Network Vision/LTE - Nashville Market (including Knoxville/Chattanooga/Tri-Cities)

[tsume]

I was just in Nashville this weekend and the Sprint service was useless.  At Cool Springs mall I saw my phone switching between b25, b26, and b41 and the data barely worked on any band, frequently failing to load anything at all... on two different devices.  I could not even make a phone call.  In the Woodbine area things were even worse with data, with data failing to work on LTE (b25/26) and 3G whatsoever, but at least I could make calls.  Similar situation at Opry Mills mall; even on b41 the data was useless.

 

Phones started working fine as soon as I left Nashville, and had great data all the way back on the 5 hour drive to the Tri Cities.  I of course have the profile updated and PRL updated on both.  Why is Sprint so terrible in Nashville?  It was not like this 6 months ago.

[WiWavelength]

I was just in Nashville this weekend and the Sprint service was useless.  At Cool Springs mall I saw my phone switching between b25, b26, and b41 and the data barely worked on any band, frequently failing to load anything at all... on two different devices.  I could not even make a phone call.

 

If you could not even make a phone call, that is indicative of insufficient signal strength, a device problem, or a network outage.  But what you describe does not sound like network congestion.

 

AJ

[tsume]

If you could not even make a phone call, that is indicative of insufficient signal strength, a device problem, or a network outage. But what you describe does not sound like network congestion.

 

AJ

Both phones had more than sufficient signal strength to place a call or use data. This wasn't a device or signal issue. It would sit there for a good 20 seconds and then say "call failed" without it even ringing at the cool springs mall food court. There was definitely something going on with the network there this weekend, as while that was the only place I couldn't place a call, data was not usable or so sporadic it was basically not usable all weekend at multiple places in Nashville. I had two different devices and both worked fine when I left Nashville and before I got there. The only time I've ever experienced data this bad was when I was in Atlanta for a convention, so I'm pretty sure it was congestion.

[JossMan]

 Why is Sprint so terrible in Nashville?  It was not like this 6 months ago.

I spoke to a friend of mine that works for Ericsson, several sites are down around the Southeastern portion of Nashville due to severed fiber optic ring that runs near the interchange of I-65 and I-40. 

[S4GRU]

Both phones had more than sufficient signal strength to place a call or use data. This wasn't a device or signal issue. It would sit there for a good 20 seconds and then say "call failed" without it even ringing at the cool springs mall food court. There was definitely something going on with the network there this weekend, as while that was the only place I couldn't place a call, data was not usable or so sporadic it was basically not usable all weekend at multiple places in Nashville. I had two different devices and both worked fine when I left Nashville and before I got there. The only time I've ever experienced data this bad was when I was in Atlanta for a convention, so I'm pretty sure it was congestion.

If you couldn't make a call or use data anywhere in the Nashville Metro Area for two days, it was not congestion. The chances that hundreds of sites around a metro of two million all were over capacity for data and voice for two days, at all hours of the day, using three LTE bands and two voice bands is about 1,000,000:1.

 

There was either a local network outage, your devices aren't working properly or there is more to this story.

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

 

EDIT: After reading JossMan's response after completing mine, it appears that an outage is to blame in this instance.

[S4GRU]

I spoke to a friend of mine that works for Ericsson, several sites are down around the Southeastern portion of Nashville due to severed fiber optic ring that runs near the interchange of I-65 and I-40.

Thanks for the info. That would be an outage, and not mere congestion. That puts more light on the situation.

 

And as we know, when an outage occurs affecting several key sites, it snowballs across adjacent sites. All the adjacent sites receive the additional traffic from the down sites, and then customers on the other side of the now overburdened sites get shunted to the next sites. A half dozen sites offline can effect most of a city.

 

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

[tsume]

There was only one place where I could not place a call.  Calls worked fine everywhere else.  The main problem I had was with data, so a severed fiber optic link would make sense as the cause.  Just interesting that it did not affect any other cell provider.  I'm guessing that Sprint uses someone else for backhaul there.  Hopefully it's fixed soon.  I know if I lived there, I'd be pissed if it were still as bad as it was on Friday and Saturday.

[NanoVirus]

[attachment=12957:Screenshot_2015-05-02-19-57-09.pngBand 41 in Athens Tennessee

 

Is this near the interstate or in town? Was at the Ruby Tuesday by the interstate yesterday and went from 3G to bands 25/26.

[chi_ra]

I was just in Nashville this weekend and the Sprint service was useless.  At Cool Springs mall I saw my phone switching between b25, b26, and b41 and the data barely worked on any band, frequently failing to load anything at all... on two different devices. 

I live in the Cool Springs area and it has always been like that. Data speeds are really slow. I use Lg G2 which is a tri band phone.

 

There used be a lot of call failures earlier but they seem to have fixed it.

 

Another wierd issue I observed in this area in the past was that time on the phone sometimes changed to EST all of a sudden. I thought it was an issue with the phone but then realized it to be a network issue when the same thing happened on a different phone. Alarms would go off an hour early because of that. They seem to have fixed that issue too.

[Steve Dean]

I live in the Cool Springs area and it has always been like that. Data speeds are really slow. I use Lg G2 which is a tri band phone.

 

There used be a lot of call failures earlier but they seem to have fixed it.

 

Another wierd issue I observed in this area in the past was that time on the phone sometimes changed to EST all of a sudden. I thought it was an issue with the phone but then realized it to be a network issue when the same thing happened on a different phone. Alarms would go off an hour early because of that. They seem to have fixed that issue too.

 

Sprint is improving the Nashville market.  As you have stated, there have been many improvements from where Sprint was with calls and texts. 

 

On the other hand, knowing the density of Cool Springs, as with downtown Nashville, there are still data needs to be addressed.  Marcelo has stated that Sprint will improve and optimize the density of its data network.  That will come to Nashville in the future.

[ddaniels3968]

Is this near the interstate or in town? Was at the Ruby Tuesday by the interstate yesterday and went from 3G to bands 25/26.

You should be able to get band 41 outside of Ruby Tuesday but probably not indoors. Although at the Denso plant across the interstate I can get Band 41 inside

[derrph]

I was in Nashville a week ago and I was very impressed with the network there. I don't recall dropping down to 3G. Before when I would be Opry mills I would stay on 3G but this time I had lte. Even at my friends house my data speeds were around the upper 30s

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[banananuts87]

Arrived in Nashville today for work, and while LTE is speedy when I have it, the signal drops 3G very often. 

 

I was in front of Jack's BBQ on Broadway was able to get Extended LTE on band 41.

[Steve Dean]

Arrived in Nashville today for work, and while LTE is speedy when I have it, the signal drops 3G very often. 

 

I was in front of Jack's BBQ on Broadway was able to get Extended LTE on band 41.

 

Unfortunately, LTE is spotty there with topography.  The other issue is the strain on the system with the population density in that area.  At times, 3G is faster than LTE.

[tyroned3222]

Unfortunately, LTE is spotty there with topography. The other issue is the strain on the system with the population density in that area. At times, 3G is faster than LTE.

Yes, i have the same experience in my market as well. Band 25 is taking on a lot of traffic (capacity) more then often 3G is faster then LTE...

 

Sent from my SM-G928P using Tapatalk

[xjr2amt]

Unfortunately, LTE is spotty there with topography. The other issue is the strain on the system with the population density in that area. At times, 3G is faster than LTE.

This is definitely a market that needs small cells. It seems that East of Nashville the network is on par with other competitors but Nashville and the surrounding areas need work.

[red_dog007]

So Im curious if I am missing anything. 

 

I went through FCC Dashboard looking at Sprints 2.5GHz EBS/BRS holdings in my local area.

 

These are the blocks that Sprint/Clearwire own or lease.

http://imgur.com/birxuMy

 

If you do the math, Sprint (yellow) has 96MHz total. A second company (in green) has 22.5MHz and unlisted channels is 77.5MHz.  Sprint only has one continuous block over 20MHz at BRS2 through E4.  So how does Sprint have 2x20MHz carriers in my market?

 

45MHz of the unlisted channels are EBS, could those be owned and leased to Sprint by a local school outside the county that I am looking up licenses, be more than 35 miles away, but in the same license market area?  So I may not see those licenses but Sprint holds them for my market?

[Mr.Nuke]

So Im curious if I am missing anything. 

 

I went through FCC Dashboard looking at Sprints 2.5GHz EBS/BRS holdings in my local area.

 

These are the blocks that Sprint/Clearwire own or lease.

http://imgur.com/birxuMy

 

If you do the math, Sprint (yellow) has 96MHz total. A second company (in green) has 22.5MHz and unlisted channels is 77.5MHz.  Sprint only has one continuous block over 20MHz at BRS2 through E4.  So how does Sprint have 2x20MHz carriers in my market?

 

45MHz of the unlisted channels are EBS, could those be owned and leased to Sprint by a local school outside the county that I am looking up licenses, be more than 35 miles away, but in the same license market area?  So I may not see those licenses but Sprint holds them for my market?

Assuming based on your profile that you are in Hamilton County TN, Sprint has the BRS block that you note, but they also lease the entire EBS from Chattanooga State/Walker County Board of Education (Georgia).

[red_dog007]

Can move it if needed. Maybe a title change?  Just a general holdings question.  Sprint has 2x20MHz deployed in my market, yet FCC shows they only hold 1 continuous chunk greater than 20MHz, how can they have 2x20MHz?

 

@Mr.Nuke, I noted that in the imgur pic, what Chattanooga State leases to Sprint.  It appears that it is only B1-4 and D1-4.  So 16.5MHz + 6MHz x 2.

 

The county Im specifically looking at is

http://reboot.fcc.gov/spectrumdashboard/resultLicenses.seam?conversationId=13135

 

 

Unless the dashboard is out of date?

[red_dog007]

Freaking hate dashboard sometimes.

 

Thing is, this isn't unique to my area. I'm just using my area as an example.  Want me to do this for a few more markets across the USA? If anything, it is a specific B41/EBS/BRS/Holdings question which belongs in no exact market thread.  And I don't know of any strictly B41/EBS/BRS/Holding threads. Unless I am missing something, I'll get the similar results elsewhere, where multiple 20MHz carriers yet not enough continuous spectrum.

 

The specific market is Hamilton County, TN.

[Mr.Nuke]

Thing is, this isn't unique to my area. I'm just using my area as an example.  Want me to do this for a few more markets across the USA? If anything, it is a specific B41/EBS/BRS/Holdings question which belongs in no exact market thread.  And I don't know of any strictly B41/EBS/BRS/Holding threads.

I've got to run to a meeting in a couple of minutes so I'll double check again afterwards... But like I responded to you initially, per dashboard Sprint appears to lease the entire EBS in Hamilton County.

[Mr.Nuke]

 So how does Sprint have 2x20MHz carriers in my market?

What is the EARFCN of the second carrier?

[red_dog007]

What is the EARFCN of the second carrier?

41176

[Mr.Nuke]

41176

Then they pretty clearly have some sort of lease agreement Motower http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=2590133

[Wfmets45]

How is the service in Pigeon Forge, Knoxville and surrounding areas?