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

[Ascertion]

Spoke with Sprint about it. Apparently it's a reported outage already. Ticket # 1565249. Rep said it will be fixed on 08/06/2013 at 17:00...hmm. I'm not familiar with how the trouble tickets work.

My local tower is out completely. 3g/LTE is completely offline here. Been like that since this morning. Hope it means Sprints turning on CDMA 800 or LTE 800.

 

Sent from my Sprint Galaxy S3™

 

 

[Terrell352]

I wonder what is the hold up in the Jacksonville market as Sprints LTE rollout in this market has been embarrassingly slow and typically has less than 100 upgrades a month between Jacksonville, Alachua, Gainesville, St Augustine, Ocala ect. There has to be something major going on to affect the rollout this much. Orlando is also going pretty slow.

[tybo31316]

I wonder what is the hold up in the Jacksonville market as Sprints LTE rollout in this market has been embarrassingly slow and typically has less than 100 upgrades a month between Jacksonville, Alachua, Gainesville, St Augustine, Ocala ect. There has to be something major going on to affect the rollout this much. Orlando is also going pretty slow.

Maybe they have run into a backhaul problem or maybe Softbank is changing direction and installing TDD LTE and NV 1.0 at the same time.

 

Sent from my EVO

 

 

[Terrell352]

We can only speculate but I hate not knowing. A super slow rollout is better than no rollout I guess.

 

Sent from my EVO

[The Dave]

I have been lurking for a while and reading about Sprint upgrading to LTE since my contract is up in a month and my EVO 3D is on its death spiral. I haven't experienced Sprint LTE first hand so I went to my local store in St Augustine off of 312 and 207. I told the rep that I played with a DROID at the Verizon store across the street and got 35.6 mbps down and 12.4 mbps up and wanted to know how Sprint compared. He ran speed test on an HTC One and got 6.6 mbps down and 6.9 mbps up. I asked about tri band lte but he didn't know what that was and asked why the HTC was comparatively slow. He said that right now Sprint is only running LTE at partial power until they finish the city up in a couple of weeks and it will be faster. Does that sound possible? I didn't think they could turn the power up or down at will? I am just tired of having 4G for two years that I have never been able to utilize.

[Terrell352]

That store rep did not know what he was talking about. Sprint does not slow data. Its likely that the store is far from the tower or poor building penetration. Could also be to many people on the tower since they are not finished. Most of the workers are to stupid to know about Triband and I doubt it will be finished in a few weeks. Rule #1 never trust a store rep as there only job is to sell a device and collect commission and they will lie to get it.if you have questions I suggest you ask Robert , Aj or anyone on this forum first

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

That store rep did not know what he was talking about. Sprint does not slow data. Its likely that the store is far from the tower or poor building penetration. Could also be to many people on the tower since they are not finished. Most of the workers are to stupid to know about Triband and I doubt it will be finished in a few weeks. Rule #1 never trust a store rep as there only job is to sell a device and collect commission and they will lie to get it.if you have questions I suggest you ask Robert , Aj or anyone on this forum first

Yup, pretty much. If you want to see the upgraded Network Vison sites in your area, become a sponsor and you'll get access to interactive maps that will show you what towers are active in your area and also what towers are currently in progress.

 

Basically, LTE is very signal dependent and if you aren't getting a good enough signal from a distant tower and/or the tower you're on is over-burdened from everybody sharing its connection (because there are few LTE towers around you currently), you will get slower speeds.

 

In downtown Jacksonville, where in live, I average 12-30mbps with a good signal and 6-12 with a not-so-good signal. I'd say this is totally usable and you really don't need more than that on a phone. Once TriBand LTE starts coming online in the Jax area (800mhz LTE, 1900mhz LTE and 2.5ghz TD-LTE), you will see your data speeds increase as well as coverage (mostly from 800mhz LTE). Also, once all of the sites (towers) are upgraded to NV, even just 1900mhz LTE, you'll see your speeds increase from less over-burdening on each tower. 800mhz LTE will help fill-in any coverage holes and also provide MUCH better in-building penetration.

 

Keep in mind though, you'll need a TriBand phone or hotspot to utilize 800LTE and 2.5GhzTD-LTE along with PCS 1.9Ghz LTE. Those phones are due out in the Fall, but there are several hotspots available now that can connect to the "Tri-band" LTE frequencies, once they're available in your area. You can get a non-TriBand phone now, that will only utilize the 1.9ghz PCS Band 25 LTE that is currently available.

[The Dave]

I have noticed my 3g speeds are slowly getting better. At my house I pulled 2.12 mbps down and 0.79 mbps up last night. My wimax seems to have gone down dramatically though so I just don't get service where I used to or it is slower than my 3g. I am excited for these tri band phones to come out, I am interested in the new G2 or if a newer S4 comes out soon. I will try to donate some in the next week. Bills are a kick in the teeth, but I have been reading these forums for a week and there are some really great people here with lots of knowledge and dedication.

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

I have noticed my 3g speeds are slowly getting better. At my house I pulled 2.12 mbps down and 0.79 mbps up last night. My wimax seems to have gone down dramatically though so I just don't get service where I used to or it is slower than my 3g. I am excited for these tri band phones to come out, I am interested in the new G2 or if a newer S4 comes out soon. I will try to donate some in the next week. Bills are a kick in the teeth, but I have been reading these forums for a week and there are some really great people here with lots of knowledge and dedication.

Yup. Network Vision upgrades aren't just for LTE, there are several things going on with these upgrades and better EVDO (3G) is one of them. On NV sites, I regularly get 1.5-2.5mbps downlink on EVDO, which is great and really all you need for most things. 1xRTT on 800mhz is also another thing that NV brings and you should start to see this really soon in the Jax area, assuming you have a phone that can utilize 800mhz CDMA.

 

Lots going on in the Sprint network. Hang tight!!!!

[kn4ds]

Yup. Network Vision upgrades aren't just for LTE, there are several things going on with these upgrades and better EVDO (3G) is one of them. On NV sites, I regularly get 1.5-2.5mbps downlink on EVDO, which is great and really all you need for most things. 1xRTT on 800mhz is also another thing that NV brings and you should start to see this really soon in the Jax area, assuming you have a phone that can utilize 800mhz CDMA.

 

Lots going on in the Sprint network. Hang tight!!!!

Definitely hang tight.

 

I spent the weekend in St. Augustine, and finally got to experience the new network.  

 

The phone dropped back to 3G only a couple of times all weekend, and even at that, still was able to send photos.

 

Here in middle Georgia, data is basically offline.  Photo sends fail, web pages don't load, Gmail fails, etc.

 

It was AWESOME to hit "Post" and see it actually work.

 

Standing outside, on the beach at Crescent Beach, I got:  14085 kbps down, 7284 kpbs up.  indoors, with "no bars" I got 2619 down, 5850 up.

 

Good things are coming for you guys.  Hang in there.

[tybo31316]

The network is definitely getting better my wife is about to be out of contract and wants to switch to AT&T. I'm trying to convince her to stay with sprint and she will not budge. I told her I'm not going anywhere.

 

Sent from my EVO

 

 

[Terrell352]

I wonder why sprints network seems prone to losing data packets a lot more than the other carriers but seems to have better ping on 3g than even att at times

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

I wonder why sprints network seems prone to losing data packets a lot more than the other carriers but seems to have better ping on 3g than even att at times

How do you know Sprint's network is more prone to loosing data packets over the other carriers? Typically speaking, on NV sites, I get better ping time with Sprint than I do Verizon and AT&T.

[Terrell352]

When they do speed test study's especially this year Sprint loss a lot of data packets often being on par or slighty better than metro pcs.

How do you know Sprint's network is more prone to loosing data packets over the other carriers? Typically speaking, on NV sites, I get better ping time with Sprint than I do Verizon and AT&T.

[Terrell352]

Let me send a link

[The Dave]

My pings used to be bad but the last month I have noticed a huge improvement. I am getting a lot of sub 100 ms pings on 3g now. I think there is a tower just across the street from my house that is now upgraded. I had my phone out last night while walking my dog and had full bars. I did a speed test and got 79ms ping, 2.56 mbps down and 0.88 mbps up on 3g. My wimax is another story, though. 109 ms ping, 1.00 mbps down and 0.51 up. Go figure.

[Terrell352]

So if a tower goes live and your coverage seems limited and then a week or two later its range is a lot greater what does that mean? Did they correct the downtilt or add a new panel or is a new tower doing it?

[Ascertion]

2nd tower on cr 210 now has NV panels installed. Not active yet but they should be soon. :-P

[SpenceSouth]

So if a tower goes live and your coverage seems limited and then a week or two later its range is a lot greater what does that mean? Did they correct the downtilt or add a new panel or is a new tower doing it?

 

Most likely they probably just adjusted the downtilt.

[Nomadicgeek]

I found this article today, which has some insight into the issues that Sprint is having with contractors and upgrading backhaul. It also seems that including CDMA upgrades in the NV project means that they have to make sure that 911 service isn't affected which I'm sure is also helping to slow things down.

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprints-lte-rollout-hampered-lack-backhaul-and-network-vision-issues/2013-07-24

 

CNET has more information

 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57595175-94/why-sprint-is-taking-its-sweet-time-with-4g-lte/

[tybo31316]

I found this article today, which has some insight into the issues that Sprint is having with contractors and upgrading backhaul. It also seems that including CDMA upgrades in the NV project means that they have to make sure that 911 service isn't affected which I'm sure is also helping to slow things down.

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprints-lte-rollout-hampered-lack-backhaul-and-network-vision-issues/2013-07-24

 

CNET has more information

 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57595175-94/why-sprint-is-taking-its-sweet-time-with-4g-lte/

Users on this site that asks why it is taking sprint so long to get LTE and 800 CDMA online should watch the CNET video. Everything he's saying is the same stuff that Robert and other users has been saying all along.

 

Sent from my EVO

 

 

[Sethro80]

For anyone who doesn't want to wait, you can always go to verizon for two years, and when the contract is up, come back to Sprint and hopefully they will have everything finished by then. 2016 seems about right, since the original word was Jacksonville would be at least 50% complete by fall of 2012. I'm due July of next year. I will need a fully completed LTE rollout with no black holes in the popular areas of town to consider staying. The little LtE ive experienced was great; i just need consistency.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

For anyone who doesn't want to wait, you can always go to verizon for two years, and when the contract is up, come back to Sprint and hopefully they will have everything finished by then. 2016 seems about right, since the original word was Jacksonville would be at least 50% complete by fall of 2012. I'm due July of next year. I will need a fully completed LTE rollout with no black holes in the popular areas of town to consider staying. The little LtE ive experienced was great; i just need consistency.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

The crazy thing is, I get LTE pretty much everywhere I go. You must live/frequent the the Southside / Town Centre / Kernan / Hodges areas. Those are serious black holes in Jax.

 

I live in the Downtown/San Marco area and work/play in the Downtown/San Marco/Riverside/Springfield areas and I ALWAYS have a decent LTE signal now. I now average 6-25mbps with peaks just over 30mbps on my iPhone 5. I even have LTE signal in my house and it averages -100 to -118dBm, which usually still gets me around 6-12mbps, inside my house and that's with the closest NV site about 1.5miles away. The tower right in front of my house hasn't been upgraded yet.

 

It will start to get a lot better, very soon. I wouldn't go anywhere, but that's just me.

[The Dave]

Whenever I go to Jacksonville, I stay within the southside/town center area since I'm from St Augustine. Hopefully that section will get upgraded soon. The town center area has horrible 3g reception. From what I can tell from sensorly, St Augustine is still really spotty, too. But it could be a lack of users here using it. Wimax has always been really spotty from the beginning here so I have high hopes for a night and day difference in LTE coverage once I get a new phone.

[SpenceSouth]

I just moved out of an area blanked with upgraded NV sites to the Town Center area and I feel like I've stepped back in time by a year.  I hope they get up to speed in this area soon.