Network Vision/LTE - Milwaukee Market (including Madison)

[norsairius]

I would like to see some progress in this area as well because I work over there. Usually my battery is <50% by lunch, leaving the house with a full charge in the morning Even in areas where I've been that are only 3G complete (Lake Geneva area), my battery life is 10x better.

I feel your pain. Bad/fluctuating signal where I work drains my phone's battery very quickly whereas I was able to use 4G LTE while visiting Indiana and have all-day battery life (speeds were around 1 MB/s downloads, that's megaBYTE, not megaBIT). I otherwise get sometimes somewhat reasonable or hardly usable (5000+ ms ping, 0.2 KB/s downloads, etc.) to nonexistent data in the office (several network communication errors in various apps). As a point of reference: I work in downtown Milwaukee near the freeway.

[mmark27]

MIDDLETON TOWER IS UP! LTE, LTE, LTE! 

 

Someone map that SOB! 

 

Near Airport Rd and the beltline.  I would be out there tonight, alas I am not going to be able to make my softball game tonight. 

[mmark27]

I'm not in the middleton area...I work on the West Side of Madison (research park area).  When I saw the permit for the site on Tokey I was happy as hell, because that's right behind where I work...but as of right now..nothing.  All of Madison is pretty much sucking when it comes to LTE.  There's a little work on the beltline, but that's about it.

 

My wife is right there as well, in Research Park. I keep asking her to tell me if her phone sees 4G symbol ever, but she doesn't like to play our little obsession of LTE game.....glad someone else will be able to notify us of a LTE signal when that Tokay tower goes live. 

[ernicoats]

MIDDLETON TOWER IS UP! LTE, LTE, LTE! 

 

Someone map that SOB! 

 

Near Airport Rd and the beltline.  I would be out there tonight, alas I am not going to be able to make my softball game tonight. 

 

I live near Greenway station and I would suspect this tower would supply LTE for me and I do not have LTE   I do go by that area a lot and will check it out.  Is there a site that told you that tower is up?  I couldnt find anything on Middletons website.

Edited July 16, 2013 by ernicoats

[jd777]

It is marked as a 4G accepted site on the NV sites complete map in the sponsor forum.

 

A question about the acceptance process: will all sites eventually turn green on that map?

 

[mmark27]

I live near Greenway station and I would suspect this tower would supply LTE for me and I do not have LTE   I do go by that area a lot and will check it out.

 

No, that wouldn't be your tower. You are a S4GRU member, head over to the maps for your closest tower.  The one I'm referring to is accepted for 4G, but until we map it, there's no way to know if its broadcasting.  Airport Rd. and the Beltline is pretty generic, its really a little northeast of there.  But at Airport and the Beltline, you'd probably get some signal. 

[mmark27]

It is marked as a 4G accepted site on the NV sites complete map in the sponsor forum. A question about the acceptance process: will all sites eventually turn green on that map?

 

From purple to yellow to green is how I've seen most of the sites going on those maps.  Yes, all sites in Madison will eventually be GREEN, meaning they are 3G/4G/800.  That's a complete NV build of a tower and all our sites will get the NV updating.

[mmark27]

No, that wouldn't be your tower. You are a S4GRU member, head over to the maps for your closest tower.  The one I'm referring to is accepted for 4G, but until we map it, there's no way to know if its broadcasting.  Airport Rd. and the Beltline is pretty generic, its really a little northeast of there.  But at Airport and the Beltline, you'd probably get some signal. 

 

 

Whoops, you aren't a sponsor....you should become one and then see the maps and join the fun!!!

[mr.phoneguy]

I work by greenway station. That tower is not broadcasting lte as far as my discovery test is concerned. I take airport rd on my wsy home from work. I'll be sure to run discovery and sensory when I go home.

[mmark27]

I work by greenway station. That tower is not broadcasting lte as far as my discovery test is concerned. I take airport rd on my wsy home from work. I'll be sure to run discovery and sensory when I go home.

 

Well, cruise east on Airport Rd until it turns into Century....then turn north (left) on High St. If you hit Hawkridge Park, you've gone too far  

[supert0nes]

It's probably just not accepting connections.  Soon though it should be.  Exciting!

[mr.phoneguy]

I live on the eastern most part of cent of century and I travel the entire rd. Hi I'll be sure to drive down high st to see what I can dig up. Now

[aackmann]

Well, I had an interesting encounter on my way home today!  in Greenfield on Beloit Rd and about 124th st. It's on one of the radio station's AM towers. As I was driving, I saw a white work-truck parked in there. I couldn't pass up the opportunity, so I parked near the road and walked over to it. There was a guy sitting in an AT&T truck. I asked the guy if he was, by chance, working on fiber for Sprint. He said he was, and he will be done by Friday. So that tower should be ready for other work any time then!

 

I also asked him about other work going on around here. He said Sprint has 59 sites that are having fiber ran to them around the Milwaukee area. (I don't know if Sprint uses AT&T fiber around here exclusively or not). He said the Verizon site at the radio station used Time Warner fiber. Anyways, he said the fiber is ran to most of the sites in Waukesha already, like in the city itself. He said one of the first ones to be done was a site at the way western edge of Waukesha.(not sure which one) He also said the one at WCTC has the fiber done for sure. He said that Sprint is only going with 1Gbps whereas AT&T and Verizon and so on, are putting in 10Gbps usually. He thought that was kind of shotty that Sprint was only installing 1Gbps instead of 10. That can easily be changed though. He said alot of other Sprint sites currently have like 5 or 6 T1 lines, and they're not bonded, so that limits bandwidth. I know Adding T1 lines was part of Sprint's band-aid phase to hold over until Network Vision came around.

 

He also made the comment that Sprint is moving pretty slow on this work. I don't see how though, if Waukesha's fiber is already pretty much done, and we already have LTE on the East side of Milwaukee, seems like a decent pace to me. 

 

I am going to keep my eyes open even more now. That was the first time I've seen any sort of anything being done at a cell tower!

[norsairius]

Got some 4G around Brady St. / Farwell Ave. this evening. I ran a speed test and I got 3G-like speeds of around 20 KB/s downloads. It didn't even get to upload because I'd get a network communication issue error, which made it feel like I was at work. Seems like work on towers in this area must have started recently and they're testing them out. I went ahead and busted out Sensorly for some mapping and picked up some 12-ish 4G points.

 

I was stopping by the Sprint store off Brady to get their opinion on whether a different phone would help me hold signal better at work since newer phones may supposedly have better antennas/radios (I haven't gotten a concrete answer on this, and chances are there's too many factors to consider to get one), but they said my woes are more likely due to the work being done on the towers. I asked them when stuff should be done and they said that "we're in a 45-day window," whatever that actually means. That said, looks like I have no choice but to hold out. Can't wait for that time when my phone won't be consistently dying by lunchtime because its signal is constantly fluctuating.

Edited July 16, 2013 by norsairius

[mr.phoneguy]

Well, cruise east on Airport Rd until it turns into Century....then turn north (left) on High St. If you hit Hawkridge Park, you've gone too far

Unfortunately, no LTE available from the High street tower. I was running LTE discovery mode .

[mmark27]

Unfortunately, no LTE available from the High street tower. I was running LTE discovery mode .

Rats. I'm sure it'll be on in the coming days. Accepted doesn't always mean broadcasting. Eitherway, exciting things are happening!

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[jreuschl]

Wales is now broadcasting LTE! Did 929 pts of mapping on Sensorly along 83 and 18.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[mmark27]

(I don't know if Sprint uses AT&T fiber around here exclusively or not). He said that Sprint is only going with 1Gbps whereas AT&T and Verizon and so on, are putting in 10Gbps usually. He thought that was kind of shotty that Sprint was only installing 1Gbps instead of 10. That can easily be changed though.

 

He also made the comment that Sprint is moving pretty slow on this work.

The fiber here in Fitchburg has AT&T on all the flags. The switches are easy enough for them to swap out from 1 to 10 Gbps in the cabinets. I do think that's lame they aren't putting in 10s right away. Hopefully that's not everywhere.

 

I'd say their slow! They have hundreds of towers to do!!!! :-)

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[smalltimehack]

Got some 4G around Brady St. / Farwell Ave. this evening. I ran a speed test and I got 3G-like speeds of around 20 KB/s downloads. It didn't even get to upload because I'd get a network communication issue error, which made it feel like I was at work. Seems like work on towers in this area must have started recently and they're testing them out. I went ahead and busted out Sensorly for some mapping and picked up some 12-ish 4G points.

 

I was stopping by the Sprint store off Brady to get their opinion on whether a different phone would help me hold signal better at work since newer phones may supposedly have better antennas/radios (I haven't gotten a concrete answer on this, and chances are there's too many factors to consider to get one), but they said my woes are more likely due to the work being done on the towers. I asked them when stuff should be done and they said that "we're in a 45-day window," whatever that actually means. That said, looks like I have no choice but to hold out. Can't wait for that time when my phone won't be consistently dying by lunchtime because its signal is constantly fluctuating.

Brady street is good people. They wouldn't steer you wrong. The manager used to work at my store.

[norsairius]

Brady street is good people. They wouldn't steer you wrong. The manager used to work at my store.

Yeah, they were nice and answered all of my questions. I just wonder what that "45-day window" means. Maybe it means the lower east side will be done sometime in the next 45 days?

 

It's otherwise nice to see more LTE lighting up here in Milwaukee. As I've said before, I can't wait for it to be done so my phone battery won't be dying so quickly while I'm at work. I'm not sure if I'll get 4G while I'm inside the office, but the better towers should provide better signal quality.

[mr.phoneguy]

Yeah, they were nice and answered all of my questions. I just wonder what that "45-day window" means. Maybe it means the lower east side will be done sometime in the next 45 days?

Way to repeat the same comment!!

 

It's otherwise nice to see more LTE lighting up here in Milwaukee. As I've said before, I can't wait for it to be done so my phone battery won't be dying so quickly while I'm at work. I'm not sure if I'll get 4G while I'm inside the office, but the better towers should provide better signal quality.

[mr.phoneguy]

I think that's already been said.

[Jswets]

Well, I had an interesting encounter on my way home today!  in Greenfield on Beloit Rd and about 124th st. It's on one of the radio station's AM towers. As I was driving, I saw a white work-truck parked in there. I couldn't pass up the opportunity, so I parked near the road and walked over to it. There was a guy sitting in an AT&T truck. I asked the guy if he was, by chance, working on fiber for Sprint. He said he was, and he will be done by Friday. So that tower should be ready for other work any time then!

 

I also asked him about other work going on around here. He said Sprint has 59 sites that are having fiber ran to them around the Milwaukee area. (I don't know if Sprint uses AT&T fiber around here exclusively or not). He said the Verizon site at the radio station used Time Warner fiber. Anyways, he said the fiber is ran to most of the sites in Waukesha already, like in the city itself. He said one of the first ones to be done was a site at the way western edge of Waukesha.(not sure which one) He also said the one at WCTC has the fiber done for sure. He said that Sprint is only going with 1Gbps whereas AT&T and Verizon and so on, are putting in 10Gbps usually. He thought that was kind of shotty that Sprint was only installing 1Gbps instead of 10. That can easily be changed though. He said alot of other Sprint sites currently have like 5 or 6 T1 lines, and they're not bonded, so that limits bandwidth. I know Adding T1 lines was part of Sprint's band-aid phase to hold over until Network Vision came around.

 

He also made the comment that Sprint is moving pretty slow on this work. I don't see how though, if Waukesha's fiber is already pretty much done, and we already have LTE on the East side of Milwaukee, seems like a decent pace to me. 

 

I am going to keep my eyes open even more now. That was the first time I've seen any sort of anything being done at a cell tower!

 

Thanks for the great info. As far as Waukesha goes...wtf? Are they planning on lighting up most of the towers at the same time?

 

As for the 1Gbps vs 10Gbps...i think its fine. The reason VZW and ATT have 10Gbps is because they are not deploying on every tower and thus will have most of the traffic on a few towers. Sprint's deployment will more evenly distribute the load because every tower will have LTE. You may see 10Gbps on extremely high load towers. (ie. the Miller park tower)

[aackmann]

Thanks for the great info. As far as Waukesha goes...wtf? Are they planning on lighting up most of the towers at the same time?

 

As for the 1Gbps vs 10Gbps...i think its fine. The reason VZW and ATT have 10Gbps is because they are not deploying on every tower and thus will have most of the traffic on a few towers. Sprint's deployment will more evenly distribute the load because every tower will have LTE. You may see 10Gbps on extremely high load towers. (ie. the Miller park tower)

 

 

Well, I'm sure the whole permit situation comes into play there. I'm guessing it requires far fewer permits to have a fiber line ran to your location than it does to put up industrial electrical equipment and RF panels that broadcast a signal for miles. I dunno. I just can't wait until LTE pops up in areas I actually drive through. I want to drive out to Wales to map some LTE, but I've got a gas-guzzler car and I'm in the process of buying a house now, so I don't want to waste unnecessary money on gas :/

 

And as for the 1 vs 10Gbps, I'm not too concerned about that either, because Verizon and AT&T have more than double the customers that Sprint has too.

[Dkoellerwx]

Thanks for the great info. As far as Waukesha goes...wtf? Are they planning on lighting up most of the towers at the same time?

 

As for the 1Gbps vs 10Gbps...i think its fine. The reason VZW and ATT have 10Gbps is because they are not deploying on every tower and thus will have most of the traffic on a few towers. Sprint's deployment will more evenly distribute the load because every tower will have LTE. You may see 10Gbps on extremely high load towers. (ie. the Miller park tower)

 

 

Well, I'm sure the whole permit situation comes into play there. I'm guessing it requires far fewer permits to have a fiber line ran to your location than it does to put up industrial electrical equipment and RF panels that broadcast a signal for miles. I dunno. I just can't wait until LTE pops up in areas I actually drive through. I want to drive out to Wales to map some LTE, but I've got a gas-guzzler car and I'm in the process of buying a house now, so I don't want to waste unnecessary money on gas :/

 

And as for the 1 vs 10Gbps, I'm not too concerned about that either, because Verizon and AT&T have more than double the customers that Sprint has too.

 

Sprint has a lower theoretical max speed (37.5Mbps) than Verizon, thus a lower bandwidth is required, not to mention the better site spacing already mentioned. 

 

As for why installs are going slow, I'm sure it has more to do with permitting, man power and equipment, than Sprint moving slow. I'm sure Sprint wants this to be done as fast as possible.