around their HQ in Overland Park, Kansas yet.

 

And I am not picking on you specifically, but I always find it amazing that people in Chicago who are in an active Network Vision market with 4G LTE popping up all around them, especially today of all days, complain that they are at their breaking point. As the cavalry is riding into town saving them. But they are not the first ones in town to be rescued.

 

I can't help but contrast you folks in Chicago to the poor saps in Phoenix, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Albuquerque, San Diego, etc. that currently suffer severe 3G data problems and don't have any hope of WiMax off haul for themselves or help alleviate the 3G congestion. Sprint customers in any of these markets want to strangle Chicagoans at this point, when they are so close to rescue. And their rescue doesn't even begin for several more months or later next year.

 

All things are relative, I suppose.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[Secretaznman46]

Got 4g by my parents house in Aurora (Eola and Hafenrichter) got about 9mb down and 6mb up with about 70ms pings. I have an EVO 4G LTE rooted with CM10 and the 56006 prl. Got to my parents house and it took about 10 minutes for the 4g to pop up. After that it never disconnected, even tried rebooting and it connected to 4g right away.

 

Weird question, when I'm in Milwaukee, I leave my phone in LTE/CDMA/EvDo mode and it connects to EvDo just fine. But when I come back to Chicago, it tries to connect to eHRPD and it never connects. If I put it into CDMA/EvDo only it connects to EvDO A just fine. Anyone else rooted having these problems? Is it possible they are blocking some eHRPD connections right now to certain sites?

[S4GRU]

Got 4g by my parents house in Aurora (Eola and Hafenrichter) got about 9mb down and 6mb up with about 70ms pings. I have an EVO 4G LTE rooted with CM10 and the 56006 prl. Got to my parents house and it took about 10 minutes for the 4g to pop up. After that it never disconnected' date=' even tried rebooting and it connected to 4g right away.

 

Weird question, when I'm in Milwaukee, I leave my phone in LTE/CDMA/EvDo mode and it connects to EvDo just fine. But when I come back to Chicago, it tries to connect to eHRPD and it never connects. If I put it into CDMA/EvDo only it connects to EvDO A just fine. Anyone else rooted having these problems? Is it possible they are blocking some eHRPD connections right now to certain sites?[/quote']

 

They are not blocking eHRPD. I have never heard this issue before. People either get EVDO or eHRPD. But I have yet to hear of someone having an eHRPD connection but unable to authenticate and connect to data.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[wtsguy]

And I am not picking on you specifically, but I always find it amazing that people in Chicago who are in an active Network Vision market with 4G LTE popping up all around them, especially today of all days, complain that they are at their breaking point. As the cavalry is riding into town saving them. But they are not the first ones in town to be rescued.

 

Robert,

 

I can definitely empathize with how it must look on your end. However, I do have a lot of friends and family on Sprint service and I'm not exaggerating when I say that the service has been completely unusable for several months. Yes, we do know there's an upgrade coming, and so do my friends and family because that's all Sprint customer support reps say when you call in and complain, but that doesn't change the fact that you can't download anything because 3g is slow or nonexistent, you can't hold a call because it drops every 2 minutes, you don't get texts, you don't get voicemails until way after a person left them.

 

The rollout has been going on for months and for a lot of us, we see no noticeable increase in the quality of the service. I couldn't hold a call when I got my EVO months ago. I still can't hold a call on my commute. I look at the Sponsor maps and see NV towers dotted all around me, but I still can't stream Pandora because my speeds are dial-up. Granted I am not everywhere at once, but I can count 2 towers off the top of my head where I know I get a guaranteed strong and fast 3G signal and the signs of upgrade are obvious. Two towers. Fortunately, one of those is where I work.

 

I'm sure they're making a ton of progress behind the scenes, but it certainly doesn't feel that way. I'd be happy to hear from other suburbanites and their experiences though.

[S4GRU]

 

Robert' date='

 

I can definitely empathize with how it must look on your end. However, I do have a lot of friends and family on Sprint service and I'm not exaggerating when I say that the service has been completely unusable for several months. Yes, we do know there's an upgrade coming, and so do my friends and family because that's all Sprint customer support reps say when you call in and complain, but that doesn't change the fact that you can't download anything because 3g is slow or nonexistent, you can't hold a call because it drops every 2 minutes, you don't get texts, you don't get voicemails until way after a person left them.

 

The rollout has been going on for months and for a lot of us, we see no noticeable increase in the quality of the service. I couldn't hold a call when I got my EVO months ago. I still can't hold a call on my commute. I look at the Sponsor maps and see NV towers dotted all around me, but I still can't stream Pandora because my speeds are dial-up. Granted I am not everywhere at once, but I can count 2 towers off the top of my head where I know I get a guaranteed strong and fast 3G signal and the signs of upgrade are obvious. Two towers. Fortunately, one of those is where I work.

 

I'm sure they're making a ton of progress behind the scenes, but it certainly doesn't feel that way. I'd be happy to hear from other suburbanites and their experiences though.[/quote']

 

I completely understand. But you have to realize that millions of Sprint customer would rather be in the queue where you're at than where they're at.

 

Its not that Chicagoans deserve an inferior network. Its just that for you guys, the end is nigh. Chicago is farther along than any market and will be completed before even any first round market. Sprint is doing anything it can for Chicago. They have more guys working on Chicago than anywhere. There is nothing more they can do.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner