Network Vision/LTE - Jacksonville Market (including Gainesville/St. Augustine/Ocala)

[Faction]

I work on UNF campus by Kernan and the service here is horrible. I've been roaming all day with 1x. Anybody else in this area having issues?

[jamisonshaw125]

I work on UNF campus by Kernan and the service here is horrible. I've been roaming all day with 1x. Anybody else in this area having issues?

Service there is horrible all the time, or just today? If its only today its possible they are either upgrading your nearest tower, or there is an outage.

[tybo31316]

I work on UNF campus by Kernan and the service here is horrible. I've been roaming all day with 1x. Anybody else in this area having issues?

Service there is horrible all the time, or just today? If its only today its possible they are either upgrading your nearest tower, or there is an outage.

Every time I've ever been to UNF the service was bad.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[SpenceSouth]

Every time I've ever been to UNF the service was bad.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

My experience has always been pretty good. It's been really nice since that Clearwire tower came online with eCSFB.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Faction]

Normally I get about three to four dots indoors and full five dots outdoors. In/out i was extended the entire time. every now and then it would catch 1x or 3G one dot...hmm...

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

Normally I get about three to four dots indoors and full five dots outdoors. In/out i was extended the entire time. every now and then it would catch 1x or 3G one dot...hmm...

These are things that happen as an upgrade occurs. Probably B26, as this is what happened to me right before it went live. It could also be a legacy site upgrade, but I think all of the sites in that area are done.

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

I had one of my normal towers go totally down today. I was stuck on EVDO then it went down to 1x1900 and the totally went down. Now I'm connected to the next nearest site and can barely get a B25 signal from that site and what I do get is extremely slow. Looks like they're doing something with this tower, I can visually see it but don't see any activity at the site itself.

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

As I was writing my previous post, my closest tower came back online. All-in-all, it was down about 2 hours.

 

I'm assuming it was a B26 upgrade, but I can't tell - I have a iPhone 5 ????

[jamisonshaw125]

As I was writing my previous post, my closest tower came back online. All-in-all, it was down about 2 hours.

 

I'm assuming it was a B26 upgrade, but I can't tell - I have a iPhone 5

Brace yourself. September is coming. 

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

Brace yourself. September is coming.

I assume you're referring to 8T8R B41 deployment? I hope we don't have to wait that long before we start seeing them.

[Fraydog]

I assume you're referring to 8T8R B41 deployment? I hope we don't have to wait that long before we start seeing them.

Naw he's talking of the iconic device that may have B41 on it.

[tybo31316]

Naw he's talking of the iconic device that may have B41 on it.

Speaking of that iconic device. I won an iPad mini at work today. So far I'm liking it over my nexus 7 tab.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

Naw he's talking of the iconic device that may have B41 on it.

Ah'ha! Could have gone either way, I guess. [emoji106][emoji106]

[The Dave]

I've had some serious issues with staying connected to LTE and even keeping a consistent 1x signal over the past couple of days. I can only hope for good things to come really soon.

[tybo31316]

Had some issues with voice this morning at the Walmart in OP. Then later in the afternoon I connected to 1x 800 in the WD on knight box road which is a really bad dead zone for sprint.

 

I see sprint is kicking 800 into high gear on CDMA and LTE.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[tybo31316]

Man it's amazing how far Jacksonville has come. The service from Sprint is awesome almost everywhere I go I get reception either LTE or CDMA 800. Every place that was a dead zone is now being filled in. Sprint is definitely turned their coverage around now they need to get a better marketing team to advertise it. I would hate for them to buy tmobile and have to integrate networks after their network has come so far.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tybo31316]

I went out to Macclenny today held on to band 26 90% of the ride on i10 and I also picked it up inside the phantom fireworks shop where I was shopping.

 

I'm guessing that Ericson is lighting up as many sites as they can in the Jax market.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Ascertion]

I went out to Macclenny today held on to band 26 90% of the ride on i10 and I also picked it up inside the phantom fireworks shop where I was shopping.

 

I'm guessing that Ericson is lighting up as many sites as they can in the Jax market.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

It's roughly the same coverage as LTE 1900 still in most areas.  They're not optimized.  I'm interested in seeing how well it performs once they officially light it up.

[SpenceSouth]

It's roughly the same coverage as LTE 1900 still in most areas. They're not optimized. I'm interested in seeing how well it performs once they officially light it up.

I've noticed it as being marginally better. Can't wait to see it optimized. Surprisingly even on low power it does already help!

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

Yeah, B26 is better than B25 on my home site, by about 15% or so. Beyond that, I've noticed B26 as being about the same strength as B25 but slightly slower on the other sites I've seen B26. This will change I'm sure!! Either way, it's still good to see the extra 5x5Mhz FDD LTE carrier taking the burden off B25. Once it's optimized, coverage should improve greatly!

[jamisonshaw125]

Yeah, B26 is better than B25 on my home site, by about 15% or so. Beyond that, I've noticed B26 as being about the same strength as B25 but slightly slower on the other sites I've seen B26. This will change I'm sure!! Either way, it's still good to see the extra 5x5Mhz FDD LTE carrier taking the burden off B25. Once it's optimized, coverage should improve greatly!

They just have to push people onto spark devices or iPhones. Get people onto both of those bands and ease up the crowding on wittle ole b25. I drool over having b41 in february. I can just hope that its more saturated in our markets by the time my upgrade comes around. Of course, by then b26 will optimized to perfection and I probably won't even care about speeds anymore as long as they're usable..

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

They just have to push people onto spark devices or iPhones. Get people onto both of those bands and ease up the crowding on wittle ole b25. I drool over having b41 in february. I can just hope that its more saturated in our markets by the time my upgrade comes around. Of course, by then b26 will optimized to perfection and I probably won't even care about speeds anymore as long as they're usable..

It seems like this already happening. I've already noticed my B25 speeds increasing here, while B26 speeds are slightly slower (might be an optimization issue). B41 seems to be fairly consistent around here. I can only get B41 on my hotspot currently, but B41 is still fairly consistent.

 

I think a lot more people have iPhone 5s/c as well as TriBand Android phones than we may realize, at least in this area. It's pretty rare that I see a non TriBand/DualBand around here, honestly. I'm the only person I know that still rocks an iPhone 5, for instance. Most everybody has moved up.

[jamisonshaw125]

It seems like this already happening. I've already noticed my B25 speeds increasing here, while B26 speeds are slightly slower (might be an optimization issue). B41 seems to be fairly consistent around here. I can only get B41 on my hotspot currently, but B41 is still fairly consistent.

 

I think a lot more people have iPhone 5s/c as well as TriBand Android phones than we may realize, at least in this area. It's pretty rare that I see a non TriBand/DualBand around here, honestly. I'm the only person I know that still rocks an iPhone 5, for instance. Most everybody has moved up.

When the iPhone 6 comes out in a few months, it would be funny to watch how much the speeds will increase and how many people will stop complaining on sprint community forums. Something like.. "wow, I should've upgraded earlier and took advantage of the new network like I was told 500 times." Say it aint so. lol

 

I wish I had a nexus 5 or triband device to run around and do speed tests on b41 when I'm out and about.

[Ascertion]

Just tried out T-Mobile for laughs (Test Drive, which is a kind of cool attraction.)  Anyways, I've come to the conclusion that Sprint is better here, coverage-wise.  I'd rather have a reliable method of texting/voice calls than super fast data some of the time.

 

My testing was done in St Johns Cty.

 

CR 210 is great.  I'll start off by saying they're probably the best carrier on CR 210.  Their site density is just right and they have LTE all over the place here.  However, the nightmares started when I got onto Greenbriar Rd  (had no signal near Bartram Trail HS.)

 

All over Racetrack Rd (only when it nears San Jose does it change) is Edge-only.  Sprint's got 4G LTE all along that road.  I really doubt anyone would want to be on T-Mobile if they lived off this road.  

 

Secondly, I frequently drive along Roberts Rd (over by Cunningham Creek elementary school), and found I had no signal for a majority way which is absolutely unacceptable! 

 

While I'm waiting for movies to start at my local movie theater (Regals at the Avenues), I noticed I dropped signal completely inside certain parts of the building.  Not just losing 4G, but entire signal.  Once again, if there was some sort of family emergency, you would be unable to reach phone calls if you were watching a movie in the wrong theater.

 

I went to visit a friend's house who lives in River Oaks Plantation (right off Roberts Rd and San Jose) this morning and had no signal, at all.  Good thing Sprint has their own tower right outside the neighborhood!

 

Anyways, I will say where T-Mobile had 4G LTE, it was very fast.  According to the iPhone field test screens, most of their LTE sites are running on 20mhz of Bandwidth.  I pulled a few 40mbps tests.  Almost all of the places where T-Mobile had LTE, Sprint was slower - but not too slow.  Sprint still held in there with ~5-10mbps which is completely fine with me.  

 

Only thing T-Mobile has going for me so far is that they have a site right outside my work place but it's co-located with a Clearwire Tower and it'll likely be broadcasting B41 soon. :good:

 

T-Mobile Edge is hilariously slow.  I don't understand why people say Sprint's 3G is worse than it.  There's no way.

 

I'm on day 2 of my "Test Drive" and not impressed, really.  I might return the iPhone early.

[jamisonshaw125]

Interesting. That is about what I expected. I was saying in another thread how test drive might actually hurt tmobile. Hey, come try out our amazing shitty network and then write a few articles, post in a few forums, and tell everyone you know that tmobile sucks where you live! 

 

And its all for free. Most people won't go sign a new contract with a provider, but test drive...can't go wrong with absolutely free and no surprises or tricks.