Network Vision/LTE - Norfolk Market (Hampton Roads/Virginia Tidewater)

[IWatchBoxing]

Hello, I live in area code 23435 off of College Drive and Townpoint Rd. I noticed some work being done on out towers resolving issues and making 3G better, but no 4G yet. There is 4G 4 to 6 miles away, but the towers closer to us are showing no signs What are the plans for the tower off of college drive by 664? I'd love to have the 4G at home.

 

Thanks, 

 

Josh

 

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

[S4GRU]

Hello, I live in area code 23435 off of College Drive and Townpoint Rd. I noticed some work being done on out towers resolving issues and making 3G better, but no 4G yet. There is 4G 4 to 6 miles away, but the towers closer to us are showing no signs What are the plans for the tower off of college drive by 664? I'd love to have the 4G at home.

 

Thanks, 

 

Josh

 

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

 

We can't give you info about any specific site.  We don't have those kinds of details.  However, deployment is occurring all over the market.  All the sites are getting upgraded.  In our Sponsor maps it shows sites that have received upgrades, and all the sites in the entire market.

 

Robert

[97ws6]

Hello, I live in area code 23435 off of College Drive and Townpoint Rd. I noticed some work being done on out towers resolving issues and making 3G better, but no 4G yet. There is 4G 4 to 6 miles away, but the towers closer to us are showing no signs What are the plans for the tower off of college drive by 664? I'd love to have the 4G at home.

 

Thanks, 

 

Josh

 

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Hey Josh I live over in Churchland I just noticed on Sensorly that 4g is up and running on 664 all the way up into Hampton. You may be getting 4g soon. I'm still waiting on them to upgrade 164.

[B3Bb0y]

I went from picking up LTE anywhere in Norfolk/Chesapeake/VA Beach to nothing at all.  After spending more than an hour on the phone with a Sprint rep, the issue is slightly better, but I've noticed I still have to airplane toggle to pick up LTE signals that I had no problem getting in the past.  I have a rooted GNex, but the thing is, my wife's stock iPhone 5 has the same issues.  Anyone else experiencing this?

[GoWireless]

I went from picking up LTE anywhere in Norfolk/Chesapeake/VA Beach to nothing at all.  After spending more than an hour on the phone with a Sprint rep, the issue is slightly better, but I've noticed I still have to airplane toggle to pick up LTE signals that I had no problem getting in the past.  I have a rooted GNex, but the thing is, my wife's stock iPhone 5 has the same issues.  Anyone else experiencing this?

I have not noticed this recently. Have you tried to do a PRL and profile updates?

 

What I have noticed is that there are quite a few areas where there is excellent 3G reception but no 4G at all. In other words, even though the market has been launched for some time, there seem to be a number of towers that Sprint still hasn't gotten to yet.

[B3Bb0y]

I have not noticed this recently. Have you tried to do a PRL and profile updates?

 

What I have noticed is that there are quite a few areas where there is excellent 3G reception but no 4G at all. In other words, even though the market has been launched for some time, there seem to be a number of towers that Sprint still hasn't gotten to yet.

I've done all types of PRL updates, worked with over the phone techs and a Sprint repair shop.  All say my phone is working fine.  Sprint keeps claiming, "There are no known outages, but we'll have our techs look into it."  They have been telling me the same story for more than a week.  It does not take that long to discover downed towers.  They even went to far as to lie to me and tell me that my Galaxy Nexus is a Wimax phone, and that's why I can't get LTE!!!  At this point I'm taking it to the BBB, FTC, and FCC if need be to get the ETF waived.  Anyone had any luck with this?  I think my complaint is legit since they are falsely advertising coverage in several places around town.  I have the screen shots to back it up!

Edited July 13, 2013 by B3Bb0y

[mrknowitall526]

I was on a weekend trip to Williamsburg this weekend.  I managed to get LTE around the area of the Kmart on Route 60, but that was it!  3G service was AWFUL.  Not usuable whatsoever.  At the Premium Outlets on Route 60 near Route 199, service was so bad I couldn't even send texts.  I kept roaming switching between Verizon and nTelos.  Could not send a text on nTelos to save my life.  (Granted, there were tons of people at the outlets, but still.)

 

I really was disgusted with the state of things down that way.  On the other hand, I had LTE in all the little podunk places on Route 13 on the Eastern Shore of VA.  Go figure.

[nsu300zx]

I was on a weekend trip to Williamsburg this weekend.  I managed to get LTE around the area of the Kmart on Route 60, but that was it!  3G service was AWFUL.  Not usuable whatsoever.  At the Premium Outlets on Route 60 near Route 199, service was so bad I couldn't even send texts.  I kept roaming switching between Verizon and nTelos.  Could not send a text on nTelos to save my life.  (Granted, there were tons of people at the outlets, but still.)

 

I really was disgusted with the state of things down that way.  On the other hand, I had LTE in all the little podunk places on Route 13 on the Eastern Shore of VA.  Go figure.

It's been this bad the whole summer.  Not sure why when supposedly there is LTE.

[mrknowitall526]

It's been this bad the whole summer.  Not sure why when supposedly there is LTE.

 

The sponsor maps show the towers are only upgraded to 4G so far ... they've done next to nothing to the 3G network in the area.  It shows!

[GoWireless]

I was on a weekend trip to Williamsburg this weekend. I managed to get LTE around the area of the Kmart on Route 60, but that was it! 3G service was AWFUL. Not usuable whatsoever. At the Premium Outlets on Route 60 near Route 199, service was so bad I couldn't even send texts. I kept roaming switching between Verizon and nTelos. Could not send a text on nTelos to save my life. (Granted, there were tons of people at the outlets, but still.)

 

I really was disgusted with the state of things down that way. On the other hand, I had LTE in all the little podunk places on Route 13 on the Eastern Shore of VA. Go figure.

What I find particularly egregious is that if you look at Sprint's official coverage map, you get the impression that Williamsburg is completely blanketed by 4G. Oh well, Hampton Roads has for a long time been the step child for Sprint on the East Coast. Seems like for a while there they were actually making some pretty decent NV progress in the area then they sort'a slowed down. T-Mobile at one point was well behind Sprint in putting in LTE but has been making some decent strides lately. I hope Sprint starts picking up the pace soon. We are almost a year into deployment and I still see a lot of 3G only areas, even high traffic ones. That said, where there is 4G it is usually very good.

Edited September 2, 2013 by GoWireless

[mrknowitall526]

What I find particularly egregious is that if you look at Sprint's official coverage map, you get the impression that Williamsburg is completely blanketed by 4G. Oh well, Hampton Roads has for a long time been the step child for Sprint on the East Coast. Seems like for a while there they were actually making some pretty decent NV progress in the area then they sort'a slowed down. T-Mobile at one point was well behind Sprint in putting in LTE but has been making some decent strides lately. I hope Sprint starts picking up the pace soon. We are almost a year into deployment and I still see a lot of 3G only areas, even high traffic ones. That said, where there is 4G it is usually very good.

I feel like part of the problem is probably a capacity issue - Williamsburg/Hampton Roads is one of the top vacation spots in the country.  Heck, I drove around the Premium Outlets looking for a parking space for at least 20 minutes on Saturday.  There were only two spots where I actually connected to LTE - the mini golf in the parking lot of the Kmart on Route 60, and Mama Steve's House of Pancakes on Richmond Road.  Unfortunately I was driving the rest of the time, so I don't know if my phone actually connected to any of the sites that are supposedly live along I-64 and Route 13 leading up to the bridge tunnel.

[nsu300zx]

To be fair, the Chesapeake, Norfolk, Va Beach area has wonderful (in my experience) 4G coverage and speeds.  My parents live in the area, so every time I go down I make sure and map everywhere I go.  So far there are very few gaps in the 4G coverage.  And where there is no 4G , the 3G seems pretty good.  Plus I usually get a chance to compare to Verizon's network because most of my family and friends have it, and Sprint has always compared very well.  Shame they can't seem to get the Richmond area going.

[Agent_Jacob]

I live in Virginia beach, but go to college in WV (hurry up Ntelos) and I can't get a decent 4G signal nearly anywhere. It seems like they have a lot of gaps in the network here and I find I'm always switching back to 3g. The larger shopping areas seem to get coverage but the residential areas dont. The other issue is once you go inside the signal is dead no matter how strong outside. I switched from VZW and I like where NV and NV 2.0 will put us but we just aren't thereyet.

[GoWireless]

I have been somewhat disappointed with Sprint's recent NV activity in Hampton Roads. Initially they made great strides in adding LTE coverage but from my personal experience, they seem to have slowed down considerably from the initial push and there are still too many gaps in 4G coverage, at least too many given they've been at it for almost a year around here. What particularly annoys me are areas with full strength 3G - meaning an unconverted tower nearby (rather than lack of 4G due to being in a fringe reception area).

 

I consider myself pretty lucky from the perspective that at work I get great LTE coverage but it's a game of chance... if I happened to be working in the other side of the building I work in I would be SOL. The 4G signal doesn't make it over there. At home I get pretty good LTE coverage too but I have wi-fi there anyway. However, if I drive half a mile away then no 4G again.

 

I have been impressed with T-Mobile's deployment of LTE as of late... while they started their LTE deployment after NV started, they seemed to have picked up speed recently with their deployment. Soon Sprint will be playing catch-up .

[SteveO_148]

I am wondering when spark with be coming to Hampton and Newport News.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

[S4GRU]

I am wondering when spark with be coming to Hampton and Newport News.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

Band 41 LTE (Spark) is currently only being deployed on existing WiMax markets. We have schedules of this work in the Premier Sponsor section.

 

The Hampton Roads is not a WiMax market. In the 2nd Quarter of 2014, Sprint is planning to start deploying Band 41 on Network Vision sites. We have not seen schedules yet of this work. We don't know where the Norfolk market will shake out at this time.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

[truefan31]

Bout to just give up and go tmobile. Lte all around NN/Hampton.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[S4GRU]

Bout to just give up and go tmobile. Lte all around NN/Hampton.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

OK.  Sounds good.

 

Robert

[SteveO_148]

Band 41 LTE (Spark) is currently only being deployed on existing WiMax markets. We have schedules of this work in the Premier Sponsor section.

 

The Hampton Roads is not a WiMax market. In the 2nd Quarter of 2014, Sprint is planning to start deploying Band 41 on Network Vision sites. We have not seen schedules yet of this work. We don't know where the Norfolk market will shake out at this time.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Robert, when I was just shopping for a new phone in the end of December, I went into the main Sprint store in my area and they told me that Spark would be turned on in January or February. The Hampton roads area seems to be last for Sprint upgrades. I have been a loyal customer for over 8 years. We never had wimax then LTE was about 2 after Verizon rolled it out. So now I have the LG G2 and may not see 4g on this phone in my home area till later this year. That is not right.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

[S4GRU]

Robert, when I was just shopping for a new phone in the end of December, I went into the main Sprint store in my area and they told me that Spark would be turned on in January or February. The Hampton roads area seems to be last for Sprint upgrades. I have been a loyal customer for over 8 years. We never had wimax then LTE was about 2 after Verizon rolled it out. So now I have the LG G2 and may not see 4g on this phone in my home area till later this year. That is not right.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

They are deploying Band 25 LTE in the Norfolk market. They are not deploying Band 41 Spark, yet. However, we cannot fault the Sprint store, as Sprint is causing mass confusion in what is called Spark anymore.

 

Robert

[Dkoellerwx]

 So now I have the LG G2 and may not see 4g on this phone in my home area till later this year. That is not right.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

Did you check the coverage maps? They're not finished, but LTE has already been rolled out across a large portion of the area.

[SteveO_148]

Did you check the coverage maps? They're not finished, but LTE has already been rolled out across a large portion of the area.

I am not able to get it in Hampton where my wife's Samsung s3 does.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

[Dkoellerwx]

I am not able to get it in Hampton where my wife's Samsung s3 does.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

Ok, that's an eCSFB issue. Aclatel-Lucent still needs to integrate the 3G side of the NV equipment, once that happens, you'll be able to get LTE there again. It has been deployed, there's just an issue with tri-band devices. It should be fixed soon.

 

For more info, see Robert's article on the wall: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-357-nexus-5-and-lg-g2-experience-temporary-sprint-lte-connectivity-issues-due-to-circuit-switched-fallback-technology/

[truefan31]

I'm in the Hampton roads area. This is just sad really. So long for network upgrades

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dkoellerwx]

I'm in the Hampton roads area. This is just sad really. So long for network upgrades

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

What's sad? Most of the network has been overhauled already. There's a few places they are still waiting on the internet provider to bring in the appropriate connection before they can fire up LTE.