Network Vision/LTE - New York City Market

[Paynefanbro]

It certainly is there, it's just that I don't know anyone with a single band device to try it out with.

[nexgencpu]

It certainly is there, it's just that I don't know anyone with a single band device to try it out with.

My cousin has a Moto x tested at home about 7mbs indoors. Very very good.

[Paynefanbro]

I got a chance to try out T-Mobile's network in here in the city yesterday. While going around Manhattan, signal strength varied from place to place. In Chelsea, Sprint has a stronger signal in general. When I went uptown to around 72nd Street, T-Mobile had the stronger signal. 

 

One thing that I noticed for certain was that indoors, Sprint's network was way stronger. In Chelsea on the 18th floor of a building that I was in, Sprint had a stronger signal than T-Mobile. As I walked further into the building I watched my Sprint phone go down to -105dbm signal on Band 26. Meanwhile, the T-Mobile device dropped to HSPA+ very quickly and then further to EDGE while my device stayed on LTE. 

 

When I went to La Dinastia on 72nd Street, my phone had full signal on LTE outside but quickly dropped to two bars of EVDO. The T-Mobile phone managed to hold on to LTE inside the restaurant with a pretty good signal. The seemed more of the exception rather than the rule. Back home in Brooklyn, my phone managed to have a better signal on Sprint than T-Mobile indoors, but outdoors the opposite is true.

 

It was interesting being able to compare the two for myself.

[jamesinclair]

Spent the day in Brooklyn today.

 

3G. 3G everywhere. I was not impressed.

 

(I was also not impressed that Brooklyn seems lacking in Billiards Halls and Bowling Alleys, WTF do people see in that place?)

[Paynefanbro]

Spent the day in Brooklyn today.

 

3G. 3G everywhere. I was not impressed.

 

(I was also not impressed that Brooklyn seems lacking in Billiards Halls and Bowling Alleys, WTF do people see in that place?)

First, where on Brooklyn were you? Second, the entirety of NYC is lacking in billiards halls and bowling alleys. Those activities aren't very popular here.

 

If you're in Brooklyn, go to the movies, go shopping, go to a restaurant, go to Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Museum, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). They're all super fun and tons more interesting than any bowling alley.

[mc_gusto]

Brooklyn bowl is so popular they made one in Las Vegas.

[nexgencpu]

Spent the day in Brooklyn today.

 

3G. 3G everywhere. I was not impressed.

 

(I was also not impressed that Brooklyn seems lacking in Billiards Halls and Bowling Alleys, WTF do people see in that place?)

What part of BK we're you in?

 

I never drop to 3G when I'm in BK.

[jamesinclair]

First, where on Brooklyn were you? Second, the entirety of NYC is lacking in billiards halls and bowling alleys. Those activities aren't very popular here.

 

If you're in Brooklyn, go to the movies, go shopping, go to a restaurant, go to Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Museum, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). They're all super fun and tons more interesting than any bowling alley.

 

I went ice skating in Prospect Park and then had lunch by the Borough Hall. 3Gs all around.

[IsaiahL]

Just got full LTE near my school in Floral Park. Took them long enough lol.

 

B41

48ping

8 Down

13 up

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Paynefanbro]

I went ice skating in Prospect Park and then had lunch by the Borough Hall. 3Gs all around.

 

That's weird considering both places have been covered in LTE for a pretty long time. I was by Prospect Park over Spring Break and didn't drop LTE once. 

[Deval]

What folks do not realize is that if their device is in an active data session, it will not hand up to LTE if it is on 3G. Sometimes I see my phone sitting on 3G for a while, because something is sending in the background. Once it idles, I see LTE.

[nexgencpu]

What folks do not realize is that if their device is in an active data session, it will not hand up to LTE if it is on 3G. Sometimes I see my phone sitting on 3G for a while, because something is sending in the background. Once it idles, I see LTE.

That was my thought exactly.

[Rawvega]

I went ice skating in Prospect Park and then had lunch by the Borough Hall. 3Gs all around.

 

Spent the day in Brooklyn today.

 

3G. 3G everywhere. I was not impressed.

 

Out of curiosity, are you still using an original single-band GS4?

[jamesinclair]

What folks do not realize is that if their device is in an active data session, it will not hand up to LTE if it is on 3G.

 

I would assume getting on and off the subway would help. It did not

 

 

Out of curiosity, are you still using an original single-band GS4?

 

Yes I am, no 800 LTE for me.

[Dkoellerwx]

I would assume getting on and off the subway would help. It did not

 

 

 

Yes I am, no 800 LTE for me.

Getting on and off the subway definitely would not help...

 

And, not having a tri-band device definitely does not help.

[jamesinclair]

Getting on and off the subway definitely would not help...

 

And, not having a tri-band device definitely does not help.

 

What do you mean, doesn't losing the signal completely mean my phone will try for 4G when I get to my destination?

 

No, it doesn't but I'm 6 months away from my upgrade.

[Paynefanbro]

Doesn't the phone try to acquire the last used signal first? 

[IsaiahL]

What do you mean, doesn't losing the signal completely mean my phone will try for 4G when I get to my destination?

 

No, it doesn't but I'm 6 months away from my upgrade.

What phone do you plan on upgrading to?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dkoellerwx]

What do you mean, doesn't losing the signal completely mean my phone will try for 4G when I get to my destination?

 

No, it doesn't but I'm 6 months away from my upgrade.

 

No it does not. It goes to the last available signal first. Only an airplane mode toggle, or shutting off the mobile radio completely causes a rescan of all technologies, starting with LTE.

[NewYorkCityBloke]

Hey there guys.  I'm new to Sprint and work downtown near Wall Street.

 

Just started using my new iPhone 6, and was horrified at how bad the "Spark LTE" performance was in the Financial District.

 

First, I checked to make sure I was on Band 41, and Fieldtest confirmed that indeed I was, with 20 MHz of juicy bandwidth (I wanted to post a screenshot but I cannot figure out how).  It says I'm on Band 41, with a DL freq of 39991 and signal strength of -111 (which seems a little wimpy).

 

Then I ran a speed test on a local server using Spark LTE.  I got horrific latency, poor download speeds, and horrific upload speed... I literally cannot send an MMS message with LTE on.  A 144 ms ping, a 2.59 mbps average download time, and 0.15 mbps upload (not a typo!)

 

Testing EVDO for comparison, performance is generally better with the LTE radio turned off!  I got a 61 ms ping, 0.4 mbps download (not great) and 0.85 mbps upload (fast enough to send picture messages at least).

 

Is this typical for Sprint in downtown NYC?  If so, the phone is going back today and I'm off to T-Mobile.  Checking Sprint's map, it promises full Sprint Spark, and a few weeks ago when I checked, this area was "Spark Turbo" certified... this seems awfully misleading if "Spark Turbo" is providing only this level of performance in the center of the global finance industry.

[nexgencpu]

Hey there guys.  I'm new to Sprint and work downtown near Wall Street.

 

Just started using my new iPhone 6, and was horrified at how bad the "Spark LTE" performance was in the Financial District.

 

First, I checked to make sure I was on Band 41, and Fieldtest confirmed that indeed I was, with 20 MHz of juicy bandwidth (I wanted to post a screenshot but I cannot figure out how).  It says I'm on Band 41, with a DL freq of 39991 and signal strength of -111 (which seems a little wimpy).

 

Then I ran a speed test on a local server using Spark LTE.  I got horrific latency, poor download speeds, and horrific upload speed... I literally cannot send an MMS message with LTE on.  A 144 ms ping, a 2.59 mbps average download time, and 0.15 mbps upload (not a typo!)

 

Testing EVDO for comparison, performance is generally better with the LTE radio turned off!  I got a 61 ms ping, 0.4 mbps download (not great) and 0.85 mbps upload (fast enough to send picture messages at least).

 

Is this typical for Sprint in downtown NYC?  If so, the phone is going back today and I'm off to T-Mobile.  Checking Sprint's map, it promises full Sprint Spark, and a few weeks ago when I checked, this area was "Spark Turbo" certified... this seems awfully misleading if "Spark Turbo" is providing only this level of performance in the center of the global finance industry.

No, Sprint is excellent in NYC, but it all depends on location.

 

This is more typical here, these are tests in Uptown/Midtown Manhattan, Bronx and Queens done today.

 

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=b94c49085b302a13&id=B94C49085B302A13%215312&action=Share&v=3

[NewYorkCityBloke]

Hard to see how they can be "excellent" in NYC if they're not functioning in Wall Street.  Wall Street isn't some minor far-flung area.

 

I'll do some more speed tests tonight -- I'm going to be dining in the Seaport and doing some shopping near the WTC.  Will report back with my findings.

 

PS -- Didn't think of posting photos from my OneDrive.  Smart idea.  I'll post some screencaps the same way.

Edited March 10, 2015 by NewYorkCityBloke

[nexgencpu]

Hard to see how they can be "excellent" in NYC if they're not functioning in Wall Street.  Wall Street isn't some minor far-flung area.

 

I'll do some more speed tests tonight -- I'm going to be dining in the Seaport and doing some shopping near the WTC.  Will report back with my findings.

Wall Street was a sore spot since Hurricane Sandy. It made it extremely difficult for Sprint to get proper backhaul support (Since all the other carriers already had high speed backhaul before Sandy) Sprint was by far the last to have access to it. Until very recently, so a lot of optimization and build out is yet to be completed down there. 

 

Also, Sprint is in the process of adding additional capacity to B41, expect  faster speeds even at a very very weak signal soon.

[NewYorkCityBloke]

Hmmmm... any idea on when the optimizations will be completed?  I don't want to leave, but I can't function with high-latency, high jitter low-speed data...

[nexgencpu]

Hmmmm... any idea on when the optimizations will be completed?  I don't want to leave, but I can't function with high-latency, high jitter low-speed data...

My suggestion is give it a go for a few more days, and see how it all works out for you. We don't expect all these things to happen overnight, so if your expecting to see things work 100% better tomorrow its probably not going to happen.