Network Vision/LTE - Oklahoma Market

[Dkoellerwx]

The higher the frequency the greater the attenuation either through propagation or physical obstruction. Unless Sprint adds a ton of sites in out market LTE coverage will continue to be swiss cheese. Sadly band 26 is not turning out to be the panacea I had hoped for. I'm still holding out hope that network optimization will improve things, but that hope dwindles with each passing day.

 

Contractors have up to 6 months to optimize new sites. Keep that in mind. 

[thetio]

The higher the frequency the greater the attenuation either through propagation or physical obstruction. Unless Sprint adds a ton of sites in out market LTE coverage will continue to be swiss cheese. Sadly band 26 is not turning out to be the panacea I had hoped for. I'm still holding out hope that network optimization will improve things, but that hope dwindles with each passing day.

 

I agree. I had awesome LTE service until they started with the B26 stuff. Now when I sit at work, I am stuck mostly on 3g which seems to have slowed as well. Maybe that is a result of more people dropping off of LTE like myself.

 

 

 

Contractors have up to 6 months to optimize new sites. Keep that in mind. 

 

I hope this is the case.  I really like Sprint and they have been great but man I want my LTE back.

[ImmerStark]

I agree. I had awesome LTE service until they started with the B26 stuff. Now when I sit at work, I am stuck mostly on 3g which seems to have slowed as well. Maybe that is a result of more people dropping off of LTE like myself.

 

 

 

 

I hope this is the case.  I really like Sprint and they have been great but man I want my LTE back.

Same here, I spend most of my day on 3g now. It seems like if there is a site anywhere within 10 miles of me without ecsfb and my phone detects it it will drop back to 3g and not reconnect to lte unless I toggle airplane mode.

[thetio]

Now I am not getting any data at work.  It says 3g but won't pull anything.  It is getting really frustrating.  I just want the old LTE back.

[S4GRU]

Now I am not getting any data at work. It says 3g but won't pull anything. It is getting really frustrating. I just want the old LTE back.

It's so much better on AT&T 4G at my desk right now...

 

 

It says 4G, but won't pull anything. YEEARGH!!!

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[thetio]

I am pretty jealous of those speeds   lol

At least I know with Sprint is just a matter of time

[Dkoellerwx]

It's so much better on AT&T 4G at my desk right now...

 

uploadfromtaptalk1402692669424.jpg

 

It says 4G, but won't pull anything. YEEARGH!!!

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

You mean Faux G right?

[michael73072]

The sad thing is that here AT&T just does not have the quality to justify their market share. Their voice quality is garbage, they are running a 5x5mhz lte deployment just like Sprint, and yet people keep flocking to them because they have "more bars". If price is no object Verizon is really the one to have here, they have 800/1900mhz CDMA 1x and evdo, 750/aws lte, and the fewest subscribers on their network of the big 4. The only downsides are the price and mediocre voice quality(it's still better than the garbage voice of at&t though).

 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

 

What do you think of T-Mobile? Their plan of upgrading every single EDGE tower to LTE by the end of next year sounds really good. I don't think they will be able to deploy 700Mhz LTE in the OKC market though.

[ImmerStark]

Maybe in a year or two T-Mobile will be viable here, but for now the coverage is simply too limited. LTE and hspa cover only a small island surrounded by vast oceans of edge.

 

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[Cubbiefan82]

What do you think of T-Mobile? Their plan of upgrading every single EDGE tower to LTE by the end of next year sounds really good. I don't think they will be able to deploy 700Mhz LTE in the OKC market though.

Sadly T-mobile 700 doesn't cover okc or even the tulsa market. T-mobile will benefit from the 800 that sprint has

[ImmerStark]

Sprint needs T-Mobile's rural towers and T-Mobile needs Sprint's low band spectrum.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[lynyrd65]

Just think of what T-Mobile's sites in OK with Sprint SMR LTE on Nokia Siemens Flexis would be like.

[ImmerStark]

Ugggg, Things are getting worse. Even with band 26 disabled I'm now getting bumped to 3g in most of the places I frequent. Ironically the tower I connect to at home is one of the few that I can connect to both band 25 and 26, which is all good and great except for the fact that I use wifi at home. How is it that ericsson can cock things up this badly?

[michael73072]

Ugggg, Things are getting worse. Even with band 26 disabled I'm now getting bumped to 3g in most of the places I frequent. Ironically the tower I connect to at home is one of the few that I can connect to both band 25 and 26, which is all good and great except for the fact that I use wifi at home. How is it that ericsson can cock things up this badly?

 

This is the last thing Sprint needs. Enthusiasts understand why this is happening, but the average consumer expects their phone to work without these silly issues.

 

Anyone else trying out the T-Mobile test drive thing?

[ImmerStark]

I work in Choctaw and Harrah way too much. Sprint has LTE and evdo out there, T-Mobile has edge. Far east side or Norman is the same story.

 

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[ImmerStark]

I was delivering to the sprint corporate store today talking to a girl that works there and she said she has been inundated with complaints of these issues. So I know it's not just me.

 

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[WiWavelength]

Maybe in a year or two T-Mobile will be viable here, but for now the coverage is simply too limited. LTE and hspa cover only a small island surrounded by vast oceans of edge.

 

Well, let us be clear. Oklahoma is largely a T-Mobile anomaly. What prompted Magenta to engage in that rural buildout, I would love to know. My guess is that because Oklahoma was a VZW anomaly, a VZW black hole for many years -- until the Alltel acquisition -- T-Mobile saw Oklahoma as an opportunity.

 

AJ

[ImmerStark]

I'm sure that t mobile realizes that coverage and reliability is what brings in the lucrative post paid accounts. Only subprime subscribers are willing to settle for metro only coverage.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

[Fraydog]

I'm sure that t mobile realizes that coverage and reliability is what brings in the lucrative post paid accounts. Only subprime subscribers are willing to settle for metro only coverage.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

They really aren't in a position to deliver that unless they get the 700 A that USCC owns over most of Oklahoma.

[michael73072]

I just finished my test drive with T-Mobile, and I have to say that their network is much better than Sprint's in the Norman area. I really hope this will change once we get official Sprint Spark, but as it stands now I was getting better outdoor and indoor coverage with T-Mobile. I also took a trip to Arkansas, and in between cities T-Mobile was down to EDGE and GPRS, which was pretty much unusable. I couldn't even get a speed test to run. The signal strength was great, though, so once they finish their 2G to LTE conversion I think T-Mobile will be in a very powerful position.

 

When in buildings, I only occasionally fell back to HSPA+, but that was still faster than Sprint LTE. I got a maximum speeds of 38 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up. Average was about 25-30 Mbps down and 15 Mbps up. I am still hoping Sprint will get it's act together, but I'm having a hard time coming up with reasons to stick with them.

 

If you guys have any questions, I am more than happy to answer them!

[ImmerStark]

On the bright side since we never got wimax and NSN is doing the band 41 deployment here we are going to get the latest and greatest 8tx8rx equipment........ eventually.

[S4GRU]

I just finished my test drive with T-Mobile, and I have to say that their network is much better than Sprint's in the Norman area. I really hope this will change once we get official Sprint Spark, but as it stands now I was getting better outdoor and indoor coverage with T-Mobile. I also took a trip to Arkansas, and in between cities T-Mobile was down to EDGE and GPRS, which was pretty much unusable. I couldn't even get a speed test to run. The signal strength was great, though, so once they finish their 2G to LTE conversion I think T-Mobile will be in a very powerful position.

 

When in buildings, I only occasionally fell back to HSPA+, but that was still faster than Sprint LTE. I got a maximum speeds of 38 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up. Average was about 25-30 Mbps down and 15 Mbps up. I am still hoping Sprint will get it's act together, but I'm having a hard time coming up with reasons to stick with them.

 

If you guys have any questions, I am more than happy to answer them!

 

Personally, I would rather have LTE in most places I go, than get stuck on EDGE and GPRS every time I leave the city limits.  Even if that LTE was slower in urban areas.  But Tmo is counting on customers like you who can live with only good service in the city.

 

I have to ask...Why is it that Sprint who is actively deploying Spark like gangbusters needs to get its act together?  However, Tmo, which has not even started turning over any rural sites from EDGE or GPRS to LTE you say they will be in a powerful position?  You give Tmo a pass on something extremely important that will be done sometime in the future, but you are critical of Sprint for something they are doing correct and actively doing right now.

 

I hope you can appreciate why your post grates on my nerves.  

 

Robert

[michael73072]

Personally, I would rather have LTE in most places I go, than get stuck on EDGE and GPRS every time I leave the city limits.  Even if that LTE was slower in urban areas.  But Tmo is counting on customers like you who can live with only good service in the city.

 

I have to ask...Why is it that Sprint who is actively deploying Spark like gangbusters needs to get its act together?  However, Tmo, which has not even started turning over any rural sites from EDGE or GPRS to LTE you say they will be in a powerful position?  You give Tmo a pass on something extremely important that will be done sometime in the future, but you are critical of Sprint for something they are doing correct and actively doing right now.

 

I hope you can appreciate why your post grates on my nerves.  

 

Robert

 

You raise a lot of good points, thank you for your response. It was not my intention to irritate anyone, I just wanted to share my opinion. My main grief with Sprint right now is that, in the city, I will drop to 3G when in between cell towers. (Not due to eCSFB) I just feel like this isn't acceptable to still have these coverage holes in major areas. I hope band 26 will fix this, but I think Sprint ultimately needs to add more cell sites. I do not mind Sprint's LTE speeds, but dropping to 3G is really painful. I am almost certain that this doesn't happen on the other 3 carriers.

 

Thank you for your hard work on the website.

 

Michael

[ImmerStark]

I haven't been in Norman recently but I can tell you that in many parts of the metro I have almost seamless lte now. Band 26 has been improving rapidly. Give Ericsson some time to finish the optimization and I bet it will really knock the socks off T-Mobile coverage wise. You might want to consider upgrading to a better supported device too. It's my understanding that the nexus 5 is the red headed stepchild of triband devices.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

[michael73072]

I haven't been in Norman recently but I can tell you that in many parts of the metro I have almost seamless lte now. Band 26 has been improving rapidly. Give Ericsson some time to finish the optimization and I bet it will really knock the socks off T-Mobile coverage wise. You might want to consider upgrading to a better supported device too. It's my understanding that the nexus 5 is the red headed stepchild of triband devices.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

How's building penetration?