Network Vision/LTE - New York City Market

[Dkoellerwx]

Okay. Thanks. My phone stays connected to 41 at work all day.

Is that a problem? That's how it's supposed to work.

[pslee]

Nono. Haha i want my phone to be on 41 of course! But i thought changing priority will make things better

[Dkoellerwx]

Nono. Haha i want my phone to be on 41 of course! But i thought changing priority will make things better

Well, the network is set up to push you to 41 if it's available. So it's working like it's supposed to. Not sure what you're trying to make better.

 

Sent from my LG G3

[nexgencpu]

Another B26 site just went live by my apt! Also, I finally get LTE in the lobby of my apartment building (Optimized B26 went from -120 to -110dBm) and inside my elevator! 

[Deval]

So another LTE 800, band 26 update. Now have coverage all through out my building in midtown around rock center. full band 26,25 inside with band 41 outside and some inside if u position the phone by the window.

 

Interesting, I'm right around the corner from Rockefeller Center, will have to take a walk. 

[jonathanlc2005]

Where in FiDi because as of this past Saturday there still wasn't any band 41 around wall st around 4/5 2/3 lines and over.

Did you update the radio? The newest radio is 2.15 I believe

[nexgencpu]

Looks like B41 is getting some optimization love as well! I typically average between -100 and -115dBm on B41 inside my apartment. Today I saw that signal strength jump -10dBm. Speeds went from 20-35 to about 35-50mbs. Loving this optimization stage.

[transitwatch889]

Did you update the radio? The newest radio is 2.15 I believe

I don't use my nexus 5, it has a bad radio doesn't pick up band 26 so use my one max mostly. I'm over on broad st in fidi so the area just got band 26 last week turned on. I don't believe there are band 41 in the area only and around rector and and up by Fulton going towards the freedom tower by the west side. South east of that area no band 41 has been observed from my travels in the area. From Broadway 4 train line wall st and down.

[latoso]

Is possible that band 25 and band 41 to come from the same clear tower?

 

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk

[nexgencpu]

Is possible that band 25 and band 41 to come from the same clear tower?

 

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk

Yes it is possible with a co located site. Meaning they are physically in the same address, but not sharing any resources..

[Deval]

Is possible that band 25 and band 41 to come from the same clear tower?

 

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk

 

Not from a legacy clear tower, but more often than not, the legacy Sprint NV and legacy Clear site are hosted in the same location, so the signals are coming from the same physical address. 

[Paynefanbro]

When Band 41 is running off of insufficient backhaul. This test was done inside of my Aunt's home, so I can only imagine what it'd be like when they get fiber to the site. 

[Dkoellerwx]

When Band 41 is running off of insufficient backhaul. This test was done inside of my Aunt's home, so I can only imagine what it'd be like when they get fiber to the site. 

 

Actually, looking at the upload, it's just busy. 

[Paynefanbro]

Actually, looking at the upload, it's just busy. 

 

The crazy thing is, all 3 band are available at her house. I get -86dbm on Band 25, -69dbm on Band 26, and -89dbm on Band 41, though Band 41 is coming from a different site that is not as close by. Most of the time, I'm on Band 41 or Band 25. Band 26 gives me the highest speeds by far at about 20Mbps. Band 25 is about 10Mbps and Band 41 never crosses 10Mbps.

 

Not to say that's insufficient, it's very good. It's just that my speeds aren't very high on Band 41 in this area when compared to when I am in other areas on Band 41.

[S4GRU]

Actually, looking at the upload, it's just busy.

Not necessarily. On the legacy Clearwire backhaul, you can have the downlink portion of the backhaul well burdened, but the uplink not. And it would look just like that speed test, if it were the case. Seeing how the ping looks absolutely normal, it would be hard to absolutely conclude the slower download speeds is completely because of capacity.

 

When they first turned on the Denver B41 network last summer on Clearwire sites, I experienced this same thing. And the only thing that could run on it at the time was just hotspots, that only had started on sale the previous week. In many of those instances, I was likely the only person on Band 41 LTE at a site or sector. This pointed to a legacy Clearwire backhaul situation where the legacy backhaul could not support B41 peak speeds when the WiMax that shared it was fully burdened.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[jwang]

The crazy thing is, all 3 band are available at her house. I get -86dbm on Band 25, -69dbm on Band 26, and -89dbm on Band 41, though Band 41 is coming from a different site that is not as close by. Most of the time, I'm on Band 41 or Band 25. Band 26 gives me the highest speeds by far at about 20Mbps. Band 25 is about 10Mbps and Band 41 never crosses 10Mbps.

 

Not to say that's insufficient, it's very good. It's just that my speeds aren't very high on Band 41 in this area when compared to when I am in other areas on Band 41.

 

It's good enough to beat ATT & Tmobile in NYC if in most part of NYC can get all 3 bands and maintain this speed in building.

Most subscribers Sprint needs to retain or steal from other carriers focus on availability of service and usable data speed. At least for now is like this.

[Morningside78]

gotta say, guys, I'm seeing zero indication of Sprint being able of delivering any of what's been promised.  my wife and I (iPhone 5 and 5s repectively) and our closest friends (husband and wife who both own Galasy S4s) are encountering nothing but horrible service, both in terms of phone and data.  we frequently have to shut off LTE entirely to force ourselves onto the mediocre 3G that's still faster than LTE.  I've been itching to bail on Sprint for the past 3 years and after having to add my parents to my account, decided to hang on a bit longer and give Sprint the benefit of the doubt.  now I've paid them 3 more years worth of exhorbitant fees for terrible phone and data service and I don't know why I'm supposed to believe that Sprint even possess the technical know-how to adequately implement and manage the kind of infrastructure needed to serve New York City.  is there anything tangible (and not Sprint marketing) that someone can point to say I'm wrong about this and should just keep waiting?

[nexgencpu]

gotta say, guys, I'm seeing zero indication of Sprint being able of delivering any of what's been promised.  my wife and I (iPhone 5 and 5s repectively) and our closest friends (husband and wife who both own Galasy S4s) are encountering nothing but horrible service, both in terms of phone and data.  we frequently have to shut off LTE entirely to force ourselves onto the mediocre 3G that's still faster than LTE.  I've been itching to bail on Sprint for the past 3 years and after having to add my parents to my account, decided to hang on a bit longer and give Sprint the benefit of the doubt.  now I've paid them 3 more years worth of exhorbitant fees for terrible phone and data service and I don't know why I'm supposed to believe that Sprint even possess the technical know-how to adequately implement and manage the kind of infrastructure needed to serve New York City.  is there anything tangible (and not Sprint marketing) that someone can point to say I'm wrong about this and should just keep waiting?

 I know you have been a member here for quite some time. But rarely post, you should probably take a look at some pages back and see what others have been experiencing. In my area it has gone from slow 3G, to quick 4G to slowing down abit, then after picking up a proper tri band phone to extremely fast speeds! I see you mentioned iphone 5S (that has band 26 support that's being deployed and optimized now).

 

 Unfortunately for the GS4 (unless its the spark edition) and the Iphone 5, theyre single band phones. During heavy traffic hours Band 25 can be extremely slow (but I have noticed it speeding up a bit, but nowhere near enough to stream videos) 

 

 So my only recommendation is you look into picking up a proper tri band phone (no iphones) or hold up till the B26 optimizations are complete. 

 

Also,  just to give you an idea of what a tri band phone can do, here is my test at home right this moment.

 

[Morningside78]

I know you have been a member here for quite some time. But rarely post, you should probably take a look at some pages back and see what others have been experiencing. In my area it has gone from slow 3G, to quick 4G to slowing down abit, then after picking up a proper tri band phone to extremely fast speeds! I see you mentioned iphone 5S (that has band 26 support that's being deployed and optimized now).

 

 Unfortunately for the GS4 (unless its the spark edition) and the Iphone 5, theyre single band phones. During heavy traffic hours Band 25 can be extremely slow (but I have noticed it speeding up a bit, but nowhere near enough to stream videos) 

 

 So my only recommendation is you look into picking up a proper tri band phone (no iphones) or hold up till the B26 optimizations are complete. 

 

Also,  just to give you an idea of what a tri band phone can do, here is my test at home right this moment.

 

appreciate the information.  my primary problem with what you've said here is that it's unfortunately similar to what I've heard from Sprint for the last several years and others here: you just don't have the right equipment.  what has me skeptical is that it's just coincidentally never the right equipment.  and according to Sprint and the people I've seen on this forum who sing the praises of the supposed improvements in Sprint's quality of service (and to be completely honest, I've never spoken with a Sprint customer anywhere but the internet who's had anything positive to say about Sprint), I'm just always in need of something else to buy.  my concern is that Sprint's infrasturcture lacks the capacity needed to handle all of the customers in a city as densely populated (by structures and people) as New York City and so that periods where the service seems good are really the result of a very small customer base who possess the devices capable of using the service.  once more and more people get those devices, Sprint runs into the same old capacity issues as they had previously.  WiMax seemed blazing fast until many more people had WiMax devices, then WiMax was too slow to use.  LTE, when first available here, seemed very very quick, until everybody had LTE devices.  Now it's slower than Sprint's competitors 3G service.

 

again, this is just a theory, but Sprint's track record has been staggeringly poor in my 12 years as a customer.    virtually every speed improvement is fine until the lion's share of their customers are also using it.  then you're back in the toilet bowl.  I'm happy with my iPhone (as is my wife) and will be buying the iPhone 6 later this year.  But in order to be a Sprint customer must one only use a handful of devices or suffer with dial-up modem speeds and dropped calls?  is there truly something different this time around other than a customer lag time?  like I said, I'm willing to listen but I am very skeptical.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Morningside78

[nexgencpu]

appreciate the information.  my primary problem with what you've said here is that it's unfortunately similar to what I've heard from Sprint for the last several years and others here: you just don't have the right equipment.  what has me skeptical is that it's just coincidentally never the right equipment.  and according to Sprint and the people I've seen on this forum who sing the praises of the supposed improvements in Sprint's quality of service (and to be completely honest, I've never spoken with a Sprint customer anywhere but the internet who's had anything positive to say about Sprint), I'm just always in need of something else to buy.  my concern is that Sprint's infrasturcture lacks the capacity needed to handle all of the customers in a city as densely populated (by structures and people) as New York City and so that periods where the service seems good are really the result of a very small customer base who possess the devices capable of using the service.  once more and more people get those devices, Sprint runs into the same old capacity issues as they had previously.  again, this is just a theory, but Sprint's track record has been staggeringly poor in my 12 years as a customer.    virtually every speed improvement is fine until the lion's share of their customers are also using it.  then you're back in the toilet bowl.  I'm happy with my iPhone (as is my wife) and will be buying the iPhone 6 later this year.  But in order to be a Sprint customer must only use a handful of devices or suffer with dial-up modem speeds and dropped calls?  is there truly something different this time around other than a customer lag time?  like I said, I'm willing to listen but I am very skeptical.

The difference between the first round of LTE (Band 25) and the second round (Band 26 and 41) Is specifically for capacity and coverage. The reason that tri band phones can achieve these massive speeds is simple, wider highway lane's. Where band 25 is running on a 5x5Mhz lane, and Band 26 on another 5x5Mhz lane for capacity and more coverage, Band 41 is on a 20Mhz lane (twice as wide, and there adding another 20Mhz before the end of this year)

 The end result is that all bands complement each other.

 

I do feel your frustration, if your on a single band device and are in a high traffic area, (like anywhere in Manhattan) it can be pretty bad.

 

Sprint does have the 30day trial period so you can give another device a go, and see if it works for you. The one thing I can tell you with certainty, NYC has pretty great Band 41 coverage. So that might solve your problem.

[Dkoellerwx]

appreciate the information.  my primary problem with what you've said here is that it's unfortunately similar to what I've heard from Sprint for the last several years and others here: you just don't have the right equipment.  what has me skeptical is that it's just coincidentally never the right equipment.  and according to Sprint and the people I've seen on this forum who sing the praises of the supposed improvements in Sprint's quality of service (and to be completely honest, I've never spoken with a Sprint customer anywhere but the internet who's had anything positive to say about Sprint), I'm just always in need of something else to buy.  my concern is that Sprint's infrasturcture lacks the capacity needed to handle all of the customers in a city as densely populated (by structures and people) as New York City and so that periods where the service seems good are really the result of a very small customer base who possess the devices capable of using the service.  once more and more people get those devices, Sprint runs into the same old capacity issues as they had previously.  WiMax seemed blazing fast until many more people had WiMax devices, then WiMax was too slow to use.  LTE, when first available here, seemed very very quick, until everybody had LTE devices.  Now it's slower than Sprint's competitors 3G service.

 

again, this is just a theory, but Sprint's track record has been staggeringly poor in my 12 years as a customer.    virtually every speed improvement is fine until the lion's share of their customers are also using it.  then you're back in the toilet bowl.  I'm happy with my iPhone (as is my wife) and will be buying the iPhone 6 later this year.  But in order to be a Sprint customer must one only use a handful of devices or suffer with dial-up modem speeds and dropped calls?  is there truly something different this time around other than a customer lag time?  like I said, I'm willing to listen but I am very skeptical.

Unlike WiMax, Sprint does have the capacity now to handle all the customers in NYC. By this time next year, Sprint will have deployed 2 Band 25 carriers, 1 Band 26 carriers, and 3+ Band 41 carriers. Yes, we are talking future tense here again, but Sprint has only had about a year to work with the Clearwire spectrum, so it will take time to implement all of it. When you combine all of those LTE carriers, that is more than enough capacity, even for a place like NYC. It still won't hold up in sports venues and other events where thousands of people come together, those will still need DAS deployment or other small cell solutions.

 

My advice is to stick it out as long as you can, and when possible, upgrade to a Spark device and see how your experience changes.

 

Just reading the tone of this thread, it has gone from overwhelmingly negative, to very positive over the course of the last year.

[Morningside78]

The difference between the first round of LTE (Band 25) and the second round (Band 26 and 41) Is specifically for capacity and coverage. The reason that tri band phones can achieve these massive speeds is simple, wider highway lane's. Where band 25 is running on a 5x5Mhz lane, and Band 26 on another 5x5Mhz lane for capacity and more coverage, Band 41 is on a 20Mhz lane (twice as wide, and there adding another 20Mhz before the end of this year)

 The end result is that all bands complement each other.

 

I do feel your frustration, if your on a single band device and are in a high traffic area, (like anywhere in Manhattan) it can be pretty bad.

 

Sprint does have the 30day trial period so you can give another device a go, and see if it works for you. The one thing I can tell you with certainty, NYC has pretty great Band 41 coverage. So that might solve your problem.

oh and I definitely get what the upgrade is intended to do, but what proof is there that band 41 won't be completely super-saturated once enough Sprint customers start owning devices capable of connecting to it?  will they be running many bands simultaneously to deal with the demand? 

 

I have to say, I recall nothing 2+ years ago that said band 25 was going to crash and burn as miserably as it has.  And indeed, as I said in my previous message, when I was one of about 5 people using LTE in my neighborhood (provided I didn't wander off Broadway for about a 10-block strip) it was pretty quick, and that was when LTE in the area was purely in the testing stage.  Then many more people got LTE-capable devices and you get what I'm getting right now sitting by a window on the UWS facing a tower about 2 blocks away:  ~2.5 Mbps down and ~ 0.5 Mbps up.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Morningside78

[S4GRU]

oh and I definitely get what the upgrade is intended to do, but what proof is there that band 41 won't be completely super-saturated once enough Sprint customers start owning devices capable of connecting to it?

Because Sprint has more B41 spectrum than AT&T and Verizon have all their spectrum combined. That's why. And that means mondo capacity. Way more than their competitors.

 

If you don't want the capacity, don't upgrade to a Band 41 device and go select the carrier of your choice. But we completely understand you don't believe Sprint. That's fine. We get it. Don't believe them. But don't complain to us what you FEEL Sprint isn't going to do in the future.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[Dkoellerwx]

oh and I definitely get what the upgrade is intended to do, but what proof is there that band 41 won't be completely super-saturated once enough Sprint customers start owning devices capable of connecting to it?  will they be running many bands simultaneously to deal with the demand?

I suppose you were probably typing this while I replied, but check my post on the previous page for the answer.

[Morningside78]

Because Sprint has more B41 spectrum than AT&T and Verizon have all their spectrum combined. That's why. And that means mondo capacity. Way more than their competitors.

 

do you have any proof of this?  I'm not quite sure why you're being hostile, but try to understand that not everyone can justify throwing away $250/month every month for several years on service that's failed to deliver on any of its promises.  to just say "Sprint has so much bandwidth" without anything to back it up just sounds like marketing to me.  I heard virtually the exact same pitch over 2 years ago and yet here we are with LTE slower than competitor 3G.