questions about the phx metro area

[AJC1973]

I know that network vision is moving along in the phx area improvements the last few months and additional the next 6 months they are in full swing. My question pertains to nextel...

 

I noticed while trying to find sprint towers on the website(sprint website) that i know by using netmonitor looking at resources at sprint they supposedly do not exist... until... it dawned on me to use the nextel lookup and oh there they are all those towers i am using in tempe...

 

my questions are as they decommision these old nextel sites and upgrade sprint sites is this why number one im data roaming ALOT in the last few weeks? also when they upgrade the backhaul how long does that take per tower, and find it hard to belive that would effect the signal with the exception id expect the tower to just go off line, or do they put it all in place then "flip the switch" so to speak?

 

also is the large amount of legacy nextel towers in this area the reason why phoenix area was put on the back burner so long and is the hard part in phx to see which nextel sites to keep and which ones to throw away? or is it got nothing to do with it?

 

i live in the heart of tempe and two days ago i lost voice service and data, i couldnt make a phone call though i was showing 5 bars it makes me believe that something is going on hell i left the house and it wasnt just one tower i was having that happen to, but 5. in a cluster between roosevelt hardy and university areas, all the way west to the airport, where as soon as i hit that tower on the airport property i got 8 text messages at once and was able to call out again. hopefully this is a sign of things getting better here in the valley of the sun.

[AJC1973]

and robert i know you are on a well deserved vaca so if anyone else wants to step up that would be great lol

[BenChase7]

There are no known Network Vision upgrades going on in PHX.

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/212-network-visionlte-deployment-running-list/

NV will not likely begin untill early 2013 in PHX.

[AJC1973]

LTE may not go online til 2013 that doesnt mean they wont start working on backhaul and engineering now. there are upgrades going on all over town. im not saying anything is anywhere near complete just there are things happening id like to know what...

 

my biggest question isnt about lte or network vision, but what is going to happen with the legacy nextel sites and how do they effect NV, and lte in the long run...

[BenChase7]

I assume the upgrades you are referring to are based off the network.sprint.com site, in which case, those have nothing to do with Network Vision. Those are "band-aid" fixes which will give (minor) relief to legacy equipment before the true Network Vision upgrades occur. In regards to the Nextel equipment, as far as I know, it has nothing to do with the Sprint side of things until Network Vision is done and that decommissioned iDen spectrum can be used on the Sprint side of the network.

[S4GRU]

I'm between acts at the concert I'm at in South Dakota, so I'll take a moment to chime in.

 

There are no Network Vision upgrades occurring in Arizona at this time that could effect signal. The only NV work that could be occurring at this time is base station cabinet deliveries and possible set up for backhaul installs. But I don't even think that will start for a few more months.

 

What you are likely experiencing is Network Maintenance upgrades being performed by Ericsson. These are being tracked at network.sprint.com.

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

[AJC1973]

Thanks Robert.. If your wife is like my gf... Me getting online to deal with "work" while on a trip or vacation you did that at risk to your body. And life. But my core question still exists these legacy Nextel towers and i use the word tower very loosely here. I found one that is bolted to the side of this guys house. I couldn't get a good picture the owner was a little weirded. Out by my request to take a picture of it. And wouldn't et me on his property. It explains why I can't find these antennas on net monitor. When I use the very nice database at www.antennasearch.com so when I cross reference that by searching for sprint towers i see the stuff on network.sprint.com but none of the towers i see on net monitor. So it dawned on me one day. Try Nextel. And oh look there they are.

 

So my question goes back to there is a giant hole in phx because of the mass usage of Nextel antennas that cant be upgraded easily and better to decommission is this the reason why phx took longer to build out. And since network vision is designed to do more with less.

 

I know when things are going to happen. I know the cookie cutter answer for the masses of what's happening. That's not enough for me. I want to understand what when where HOW. i want to take it apart and KNOW it. So im pushing for a more inside view. Not so much the and no offense to anyone here that just want to know when lte is coming and could care less about how. I mean how many people out of the thousands that come here takes time at work to see if new antennas are added to a database then goes looking for them. I'd say it's in the 10's. So im trying to understand tempe. East Mesa since I'm looking for a house out there and yes one of my buying points is how far away am I from a tower. It's driving my gf nuts. Change services... She says... She will never understand.

 

So there it is i see sprint towers and antennas i see legacy Nextel crap. Trying to figure it all out... Off to work. Have a good day guys I'm out

[Merlin_AZ]

I had a significant issue with one of my lines and eventually spoke to someone "higher up" in Accounts (for what that's worth).

He didn't want to directly answer my questions, but indirectly, I was able to get out of him that NV upgrades were supposed to start Q3 and be significant Q4, and LTE was supposed to be turned on Q1'13.

Again, take it with a grain of salt, as anything is subject to change.

As my data is as bad as everyone's else here in PHX (less than 0.2 down), it will be a welcome improvement.

[themuffinman]

I had a significant issue with one of my lines and eventually spoke to someone "higher up" in Accounts (for what that's worth).

He didn't want to directly answer my questions, but indirectly, I was able to get out of him that NV upgrades were supposed to start Q3 and be significant Q4, and LTE was supposed to be turned on Q1'13.

Again, take it with a grain of salt, as anything is subject to change.

As my data is as bad as everyone's else here in PHX (less than 0.2 down), it will be a welcome improvement.

 

No offense to any sprint employees that may visit this site but when it comes to any worthwhile information they are almost totally worthless, so yeah taking it with a grain of salt is definitely an understatement. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the information he gave you is information he got from this very site.

[pyroscott]

Thanks Robert.. If your wife is like my gf... Me getting online to deal with "work" while on a trip or vacation you did that at risk to your body. And life. But my core question still exists these legacy Nextel towers and i use the word tower very loosely here. I found one that is bolted to the side of this guys house. I couldn't get a good picture the owner was a little weirded. Out by my request to take a picture of it. And wouldn't et me on his property. It explains why I can't find these antennas on net monitor. When I use the very nice database at www.antennasearch.com so when I cross reference that by searching for sprint towers i see the stuff on network.sprint.com but none of the towers i see on net monitor. So it dawned on me one day. Try Nextel. And oh look there they are.

 

So my question goes back to there is a giant hole in phx because of the mass usage of Nextel antennas that cant be upgraded easily and better to decommission is this the reason why phx took longer to build out. And since network vision is designed to do more with less.

 

I know when things are going to happen. I know the cookie cutter answer for the masses of what's happening. That's not enough for me. I want to understand what when where HOW. i want to take it apart and KNOW it. So im pushing for a more inside view. Not so much the and no offense to anyone here that just want to know when lte is coming and could care less about how. I mean how many people out of the thousands that come here takes time at work to see if new antennas are added to a database then goes looking for them. I'd say it's in the 10's. So im trying to understand tempe. East Mesa since I'm looking for a house out there and yes one of my buying points is how far away am I from a tower. It's driving my gf nuts. Change services... She says... She will never understand.

 

So there it is i see sprint towers and antennas i see legacy Nextel crap. Trying to figure it all out... Off to work. Have a good day guys I'm out

 

I'm trying to figure out your question here..

Are you using a nextel or sprint phone? On a purely sprint phone, you would get absolutely nothing usable from a nextel site. They could be colocated with sprint sites, but the sprint part would not be affected by the shutdown of the nextel portion.

 

Also, there was speculation here that Sprint was rolling out LTE to cities with a high nextel user base earlier than other cities with less nextel users. That seems like the only connection between nextel and network vision.

 

From JBtoro on Forum Runner

[irev210]

LTE may not go online til 2013 that doesnt mean they wont start working on backhaul and engineering now. there are upgrades going on all over town. im not saying anything is anywhere near complete just there are things happening id like to know what...

 

my biggest question isnt about lte or network vision, but what is going to happen with the legacy nextel sites and how do they effect NV, and lte in the long run...

 

Robert has said that all but a handful of iDEN sites are being shut down. He mentioned that Sprint had originally planned to turn them all off, now they are up to a handful (around a 100 if I remember right?).

 

Either way, iDEN sites are going away.

 

I can't wait until iDEN is dead.

[irev210]

No offense to any sprint employees that may visit this site but when it comes to any worthwhile information they are almost totally worthless, so yeah taking it with a grain of salt is definitely an understatement. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the information he gave you is information he got from this very site.

 

I know my local sprint store is now plugged into S4GRU.com - I wonder how much info is given to customers from this site, heh.

[themuffinman]

I know my local sprint store is now plugged into S4GRU.com - I wonder how much info is given to customers from this site, heh.

 

Well its great that they have a reliable source to better help and inform their customers but on the flip side its just sad that they have to rely on a third party for that info.