Network Vision/LTE - Columbus Market

[ritamosuno]

I've made a comment on the Sprint social site that they are more concerned with giving LTE to cows than to people. Sure they have some large metropolitan areas, but if you look at the markets that they hype about, you see that it's mostly rural, sparsely populated areas.

 

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Part of it also has to do with the fact that there are very nice government subsidies for building up internet infrastructure in rural areas.  By doing those areas first, they can offset some of their costs with the perks they get from the government, making their balance sheet look a lot prettier at the end of the year.

[chanfishy]

Does anyone think LTE for Sprint will be on for Columbus when it hits midnight tonight? 

[quicksand jesus]

It is on.............for every carrier BUT Sprint. Maybe next year.

[COZisBack]

There are tons of LTE sites on in Columbus if you have a G2. Check Sensorly.

 

Today's post has been brought to you by Sprint, the letters GN and the number 2.

 

 

[valerious]

Keep in mind the reason why certain towers are accepted vs. not is mostly to do with all kinds of things rather than what Sprint wants to do. For instance; permitting, access to the site, access to the correct backhaul and many other factors. The reason why Columbus proper has not been updated is because of the legacy handoff issues. If you are not familiar with these issues, feel free to look around or ask more specific questions. Long story short, our legacy sites do NOT play nice with NV upgraded sites and therefore will cause hard drops from one tower to the next.

 

Trust me, I could not agree more that I want to enjoy LTE where I work (Westerville) and the surrounding areas, but we just have to be patient in this regard. No one knows for sure, but we believe that this will enable the market to "turn on" rapidly. This is NOT official, but would make pretty good sense compared to other Samsung markets.

I've heard about the hand off issue and have experienced that myself.

 

I think that in the near future I'll be getting the G2, so I can experience all the goodies. I'm still hesitant about tri band devices due to not being to do data and voice at the same time.

 

I'm being very patient with Sprint, which is why I've been with them for almost 14 years.

 

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[Oakley707]

I've heard about the hand off issue and have experienced that myself.

 

I think that in the near future I'll be getting the G2, so I can experience all the goodies. I'm still hesitant about tri band devices due to not being to do data and voice at the same time.

 

I'm being very patient with Sprint, which is why I've been with them for almost 14 years.

 

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Appreciate your patience and the G2 is an excellent phone with a ton of future proofing.  I'm with you on the SVLTE and SVDO needs, but it is unfortunately not in the cards moving forward.  I may have to snag up a hotspot in order to alleviate this concern.

 

Thanks again.

[amcferrin90]

Ok so with today's reported 3G accepts, looking at the updated map I can definitely see several more clusters of 3G coming alive soon. My bet is on Lancaster, Pataskala, New Albany, Hoover Dam area, Johnstown. The rest of Chillicothe I could see getting a report this week. Not in any particular order. I'm expecting an explosion of LTE accepts for Pickerington, Pickaway County and Licking County. I still think Santa owes imex99 a LTE site upgrade too.

 

It's cool to see more people posting, thank you. Roll call! First, if you're not a sponsor I strongly urge you to give something towards the site; it is totally worth it just for the maps alone. Consider $10 or $25 or something. If you give $100 you get Premier Sponsor access and there's more stuff there. Second, there are some areas that haven't been checked in over 30 days, alot of these areas never. Is there anyone that can take an hour and hit Marysville/Honda area, Whitehall/Bexley, along 70 east near Buckeye Lake out towards Zanesville, South Linden, Clintonville? Obviously not all at once, just pick an area. It took me an hour to hit all of Westerville then Gahanna. These RRH's are pretty easy to spot.

 

Thanks again and happy new year!

[Amadeus]

There are tons of LTE sites on in Columbus if you have a G2. Check Sensorly.

 

Today's post has been brought to you by Sprint, the letters GN and the number 2.

 

 

And That's the problem right there....  There is plenty of LTE "IF" you have a Tri-Band Device manufactured in the last couple months....  But Most people upgraded to The 2012-13 series LTE devices since they killed off the Wimax ones....  All of those are 1900 LTE...  And that means that LTE really doesn't really "exist" for the majority of devices as they can't access it....  To the standard user LTE is not there unless they can access it.  The argument that it is there if you buy a new phone (when you own an LTE device) is not a valid argument for LTE progress....

 

In order to use the "it's there just not for your device" logic you might as well say LTE is everywhere in Columbus because verizon/att are providing it so just switch carriers and you'll get it....  Same logic...

 

Ironically I just heard that same statement about there being tons of LTE in Columbus if you buy a new phone from a Sprint Rep at the 256/I-70 store just yesterday when responding to a customer's question about why they don't have LTE on their 3 month old S4 like they were "promised" when they joined sprint at that store location....  It's statements like that which give sprint the reputation of being a company that tells lies all the time...

 

If you stand at my home I don't have any LTE...  Because I have an S4...  My daughters don't either...  They have S3's...  My Fiancee as of yesterday has LTE because she now has a G2...  All while standing in the same spot...  So just by that little example LTE really doesn't exist at my home as 3/4 of us don't have LTE access with all LTE capable devices... 

[Amadeus]

On another note about the speed of the rollout....  There is honestly no speed fast enough to be truly acceptable....  This is because their network is so far degraded and antiquated that it needs repaired last year, not in the near future...  That being said so long as sprint is acting in good faith and being HONEST with customers about what is going on then things can be accepted despite the slow pace of the rollout...

[BucketHead25]

I couldn't agree more.  I get the need for permits, back haul, site owners permission etc.  But the fact is there are dozens of sites in and around Columbus with equipment in place (some since August) which implies approved permits are in hand.  These same sites are next to major roadways or commercial office buildings which implies fiber back haul is available nearby.  Quite a number of these sites have back haul spotted by readers here.  If they had no plans on turning all this new equipment on within a month or two then why waste the technicians time installing it then?  Send those techs down to Ross county back in September not now.  

 

I joined Sprint two months back with my eyes wide open after reading this forum to save money and kick Verizon to the curb.  I still believe this was the correct decision.  My only disappointment is the priorities that Sprint is choosing and their lack of transparency.

 

Now if I can find a way to kick TWC and their ridiculous "equipment rental fee" to the curb then 2014 is shaping up to be a great year. 

[amcferrin90]

I'm not sure of which areas you speak of other than Columbus as a whole. If you travel between NV and legacy areas, worse yet live near the boundary, its easy to understand why sites in Columbus are not turned on. They would lose customers very fast. Nothing works in those areas without a user being crafty to tinker with their PRL for band preference. Text messages fall into the abyss for hours or days, phone calls drop, data still crawls. It would have been better to upgrade sites, give them a new NID which they did do, then push a PRL update to allow access like Verizon did. Sprint couldn't do that. They were losing customers to competitors because they weren't selling the iPhone. So roll the iPhone out before infrastructure to save the consumers from bailing out for the iPhones. A money decision. That's when infrastructure problems became exposed. Now start the 2 year time bomb when the iPhone users contracts start expiring, its about there. They f'd up yes. We're almost out of it AND in the process over the next year Sprint will rock better than everybody else with Spark.

[Oakley707]

I couldn't agree more.  I get the need for permits, back haul, site owners permission etc.  But the fact is there are dozens of sites in and around Columbus with equipment in place (some since August) which implies approved permits are in hand.  These same sites are next to major roadways or commercial office buildings which implies fiber back haul is available nearby.  Quite a number of these sites have back haul spotted by readers here.  If they had no plans on turning all this new equipment on within a month or two then why waste the technicians time installing it then?  Send those techs down to Ross county back in September not now.  

 

I joined Sprint two months back with my eyes wide open after reading this forum to save money and kick Verizon to the curb.  I still believe this was the correct decision.  My only disappointment is the priorities that Sprint is choosing and their lack of transparency.

 

Now if I can find a way to kick TWC and their ridiculous "equipment rental fee" to the curb then 2014 is shaping up to be a great year. 

We certainly appreciate your patience and your open mind.  Most people come in here complaining without doing any research and it is neither productive / helpful, thank you for not being that person.  You are most definitely correct about multiple sites being installed within the Columbus limits most likely with backhaul already in place.  The key for why these sites are NOT flipped over is because of the legacy handoff issues.  This means that if Sprint launched inner Columbus sites without doing most / clusters at the same time you would have an insane amount of dropped calls.  When I mean insane, please understand that what we are talking about is EVERY time you make a phone call and switch from legacy to NV the call is dropped.  No warning, no message just hard drop.  Sprint can simply NOT afford to allow this to happen.  I'm speculating about this next part, but what we believe they are doing is installing as much as then can and when they have a majority done they will launch all at once.  Or at least major clusters in order to decrease the amount of issues.  I understand, it would seem easier to just have the crews work in Ross counties or other places first and wait, but most of that is based on permits and site availability.  We have to zoom out and realize the coordination / project management that is happening on a macro level, keep in mind the Columbus market has 400 sites in total.

 

As for TWC, simply buy a modem directly from Amazon Docsis 2.0 http://www.amazon.com/ARRIS-Motorola-SURFboard-SB5101U-DOCSIS/dp/B002M3SHXA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388596680&sr=8-1&keywords=docsis+2.0 or Docsis 3.0 http://www.amazon.com/ARRIS-Motorola-SB6121-SURFboard-DOCSIS/dp/B004XC6GJ0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388596695&sr=8-1&keywords=docsis+3.0 .  Check out TWC's list of approved modems here http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/residential-home/support/topics/internet/buy-your-modem.html

[amcferrin90]

Checked Lancaster/Fairfield County today. The site on High St next to the pizza joint has base cabinets, no RRH. The site at Coonpath/Old Millersport Road has cabinets, no RRH but the construction guys have visited at least, the gate was open. Found the crew working at the Buckeye Lake/Millersport tower, cabinets and RRHs. That's the one site I think they needed done to flip on southwestern Licking County as a cluster.

 

The Buckeye Lake tower:

[COZisBack]

And That's the problem right there.... There is plenty of LTE "IF" you have a Tri-Band Device manufactured in the last couple months.... But Most people upgraded to The 2012-13 series LTE devices since they killed off the Wimax ones.... All of those are 1900 LTE... And that means that LTE really doesn't really "exist" for the majority of devices as they can't access it.... To the standard user LTE is not there unless they can access it. The argument that it is there if you buy a new phone (when you own an LTE device) is not a valid argument for LTE progress....

 

In order to use the "it's there just not for your device" logic you might as well say LTE is everywhere in Columbus because verizon/att are providing it so just switch carriers and you'll get it.... Same logic...

 

Ironically I just heard that same statement about there being tons of LTE in Columbus if you buy a new phone from a Sprint Rep at the 256/I-70 store just yesterday when responding to a customer's question about why they don't have LTE on their 3 month old S4 like they were "promised" when they joined sprint at that store location.... It's statements like that which give sprint the reputation of being a company that tells lies all the time...

 

If you stand at my home I don't have any LTE... Because I have an S4... My daughters don't either... They have S3's... My Fiancee as of yesterday has LTE because she now has a G2... All while standing in the same spot... So just by that little example LTE really doesn't exist at my home as 3/4 of us don't have LTE access with all LTE capable devices...

Saying because your phone doesn't have access to it means it doesn't exist doesn't make sense to me. If there are new devices out there is always going to be something a previous model doesn't have. That's like saying, that when WiMAX phones came out that "4G" didn't exist if you had a 3G only phone.

 

Today's post has been brought to you by Sprint, the letters GN and the number 2.

 

 

[digiblur]

Saying because your phone doesn't have access to it means it doesn't exist doesn't make sense to me. If there are new devices out there is always going to be something a previous model doesn't have. That's like saying, that when WiMAX phones came out that "4G" didn't exist if you had a 3G only phone.

 

Today's post has been brought to you by Sprint, the letters GN and the number 2.

Thinking with a typical customers shoes on I would also say there is no LTE. Telling them to buy another phone when they just upgraded a few months ago is unrealistic. Sprint doesn't need the additional help of dumb salesman to make customers pissed off about the issue even more.

[Amadeus]

Saying because your phone doesn't have access to it means it doesn't exist doesn't make sense to me. If there are new devices out there is always going to be something a previous model doesn't have. That's like saying, that when WiMAX phones came out that "4G" didn't exist if you had a 3G only phone.

 

Today's post has been brought to you by Sprint, the letters GN and the number 2.

 

 

LTE is a different ballgame than wimax...  With Wimax, you bought a phone, and it worked when the service arrived in your area, no band issues, the 1st gen wimax device just worked as well as later Gen... LTE is at my home, and the home of many others with LTE devices that only use the 1900 band, sensorly shows it and sprint reps say it is available, but oops, not for a 1st or 2nd gen LTE device, only a 3rd Gen device.   Sprint made the choice to sell LTE 1900 only phones first, And a it is almost certain that a majority of it's users who have upgraded recently have those devices with the promise of LTE as soon as purple lights up in their area. so for them a band 41 LTE signal is a false positive...  Most of those  customers are not currently able to upgrade without paying full price for a new device.  So that is why I am ok with saying LTE essentially does not exist unless it is 1900 band LTE... 

 

Most consumers don't know about the difference between single and tri-band devices, they know they have an LTE phone that is top-tier from 2012 or 2013 that doesn't work where it is supposed to and all that does is make them dislike Sprint....  Not a recipe for a winning scenario...

 

To normal consumers an LTE phone means that it should work anywhere LTE shows it is available. 

 

3G and Wimax have nothing in common with this situation, all 3G phones or Wimax phones work where it says they do, not true with LTE ones.

 

Just my 2 Cents though....

[nexgencpu]

LTE is a different ballgame than wimax...  With Wimax, you bought a phone, and it worked when the service arrived in your area, no band issues, the 1st gen wimax device just worked as well as later Gen... LTE is at my home, and the home of many others with LTE devices that only use the 1900 band, sensorly shows it and sprint reps say it is available, but oops, not for a 1st or 2nd gen LTE device, only a 3rd Gen device.   Sprint made the choice to sell LTE 1900 only phones first, And a it is almost certain that a majority of it's users who have upgraded recently have those devices with the promise of LTE for those devices (i.e. LTE 1900)  Most of those are not currently able to upgrade without paying full price for a new device.  So that is why I am ok with saying LTE essentially does not exist unless it is 1900 band LTE... 

 

Most consumers don't know about the difference between single and tri-band devices, they know they have an LTE phone that is top-tier from 2012 or 2013 that doesn't work where it is supposed to and all that does is make them dislike Sprint....  Not a recipe for a winning scenario...

 

To normal consumers an LTE phone means that it should work anywhere LTE shows it is available. 

 

3G and Wimax have nothing in common with this situation, all 3G phones or Wimax phones work where it says they do, not true with LTE ones.

 

Just my 2 Cents though....

I'm pretty sure Sprint is installing all bands at all locations if I'm not mistaken, you speak as if 1900 deployment is no longer going on or that they will not deploy co located sites with 2500 sites. Also, this disparity of users without other bands on the same technology does crop up on different carriers like its currently happening on Verizon with them deploying another band to offload users from a burdened frequency. But eventually I think it will be fine whether you have tri-band device or not, except for indoor situations.

[Amadeus]

I'm pretty sure Sprint is installing all bands at all locations if I'm not mistaken, you speak as if 1900 deployment is no longer going on or that they will not deploy co located sites with 2500 sites. Also, this disparity of users without other bands on the same technology does crop up on different carriers like its currently happening on Verizon with them deploying another band to offload users from a burdened frequency. But eventually I think it will be fine whether you have tri-band device or not, except for indoor situations.

They will be as far as I know, I did not mean to come across in a way that could be thought of as them stopping deployment. no I am saying deploying bands other than 1900 first is a bad move for sprint as their reps do claim LTE is available in certain areas but it is non 1900 band LTE but on the large majority of phones it is not accessible as it's not 1900 The columbus east side is a good example, there is LTE showing on sensorly along I-70/270 but it is Band 41 not 1900 so to a normal consumer who got a new phone 3-6 months ago that means their phone doesn't work and all they see is sprint sucks, not it's the wrong band...

 

Eventually everything will work without issues but until then they risk angering more customers who simply "know" that their LTE phones don't work in areas that they see should have LTE according to maps and/or Reps...

[valerious]

Hello all, with all this discussion about 2500mhz and 1900mhz, I wonder if there's 800mhz LTE deployment going on in the Columbus area.

 

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[valerious]

They will be as far as I know, I did not mean to come across in a way that could be thought of as them stopping deployment. no I am saying deploying bands other than 1900 first is a bad move for sprint as their reps do claim LTE is available in certain areas but it is non 1900 band LTE but on the large majority of phones it is not accessible as it's not 1900 The columbus east side is a good example, there is LTE showing on sensorly along I-70/270 but it is Band 41 not 1900 so to a normal consumer who got a new phone 3-6 months ago that means their phone doesn't work and all they see is sprint sucks, not it's the wrong band...

 

Eventually everything will work without issues but until then they risk angering more customers who simply "know" that their LTE phones don't work in areas that they see should have LTE according to maps and/or Reps...

But even the band 41 that are shown on Sensorly aren't viewable to unmodified devices. From the eyes of an average consumer, who doesn't know the difference between bends and such, it becomes very frustrating that LTE device they have doesn't work. As members above me pointed out, it's a work in progress, and I believe that store reps and other third party retailers need to better educate what to expect. BUT, there's a big but, Sprint on their part should also, in my opinion, light up band by band. As for example Columbus, where one side is 1900 and the other side is 2500.

 

That will keep customers happy. Unless Sprint thinks that it can gather crowds at their stores with every band they launch like Apple can with every version of iPhone.

 

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[COZisBack]

Hello all, with all this discussion about 2500mhz and 1900mhz, I wonder if there's 800mhz LTE deployment going on in the Columbus area.

 

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Not yet, we have some pretty solid sourced information on the Premier side.

 

Today's post has been brought to you by Sprint, the letters GN and the number 2.

 

 

[COZisBack]

LTE is a different ballgame than wimax... With Wimax, you bought a phone, and it worked when the service arrived in your area, no band issues, the 1st gen wimax device just worked as well as later Gen... LTE is at my home, and the home of many others with LTE devices that only use the 1900 band, sensorly shows it and sprint reps say it is available, but oops, not for a 1st or 2nd gen LTE device, only a 3rd Gen device. Sprint made the choice to sell LTE 1900 only phones first, And a it is almost certain that a majority of it's users who have upgraded recently have those devices with the promise of LTE as soon as purple lights up in their area. so for them a band 41 LTE signal is a false positive... Most of those customers are not currently able to upgrade without paying full price for a new device. So that is why I am ok with saying LTE essentially does not exist unless it is 1900 band LTE...

 

Most consumers don't know about the difference between single and tri-band devices, they know they have an LTE phone that is top-tier from 2012 or 2013 that doesn't work where it is supposed to and all that does is make them dislike Sprint.... Not a recipe for a winning scenario...

 

To normal consumers an LTE phone means that it should work anywhere LTE shows it is available.

 

3G and Wimax have nothing in common with this situation, all 3G phones or Wimax phones work where it says they do, not true with LTE ones.

 

Just my 2 Cents though....

I'm not trying to make an Apples to Apples comparison between WiMAX and LTE. The point I'm trying to make its, there will always be new features and services, that are up to date one week and out of date the following week.

 

Today's post has been brought to you by Sprint, the letters GN and the number 2.

 

 

[dkyeager]

There are tons of LTE sites on in Columbus if you have a G2. Check Sensorly.

 

Today's post has been brought to you by Sprint, the letters GN and the number 2.

 

Band 41 TD-LTE year end status for Columbus Market

 

19 sites tested and fully documented, 4 sites 2/3 documented, all by our group. 

 

Maximum TD-LTE speed seen in Columbus: over 60Mbps.

 

7 other sites seen on air but not investigated yet.  Activity in all parts of the metro area.

 

PS: Another band 25 FDD-LTE site spotted that is likely coming on line near Highbanks Metropark.  The GCI showed this, but by analyzing it further by mapping each PCI, it pointed to an existing LTE tower on Morse Road.

Edited January 3, 2014 by dkyeager

[Gmotif6]

I'm North of the purple on 70 and 33. I wouldn't have known that LTE was there if it wasn't for Sensorly mapped out. I can pick it up on i5. Couldn't wait til it hit my area now I can't get it so far

[Chowder]

So, the only phone that works with band 41 is the G2? The Nexus 5 doesn't work yet but should, correct?

 

So if I'm due for a new phone I'm thinking just wait for the Samsung Galaxy S 5?...