Network Vision/LTE - South Carolina Market (Columbia/Greenville/Spartanburg)

[drhz]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jimmyray1990]

Those poles are very tall and look just like the ones that Mobilitie used in Akron, OH. https://goo.gl/photos/96cExrbNNzntjcAP7

 

I was told the poles were installed 1-2 months before the equipment appeared. But it could be faster now that they're ramping up deployment.

 

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Yeah these poles just look as tall as those they are spaced about 2 to 4 miles apart I knew it couldn't be for power or telephone/Cable cause most of those are under ground or mounted on power poles nor for CCTV but I am finding it a good idea for sprint using Small cells cause all they have to pay for is a pole and equipment and no lease cause it's in public right of way which in my view saves money

 

 

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[jimmyray1990]

 

 

 

 

 

I can't image Verizon going small cell cause they obviously have monopoly on all the low band building penetration and a ton of AWS for XLTE in the upstate sprint is the only carrier I know that is going full fledge Small cell on a pole ATM in the upstate Sprint is doing the same thing when they brought EVDO in the upstate building from the ground up decommissioning etc I think Small cell is going to do great around here

 

 

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[jimmyray1990]

Is that a current picture? The Sprint equipment is still there.

Yeah current and none of that is sprint what used to be Sprints was on top I used to pull full bars of B25 from there now it was about 3 to 4 B26

 

 

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[lilotimz]

I can't image Verizon going small cell cause they obviously have monopoly on all the low band building penetration and a ton of AWS for XLTE in the upstate sprint is the only carrier I know that is going full fledge Small cell on a pole ATM in the upstate Sprint is doing the same thing when they brought EVDO in the upstate building from the ground up decommissioning etc I think Small cell is going to do great around here

 

 

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Verizon has the most extensive and widespread small cell deployment and existing network of any carrier. They've invested billions into their network and especially small cells not only for capacity but also for coverage which is one of the reasons why they're able to offer VoLTE with no CDMA fallback. 

[jimmyray1990]

Verizon has the most extensive and widespread small cell deployment and existing network of any carrier. They've invested billions into their network and especially small cells not only for capacity but also for coverage which is one of the reasons why they're able to offer VoLTE with no CDMA fallback.

Yeah I know that but I can't image it here in this market cause of how many cell sites they are on around here especially around Greenville/Spartanburg I know Verizon/AT&T in Greenville has dozens of small cells on Buildings and such

 

 

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[Dkoellerwx]

Yeah current and none of that is sprint what used to be Sprints was on top I used to pull full bars of B25 from there now it was about 3 to 4 B26

 

 

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Are you certain? I am not 100% but that bottom tier looks a lot like Sprint equipment to me. A closer or higher resolution image would clear that up for me.

[drhz]

I can't image Verizon going small cell cause they obviously have monopoly on all the low band building penetration and a ton of AWS for XLTE in the upstate sprint is the only carrier I know that is going full fledge Small cell on a pole ATM in the upstate Sprint is doing the same thing when they brought EVDO in the upstate building from the ground up decommissioning etc I think Small cell is going to do great around here

 

 

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The reason I think the ones in Mauldin are Verizon's is because the sticker on one of the equipment reads Extenet and because it had wired backhaul. 

 

I had Verizon service at my old job early this year and there were parts of Greenville and Spartanburg where I was having congestion problems even with my XLTE Samsung Note 4 work phone. 

 

I think this area in Mauldin is a smart location for small cells. Within a 5 mile radius, there are a lot of retail places, restaurants, a hotel, and some residential apartments. I know most of the Upstate and Columbia market is spread out but we still have pockets of dense urban areas. Woodruff RD in Greenville, Clemson Blvd in Anderson, and at USC's Spartanburg Campus in Spartanburg just to name a few.  

[jimmyray1990]

Are you certain? I am not 100% but that bottom tier looks a lot like Sprint equipment to me. A closer or higher resolution image would clear that up for me.

I will next time I go past it I think that whole tower is decommissioning cause they are like 5 near it in less than 5 miles

 

 

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[jimmyray1990]

The reason I think the ones in Mauldin are Verizon's is because the sticker on one of the equipment reads Extenet and because it had wired backhaul.

 

I had Verizon service at my old job early this year and there were parts of Greenville and Spartanburg where I was having congestion problems even with my XLTE Samsung Note 4 work phone.

 

I think this area in Mauldin is a smart location for small cells. Within a 5 mile radius, there are a lot of retail places, restaurants, a hotel, and some residential apartments. I know most of the Upstate and Columbia market is spread out but we still have pockets of dense urban areas. Woodruff RD in Greenville, Clemson Blvd in Anderson, and at USC's Spartanburg Campus in Spartanburg just to name a few.

It could possibly be VZW back when I had them in Greenville I didn't have congestion problems but that was back 3 years ago i was in the Haywood rd/Pelham area I would just hope these Small cells are Sprint cause LTE is unusable during peak around I force my phone to 3G cause it's been faster than LTE in Anderson avg download is 0.90 and below and upload times out 90% of the time

 

 

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[drhz]

It could possibly be VZW back when I had them in Greenville I didn't have congestion problems but that was back 3 years ago i was in the Haywood rd/Pelham area I would just hope these Small cells are Sprint cause LTE is unusable during peak around I force my phone to 3G cause it's been faster than LTE in Anderson avg download is 0.90 and below and upload times out 90% of the time

 

 

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I agree with you on the Sprint congestion during peak times. I even downloaded a Wifi offload app called Popwifi Connect (from Devicescape)on the Android Store to make public wifi easier to connect to. I hate captive portals and Popwifi gets around those.

 

Then I paid Sprint $2 a month for their VPN Service called Secure Wi-Fi. This solution has helped me but I hoping Sprint does something in the Upstate market.

 

I have an Unlimited Plan by the way. I'm just using the Popwifi for performance reasons, not to save on data.

 

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[jimmyray1990]

I agree with you on the Sprint congestion during peak times. I even downloaded a Wifi offload app called Popwifi Connect (from Devicescape)on the Android Store to make public wifi easier to connect to. I hate captive portals and Popwifi gets around those.

 

Then I paid Sprint $2 a month for their VPN Service called Secure Wi-Fi. This solution has helped me but I hoping Sprint does something in the Upstate market.

 

I have an Unlimited Plan by the way. I'm just using the Popwifi for performance reasons, not to save on data.

 

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Sprint has their on VPN service? And I agree with you up there coverage for LTE has became abundant but now it's over capacity I even have the old Everything Data plan so I don't get hit with QoS and one thing I like about sprint they never try to take my plan away even when I upgrade but I don't think QoS is gonna help with the Congestion around here I would hate to see the Woodruff rd area I bet it crawls like it's traffic and Pelham/385 area

 

 

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[drhz]

Sprint has their on VPN service? And I agree with you up there coverage for LTE has became abundant but now it's over capacity I even have the old Everything Data plan so I don't get hit with QoS and one thing I like about sprint they never try to take my plan away even when I upgrade but I don't think QoS is gonna help with the Congestion around here I would hate to see the Woodruff rd area I bet it crawls like it's traffic and Pelham/385 area

 

 

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Yes, Sprint has their own VPN called Secure Wi-Fi. The $2.00 month comes on my bill. It's a good VPN that only kicks in on Public Wifi. I probably don't need it but it does work well.

 

Sorry to take the thread off topic.

 

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[ingenium]

Yes, Sprint has their own VPN called Secure Wi-Fi. The $2.00 month comes on my bill. It's a good VPN that only kicks in on Public Wifi. I probably don't need it but it does work well.

 

Sorry to take the thread off topic.

 

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Google also has one, and it's free. It auto connects to open wifi networks and then VPNs to Google. It actually runs automatically whenever it connects to any unencrypted wifi once you enable it.

 

That being said, I don't think it's particularly fast. I doubt I've ever hit over 10 mbps on it. And I think it was Google limiting it, not the wifi itself (this was Denver airport's free wifi, which is known for being fast).

 

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[belusnecropolis]

On small cells in our area, I am excited that so many of our local areas have taken the initiative to get ahead of the curve; allowing for greater wireless access into areas that are very underserved for broadband.

 

As stated above, many areas are spread out and have pockets of dense population separated by sparse coverage. This is exciting to myself because this answers my questions about rural investment in capacity, if small cells were going to be a part of expanding coverage and access, completing and executing in areas frequently considered a poor ROI, and allowing all that spectrum to get out of the warehouse.

 

It is amusing reading about all the progress we are making early, while so many places are arguing aesthetics and other excuses.

[jimmyray1990]

On small cells in our area, I am excited that so many of our local areas have taken the initiative to get ahead of the curve; allowing for greater wireless access into areas that are very underserved for broadband.

 

As stated above, many areas are spread out and have pockets of dense population separated by sparse coverage. This is exciting to myself because this answers my questions about rural investment in capacity, if small cells were going to be a part of expanding coverage and access, completing and executing in areas frequently considered a poor ROI, and allowing all that spectrum to get out of the warehouse.

 

It is amusing reading about all the progress we are making early, while so many places are arguing aesthetics and other excuses.

I know Anderson county in fact is part of a broadband to rural areas program I forgot what it is called I live in a town called Townville nothing but farms but charter joined up with this program back in 2009 and called it Spectrum Anchor point Co-op still part of Spectrum but it is a co op 98% of our rural community has access to 60+Mbps and just to say Sprint has always been weird with South Carolina I remember back when it was only 1x and then one day out of the blue the whole state had EVDO it's like they employed the network when it was time to come they just flipped it on like our Tech with SBA communications has said our tower in our little town has B41 but it is not on

 

 

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[jimmyray1990]

I found this interesting I forced my phone both iPhone and S7 edge to 3G and there is only 1x 800 and LTE on my tower now no more EVDO anyone know if they are cutting EVDO to allow more room for LTE in areas? I know I hardly ever see 3G anymore

 

 

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Edited December 22, 2016 by jimmyray1990

[belusnecropolis]

We still have a ton of it at the beach.

[RAvirani]

I found this interesting I forced my phone both iPhone and S7 edge to 3G and there is only 1x 800 and LTE on my tower now no more EVDO anyone know if they are cutting EVDO to allow more room for LTE in areas? I know I hardly ever see 3G anymore

 

 

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Where is your tower?

[jimmyray1990]

Anderson SC Double Springs rd Townville SC in the middle of a field off of I85

 

 

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[jimmyray1990]

Also now no EVDO in the Towns of Pendleton and on hwy 76\ SC 28 to Clemson and in the city of Clemson 1x 800 and LTE 25/26 only used to drop to 3G while going to Clemson today I stayed on LTE 26 all the way to Clemson and then dropped to 25 if close to a tower I even did a test with a old CDMA2000 phone last night activated it and it shows both 1x and EVDO bars no EVDO bars and full 1X

 

 

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Edited December 23, 2016 by jimmyray1990

[belusnecropolis]

Also now no EVDO in the Towns of Pendleton and on hwy 76\ SC 28 to Clemson and in the city of Clemson 1x 800 and LTE 25/26 only used to drop to 3G while going to Clemson today I stayed on LTE 26 all the way to Clemson and then dropped to 25 if close to a tower I even did a test with a old CDMA2000 phone last night activated it and it shows both 1x and EVDO bars no EVDO bars and full 1X

 

 

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Cool! Thanks for sharing the results. I checked again here, I am experiencing EV-DO still. Though it looks like they fixed the site by my work. LTE was down for quite a few weeks. When I was reporting this over the last few weeks to Sprintcare they said the site was receiving upgrades on 12/31. I will see if the two correlate to any changes.

 

I recommend reporting this to Marci.@sprint or on social media, see what they have to say. They seem to be pretty proactive these days.

[jimmyray1990]

I did they said the network in the area is getting ready for upgrades and had to make some adjustments with 3G then I followed up with does this mean some B41 finally for the SC market she tweeted back it's already in place which confirms our SBA tech saying the tower is equipped with B41 was upgraded when B26 came online I wished I could get a closer picture of the Sprint section but it is so high up there is some long panels that are tilted inward towards the ground some smaller ones pointed forward along with some mid sized one pointed in the same direction as the smaller ones which I am guessing is LTE B25/26 the big ones has to be 41 that are pointed down since not in use

 

 

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[jimmyray1990]

Best I can get I can't see why sprint didn't move up when the took down the Nextel array I have a picture when it was there but I will have to dig for it

 

Found it

 

 

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Edited December 26, 2016 by jimmyray1990

[bgalakazam]

I live in Rock Hill and work in Columbia. Exactly where my place is there is barely any 1x / 3G indoors. It's completely unusable even for phone calls. Throughout Rock Hill I get nice LTE Plus speeds. Columbia, however, is another story. Stuck in regular 6-8 mbps LTE down there.

 

I was on T-Mobile and kind of regret switching, but I got 2 new iPhones and cut my bill by $50 so I'll roll with the punches.

Also global roaming is only 64kbps and T-Mobile's 128kbps was at least usable. We only have 1 Sprint store in Rock Hill and that should tell you a lot.

 

 

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