Network Vision/LTE - New York City Market

[S4GRU]

Can LTE 800 be remotely activated? Or will we have to sit through another LTE 1900-like rollout?

It cannot be remotely activated. It involves a site visit. But the site visit is pretty simple. Just installing a Band 26 carrier card and integrating with the network. So it will go much faster.

 

The biggest hindrance to Band 26 deployment is getting cards from OEM's (which has been slow going) and getting SMR rebanders out of the way.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

[QWIKSTRIKE]

You will get it eventually....didnt go out to everyone at the same time.

I got one a few days ago....seems like basic info nothing has changed service was from my point of view

[Paynefanbro]

I went to the Google office in Chelsea today. #awesome

[twospirits]

^ Nice. Any Sprint LTE over there?

[nexgencpu]

After toying around with my Nexus 5 settings was finally  able to connect to a B41 site on the upper west side near the beacon theater!  Got awesome speeds btwn 25-50mb/sec! 

[Paynefanbro]

^ Nice. Any Sprint LTE over there?

Nah. 3G was really good though. They mentioned that the European and North American internet backbone meet in their building so multiple floors of the building are filled with server rooms from different companies and when their leases run out, Google buys the floor and turns it into offices.

[Fraydog]

Has Sprint improved their service here? I keep hearing people on other forums speak with "authority" that Sprint sucks and they're using NYC to draw their conclusions. What's really going on here?

[nexgencpu]

Has Sprint improved their service here? I keep hearing people on other forums speak with "authority" that Sprint sucks and they're using NYC to draw their conclusions. What's really going on here?

In the Bronx LTE is solid

 

I'll break up Manhattan into 3 parts 

Uptown is solid

Midtown is good

Downtown is hit or miss(After Sandy work has slowed down to a CRAWL)

 

BK seems to be solid 

 

Queens is good (a lot of sites still need upgrading)

 

My voice coverage and quality has improved Dramatically after 1x800 and HD Voice.

(After many many months of constant dropped calls!)

 

I was able to Force band 41 on my Nexus 5 and test it out, and it was EPIC! (speeds ranging from 20-50mb/sec)

 

So to answer your question, has Sprint improved?

Going from 50k/sec to about 5mb/sec average,

going from good voice coverage to one of the best in NYC,

I would have to say: Absolutely!

 

Are there sore spots? YES, there are places still not quite 100% covered

Indoors is OK (B26 will make this a thing of the past) but not great

B25 speeds have leveled out from about 15mb/sec avg to about 5mb/sec (still perfectly usable in most cases)

 

My phone does not officially support B41, but I can tell you, from what I've seen, it will be EPIC in dense areas like NYC and Chicago.

 

So the future is bright, once B26 and B41(there are MANY B41 sites already) are fully deployed, Sprint will have one of the most powerful networks hands down.

[twospirits]

In the Bronx LTE is solid

 

I'll break up Manhattan into 3 parts 

Uptown is solid

Midtown is good

Downtown is hit or miss(After Sandy work has slowed down to a CRAWL)

 

BK seems to be solid 

 

Queens is good (a lot of sites still need upgrading)

You forgot the New Jersey suburb of Staten Island   But I concur with your post.

 

Queens does need to step it up a notch though. And it's usually in the areas around Queens Blvd between Elmhurst Hospital thru Kew Gardens. 

[nexgencpu]

You forgot the New Jersey suburb of Staten Island   But I concur with your post.

 

Queens does need to step it up a notch though. And it's usually in the areas around Queens Blvd between Elmhurst Hospital thru Kew Gardens. 

I rarely ever venture out to SI and LI so maybe someone can chime in on those places.

[IsaiahL]

I rarely ever venture out to SI and LI so maybe someone can chime in on those places.

LI is good.

A lot of spotty coverage though. There is a lot of gaps that need to be filled, but when I'm traveling on the LIRR going from Nassau County to Suffolk. I usually have LTE for a majority of the train ride. 3G on regular is pretty good. Even in my town lol.

 

 

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[Sonic13]

LI is good.

A lot of spotty coverage though. There is a lot of gaps that need to be filled, but when I'm traveling on the LIRR going from Nassau County to Suffolk. I usually have LTE for a majority of the train ride. 3G on regular is pretty good. Even in my town lol.

 

 

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I see little/no LTE between Queens and Suffolk on the LIRR, maybe my phone switches towers too fast.

 

Manhattan - LTE about 60% of the time.

Brooklyn - LTE about 60% of the time.

Queens - LTE about 35-40% of the time.

Long Island - LTE about 20-25% of the time.

[Deval]

Nah. 3G was really good though. They mentioned that the European and North American internet backbone meet in their building so multiple floors of the building are filled with server rooms from different companies and when their leases run out, Google buys the floor and turns it into offices.

 

I've been there as well, such an awesome place!

[nexgencpu]

I see little/no LTE between Queens and Suffolk on the LIRR, maybe my phone switches towers too fast.

 

Manhattan - LTE about 60% of the time.

Brooklyn - LTE about 60% of the time.

Queens - LTE about 35-40% of the time.

Long Island - LTE about 20-25% of the time.

I own a Nexus 5, so add another 20% for the awesome signal strength..haha

[Deval]

My biggest gripe with Queens is the cell density. Coverage is reasonable when out and about, but inbuilding is painful.

[nexgencpu]

My biggest gripe with Queens is the cell density. Coverage is reasonable when out and about, but inbuilding is painful.

Many of sites are still 3G in queens, on top of the density issue, 800LTE will be very welcomed in queens.

[twospirits]

My biggest gripe with Queens is the cell density. Coverage is reasonable when out and about, but inbuilding is painful.

What i find odd is that its mainly the opposite with me. This is what I got this morning on the 8th floor of my building on Parsons Blvd and the Grand Central. Yet downstairs outside, it never goes higher than 13 down, 6.8 up (and that's on a good day), usually its only between 4-7. 

 

TS

[Paynefanbro]

What i find odd is that its mainly the opposite with me. This is what I got this morning on the 8th floor of my building on Parsons Blvd and the Grand Central. Yet downstairs outside, it never goes higher than 13 down, 6.8 up (and that's on a good day), usually its only between 4-7. 

 

TS

 

Interestingly enough, the same happens with me. Today I was on my front step with a -105dbm signal and was pulling 7.80 Mbps down. But when I went down the road and had a -98dbm signal from the same tower, I was only pulling 2Mbps down.

 

And this happens all the time. It's some weird phenomenon and it makes me wonder if it has something to do with too much noise or something like that. Isn't that what happened with the whole Chicago debacle when their speeds plummeted?

[nexgencpu]

Isn't that what happened with the whole Chicago debacle when their speeds plummeted?

Everything seems to point to Chicago running into capacity issues, as all the carriers experienced a massive decline in their performance over the course of the last year or so. Hopefully that extra 5x5 carrier will help alleviate folks with older LTE devices.

[WiWavelength]

Interestingly enough, the same happens with me. Today I was on my front step with a -105dbm signal and was pulling 7.80 Mbps down. But when I went down the road and had a -98dbm signal from the same tower, I was only pulling 2Mbps down.

 

You cannot directly correlate RSRP and data speeds.  The network capacity balancing act is far more complex than that.

 

AJ

[Paynefanbro]

At least Spark is a thing here. Hopefully we don't run into any significant capacity problems.

[Deval]

What i find odd is that its mainly the opposite with me. This is what I got this morning on the 8th floor of my building on Parsons Blvd and the Grand Central. Yet downstairs outside, it never goes higher than 13 down, 6.8 up (and that's on a good day), usually its only between 4-7. 

 

TS

 

I'm a little further down, in Sunnyside (most of the time), and that's where I find an issue inbuilding.

[Deval]

Many of sites are still 3G in queens, on top of the density issue, 800LTE will be very welcomed in queens.

 

1x on 800mhz would be welcome.

[IHeartLTE]

Long time lurker. I luckily live in a fantastic LTE (even Wimax) area in East Harlem. Have perfect band 41 and can pull 50+Mbps.

 

Problem started once they flipped band 25 on a few weeks ago and I can't seem to hang onto the band 41 connection. At best I can stay connect for a few minutes before it falls back to band 25. I've tried every different priority mode in LTE engineering settings but to no avail. Is this likely a phone software problem or a tower issue? Any thoughts?

[krazie00]

Long time lurker. I luckily live in a fantastic LTE (even Wimax) area in East Harlem. Have perfect band 41 and can pull 50+Mbps.

 

Problem started once they flipped band 25 on a few weeks ago and I can't seem to hang onto the band 41 connection. At best I can stay connect for a few minutes before it falls back to band 25. I've tried every different priority mode in LTE engineering settings but to no avail. Is this likely a phone software problem or a tower issue? Any thoughts?

I'm in Harlem too and I'm having similar issues like the one you are describing... I'm able to get band 41 after doing a profile update, but for the most part I get band 25.

 

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