Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[Joeynach]

It would appear that some sites in the loop are in different locations than they used to be.

 

What are you basing this on?

[drock2750]

What are you basing this on?

 

CDMA Field Test shows you the coordinates of the 1x tower you are connected to and will even map those coordinates for you. One case in point is that while near Congress and State, rather than connecting to a tower near Plymouth and Van Buren behind the library, I now connect to a tower on the Robert Morris Building at Congress and State. The old one seems inactive, and they likely wouldn't have had two legacy sites that close to each other one would think. There are other instances of connecting to 1x towers that are located in places that seem to be new, although the one i mentioned is the only specific one I made note of.

 

According to an interview with one of their engineers posted on youtube, getting leases in new locations can take 18-24 months.

[Joeynach]

CDMA Field Test shows you the coordinates of the 1x tower you are connected to and will even map those coordinates for you. One case in point is that while near Congress and State, rather than connecting to a tower near Plymouth and Van Buren behind the library, I now connect to a tower on the Robert Morris Building at Congress and State. The old one seems inactive, and they likely wouldn't have had two legacy sites that close to each other one would think. There are other instances of connecting to 1x towers that are located in places that seem to be new, although the one i mentioned is the only specific one I made note of.

 

According to an interview with one of their engineers posted on youtube, getting leases in new locations can take 18-24 months.

 

Well now we know why the Loop is really last and why its taking so long if what you are saying is true. I still can't fathom Sprint beginning the Chicago NV process last summer, saying it would take about a year to complete (maybe end of 2013 at the latest), starting in the burbs and working in, and then they get to the Loop and oops we need building permits to access Loop sites which can take 18-24 months to acquire. I would have to assume they started the permit process months or over a year ago so that when the wave of NV site upgrade finally hit the Loop (a year after start) they are ready to go with their permits and can do their work. If they had no permits by the time they started NV last summer and you are correct on an 18-24 month time window for jsut getting the permits to access their Loop sites, then we are looking at summer 2014 or later for expected completion. I find that hard to believe.

[Joeynach]

As a follow up, looking at the NV sites complete map, Loop sites are starting to pop up every day or every other day now. Similar to the frequency that the burbs sites saw late last year. This week alone I see 6 new sites, though all marked 3G only at this point, in the Loop proper. This in addition to the two new LTE sites which popped up a couple weeks ago near Millennium Park and the Hyatt (on Wacker). Hell if its 3G enhancements thats better than nothing, the 3G network Dtown is so bogged and slow. Though of course like everyone else I hope those sites turn to 4G, if not 3G/800/4G once backhaul is in place.

[drock2750]

Are all of these sites in the exact same locations as before?

As a follow up, looking at the NV sites complete map, Loop sites are starting to pop up every day or every other day now. Similar to the frequency that the burbs sites saw late last year. This week alone I see 6 new sites, though all marked 3G only at this point, in the Loop proper. This in addition to the two new LTE sites which popped up a couple weeks ago near Millennium Park and the Hyatt (on Wacker). Hell if its 3G enhancements thats better than nothing, the 3G network Dtown is so bogged and slow. Though of course like everyone else I hope those sites turn to 4G, if not 3G/800/4G once backhaul is in place.

 

Are all of these sites in the same locations that the legacy sites were?

[Joeynach]

Are all of these sites in the exact same locations as before?

 

Are all of these sites in the same locations that the legacy sites were?

 

Most of them look like it as far as I can tell between the two maps. But the new Pins on the NV Sites complete map dont have the specific address listed yet like the legacy ones do on that map so I can't tell for sure.

[Keitarou]

How come people are saying Chicago market deployment is a disaster? Aren't you guys almost complete?

[tommym65]

How come people are saying Chicago market deployment is a disaster? Aren't you guys almost complete?

 

Almost complete? Not really. Nearly 100% of Chicago market sites have had some NV work. (They had to: The new Samsung equipment was incompatible with the old Motorola stuff, and had to be replaced almost instantly, or the whole market would have crashed and burned -- some people thought that it did, in fact.)

 

In some parts of Chicagoland, nearly 100% of sites have 4G LTE. In others, not so much. Downtown has a lot of holes. And out in the boonies where I live (McHenry County, which in my opinion is by far the most important place in the entire Sprint world, but is 45-55 miles from the Loop), fewer than 1/3 of sites have 4G LTE today (12 out of 38). Clearly, Hesse-san does not share my opinion about my own importance. Oh, well.

 

800 SMR has made a wide appearance all over the Chicago/Northern Illinois area (per Robert's maps, 11 of 38 sites in McHenry County, and many, many more all over the area, and actually a higher percentage than the maps would suggest, as I have found a lot of 800 SMR sites which are live, but not on the maps as 800). And largely because of the coverage improvements from 800, voice and text are much better in many places than they were last summer, at least for those phones which can use it.

 

But NV coverage is still somewhat spotty and far from complete.

 

An educated guess is that about 70-75% of Chicagoland sites currently have LTE, and that fewer than 40% have all 3 upgrades (800 SMR, 1900 3G, and 1900 LTE) installed.

 

Thus, things are much better here than they were, and also better than in most Sprint markets, but not done yet!

[Joeynach]

How come people are saying Chicago market deployment is a disaster? Aren't you guys almost complete?

 

Yeah this is pretty much one of those technical wording things. I have heard people say the Chicago Market is by far the most built out in Sprints NV plan, Chicago Market is nearing completion, Chicago Market has over 90% of its towers completed with NV. If you really dig through the conversation on this board you can see its all rhetoric. In reality most Chicago sites have received some sort of NV upgrade, thats why they say its the most advanced or built out to date, but a lot of its missing backhaul, or 4G equipment all together. The Loop area has basically been vacant of NV activity until now, for the past a year or so we saw about 4 out of 25 Loop sites receive NV. Others gripe about what is happening in these far reaching burbs like my friend from McHenry County and others out in NW Indiana like Crown Pointe and Chesterton, they all tell the same story, no LTE no upgrades when just a couple miles down the road toward Chicago they are light up and pumping.

 

As far as I can tell, I would also agree with the assessment that we are at a true 70-75% completion. The biggest holes are many un-NV towers still to go in the Gold Coast area (Navy Pier, Mag Mile, etc), Loop, super burbs (McHenry County, Lake/Porter County Indiana), and not to mention we have no real insight into how many sites have actually received their new backhaul, we just assume less than the amount of sites that have received some sort of site upgrade hardware wise. So we still have a ways to go. My assumption is the Chicago market will be realistically completed at the end of 2013.

[wtsguy]

Are you integrating with Google Voice by chance? Both my wife and I noticed things got better when we ditched that integration. I don't know if it was that or Sprint's network actually getting better, so it could be a coincidence.

 

Also, as you stated in your post, you know it's not a problem with your phone as you didn't have this issue a few months back. Upgrading to the S4 wouldn't fix the problem (outside maybe the LTE part) since it's not a hardware problem.

 

Since Sprint started the rollout in the West burbs and moved in towards the city, I'm guessing this issue will be solved in the same manner. You're a bit further East than me, so I would think it would start getting better for you shortly as it did for me. Not 100% yet, but it is better.

 

After reading your post, I deactivated Sprint / Google Voice integration. Since de-activating Google Voice, I have not had one instance where I answer the phone and the other person can't hear me. I think my problem is solved, thank you!!!

 

Now we just need to fix it so that my EVO 4G LTE switches to 4G when I'm near a 4G tower (it rarely does this). At least the 3G is getting better and better, because I'm pretty sure for as long as I keep the EVO, there is going to be an issue with it properly connecting to 4G.

Edited May 18, 2013 by wtsguy

[Dkoellerwx]

 

CDMA Field Test shows you the coordinates of the 1x tower you are connected to and will even map those coordinates for you. .

 

Well now we know why the Loop is really last and why its taking so long if what you are saying is true.

 

In most markets field test apps will not show you the actual location of the tower. For an unknown reason, the locations being broadcast are different from each sector of the site, and are well displaced from the actual location. If you were to connect to one tower and circle around it, you would find three points, with the location of the tower somewhere in that triangle.

 

Sent from my HTC ONE

 

 

[S4GRU]

In the next Running List update we plan to have a market NV complete percentage and a LTE complete percentage. It will help people determine exactly how complete their market is.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

[Joeynach]

Whoa what is going on.  I am sitting my office with almost full bars of 4G LTE. Never seen this before, always had mediocre 3G signal.  Could a new Loop tower have just been activated.  I am right on Wells and Van Buren.   There was a recently added NV complete tower on Van Buren and Financial Place which is very very close, but according to the map its 3G only right now, basically waiting for LTE acceptance.  May have been accepted today!

[ChiWestLooper]

Whoa what is going on.  I am sitting my office with almost full bars of 4G LTE. Never seen this before, always had mediocre 3G signal.  Could a new Loop tower have just been activated.  I am right on Wells and Van Buren.   There was a recently added NV complete tower on Van Buren and Financial Place which is very very close, but according to the map its 3G only right now, basically waiting for LTE acceptance.  May have been accepted today!

Really? I work on Jackson and Wells and I just ran a speedtest on my cellphone and I still get the same crappy and nonexistent 3G speeds. Frustrating to say the least......

[ks-man]

I work at the Sears Tower and I connect to that site when I'm in my office but not at ground level.  Currently have an RSRP of -99.  Got 3.9Mbps down and 2.8Mbps up.  47ms ping.  Not great for LTE but hopefully the speeds will improve with time and it will also work at ground level.

 

 

--Edit--

 

I should mention that this LTE connection is brand new at my office.  I first connected to it yesterday.

[tommym65]

Really? I work on Jackson and Wells and I just ran a speedtest on my cellphone and I still get the same crappy and nonexistent 3G speeds. Frustrating to say the least......

 

According to the Sponsor Map, you are in a location where 4G LTE has not yet been installed. Also, according to your profile, you have an iPhone 4s, which will not pick up LTE, so 4G won't do you any good unless you upgrade your phone. If you had an iPhone 5 and you were to walk up to Monroe and Wells, the map suggests you would get excellent LTE.  I rarely go downtown, so cannot confirm this personally.

 

Sprint is also working on improving voice/text with 800 MHz SMR, but your iPhone 4s will not be able to pick that up, either. 

 

As other Sprint subscribers move off of 1900 MHZ CDMA to LTE, you will see some improvement in data speeds, because this will relieve some of the spectrum congestion that occurs due to too many people in the loop trying to use very limited capacity.

 

If you would like to be able to easily see 4G and NV progress maps, consider becoming a sponsor:  http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1195-information-about-s4gru-sponsorship-levels-and-how-to-become-a-sponsor/.

[Joeynach]

Really? I work on Jackson and Wells and I just ran a speedtest on my cellphone and I still get the same crappy and nonexistent 3G speeds. Frustrating to say the least......

Try a PRL update I am crushing 4G at my desk, in the elevator, in the bathrooms, all over my floor. 

[Joeynach]

 

According to the Sponsor Map, you are in a location where 4G LTE has not yet been installed. Also, according to your profile, you have an iPhone 4s, which will not pick up LTE, so 4G won't do you any good unless you upgrade your phone. If you had an iPhone 5 and you were to walk up to Monroe and Wells, the map suggests you would get excellent LTE. I rarely go downtown, so cannot confirm this personally.

 

Sprint is also working on improving voice/text with 800 MHz SMR, but your iPhone 4s will not be able to pick that up, either.

 

As other Sprint subscribers move off of 1900 MHZ CDMA to LTE, you will see some improvement in data speeds, because this will relieve some of the spectrum congestion that occurs due to too many people in the loop trying to use very limited capacity.

 

If you would like to be able to easily see 4G and NV progress maps, consider becoming a sponsor: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1195-information-about-s4gru-sponsorship-levels-and-how-to-become-a-sponsor/.

Thats not true. The tower shown on the sponsor maps (deleted) at Van Buren and Financial Place shows a yellow pin, representing 3G/4G upgrade accepted and turned on. That must be the tower pumping LTE to my work location.

[Fraydog]

Please keep Cell ID's on the sponsor side of the forum guys. Thanks!

[njjdnt]

Thats not true. The tower shown on the sponsor maps representing 3G/4G upgrade accepted and turned on.

 The map only shows acceptance, not that it is actually turned on and usable.

[Joeynach]

Please keep Cell ID's on the sponsor side of the forum guys. Thanks!

Sorry my bad.

[Joeynach]

 The map only shows acceptance, not that it is actually turned on and usable.

Well I am telling you its turned on and pumping LTE.  There isn't another site in my locale that has even been marked with a 4G upgrade.

[tommym65]

Thats not true. The tower shown on the sponsor maps (deleted) at Van Buren and Financial Place shows a yellow pin, representing 3G/4G upgrade accepted and turned on. That must be the tower pumping LTE to my work location.

Oops, you got me!! Thank you for catching that. Sorry for my error on downtown geography.

 

But I stand by my statement that ChiWestLooper's iPhone 4s will not be able to take advantage of most current and future NV upgrades: First because his phone doesn't support 4G; Second because his phone doesn't support 800 SMR (when that comes into play); And, third because even with the 3G updates that have been installed in and near the Loop, bandwidth has not yet been expanded (waiting for USCC spectrum to free up) and at 1900 Mhz, building penetration has been improved only a small amount.  As the USCC spectrum does become available, and as Sprint subs move off of CDMA for LTE, his speeds will likely improve, but probably not as much as he might like.

 

Conclusion: Let's all go out and support the economy by buying NEW PHONES!

[njjdnt]

Well I am telling you its turned on and pumping LTE.  There isn't another site in my locale that has even been marked with a 4G upgrade.

 

I’m not disagreeing with you about that tower.  I’m just correcting the statement that the sponsor map represents upgrade accepted, turned on and usable sites.  When it only shows accepted sites.

[Joeynach]

I’m not disagreeing with you about that tower.  I’m just correcting the statement that the sponsor map represents upgrade accepted, turned on and usable sites.  When it only shows accepted sites.

Yeah Yeah, I get it.