Network Vision/LTE - Houston Market

[texasbrew]

OK thanks for the info on the towers.  I use wifi at the house but mms times out from time to time.  I suppose that I will just have to drive to a site closer to a tower for mms.

[lilotimz]

OK thanks for the info on the towers. I use wifi at the house but mms times out from time to time. I suppose that I will just have to drive to a site closer to a tower for mms.

Some texting apps like tetra allow you to send mms over wifi.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

 

[nobius]

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

You obviously don't have Comcast. I was excited when I finally got LTE inside my place for those times when the cable is out.

 

 

Sent from my iPad/iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pedro1278]

I just wanted to post that B41 is active in Houston! I thought it would take a while before anything B41 related happened here but it did!

[Pedro1278]

[eljayyy91]

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[/size] (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[/size]

 

 

 

And you had to pic the worst rf performer in sprints lineup... and the tests are pretty similar for both single band lte developments. Kinda funny how sprint is shit and vz is awesome when there isnt much of a difference in tests.

[S4GRU]

Another 50 Band 26 sites accepted in the Houston market. Details in the Premier Sponsor B26/LTE 800 thread.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

[bucdenny]

How is NV for folks in Houston?  Has Sprint become competitive in this market?

[Pedro1278]

B26 is a great improvement I get LTE in places i would get barely 1 Bar of 3G

 

B41 is very spotty at the moment, when you connect to it: it is very fast but its very spotty. 

[ITK79]

B25 is good up in my area but it is nice having B26 or B41 when the towers are loaded down.

[coorsleftfield]

I'm traveling through the Houston airport, my first B26 experience and speeds are horrible. Like 2G speeds.. Is this unusual?

[S4GRU]

I'm traveling through the Houston airport, my first B26 experience and speeds are horrible. Like 2G speeds.. Is this unusual?

 

In busy airports where DAS is not upgraded to Sprint LTE yet...yes.

[bondog]

Fastest yet for me.  I'm not sure if they pumped up the speed or I was the only one on the network at that time lol.

 

[thearch1tect]

Im going to be moving to the Houston area soon and was wondering if anyone could chime in on the recent performance of the network?

[greenbastard]

It's been awfully quiet in Houston after B26 was fired up. Anyone else getting annoyed by the load balancing clogging B26, yet leaving B25 completely wide open? Clearwire B41 seems to be mostly useless in indoors, so B26 has taken a severe abuse in a lot of places.

 

Also, Katy/Westpark/Sugar Land could use some of the new densification that Marcello announced. Some of the new subdivisions are outgrowing every network west of town by either by overloading their loosely spaced towers or by falling off of coverage. Its a mess trying to use data out there.

[Pedro1278]

I'm have an IPhone 6 and I can say that sprint is working well throughout Houston. I'm on b41 Almost always outdoors but indoors it'll switch to b26 which is quite loaded compared to b25 but data is still usable on b26. They do need to fix the b25 and b26 load balancing but my data is usable all over town compared to 2 years ago. My phone tends to work better throughout the galleria area compared to my other friends with T-Mobile and ATT( which there LTE here has slowed down dramatically)

 

Voice services here in Houston are very good and infact hadn't had a dropped call in ages.

Edited June 7, 2015 by Pedro1278

[greenbastard]

I'm have an IPhone 6 and I can say that sprint is working well throughout Houston. I'm on b41 Almost always outdoors but indoors it'll switch to b26 which is quite loaded compared to b25 but data is still usable on b26. They do need to fix the b25 and b26 load balancing but my data is usable all over town compared to 2 years ago. My phone tends to work better throughout the galleria area compared to my other friends with T-Mobile and ATT( which there LTE here has slowed down dramatically)

 

Voice services here in Houston are very good and infact hadn't had a dropped call in ages.

Sounds like the same experience I have with the GS5. Outdoor is all B41, but indoors is B26 even though B25 is available for me to use.

 

My B26 is almost unusable during peak hours. I've had instances were I couldn't keep a constant 24 kbps audio stream without it constantly buffering.

 

3G on the other hand is now 1+ Mbps in a lot of places, which I have never seen in Houston before.

[Paynefanbro]

The same things that you guys have been complaining about here recently has also been going on in NYV for some time. I'm on Band 41 outside and Band 26 inside with virtually no time spent on Band 25. As a result Band 26 is more loaded than Band 25 here. Whenever I connect to Band 25, the SNR is pretty high and speeds are higher than Band 26 at the same signal.

[greenbastard]

NYV = ?

 

The thing I have noticed is that whenever I disable Band 26, my phone seems to be correctly balanced between band 41 and band 25. My phone will actually stay on Band 41 if it is available and will stay there until I completely lose signal, then switch to B25

 

At times, it actually seemed as if Sprint wanted to clear users from Band 25 in order to create a sense of faster speeds and better indoor signal for early Spark adaptors with B26. I remember when I had my single band S3, my speeds on B25 where at .5-1.5 Mbps. The day I switched to the S5 (and for a couple of months after), my phone would stay on B26 and speeds would constantly surpass 10 Mbps. Today, those roles have been reversed as more Triband users have come on line. I hope that whenever Sprint tears apart the Clearwire equipment and installs 8T8R panels, they finally get it right for Houston. This town seems to be the most congested town for Sprint in the entire state. Pre-NV days, I could pull +1 Mbps from some sites in San Antonio or College Station. In Houston, I'd be lucky to just load a web page on most sites.

[greenbastard]

So, anyone else getting the random missed calls on Android triband devices inside Houston? Seems to be a eCSFB issue since Apple phones don't seem to be having this problem. Hopefully it's a sign of software being tweaked on the network since we really need some changes on that front.

[jeffcarp]

I am visiting the Houston area for the first time and was at the outdoor retail area across from the mall in The Woodlands. I had a very strong LTE signal but basically could not use data. Pings were >500ms, downloads speeds (when it could even connect to a server) were <0.2 maps and upload speed stayed at basically 0. Is that typical for that area? As I headed up towards Lake Conroe things seems to improve.

 

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[greenbastard]

I am visiting the Houston area for the first time and was at the outdoor retail area across from the mall in The Woodlands. I had a very strong LTE signal but basically could not use data. Pings were >500ms, downloads speeds (when it could even connect to a server) were <0.2 maps and upload speed stayed at basically 0. Is that typical for that area? As I headed up towards Lake Conroe things seems to improve.

 

Sent from my 0PJA2 using Tapatalk

It depends. What band where you on? If Band 26, the, the answer is yes. Sprint has yet to implement a proper way to balance load between their bands. If no B41 is present, B26 seems to be preferred over band 25 for some odd reason.

 

Also, Houston is a Clearwire LTE market, so most B41 won't travel very far from its tower. Any 8t8r radios out here seem to have been installed and left on low power (probably to protect Clearwire sites spread throughout the area)

 

If speeds get really bad. I would recommend turnig off B26. My tower sees B26 crawl to 0.10 Mbps at times, while B25 sits open around 5-7 Mbps. It's an inconvenience, but at least work is being done to fix this issue. Crews are active around town installing 8t8r on some towers as of early this year.

[jeffcarp]

In those circumstances that you describe above could I also change the phone settings to 3G only and get a usable signal rather than turning off LTE bands. Since I am visiting here I am usually in and out of trouble spots within a few hours.

 

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[S4GRU]

In those circumstances that you describe above could I also change the phone settings to 3G only and get a usable signal rather than turning off LTE bands. Since I am visiting here I am usually in and out of trouble spots within a few hours.

 

Sent from my 0PJA2 using Tapatalk

Yes. In most LTE markets, 3G now works pretty well. But not everywhere. But B25 and B41 operate so much better than 3G. So it may not be worth it.

 

Using Tapatalk on Nexus 6

[avb]

It depends. What band where you on? If Band 26, the, the answer is yes. Sprint has yet to implement a proper way to balance load between their bands. If no B41 is present, B26 seems to be preferred over band 25 for some odd reason.

 

Also, Houston is a Clearwire LTE market, so most B41 won't travel very far from its tower. Any 8t8r radios out here seem to have been installed and left on low power (probably to protect Clearwire sites spread throughout the area)

 

If speeds get really bad. I would recommend turnig off B26. My tower sees B26 crawl to 0.10 Mbps at times, while B25 sits open around 5-7 Mbps. It's an inconvenience, but at least work is being done to fix this issue. Crews are active around town installing 8t8r on some towers as of early this year.

 

The load balancing is something I don't understand.  In Houston I'm either on B41 or B26, but rarely on B25.  Is there any chance Sprint has yet to implement a software update that will do a better job of load balancing?  I remember when I was in New York back in October I would see my phone switch between all 3 bands.  In my hotel, I was on B25, but during the day speeds were sub 1mb/s.  Walk towards the bathroom and the phone loses B25 and switches to B26 like it's supposed to, and B26 in that situation would give me 8-12mb/s.  That's another situation where load balancing between B25 and B26 should have worked better.  Walking on the streets I saw B41 the majority of the time so that was nice.

 

Yes. In most LTE markets, 3G now works pretty well. But not everywhere. But B25 and B41 operate so much better than 3G. So it may not be worth it.

 

Using Tapatalk on Nexus 6

 

3g is usable whenever I'm on it, but the nice thing in Houston is I'm rarely on it.  I remember 3-4 years 3g was practically unusable, but now when I do speed tests I'll see 600kb/s - 2mb/s.