Network Vision/LTE - Houston Market

[kkstp09]

Inside HEB at Westheimer and Fountainview near the Galleria:

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad/iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I will be traveling to Houston next weekend and I am wondering what the signals and LTE performance is like at IAH- Houston Intercontinental all the way down into the heart of Downtown? How is the signal doing going through skyscrapers?

[ITK79]

Around IAH the signal is pretty good there are still towers that need LTE upgrades but overall good coverage. Coverage on the way downtown there are areas where there is no LTE currently. I haven't really been in the downtown area other than passing through. When passing through coverage seems about the same as the previous mentioned areas.

[doug526]

there are still towers that need LTE upgrades

 

By this, do you mean that the sites that are already equipped and online with NV/LTE are performing poorly?

 

Or are you saying that there are sites near IAH which are not equipped with NV/LTE equipment yet?

[ITK79]

 

By this' date=' do you mean that the sites that are already equipped and online with NV/LTE are performing poorly?

 

Or are you saying that there are sites near IAH which are not equipped with NV/LTE equipment yet?[/quote']

 

Most of the upgrades in Houston have been 4g only. This being said if you aren't on 4g you will more than likely be on legacy 3g. As of tonight I still dropped back to 3g when in the area of IAH but this was momentarily. The equipment that has been changed out in most of north Houston seems to be functioning fine most of the time.

[nobius]

 

I will be traveling to Houston next weekend and I am wondering what the signals and LTE performance is like at IAH- Houston Intercontinental all the way down into the heart of Downtown? How is the signal doing going through skyscrapers?

 

Buildings are hit or miss. I've been in the medical center and had LTE even in elevators, while in other buildings it dropped to 3G.

[Pedro1278]

Has sprint enabled 800 SMR in any parts of Houston.

 

After the Nextel network is shutdown will they start activating 800 smr

 

Sorry if this question has already been asked

[doug526]

AFAIK the Waco and Wichita Falls markets are the only parts of TX with 800 CDMA enabled.

 

Yes after IDEN is sunset, they will start enabling 800 CDMA and later in the year 800 LTE.

[Dkoellerwx]

There are sites sprinkled all over Texas that have 800 SMR accepted. Whether they're active or not, I do not know.

 

Once iDen is shut down, they will be switching it on fairly quickly if it isn't already on.

[Pedro1278]

Im wondering if Sprint needs to have there fiber connection sped up because in the morning i get around 8-15 mbps and around the day it drops to what i call 3G speeds and it ends up to be around .50-3 mbps. It's hard to facetime over this connection because sometimes the ping is around 100-300. And for the people that are going to tell me use wifi, i cant because all they offer in my area is ATT uverse and that is even barely usuable for web browsing. 

[userkv8031]

Im wondering if Sprint needs to have there fiber connection sped up because in the morning i get around 8-15 mbps and around the day it drops to what i call 3G speeds and it ends up to be around .50-3 mbps. It's hard to facetime over this connection because sometimes the ping is around 100-300. And for the people that are going to tell me use wifi, i cant because all they offer in my area is ATT uverse and that is even barely usuable for web browsing. 

Sounds like they haven't turned on all the sites in your area yet. As they turn on more sites it should spread the load out more and reduce the load on any one site. Hopefully that is the case and you will start seeing some improvement soon.

[WiWavelength]

Im wondering if Sprint needs to have there fiber connection sped up because in the morning i get around 8-15 mbps and around the day it drops to what i call 3G speeds and it ends up to be around .50-3 mbps. It's hard to facetime over this connection because sometimes the ping is around 100-300. And for the people that are going to tell me use wifi, i cant because all they offer in my area is ATT uverse and that is even barely usuable for web browsing. 

 

You need to become a sponsor to see the proportion of sites in your area that has already gone live with LTE and the proportion that has yet to go live with LTE.  Otherwise, you are judging capacity based on incomplete information, probably incomplete deployment, too.

 

Additionally, yes, you need to be offloading to Wi-Fi at home.  If not, you are part of the problem, and people like you are just making the problem worse for yourselves, as Sprint LTE is not a home broadband replacement.  What you say is flat out false:  AT&T U-verse, even AT&T DSL, is more than adequate for web browsing.

 

AJ

[Pedro1278]

Uverse isn't adequate for web browsing in my area because its always going in and out and I have gotten a new modem, it's the same thing and the sad part is I have a 6 Mbps down plan and my 3G is faster and more reliable then my uverse. But I do offload to wifi when it's working.

 

Anyways does anyone know when 800 SMR will be deployed in Houston?

[Txmtx]

Uverse isn't adequate for web browsing in my area because its always going in and out and I have gotten a new modem, it's the same thing and the sad part is I have a 6 Mbps down plan and my 3G is faster and more reliable then my uverse. But I do offload to wifi when it's working.

 

Anyways does anyone know when 800 SMR will be deployed in Houston?

Try connecting to it via ethernet cable for a few days. We are seeing more and more that the 2.4GHz spectrum is so noisy that a lot of equipment is experiencing poor performance, which is typically just described as "spotty Internet" and blamed on AT&T or Comcast or whoever (though they do suck in their own right).

 

I'd say 95% of cases of intermittent intolerable slowdowns on home internet I see are due to something related to the 2.4GHz link. 99% in the case of a unshared link like UVerse or DSL. Often proper configuration can fix it. Even more often, 5.8GHz wifi. Almost always, Ethernet.

 

I use low power routers with custom firmware and tuned to the spectral landscape of my area so I don't add to the problem, and a high-gain directional antenna. But I'm an RF supergeek.

 

Seriously. 2.4GHz is really fubar in most places now.

[TimTom]

Sprint says that Houston LTE will be complete by November which is approaching quickly. I hope that they will wait until November to actually activate LTE and have not activated it yet because for now I seem to only get LTE in a few places around town. Hopefully what I'm picking up every now and then is just a test and not where they've already turned LTE on.

[nobius]

Sprint says that Houston LTE will be complete by November which is approaching quickly. I hope that they will wait until November to actually activate LTE and have not activated it yet because for now I seem to only get LTE in a few places around town. Hopefully what I'm picking up every now and then is just a test and not where they've already turned LTE on.

 

What part of town are you in?  A good portion of the city has LTE now.  If you become a subscriber of this site, you get access to maps that show where 4G is accepted.  I also keep up with a map (see sig).

[TimTom]

What part of town are you in?  A good portion of the city has LTE now.  If you become a subscriber of this site, you get access to maps that show where 4G is accepted.  I also keep up with a map (see sig).

I'm in Humble/Atascocita. Right at Atascocita Rd and Will Clayton to be exact. My concern is that part of my neighborhood has LTE service and even a good section of Will Clayton Parkway as well until you get to the entrance of my subdivision. I hope that it hasn't been fully activated in this area because that may mean that we won't get a good LTE signal at home or am I thinking about it all wrong? Thanks for the tip I'll check it out!

[nobius]

I'm in Humble/Atascocita. Right at Atascocita Rd and Will Clayton to be exact. My concern is that part of my neighborhood has LTE service and even a good section of Will Clayton Parkway as well until you get to the entrance of my subdivision. I hope that it hasn't been fully activated in this area because that may mean that we won't get a good LTE signal at home or am I thinking about it all wrong? Thanks for the tip I'll check it out!

 

It's got a ways to go there, so it can get better for you.  

[bucs0535]

It seems that there is finally LTE in Pearland on FM 518 and 288. That area has been absolutely brutal with getting any data coverage whatsoever (not even talking LTE, just 3G). I drove through a few days ago and noticed my 4G indicator was on and data was super quick. Seems like Sprint finally flipped the switch

[TimTom]

It's got a ways to go there, so it can get better for you.

 

Oh so it's not done yet? That's good to hear. I'm not worried about waiting because I have Wifi I just want to make sure that LTE hasn't skipped over my area.

[bluepoint951]

So i took a late night trip on BW8; I turned on RootMetrics Continuous Testing to get an updated comparison of the two networks.

 

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know the carrier config of the two in Houston? 5x5, 10x10

 

SPRINT:    HTC Evo 4G LTE 

                 Stock ROM rev 3.16.651.3 (Andrioid 4.1.1; PRI 2.24_003; PRL 25016)

VERIZON:  HTC Thunderbolt 

                  Unofficial JB update rev 7.00.605.2 710RD (Andriod 4.0.3; PRI 1.41_002 & 1.64_002; PRL 15256)

 

Route:       W Sam Houston Pkwy S @ Blackhawk to N Sam Houston Pkwy W @ Briar Forest @ 0120hrs

 

 

    

[WiWavelength]

So i took a late night trip on BW8; I turned on RootMetrics Continuous Testing to get an updated comparison of the two networks.

 

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know the carrier config of the two in Houston? 5x5, 10x10

 

For your Sprint and VZW handsets, Sprint has 5 MHz FDD in band 25 LTE 1900, while VZW has 10 MHz FDD in band 13 LTE 750.  Sprint and VZW both are deploying in other bands, too, but your equipment does not support those bands.

 

AJ

[texasbrew]

I have just noticed that the towers in my area reflect 3G/4G on the upgrade maps.  Based on that information it would seem that my area is done with at least the 1900 part.  I have checked around my house on the engineering screen of my iPhone 5 and it has a signal strength of -114 which I don't believe is too great.  I am getting download speeds of 900k and 60k up pretty consistently.  I am roughly 2 miles from the nearest towers (across flat land as in my area the only hills that we have are overpasses).  Am I safe to assume that (barring any device changes) that this is as good as it it going to get based on my proximity to the tower?

[WiWavelength]

Am I safe to assume that (barring any device changes) that this is as good as it it going to get based on my proximity to the tower?

 

Inside your house on PCS 1900 MHz?  Yes.  Like all other providers, Sprint does not guarantee any level of in building coverage.

 

Now, where are you located?  This discussion belongs in a market thread, not its own standalone thread.

 

AJ

[texasbrew]

Actually it is outside of my house on the patio as well that I am seeing this.  I am in the Houston area.

[WiWavelength]

Actually it is outside of my house on the patio as well that I am seeing this.  I am in the Houston area.

 

A few thoughts...

 

In a metro area, two miles to the nearest site(s) is a bit of a stretch.  One mile is a more typical maximum before handoff to the next site.  Additionally, if roughly two miles equidistant from multiple sites, that is even worse because of co channel interference.

 

However, you are posting from a Comcast IP address, so you have wired broadband.  LTE at home should be the least of your concerns, as you should be on your own Wi-Fi for data.

 

AJ