Network Vision/LTE - Philadelphia Metro Market (including Lehigh Valley/Reading)

[BlueAngel]

Yep sure was which is really stupid, I'm still not getting much LTE where I live the bastards keep turning it off. I also discovered Sprint has magically listed two more towers in my area that were never on the map before and they just so happen to not be broadcasting LTE but that is most likely a backhaul issue as the one tower is on an apartment complex roof the other I have yet to find.

 

 

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[JDD]

Did a little sensorly mapping this morning around ABE or Lehigh Valley Airport. I am going to go past the tower on 329 I think it is and check it out later today.

[Boosted20V]

Did a little sensorly mapping this morning around ABE or Lehigh Valley Airport. I am going to go past the tower on 329 I think it is and check it out later today.

Much appreciated. I won't be back in the area until this weekend to get some mapping done.

[JDD]

I did take a run along 329 to 145 and mapped a little LTE as well.

[mrknowitall526]

I did take a run along 329 to 145 and mapped a little LTE as well.

 

I saw it!  Nice to finally since some purples in the "610" (or 484 for many cell phones).

[JDD]

There must have been a lot of work going on yesterday. On Wednesday my phone was EVDO at 512 and BroadHead, Thursday it was bouncing between EVDO and EHRPD and the service was horrible.

[Miner]

Mon - Wed

 

There must have been a lot of work going on yesterday. On Wednesday my phone was EVDO at 512 and BroadHead, Thursday it was bouncing between EVDO and EHRPD and the service was horrible.

Same here in the leafy inner-ring 'burbs of Montgomery County, off and on roaming (to V)) when I usually have a full five bar signal for voice.  As of yesterday it's stabilized back to Sprint, but voice signal strength now less than the old reliable full five bars.

 

Was hoping to see an expansion of the LTE circles on sensorly -- Montgomery and Lancaster Ave in Lower Merion -- but that hasnl;t happened so far.

[jay22381]

Ok I have a question my brother lives in berwick pa that's the 18603 zip it has on the map update 3g nv upgrade but he's still getting 1xrtt the really slow data I had him do prl update profile updae snd nothing they upgraded 9 towers up his way including bloomsburg so what could be the issue we're the towers really upgraded.

 

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[drhenning]

As a Lehigh football fan from out of town, nice to Sprint LTE near the football stadium... Looks like I'll get a good signal for streaming while at the game!!! 

[JDD]

Ok I have a question my brother lives in berwick pa that's the 18603 zip it has on the map update 3g nv upgrade but he's still getting 1xrtt the really slow data I had him do prl update profile updae snd nothing they upgraded 9 towers up his way including bloomsburg so what could be the issue we're the towers really upgraded.

 

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Most of the Central PA market seems to show 3g upgrades but are not running on EVDO. This is true in a lot of the area that I travel. I have been on the phone with Sprint and they don't seem to have an answer. My thought is that they don't have a large enough backhaul at these towers to support EVDO data and phone. Not sure if this is true, but I am having the Same issue about 20 miles east on I80

[jay22381]

Called them and yhey said tickets are in should be fixed by the 5th ?

 

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[mrknowitall526]

Most of the Central PA market seems to show 3g upgrades but are not running on EVDO. This is true in a lot of the area that I travel. I have been on the phone with Sprint and they don't seem to have an answer. My thought is that they don't have a large enough backhaul at these towers to support EVDO data and phone. Not sure if this is true, but I am having the Same issue about 20 miles east on I80

 

Yup, that's exactly it.  "3G accepted" just means it's ready and checked by contractors.  Doesn't necessarily mean it's live.

 

In NEPA they are using Samsung - those markets had Motorola legacy equipment which don't work nicely with the new Samsung stuff.  So they are turning them on in clusters to prevent tons of dropped calls and other issues.

[jay22381]

Nice my brother will be happy he was haveing trouble with texts not sending and I told him there probably upgrading your tower sure enough 3days later the map updated to data speed upgrade

 

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[mrknowitall526]

Also, those maps on Sprint.com don't really mean anything.  They show info that's up to 6 months old, and some still show upgrades to the legacy network.

[jay22381]

Oh cuz it had voice upgrade and changed to dats speed upgrade

 

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[mrknowitall526]

Just drove past the tower nearest my house.  It's been 3G accepted for months, but I wasn't getting the new NV speeds.

 

Just saw at least 2 trucks working there, and orange plastic conduit running all over the place.  Must be getting new backhaul today (or soon!)  SWEET!

[BlueAngel]

No LTE still on the tower by my work, it's been off for about two weeks now but I was down the river for a party on Saturday and they apparently have added more LTE on 76 because I was on 2-3 bars all day and night whereas a month ago it was non-existent. Good sign of things to come, now if they could just increases the signal strength of LTE at my house I am now lucky to get one bar if I pick it up at all.

[BlueAngel]

Ugh they really did a number on the tower by my work, I'm fighting to keep 1 bar of 3G or two bars of 1x this is terrible, really hope it's fixed soon. Can't use any type of data right now this should be a fun day at work.

 

 

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[mrknowitall526]

Woohoo!  My phone was roaming all night and part of this morning.  Woke up to find 3G upgraded!  Awesome for me, since this is my only internet connection - no DSL or cable at home!

 

Progress is a good thing :-)

[JDD]

Any news on the Reading area. I was just down there and service was horrible. Talked to Sprint yesterday about it and they see the data side was working at about 50% so the pin pointed the area.

[Nillaz]

Any news on the Reading area. I was just down there and service was horrible. Talked to Sprint yesterday about it and they see the data side was working at about 50% so the pin pointed the area.

 

I live in Reading and have been lurking in this thread for a couple months waiting for Sprint to go ahead with LTE.

 

Over the last month and a half things have become extremely unreliable. On any given day my average 3G bandwidth can fluctuate from anywhere between 25kbps and 500kbps. I called Sprint about it a couple weeks ago and they said it was because they were getting ready to turn on LTE at two sites in Reading over the next few days (one was a tower on George St, the other was near Rt 61 in Temple). Obviously LTE was never turned on, but I have noticed that every once in a great while when I do a speed test at work Sensorly reports eHRPD instead of CDMA so I am assuming that they are at least starting to modify the backhaul equipment. Speeds continue to fluctuate between abysmal and unusable.

 

I'm trying to remain patient but it's frustrating when I look on the Sensorly coverage map and I see Reading sits smack in the middle of an LTE blackhole surrounded by areas where LTE is being deployed. Allentown/Whitehall are getting it to the northeast, Philly to the southeast, and Lebanon/Lancaster/Hershey to the west. At this point I almost wish they had never started making any changes whatsoever to the network in this area as 3G by and large used to be reliable if not exactly quick. Now something as simple as checking my email from my phone is something akin to playing Russian Roulette. I never know if it's going to time out or not.

[mrknowitall526]

It'll come, just be patient. Lebanon/Hershey/Harrisburg is part of the Shentel market - an affiliate not owned by Sprint.  They've been doing an awesome job and it's what we can look forward to once NV is complete.

 

Hey, Reading at least got Wimax, right?  We never even got that in the Lehigh Valley!

[JDD]

It'll come, just be patient. Lebanon/Hershey/Harrisburg is part of the Shentel market - an affiliate not owned by Sprint.  They've been doing an awesome job and it's what we can look forward to once NV is complete.

 

Hey, Reading at least got Wimax, right?  We never even got that in the Lehigh Valley!

 

 

Parts of Reading got Wimax but never really worked that great. There has alway been a capacity issue in Reading.

[Nillaz]

It'll come, just be patient. Lebanon/Hershey/Harrisburg is part of the Shentel market - an affiliate not owned by Sprint.  They've been doing an awesome job and it's what we can look forward to once NV is complete.

 

Hey, Reading at least got Wimax, right?  We never even got that in the Lehigh Valley!

 

Lol for the most part I've maintained a sense of humor about the whole situation, but I've been waiting since last December and frankly that patience is starting to wear thin due to the shenanigans of the last month or so. I don't necessarily mind waiting for the upgrades but I expect my exisiting 3G service to be at least somewhat stable in the meantime. Right now it's anything but.

 

It was indeed exciting that Reading was one of the first places in the country to get Wimax and I bought the ET4G the day they received it in the Reading corporate store. Unfortunately the speed never quite lived up the hype. It wasn't dramtically faster than 3G service due to local capacity issues but OTOH at least it worked.

 

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not especially trying to bash Sprint. I've been with them for many years and by and large they have treated me well. Voice service remains excellent and I haven't dropped a call in YEARS. I still have faith that all of this will be worked out in the end, even if lately it's getting a bit harder to see the forest for the trees.

[ChesterCountyPa]

Just happened  to look at my phone and the LTE icon was lit up, looks like they flipped the switch on the tower on RT82 going into Coatesville Pa. 2 more towers going west on RT30 and the western end of Philly metro will be almost complete.