Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[S4GRU]

It's still just guessing. But I'm feeling good about the end of the month.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[coop5885]

I had 4G in north lakeview this morning, both in my apartment and waiting on the Sheridan redline stop.

 

Speed test was:

 

D: 19.00Mbps

U: 11.13Mbps

[hayzooos]

well, i returned the EVO LTE (initially due to the camera dying after 2 days) and with the LTE issues of the phone, i've gone ahead and gotten a galaxy s3 as replacement.

 

did some sensorly tracking around the palatine area, as well as the trip down to my parents house in addison. am amused in that i've been the only one tracking sprint LTE to their area as it's the lone activity for a few square blocks.

 

anyways, i took some time tonite to criss cross across palatine...just checked, and it's not up as of yet. will check it again tomorrow.

 

I'm guessing a good chunk of the Sprint LTE Sensorly data is coming from users on this site. I had heard of it before knowing of this site, but never used it. With the new deployment of LTE instead of Wimax, and this site being the unquestioned go-to site for information, I think that explains most of it.

 

As more and more of us travel around, we'll get more coverage area. I'm turning Sensorly on most of the time in my car, but that's pretty much about it.

 

I can get LTE right outside my office, but no GPS in the building, so I can't map it at all. Guy is coming to fix my windshield today, so maybe I'll be able to pick it up outside my building and map it while he works his magic...

 

EDIT: Mad respect for getting a GSIII over the Evo, you'll be happy.

[StephanStengel]

I'm guessing a good chunk of the Sprint LTE Sensorly data is coming from users on this site. I had heard of it before knowing of this site, but never used it. With the new deployment of LTE instead of Wimax, and this site being the unquestioned go-to site for information, I think that explains most of it.

 

As more and more of us travel around, we'll get more coverage area. I'm turning Sensorly on most of the time in my car, but that's pretty much about it.

 

I can get LTE right outside my office, but no GPS in the building, so I can't map it at all. Guy is coming to fix my windshield today, so maybe I'll be able to pick it up outside my building and map it while he works his magic...

 

EDIT: Mad respect for getting a GSIII over the Evo, you'll be happy.

 

Am going to agree with you on the amount of sensorly tracking coming from this site.

 

I did toggle the Sprint LTE map vs. ATT and Verizon LTE and while certainly more "mature" products, they don't have the mapping coverage around my area that Sprint has.

 

Oh, and checked my phone this morning and discovered that sensorly had a backlog of "messages to send" to their server. Toggled the update settings on and off and they started to upload. The big rectangle in palatine (up hicks, across cunningham, down rohlwing and palatine west) is me!

 

And yes, i've been an HTC guy with the advent of the original EVO, so the switch to samsung was a big deal for me. Still getting used to the different UI, but am happy with the purchase.

[Vince]

I wish there was a way to record sensorly on iPhone. I'm a truck driver in Chicago and drive around the south side 5 nights a week. Could be helpful.

[mellimel2212]

 

If this is true (which i think it is) then i got lte by me

 

Sent from my White Epic 4g Touch using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[Mnemon]

I had 4G in north lakeview this morning, both in my apartment and waiting on the Sheridan redline stop.

 

Speed test was:

 

D: 19.00Mbps

U: 11.13Mbps

 

Seconded. My wife had it a bit further north of the Sheridan redline at Sheridan and Broadway this morning around 7:30, and pulled 16.23 down and 10.56 up.

 

I think they must have turned on the tower at Clark and Irving Park that was just recently completed. Now if only they'll finish up the tower across the street from my apt...

[coop5885]

It was strange, my phone said there was a system update this morning, and after i installed it I connected to 4G. Anyone else have an update today?

[StephanStengel]

It was strange, my phone said there was a system update this morning, and after i installed it I connected to 4G. Anyone else have an update today?

 

L710VPLI3? I got this update over the weekend. And yes, LTE connectivity was tinkered with...

 

Sep 19, 2012 10:09 AM

 

9/19 - Samsung Galaxy S III Software Update - L710VPLI3

Samsung Galaxy SIII Software Update - L710VPLI3

 

Enhancements/Fixes

- Inclusion of SWYPE keyboard

- Improved LTE connectivity

- SMS Messaging improvements

- EAS sync improvements

 

Important Notes:

- The new software version is: L710VPL13

- Updates may be released in stages. When checking for the update, you may receive a message

that no update is available, check back later or wait until the update notification is sent to your device.

- Refer to the Samsung Galaxy SIII Software Updates blog for install instructions.

[coop5885]

L710VPLI3? I got this update over the weekend. And yes, LTE connectivity was tinkered with...

 

Sep 19, 2012 10:09 AM

 

9/19 - Samsung Galaxy S III Software Update - L710VPLI3

Samsung Galaxy SIII Software Update - L710VPLI3

 

Enhancements/Fixes

- Inclusion of SWYPE keyboard

- Improved LTE connectivity

- SMS Messaging improvements

- EAS sync improvements

 

Important Notes:

- The new software version is: L710VPL13

- Updates may be released in stages. When checking for the update, you may receive a message

that no update is available, check back later or wait until the update notification is sent to your device.

- Refer to the Samsung Galaxy SIII Software Updates blog for install instructions.

 

That is the one i received this morning.

[aerxx]

It was strange' date=' my phone said there was a system update this morning, and after i installed it I connected to 4G. Anyone else have an update today?[/quote']

 

I received something like this in the form of a text message last night.....

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forum Runner

[S4GRU]

It was strange' date=' my phone said there was a system update this morning, and after i installed it I connected to 4G. Anyone else have an update today?[/quote']

 

Just a coincidence. Whenever you install an update, your LTE scans for service and found some. If you had cycled through airplane mode right before the update install you would have seen 4G appear on your phone too.

 

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

[Bird_Chicago]

How will the NV upgrade impact crowded areas? I'm thinking Wrigleyville during a game, downtown in the Loop during lunch, going to to a Bears game, going to a concert in Tinley Park, going to the Air and Water show, etc. I'm especially concerned about the Lakeview area since I tend to lose 100% of my phone service anytime something big happens on Clark.

 

Speaking of that area, there must be work going on on the near north side. It's nearly a full deadzone from the Loop up to the south end of Lincoln Park.

 

 

edit: Anyone know what "Sprint Extension" is on the Galaxy Nexus?

Edited October 9, 2012 by Bird_Chicago

[hayzooos]

Just a coincidence. Whenever you install an update, your LTE scans for service and found some. If you had cycled through airplane mode right before the update install you would have seen 4G appear on your phone too.

 

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

 

I dunno...with a new update comes a new radio as well. I think with both radio and OS update, it could certainly have an effect on picking up LTE.

 

How will the NV upgrade impact crowded areas? I'm thinking Wrigleyville during a game, downtown in the Loop during lunch, going to to a Bears game, going to a concert in Tinley Park, going to the Air and Water show, etc. I'm especially concerned about the Lakeview area since I tend to lose 100% of my phone service anytime something big happens on Clark.

 

Speaking of that area, there must be work going on on the near north side. It's nearly a full deadzone from the Loop up to the south end of Lincoln Park.

 

 

edit: Anyone know what "Sprint Extension" is on the Galaxy Nexus?

 

NV will be huge for crowded areas. The way Sprint's network worked before is they had three towers installed, one for each frequency so to speak, to cover most areas. After NV, all towers will have the capability of all three frequencies. I'm not saying you'll get 3x the coverage or speeds, but it'll be a heck of a lot better than it is now, or was previously.

 

At least, this is the general understanding I have of it. Robert, please correct me if I'm off here.

[StephanStengel]

I did a quick eyeball comparison of the sensorly heat maps for palatine against the NV Sites Complete map here on s4gru.

Not surprisingly, the dark purple spots on sensorly correspond to Sprint tower locations...tho there is a lag issue where a couple of the towers pumping out LTE love on sensorly are pinned here as 800/3G (versus 800/3G/4G)...

 

Of the 11 sprint towers within a 3-4 mile radius of my house, 8 are on the NV Sites Complete map...the pisser being that the closest tower to me (half mile away) is one of the three yet to be upgraded, so as of now, there's no LTE love at home..

[S4GRU]

I dunno...with a new update comes a new radio as well. I think with both radio and OS update, it could certainly have an effect on picking up LTE.

 

I agree with your statement in principle. However, in the case of the GS3, the previous LG8 update worked well for LTE, and LTE could always be connected to when cycling through airplane mode. And the minor tweaks that came in LI3 does seem to allow for the GS3 to auto connect better/faster. But it still would have been able to find LTE even to the most faintest signals beforehand. It just might not have been able to autoconnect to a faint signal.

 

NV will be huge for crowded areas. The way Sprint's network worked before is they had three towers installed, one for each frequency so to speak, to cover most areas. After NV, all towers will have the capability of all three frequencies. I'm not saying you'll get 3x the coverage or speeds, but it'll be a heck of a lot better than it is now, or was previously.

 

At least, this is the general understanding I have of it. Robert, please correct me if I'm off here.

 

Sounds about right. However, any carrier can be swamped in a case where the sector gets overwhelmed (like at ballparks or special events). In those cases, DAS or picocells are needed to support the extra demand. A standard macrocell nearby just can't handle those kinds of loads.

 

Robert

[dbos]

Another way of asking the same question--In very dense neighborhoods such as downtown and the near north side, how much of the poor network performance (I'm referring to currently 3G) is due to limited network bandwidth on the backhaul of the tower vs. congestion on the RF side of the tower (i.e. not enough RF bandwidth for all the users in the area)? Bird_Chicago asked in terms of special events which bring even more people to these neighborhoods, but my experience from the near north side of Chicago down to South Loop is that 3G is typically around 0.1 Mbps or even worse (on my Epic Touch) on normal days when no special evens are going on.

 

What are the odds that, in these dense neighborhoods, both both the RF and network backhaul will accommodate the number of users that are already here (not to mention capacity for growth)?

 

Thanks

dbos

[dtw48208]

Long time lurker... first time poster. Wanted to say that 4G LTE is live in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Rode the red line from Wilson to Fullerton and had connectivity throughout. Of course, once I went underground, it switched back to 3G.

 

[aerxx]

Long time lurker... first time poster. Wanted to say that 4G LTE is live in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Rode the red line from Wilson to Fullerton and had connectivity throughout. Of course' date=' once I went underground, it switched back to 3G.

 

[/quote']

 

Ill take underground 3G any day! ;-)

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using JB 4.1.1

[CriticalityEvent]

Here's something that I've been putting together over the last month. I've been doing a screenshot about once per week. It's a little rough around the edges and probably not the most accurate thing to go by given that it's crowdsourced data, but it at least gives some idea of how things are progressing.

 

 

EDIT: the dates of each screenshot are 9/18/12, 9/27/12, 10/2/12, and 10/9/12. Sorry, the text at the top of each shot might not be totally clear.

Edited October 10, 2012 by CriticalityEvent

[EndlessDissent]

So, for the last few weeks, my 3G speeds at my house have been pretty good - about 1-1.5 Mbps at 4 AM. Around September 25, LTE was turned on, and it was also pretty good. It was kind of a weak signal, around 3.5-5 Mbps, but I had a constant connection in my house, and it worked well.

 

However, this all changed in the middle of the night Saturday. My phone started dropping to 3G after being connected to LTE for only a few seconds, and now, the only time I can keep a connection for longer than a minute (real time, not hyperbole) is between 3:30 and 5 AM. Even then, the connection doesn't last more than 20 minutes. At the time, I hadn't made any changes to my phone for three days, during which I had a steady LTE connection. The ROM I'm using doesn't have all the LTE bugs worked out yet, so in order to eliminate that as the cause of my problems, I flashed back to the stock ROM and got the same results - dropping back to 3G after a few seconds of LTE. To top it off, not only am I unable to connect to LTE now, my 3G speeds have dropped to unusable levels - I just tested a little while ago, and out of 4 tests, not one reached 200 Kbps, and one was only 1 Kbps (not a typo).

 

The strangest thing, though, is that I'm now getting the same behavior at my job. When LTE was turned on by my house in Schaumburg, it was also turned on by my job in Addison, which is 10 miles away, so it can't be operating from the same tower (afaik). The only difference is that at my job, the 3G speeds are still usable. Other than that, I'm getting the same LTE connection issues.

 

Since the problem doesn't seem to be my phone, I have a few theories as to what may have happened Saturday night. Do any of these scenarios sound plausible to the gurus here, or am I just crazy?

 

1.) Some parameter of the towers were adjusted - maybe downtilt or something - that weakened the signal in each location.

 

2.) The towers I'm using are already over capacity after a week and a half.

 

3.) A tower closer to me is currently being upgraded for NV, but isn't complete, so my phone is trying to connect to a tower that still has neither LTE nor completed backhaul, and this will be over shortly, when the tower is completed. This scenario accounts for the terrible 3G speeds at my house and why my phone won't stay connected to the LTE tower anymore, but it doesn't account for the similar behavior at my job. Unless towers are being upgraded in both places at the same time, which would be a heck of a coincidence.

 

4.) Other; Maybe one of you knows better, and my first three ideas are way off.

 

 

Personally, I'm hoping it's #3. Also, sorry for the long, boring story. Thanks for reading.

Edited October 10, 2012 by EndlessDissent

[SSLaw]

Long time watcher, but I felt the need to make an account and post this:

 

 

 

Clinton and Monroe, West Loop, creeping into the Loop. My phone suddenly changed to 4G for about a minute and I was able to run a test and get this screen shot. Slow download, but better than nothing. Dare I say the end is nigh?

Edited October 10, 2012 by SSLaw

[StephanStengel]

Here's something that I've been putting together over the last month. I've been doing a screenshot about once per week. It's a little rough around the edges and probably not the most accurate thing to go by given that it's crowdsourced data, but it at least gives some idea of how things are progressing.

 

 

EDIT: the dates of each screenshot are 9/18/12, 9/27/12, 10/2/12, and 10/9/12. Sorry, the text at the top of each shot might not be totally clear.

 

Nice...was thinking that map coverage over time would be a good addition to have at sensorly...

[shotymedan]

I am liking it creeping into the loop too! Just outside of Olgilvie Train Center on Madison I can pick up LTE. not the fastest here, but per the maps I think i am kind of far from the tower. I kept it walking east on Madison until just a bout the river. Can't wait for the full upgrades in the loop as I get 1x in most spots of the building I work in. Keeping hope alive with each little finding of LTE! Now if Rockford and Chicagoland start merging to get LTE working around NIU, I'd be a very happy man!

[aerxx]

Now if Rockford and Chicagoland start merging to get LTE working around NIU' date=' I'd be a very happy man![/quote']

 

I live in DeKalb. They havent even installed backhaul yet.... :-(

 

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