Is Sprint picking "the best" towers for NV?

[NGeorge]

Hey All;

 

I'm curious if someone on here can answer a question for me... Is Sprint picking "the best" sites for NV? Reason I ask is that in this area, Nextel put most of their IDEN sites on top of tall hills above the highways, while Sprint plunked a lot of their legacy CDMA sites on the side of the road (and when they absorbed Qwest back in '04 they aquired many of these sites which were situated the same way--they never made the Nextel sites synergy in areas that already had CDMA--although they did everywhere else that was IDEN-only in Western Washington which was nice) -- in fact, I know of a number of Sprint CDMA sites that are on a ~150' tower/pole next to the road--with a Nextel site (usually with a Verizon or AT&T site nearby or same tower) next door on a ~150' tower--on top of the 400+ foot tall hill that is right behind the Sprint site.

 

There are *many* areas around here that have a better IDEN signal than CDMA--not just because of the 800, but because these higher IDEN sites have better line of sight due to their height.

 

From what everyone has seen so far, has Sprint been pretty good about picking the tower with the better line of site, whether it be originally CDMA or IDEN, or are they doing it just based on cheaper leases/available space?

 

If they are truly picking the best sites, I will particularly be exciting.

Thanks!

--Nat

Edited June 25, 2012 by NGeorge

[S4GRU]

Hey All;

 

I'm curious if someone on here can answer a question for me... Is Sprint picking "the best" sites for NV? Reason I ask is that in this area, Nextel put most of their IDEN sites on top of tall hills above the highways, while Sprint plunked a lot of their legacy CDMA sites on the side of the road (and when they absorbed Qwest back in '04 they aquired many of these sites which were situated the same way--they never made the Nextel sites synergy in areas that already had CDMA--although they did everywhere else that was IDEN-only in Western Washington which was nice) -- in fact, I know of a number of Sprint CDMA sites that are on a ~150' tower/pole next to the road--with a Nextel site (usually with a Verizon or AT&T site nearby or same tower) next door on a ~150' tower--on top of the 400+ foot tall hill that is right behind the Sprint site.

 

There are *many* areas around here that have a better IDEN signal than CDMA--not just because of the 800, but because these higher IDEN sites have better line of sight due to their height.

 

From what everyone has seen so far, has Sprint been pretty good about picking the tower with the better line of site, whether it be originally CDMA or IDEN, or are they doing it just based on cheaper leases/available space?

 

If they are truly picking the best sites, I will particularly be exciting.

Thanks!

--Nat

 

Nat:

 

Sprint is not using iDEN only sites in Network Vision. Sprint is decommissioning the entire iDEN network and only deploying Network VIsion and 800MHz on 38,000 Sprint CDMA Sites.

 

So there will not be any picking and choosing between CDMA and iDEN sites for the best locations. Recently, we did find out that Sprint is converting approximately 100 iDEN only sites to CDMA/LTE in Network Vision. However, this is such a small percentage, it's almost not even worth noting.

 

Robert

[NGeorge]

Thanks for the update. Sort of dissapointing since many of the IDEN-only sites are situated in better locations.

 

For some reason I was thinking at some point they had announced they were looking at their entire portfolio and picking the best sites/putting the NV sites at the top of the towers.

[S4GRU]

Thanks for the update. Sort of dissapointing since many of the IDEN-only sites are situated in better locations.

 

For some reason I was thinking at some point they had announced they were looking at their entire portfolio and picking the best sites/putting the NV sites at the top of the towers.

 

Yes, it is disappointing. But it is something I came to grips with a long time ago. I do believe there were lots of assumptions very early in Network Vision planning, that even I fell for.

 

Robert

[ReyBanz]

It probably would have taken them twice as long to deploy NV if they chose more IDEN sites.

[prophead]

Recently, we did find out that Sprint is converting approximately 100 iDEN only sites to CDMA/LTE in Network Vision.

 

Do you have a list of those 100 and could you make it available? If not could you check if this tower happens to be one of them?

 

I know quite a few people that will loose service when iDen is killed on this tower. Contrary to the Sprint coverage maps they do NOT have a usable signal in the locations covered by this tower. This tower was originally a Nextel Partners tower and since the buyout is now located in no mans land right on the border of Sprint corporate and Shentel coverage areas. I spoke with Shentel and they have no plans to place a tower east of this tower which has got ATT, Sprint and T-mobile antenna's.

[S4GRU]

 

Do you have a list of those 100 and could you make it available? If not could you check if this tower happens to be one of them?

 

I know quite a few people that will loose service when iDen is killed on this tower. Contrary to the Sprint coverage maps they do NOT have a usable signal in the locations covered by this tower. This tower was originally a Nextel Partners tower and since the buyout is now located in no mans land right on the border of Sprint corporate and Shentel coverage areas. I spoke with Shentel and they have no plans to place a tower east of this tower which has got ATT' date=' Sprint and T-mobile antenna's.[/quote']

 

This is a very recent development. I do not have the list yet.

 

Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[WiWavelength]

I'm curious if someone on here can answer a question for me... Is Sprint picking "the best" sites for NV? Reason I ask is that in this area, Nextel put most of their IDEN sites on top of tall hills above the highways, while Sprint plunked a lot of their legacy CDMA sites on the side of the road (and when they absorbed Qwest back in '04 they aquired many of these sites which were situated the same way--they never made the Nextel sites synergy in areas that already had CDMA--although they did everywhere else that was IDEN-only in Western Washington which was nice) -- in fact, I know of a number of Sprint CDMA sites that are on a ~150' tower/pole next to the road--with a Nextel site (usually with a Verizon or AT&T site nearby or same tower) next door on a ~150' tower--on top of the 400+ foot tall hill that is right behind the Sprint site.

 

Nat, can you provide some example locations of the higher Nextel sites proximate to lower Sprint sites? Height can be an advantage for iDEN yet a disadvantage for CDMA1X because of pilot pollution and excessive soft handoff.

 

AJ

[JeffDTD]

 

This is a very recent development. I do not have the list yet.

 

Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

Thats actually kinda awesome!!

[Deval]

Do you have a list of those 100 and could you make it available? If not could you check if this tower happens to be one of them?

 

I know quite a few people that will loose service when iDen is killed on this tower. Contrary to the Sprint coverage maps they do NOT have a usable signal in the locations covered by this tower. This tower was originally a Nextel Partners tower and since the buyout is now located in no mans land right on the border of Sprint corporate and Shentel coverage areas. I spoke with Shentel and they have no plans to place a tower east of this tower which has got ATT, Sprint and T-mobile antenna's.

 

Are the majority of those folks iDEN users? Or is there is a co-located PCS site on that tower?

[prophead]

Are the majority of those folks iDEN users?

 

Nextel was the first to offer service in this area and as a result there are quite a few iDen users. Cingular (now AT&T) has since added a tower about 1/4 mile from this iDen tower and as a result they have decent service. I don't know where the Verizon signal is coming from but it is very weak and if you're lucky you might be able to make a call. Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile are all located on the Scheafferstown tower. From that tower Sprint gets a decent signal to about Kleinfeltersville and T-mobile goes a little further to about Cocalico road. Heading east from there your only options are AT&T or Nextel until about Peartown road where you start to get a usable Sprint signal again.

 

Or is there is a co-located PCS site on that tower?

 

It is an iDen only site.

[Deval]

Ahhh, so an area like that, probably would be on the chopping block, lack of customer base maybe?

 

I have read similar stories throughout this site about locations which have one tower, and almost zero customer base.

[prophead]

Ahhh, so an area like that, probably would be on the chopping block, lack of customer base maybe?

 

Quite possible however they have towers all around, this is simply a hole that could be filled by installing antenna's on the Nextel tower. The center of this hole is about 5-6 miles from the closest Sprint towers on each side. Seems the current 1900 PCS single degrades pretty quickly at about 3 miles.

 

Maybe the 800mhz overlay will be enough to fill this in?

 

Will they need to turn off iDen 800mhz before they can start using 800MHZ CDMA? If so is there any info the time lapse from killing 800mhz iDen before 800mhz CDMA starts?

 

I personally know about a dozen iDen users running off the tower in question and am certain there is more since the options are very limited.

 

The bottom line here is that this is an area where I know that the loss of iDen will also cause a loss of Sprint customers unless this is handled correctly. I am watching closely to see how this gets handled as it may reflect Sprints attitude nationwide and as a Sprint investor it concerns me a bit.

 

As I said before the options in this area for a usable signal are really only Nextel and AT&T. If Sprint and or Shentel handles this correctly they have a leg up over the competition if not they walk and the chances of getting them back will be slim.

 

So....If the 800mhz overlay will fill in this hole will they:

 

Make sure the 800mhz overlay is up and running before killing iDen?

After the 800mhz is up and running and/or after installing CDMA antenna's on this tower and before iDen is killed, contact the customers and help them get migrated to CDMA.

 

If any of these steps are not followed in the proper order customers in an area like this will walk. I don't know how many customers live and/or work in areas like this, however most of the iDen users I know are farmers (rural areas) and contractors. If these types of customers make up a large percentage of the iDen user base, and Sprint botches up the migration in this area I will assume it is being handled similarly in other areas. This would cause me concern and might cause me to sell as the iDen shutdown deadline approaches. Time will tell, until then I will watch closely and glean any info I can.

[S4GRU]

I think Sprint's attitude is:

 

We are broke and borrowing money. Our cash flow is very tight and and if we don't meet projections, then we have to slow down Network Vision.

 

----------------------------------------------------------

 

How do you do network expansion in this environment? You can't. Sprint has written off most of its remaining iDEN customers, only counting on a percentage of them to convert to CDMA.

 

There is only so much Sprint can do with the resources it has. It is counting on the operational savings of decommissioning the entire Nextel network. Originally, they weren't planning to keep ANY iDEN only sites to be converted to NV CDMA/LTE. Now that they are open to keeping 100, that's a good move in the right direction.

 

However, Sprint is keeping a sharp eye on its finances. I wouldn't expect that 100 number to grow a lot. If they kept 1,000 well placed iDEN only sites, they could keep the entire iDEN coverage area now offered. But 1,000 sites is a lot for Sprint to keep at this point.

 

Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner