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

[Ascertion]

 

Ok noob like question...... Are there differences in antennas? I have seen references to different "cells" didn't know if different antennas cover more area then others......

 

The new network vision panels have RRUs on the back and it's said to imrpove performance by up to 20% since the signal doesn't have to travel to the bottom of the site.

 

Every panel supports different frequencies. In Sprints case, their panels support the 800mhz band and the 1900mhz band.

The lower the band, the better the coverage and building penetration. The con to lower frequencies is it's highly susceptible to weather.

 

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[tybo31316]

 

Ok noob like question...... Are there differences in antennas? I have seen references to different "cells" didn't know if different antennas cover more area then others......

 

I don't know anything about the different antennae designs. Only thing I know I'd that sprint uses multi mode panels that's capable of broadcasting multiple frequencies. Also T-Mobile will be using panels with built in ruu's with their LTE rollout.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[Dkoellerwx]

This is JA33XC051. Just north of Shand's Bridge. I cannot tell which layer is Sprint, it's either the top or the bottom. The bottom layer has panels with RRUs on the backside, which leads me to think it's Sprint. The pictures are kind of bad because it was getting dark and couldn't get anymore zoom with the S3 camera.

 

 

The bottom is not Sprint, there are RRUs on every panel. Sprint only has one NV panel per sector. From those photos, I can't tell which is Sprint, and I don't think I see any NV equipment.

 

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[Ascertion]

 

The bottom is not Sprint, there are RRUs on every panel. Sprint only has one NV panel per sector. From those photos, I can't tell which is Sprint, and I don't think I see any NV equipment.

 

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Its gotta be the top layer, then. Legacy equipment on top layer.

 

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[Dkoellerwx]

Its gotta be the top layer, then. Legacy equipment on top layer.

 

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You're positive this is a Sprint tower? It looks like there are three panels per sector on the top. That's not the norm for Sprint towers, though not impossible if you're in an extremely densely populated area. The top panels don't seem to look like Sprint panels either, but it's hard to tell.

 

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[Ascertion]

You're positive this is a Sprint tower? It looks like there are three panels per sector on the top. That's not the norm for Sprint towers, though not impossible if you're in an extremely densely populated area. The top panels don't seem to look like Sprint panels either, but it's hard to tell.

 

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It's a pretty lonely site, there's not any really near by on Sprint. I've seen Sprint on the top rack before, too. Including the one on BayMeadows.

[bandmember01]

It's a pretty lonely site, there's not any really near by on Sprint. I've seen Sprint on the top rack before, too. Including the one on BayMeadows.

 

In reference to JA33XC051..... Co-location on existing tower.... The LTE stuff I have come across seems to always have a value of 100k this one is 30k... Deductive reasoning would say it is a voice up grade but I am human..... It's another westower job

[jtbnanuk]

The location of the in progress pin for ocala site has install in the process, there are lines running from the top of the tower.

[tybo31316]

It's a pretty lonely site, there's not any really near by on Sprint. I've seen Sprint on the top rack before, too. Including the one on BayMeadows.

 

I've noticed in the Jacksonville market majority of the time sprint is on the top or on a site by itself.

 

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[bandmember01]

Yup the cost thing didn't really matter.............

 

[Ascertion]

I've noticed in the Jacksonville market majority of the time sprint is on the top or on a site by itself.

 

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Yeah, the site by my house is 100% Sprint only.

[TonyLibations]

I'm currently receiving 4G signal from the tower off of Baymeadows behind the Suntrust building. Speedtest: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5fo2voac4nh5bc9/2012-12-03_09-24-41.png

[boomerbubba]

I'm currently receiving 4G signal from the tower off of Baymeadows behind the Suntrust building. Speedtest: https://www.dropbox....03_09-24-41.png

 

How do you know this tower is providing the LTE signal? There is no app or utility that directly provides this information. It takes some legwork in the field. For that matter, how do you know this tower is a Sprint site at all?

[Ascertion]

How do you know this tower is providing the LTE signal? There is no app or utility that directly provides this information. It takes some legwork in the field. For that matter, how do you know this tower is a Sprint site at all?

It's fairly easy to tell which one is Sprint (I posted some pictures of the Baymeadows Sprint tower being upgraded earlier, dated Oct 18th) and the Sensorly map displays coverage for Sprint, the strong signal areas will be closer to the site, whereas the weaker signals will be farther away from the site.

[boomerbubba]

How do you know this tower is providing the LTE signal? There is no app or utility that directly provides this information. It takes some legwork in the field. For that matter, how do you know this tower is a Sprint site at all?

It's fairly easy to tell which one is Sprint (I posted some pictures of the Baymeadows Sprint tower being upgraded earlier, dated Oct 18th) and the Sensorly map displays coverage for Sprint, the strong signal areas will be closer to the site, whereas the weaker signals will be farther away from the site.

 

I wasn't asking a general question. (I know very well how to determine which towers are live.) I was asking a very specific question about a specific comment by user TonyLibations, who had asserted without evidence that he knew the tower providing his LTE signal. This was only his second post here, and he is not even an S4GRU sponsor so he lacks access to the authoritative maps of Sprint towers. In addition, although he provided no signal strength reading, his Speedtest results were just middling. So he likely was not very near the LTE tower in question. In my experience, such comments are wrong more often than they are right, often based on the wrong assumptions.

 

BTW, I also quibble with your generalizations. Sensorly hotspots provide a very useful clue, but they do not resolve the analysis with certainty. The only way to do that, for a hypothesis that Tower X is live, is to get up close to that tower and survey all sectors with strong RSRP readings all around using the device's LTE Engineering screen. Sometimes that effort disproves the hypothesis instead of proving it! Also, physical evidence of NV upgrades do not prove that a site is live. I live in an active LTE development area, where we at S4GRU have documented all the live towers to date, right down to their individual sector IDs. But we still have several examples of towers that have had obvious upgrades for weeks, with no LTE signal yet. So while physical evidence is useful corroboration, it is not sufficient to prove any such hypothesis.

[Feech]

I wasn't asking a general question. (I know very well how to determine which towers are live.) I was asking a very specific question about a specific comment by user TonyLibations, who had asserted without evidence that he knew the tower providing his LTE signal. This was only his second post here, and he is not even an S4GRU sponsor so he lacks access to the authoritative maps of Sprint towers. In addition, although he provided no signal strength reading, his Speedtest results were just middling. So he likely was not very near the LTE tower in question. In my experience, such comments are wrong more often than they are right, often based on the wrong assumptions.

 

BTW, I also quibble with your generalizations. Sensorly hotspots provide a very useful clue, but they do not resolve the analysis with certainty. The only way to do that, for a hypothesis that Tower X is live, is to get up close to that tower and survey all sectors with strong RSRP readings all around using the device's LTE Engineering screen. Sometimes that effort disproves the hypothesis instead of proving it! Also, physical evidence of NV upgrades do not prove that a site is live. I live in an active LTE development area, where we at S4GRU have documented all the live towers to date, right down to their individual sector IDs. But we still have several examples of towers that have had obvious upgrades for weeks, with no LTE signal yet. So while physical evidence is useful corroboration, it is not sufficient to prove any such hypothesis.

 

boomerbubba, just being real here but this isn't the first post I have seen from you where you are smacking down someone on the site who is trying to make a contribution without being a sponsor. I would love everyone to be a sponsor but it will never happen so let those people contribute in any way they can. I understand you are likely trying to be helpful but it really comes off as arrogant and bullying. If that was the response to one of my first posts I would be out and miss out on conversing with some really intelligent people that are way smarter than us. I would also quibble with your assertion that Sensorly may not be useful. Granted, it may not be the end all be all but it will certainly put you in the area, and if you can get to the site its easy to prove or disprove if it is a Sprint site with very little work other than driving. Not trying to start a war, but understand that you really sound nasty when replying to posts

[boomerbubba]

boomerbubba, just being real here but this isn't the first post I have seen from you where you are smacking down someone on the site who is trying to make a contribution without being a sponsor. I would love everyone to be a sponsor but it will never happen so let those people contribute in any way they can. I understand you are likely trying to be helpful but it really comes off as arrogant and bullying. If that was the response to one of my first posts I would be out and miss out on conversing with some really intelligent people that are way smarter than us. I would also quibble with your assertion that Sensorly may not be useful. Granted, it may not be the end all be all but it will certainly put you in the area, and if you can get to the site its easy to prove or disprove if it is a Sprint site with very little work other than driving. Not trying to start a war, but understand that you really sound nasty when replying to posts

 

I did not "smack down" anyone.

 

Sorry, but straightforward technical facts are what I am most interested in here, not stroking noobies. Perhaps the new user didn't even realize that he could get access to the Sponsor maps, or how to go about actually determining LTE coverage for specific towers. In any case, I challenged his unsubstantiated claim that he had isolated a certain tower, and I still challenge it based on facts, not feelings. I see no evidence that TonyLibations isolated that LTE tower at all. If he has such evidence, he can just explain it.

 

And please don't misstate my comment. I did not make an "assertion that Sensorly may not be useful." In fact, I said, "Sensorly hotspots provide a very useful clue, but they do not resolve the analysis with certainty." That is factually correct.

 

Not trying to start a war either, but I stand by my comments. Sorry you took offense, but then I wasn't even addressing you in the first place. Have a nice day.

[TonyLibations]

You're right. I really have no scientific data proving anything and I'm a newb in this field. I work next to these big ole towers that i've assumed were sprint bc my signal greatly improves when I get to work. That's why I thought 'Must be a sprint tower.' Jacksonville doesn't have many Sprint towers (in relation to other providers) which made me think 'LTE must be coming from that tower Yay!' Additionally, Sensorly shows the center of the recorded LTE in the same spot as the tower.

 

We've been paying LTE pricing for no LTE for a while now. Maybe I got over excited and jumped the gun. Just wanted to spread the good word.

[S4GRU]

You're right. I really have no scientific data proving anything and I'm a newb in this field. I work next to these big ole towers that i've assumed were sprint bc my signal greatly improves when I get to work. That's why I thought 'Must be a sprint tower.' Jacksonville doesn't have many Sprint towers (in relation to other providers) which made me think 'LTE must be coming from that tower Yay!' Additionally, Sensorly shows the center of the recorded LTE in the same spot as the tower.

 

We've been paying LTE pricing for no LTE for a while now. Maybe I got over excited and jumped the gun. Just wanted to spread the good word.

 

I'm excited about your enthusiasm. And welcome to S4GRU. However, to be also technically accurate, none of us pay for LTE service. We pay for access to the Sprint network. But we all look forward to LTE service and thankfully Sprint is planning LTE deployment fully nationwide on every site.

 

 

Robert

[TonyLibations]

 

 

I'm excited about your enthusiasm. And welcome to S4GRU. However, to be also technically accurate, none of us pay for LTE service. We pay for access to the Sprint network. But we all look forward to LTE service and thankfully Sprint is planning LTE deployment fully nationwide on every site.

 

 

Robert

 

Rationalize it however you like. Either way I've happily/foolishly been paying for a service that I cannot fully access in my market. I'm elated to say that I had 4G service for the first time on my phone today. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of much more than that. May have been Sprint, maybe not. Thank you for your encouragement.

 

 

[Dkoellerwx]

May have been Sprint, maybe not. Thank you for your encouragement.

 

If you had 4G on your phone, then it was Sprint, couldn't be any other way. But as far as tower locations go, you're probably right, but the best way to confirm it is to visually see the equipment on the tower, or become a sponsor of the site which gives you access to maps of all Sprint sites in the country.

 

Jacksonville has plenty of Sprint towers, it may just seem like they have less than the other carriers. In fact, due to the spectrum they use, they most likely have more towers because they have to place them closer together.

 

Welcome to the site! There is a wealth of information here, read on!

[anasazi]

There are some new towers in the area. Are you in the same section of the building? I was at the dentist earlier and in the lobby (brick building), I got 0.2 mbps speeds but by the window on the other side of building, I got 1.6mbps DL. Depending on the building structure and site location, speeds can vary greatly.

 

Seems like sometimes in building speeds are greater than outdoors speeds. Might just be my imagination however. I'll try to run some speedtests over the next few days if I have a chance. Was inside medical -- and by inside I mean interior room in the middle of the building on the second floor, and I was surfing the web just fine but out at the car? Slow.

 

Then back up in my normal work space where just 2-3 weeks ago data was basically useless I was actually streaming spotify without any effort at all. Such a huge change! But then back outside then at the car, slow. Like I said, could totally just be in my mind though.

[TonyLibations]

 

 

If you had 4G on your phone, then it was Sprint, couldn't be any other way. But as far as tower locations go, you're probably right, but the best way to confirm it is to visually see the equipment on the tower, or become a sponsor of the site which gives you access to maps of all Sprint sites in the country.

 

Jacksonville has plenty of Sprint towers, it may just seem like they have less than the other carriers. In fact, due to the spectrum they use, they most likely have more towers because they have to place them closer together.

 

Welcome to the site! There is a wealth of information here, read on!

 

That makes sense. Thanks.

[Ascertion]

 

Rationalize it however you like. Either way I've happily/foolishly been paying for a service that I cannot fully access in my market. I'm elated to say that I had 4G service for the first time on my phone today. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of much more than that. May have been Sprint, maybe not. Thank you for your encouragement.

Think of it this way, Sprints data charge us only $10, while others are $30 per line. It's not so bad.

[TonyLibations]

 

Think of it this way, Sprints data charge us only $10, while others are $30 per line. It's not so bad.

 

Yeah, I can't complain too much. Comparatively, I think we're much better off. That's why I've stuck with Sprint for 12yrs and counting.