Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[Jamal46409]

Chicago is so far along I don't see the weather having a great impact.

 

 

 

The deployment running list displays a certain date (don't wanna violate rules so I won't say date) of completion as well as percentage. When Robert states this, I think he's talking not about actual completion, but what percentage of sites have been touched at all. I'm more interested in seeing how fast the sites come to total completion since the weather is changing. There are a LOTS of sites that haven't come to TOTAL completion.

[Joeynach]

The deployment running list displays a certain date (don't wanna violate rules so I won't say date) of completion as well as percentage. When Robert states this, I think he's talking not about actual completion, but what percentage of sites have been touched at all. I'm more interested in seeing how fast the sites come to total completion since the weather is changing. There are a LOTS of sites that haven't come to TOTAL completion.

 

Well no doubt the every week dozens of new LTE sites coming on honeymoon is over in Chicago. But anyone who has seen my posts in the past knows that I took a long hard look at NV Sites vs. NV Sites completed and found dozens of sites in the Loop, Gold Coast, and Lakeview that still haven't been touched, nor show as in Progress. I assume this slow down is because many of these sites are on top of urban structure's such as office buildings, skyscrapers, condo buildings, parking garages, etc, and probably have a greater level of complexity to complete the upgrades.....like building permits and rooftop access to privately owned structures.

[Jamal46409]

Well no doubt the every week dozens of new LTE sites coming on honeymoon is over in Chicago. But anyone who has seen my posts in the past knows that I took a long hard look at NV Sites vs. NV Sites completed and found dozens of sites in the Loop, Gold Coast, and Lakeview that still haven't been touched, nor show as in Progress. I assume this slow down is because many of these sites are on top of urban structure's such as office buildings, skyscrapers, condo buildings, parking garages, etc, and probably have a greater level of complexity to complete the upgrades.....like building permits and rooftop access to privately owned structures.

 

I get frustrated with my area because there are no complexities like that over here (east of I-65) at all. From what Robert is saying now is that there is a lack of technical staff that are qualified and/or certified to do the work. I think I have to start taking breaks from the forum cause I'm going LTE crazy and seeing timelines, and other movement in other markets frustrates me even more sometimes.

[ibew697]

 

 

I get frustrated with my area because there are no complexities like that over here (east of I-65) at all. From what Robert is saying now is that there is a lack of technical staff that are qualified and/or certified to do the work. I think I have to start taking breaks from the forum cause I'm going LTE crazy and seeing timelines, and other movement in other markets frustrates me even more sometimes.

 

How far east of I65 are you? I'm in Chesterton, but work in lake County. Most of the time I will have great LTE service at work. I haven't been on this site for a while, but I've been told that Sprint has been working west from South Bend and east out of Lake County and are planning to meet in the middle. Again, this is coming from Sprint reps. I was in Michigan City on Friday and had to pick up a car charger from the Sprint store. The store manager rang up the purchase and he told me that some of the "upgrade" crews were in the store earlier in the week saying that they have most of the upgrades done in that area...

[aerxx]

 

I get frustrated with my area because there are no complexities like that over here (east of I-65) at all. From what Robert is saying now is that there is a lack of technical staff that are qualified and/or certified to do the work. I think I have to start taking breaks from the forum cause I'm going LTE crazy and seeing timelines' date=' and other movement in other markets frustrates me even more sometimes.[/quote']

 

I'm the same way man, backhaul dishes have been installed for over 3 weeks on all the towers around me, and I still have yet to have any LTE.

 

Sent while driving.

[Jamal46409]

How far east of I65 are you? I'm in Chesterton, but work in lake County. Most of the time I will have great LTE service at work. I haven't been on this site for a while, but I've been told that Sprint has been working west from South Bend and east out of Lake County and are planning to meet in the middle. Again, this is coming from Sprint reps. I was in Michigan City on Friday and had to pick up a car charger from the Sprint store. The store manager rang up the purchase and he told me that some of the "upgrade" crews were in the store earlier in the week saying that they have most of the upgrades done in that area...

 

I'm in your same area basically. I frequent Portage, Valpo, and Chesterton. I did get some LTE coverage in between Valpo and Westville. I was in Chesterton this past Thursday and got no LTE. Never got any LTE here in Portage either. Most of the towers out this way I hear are microwave backhaul. Just starting to get frustrated.

[Joeynach]

I'm in your same area basically. I frequent Portage, Valpo, and Chesterton. I did get some LTE coverage in between Valpo and Westville. I was in Chesterton this past Thursday and got no LTE. Never got any LTE here in Portage either. Most of the towers out this way I hear are microwave backhaul. Just starting to get frustrated.

 

So what did Robert say the hold up in this area is? Since most of the Chicagoland area and burbs have been completed months ago wouldn't you assume there is plenty of contractor staff available to concentrate on the leftover areas, such as Lake and Porter county Indiana.

[Jamal46409]

So what did Robert say the hold up in this area is? Since most of the Chicagoland area and burbs have been completed months ago wouldn't you assume there is plenty of contractor staff available to concentrate on the leftover areas, such as Lake and Porter county Indiana.

 

I think the last time Robert talked about it (mid Jan or early Feb) he stated they would probably have everything completed in Feb. Originally it was schedule to be worked on in October/November. They did come through early March and converted everything that was at 3G, or not even touched at all to 3G/800, so i'm hoping they come through in the next few weeks and move everything to LTE. I'm just a Windows/Cisco guy, and i'm working on my project management, but what I don't understand is why Sprint doesn't turn on the LTE. From what I understand (I may be wrong), engineers basically come and install all equipment needed. They then test 3G, stop, and come back later, and test 3G/800, and LTE before they turn it on. Why don't they just turn on everything on the tower (3G/800/4G) and come back later for testing purposes. That way, they can make it available to the public for now and still certify later. From what I can see, most towers (in my area) have their backhaul. I see multiple towers in the area pulling down 1.5-2MB on the 3G side. I believe that is an indicator that the backhaul is there. I'm sure they can access the tower remotely and flip the switch for LTE. Then again, i've seen some pics around the forum where they (engineers) don't even plug the 800/LTE cables in on the tower. Not trying to cause a uprising, just frustrated..LOL.

[S4GRU]

Backhaul readiness is the cause of the sites still waiting for LTE in most cases.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

 

[Joeynach]

Backhaul readiness is the cause of the sites still waiting for LTE in most cases.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

OK, but how does Jamal know that all these sites hes referring to in NW Indiana are supposed to be LTE sites. They are many sites in the Chicago market that were earmarked for just 3G or 3G/800 I thought.

[S4GRU]

 

OK, but how does Jamal know that all these sites hes referring to in NW Indiana are supposed to be LTE sites. They are many sites in the Chicago market that were earmarked for just 3G or 3G/800 I thought.

 

Almost every single site in the Chicago market is full build and slated to get LTE. Most of the 3G and 3G/800 sites in the market already have all the LTE hardware installed and just awaiting backhaul to be installed and connected.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

 

[aerxx]

 

Almost every single site in the Chicago market is full build and slated to get LTE. Most of the 3G and 3G/800 sites in the market already have all the LTE hardware installed and just awaiting backhaul to be installed and connected.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

 

DeKalb/Sycamore area knows this all too well....

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

[ibew697]

 

 

I'm in your same area basically. I frequent Portage, Valpo, and Chesterton. I did get some LTE coverage in between Valpo and Westville. I was in Chesterton this past Thursday and got no LTE. Never got any LTE here in Portage either. Most of the towers out this way I hear are microwave backhaul. Just starting to get frustrated.

 

Yep, you're definitely in my area. I would have thought that they would've "flipped the switch" by now. I can't complain too much though. I'm able to get some blazing fast LTE at work and have my wifi at home. I do have a tower (CH60XC204) that is literally 1500' from my house across an open rural field and even at its 3g (broadcasting in eHRPD) speed I'm able to consistently get 2.4 to almost 3.0M download speeds. Hopefully "my" tower will be LTE shortly. Best wishes.

[Jamal46409]

Almost every single site in the Chicago market is full build and slated to get LTE. Most of the 3G and 3G/800 sites in the market already have all the LTE hardware installed and just awaiting backhaul to be installed and connected. Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

I know that some of them have backhaul issues, but in most cases i'm get anywhere from 1.5 - 2mpbs speeds on most of the towers i'm connecting too. Thought that was an indicator of connected backhaul. If it's still backhaul, then it must be issues related to microwave backhaul. In my experience with various clients and telecomm in this area, fiber is usually a 3-6 month install once a contract is signed. I may have sneak a few dollars past the wife and sign up for the premiere sponsorship. Really interested to see the breakdown on backhaul for each tower.

[hayzooos]

Are certain here that your dropped calls, straight to voice-mail, text messages not sending/receiving is solely b/c of signal strength? I mean its the obvious choice, but it seems so......retro. I mean I remember having similar problems in the days of Motorola startac, Amertitech Cellular, Cellular One, and Cingular. But at the time, everyone knew cellular networks were in there infancy, had many many dead zones (especially outside of metro areas), and part of doing business was poor coverage and dropped calls. Today that seems to be an issue of a different era. Have you actually been able to measure your signal strength, in dB, like from the engineering screen. That way you could measure the variance in signal strength inside your house, outside your house, around your neighborhood, in your neighbor's house. At least this way you could figure out is it your house that's causing a potential low signal, is it Sprint's coverage in your neighborhood, is it your block, etc etc.

 

You should also be asking the question if this isn't a signal strength issue then what could it be; your device, the geography or topography of your neighborhood, the location of Sprint's tower, the capacity of Sprint's tower, the density of sprint users in your neighborhood, the location of other carrier's towers, etc etc.

 

That's the thing is we always have pretty legit signal. I haven't verified with dB ratings but I certainly could. I hear you on this seeming like a very old problem, but I can assure you, it's very real and very relevant. The dropped calls is one thing. Answering a call to not having the other person be able to hear you is another thing completely. My wife is on her third phone. I have a hard time believing the same problem could happen on three separate devices.

 

We live in the burbs of Chicago, there's nothing but flat land and small hills around so I don't think the topography would be an issue.

 

What I do know is this was never a problem before the upgrades to NV started. Everything worked well as far as voice was concerned. Data was pretty much nonexistant, but that wasn't just us...that was Sprint 3G as a whole.

 

Do you have an airwave? Many of us live in older homes built from brick and 1900mhz can't penetrste. I get no reception in the house and about 4 bars on my front porch. Sprint's airave gives me 5 bars inside my house and I don't think I've ever dropped a call on it,whereas I use to have to be outside. If you tell sprint of your situation they may offer you one.

 

Not sure if this was directed at me or not, but yes, we do have an airave at home too. Phones would only connect to it a very small percentage of the time, and when they did, voice worked fine, but SMS was a crapshoot. I would randomly receive about 10 text messages at once as it was like they were all held and delivered at the same time. I would respond and someone would ask why it took me hours to respond or something like that. If that wasn't the issue, there were many times where when connected to the airave, we couldn't sent text messages out, so I had to revert to Google Voice to send them instead.

 

All in all, I ended up buying GrooveIP so we can can make calls via wifi while at home. This seems to have worked fine for now. I'm just hoping this will all get fixed up in the next few months around the area. The problem still persists while out and about, specifically around the East part of Elgin, and the southern parts of Algonquin.

[Joeynach]

That's the thing is we always have pretty legit signal. I haven't verified with dB ratings but I certainly could. I hear you on this seeming like a very old problem, but I can assure you, it's very real and very relevant. The dropped calls is one thing. Answering a call to not having the other person be able to hear you is another thing completely. My wife is on her third phone. I have a hard time believing the same problem could happen on three separate devices.

 

We live in the burbs of Chicago, there's nothing but flat land and small hills around so I don't think the topography would be an issue.

 

What I do know is this was never a problem before the upgrades to NV started. Everything worked well as far as voice was concerned. Data was pretty much nonexistant, but that wasn't just us...that was Sprint 3G as a whole.

 

 

 

Not sure if this was directed at me or not, but yes, we do have an airave at home too. Phones would only connect to it a very small percentage of the time, and when they did, voice worked fine, but SMS was a crapshoot. I would randomly receive about 10 text messages at once as it was like they were all held and delivered at the same time. I would respond and someone would ask why it took me hours to respond or something like that. If that wasn't the issue, there were many times where when connected to the airave, we couldn't sent text messages out, so I had to revert to Google Voice to send them instead.

 

All in all, I ended up buying GrooveIP so we can can make calls via wifi while at home. This seems to have worked fine for now. I'm just hoping this will all get fixed up in the next few months around the area. The problem still persists while out and about, specifically around the East part of Elgin, and the southern parts of Algonquin.

 

I still don't get how you know its just you that is having this problem. You say the problems all started with the NV upgrades to your local towers. Have you tried updating PRL, perhaps your tower went to 800 Mhz and you need a refresh of PRL to be able to use it. Also, if the tower is bad like you say wouldn't every sprint customer near by also be affected. Can you verify this with friends or coworkers who have Sprint, bring them over, or at least if they have similar problems in the neighborhood.

[hayzooos]

I still don't get how you know its just you that is having this problem. You say the problems all started with the NV upgrades to your local towers. Have you tried updating PRL, perhaps your tower went to 800 Mhz and you need a refresh of PRL to be able to use it. Also, if the tower is bad like you say wouldn't every sprint customer near by also be affected. Can you verify this with friends or coworkers who have Sprint, bring them over, or at least if they have similar problems in the neighborhood.

 

Yup, gone through the updating of PRL and Profile and all that jazz.

 

I don't know it's just me that's having this issue, I have a feeling it's quite a few people around this area who have Sprint. Thing is, most people don't use their phones as phones as much as we do, so the problem is a pretty big one. If you only make 1-2 calls a day, it's no big deal. But when you're making 40-50 and over half of the calls you receive run into this issue (the other person not being able to hear you when you answer), it creates a big problem.

 

And frankly, Sprint hasn't had exactly a shining reputation around Chicago, so I don't think there are all that many people using Sprint in this area to begin with. Chicago has always been a thorn in their side, but that's expected to get better with the NV upgrades and the US Cellular spectrum deal as well. Verizon rules around here hands down.

[Joeynach]

Yup, gone through the updating of PRL and Profile and all that jazz.

 

I don't know it's just me that's having this issue, I have a feeling it's quite a few people around this area who have Sprint. Thing is, most people don't use their phones as phones as much as we do, so the problem is a pretty big one. If you only make 1-2 calls a day, it's no big deal. But when you're making 40-50 and over half of the calls you receive run into this issue (the other person not being able to hear you when you answer), it creates a big problem.

 

And frankly, Sprint hasn't had exactly a shining reputation around Chicago, so I don't think there are all that many people using Sprint in this area to begin with. Chicago has always been a thorn in their side, but that's expected to get better with the NV upgrades and the US Cellular spectrum deal as well. Verizon rules around here hands down.

 

Well thats the first thing I would do, get other known Sprint customers over and start testing their devices. Do their texts fail. Do their incoming calls go straight to voice-mail, when they answer a call does can the other person not hear anything you say. And I disagree that its not an issue for assumed other people who make a few calls a day and not 40. If I made/received a few calls per day, and I do, and all of them didn't go through or had persona can't hear me on the other end problems I would raise hell in a heartbeat and not think well its OK b/c I still use my phone mainly for data.

[Keitarou]

Hi everyone.I'm new to this forum.Any info about palatine area (60074) rand/53 please?I will move to there at the end of april. Thanx

 

Adam

 

There is LTE there.

[Joeynach]

 

There is LTE there.

 

Use sensorly.com

[casterus]

Thanx guys.

[mellimel2212]

Maybe u need another phone?

 

Sent from my Sprint Galaxy Nexus rockin 4.2.2 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[chgoguy80]

I still don't get how you know its just you that is having this problem. You say the problems all started with the NV upgrades to your local towers. Have you tried updating PRL, perhaps your tower went to 800 Mhz and you need a refresh of PRL to be able to use it. Also, if the tower is bad like you say wouldn't every sprint customer near by also be affected. Can you verify this with friends or coworkers who have Sprint, bring them over, or at least if they have similar problems in the neighborhood.

 

It's definitely not just him, when I have recently driven around the Chicago area using my S3 voice service/dropped calls are the worst I have experienced in many years. Specifically, dropped calls while driving, not in one spot but in a bunch. Maybe there are stilll handoff issues since towers still need to be upgraded so hoping. Its insane on a 20-25 minute call to drop 3 times in different spots miles from each other. It is worse than it was months ago. fyi, I have a recent PRL that should include 800Mhz.

 

Also have noticed in last few weeks, but had been having major problems at home/elsewhere with calls going to VM without it ringing.

[Joeynach]

It's definitely not just him, when I have recently driven around the Chicago area using my S3 voice service/dropped calls are the worst I have experienced in many years. Specifically, dropped calls while driving, not in one spot but in a bunch. Maybe there are stilll handoff issues since towers still need to be upgraded so hoping. Its insane on a 20-25 minute call to drop 3 times in different spots miles from each other. It is worse than it was months ago. fyi, I have a recent PRL that should include 800Mhz.

 

Also have noticed in last few weeks, but had been having major problems at home/elsewhere with calls going to VM without it ringing.

 

Come to think of it I noticed a lot of calls dropping in my home in Lincoln Park too the last couple months or so.

[wtsguy]

Hi everyone, I'm trying to see if there is a fix for an issue I'm having. For the past several weeks I am having a really FRUSTRATING issue where I answer the phone and people can't hear me. It has gotten so bad that I let calls roll to voicemail and then call back the caller because if I answer they won't be able to hear me. I have Sprint Wireless Advantage Club so I can't go into a store or call a normal tech support line (I don't think?), but I figured this was part of NV upgrades. My phone is rooted with a custom ROM but I never had this problem before, and my phone was working fine until several weeks ago. I don't think it's a phone issue either as I've tried updating it and restarting and I did flash a clean rom. Is there anything else I can do to get people to hear me?

 

I can deal with the awful, spotty LTE connections, I can deal with the dead spots and the dial-up 3G speeds that my phone connects to in the extremely rural towns of Winfield, Warrenville, and Wheaton, but I can't deal with my phone not working!

 

Answering a call to not having the other person be able to hear you is another thing completely. My wife is on her third phone. I have a hard time believing the same problem could happen on three separate devices.

 

Oh thank god I thought I was going crazy. Are a lot of people experiencing this?

Edited April 3, 2013 by wtsguy