Network Vision/LTE - Milwaukee Market (including Madison)

[snowmobiler487]

Well, taking into account the acceptance reports for the Milwaukee Market in general, it was 28 with 9 of those being LTE.  Then if you look at a time lapse of the Milwaukee City Area (in the Milwaukee, MN, Dakotas map thread from Aackman), you can see those towers encroaching on the City itself from the Burbs and identify those new towers from the acceptance reports thread..

 

Can you post a link to that thread here please?

 

For some reason I can never seem to find what I am searching for on this site...

[aackmann]

Getting 4G at Milwaukee children's court on Watertown plank! Was not getting it here yesterday.

 

Nice! Do you work there? I used to work as a network admin for the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office and had to spend some time out at children's court helping swap out PC's last year.

[mmark27]

Can you post a link to that thread here please?

 

For some reason I can never seem to find what I am searching for on this site...

 

I agree with some difficulty in how things are parsed out on this website.  Great material, but hidden all over the place.  Most important stuff is stickied in the 

1. The Network Forum
2. → Network, Network Vision/LTE Deployment
3. → Markets

 

I have some links in my signature if you view this in a browser on a computer to helpful things for our area.  Also, here is the link for the

 

Site Acceptance Report Updates

 

• NV Sites Complete Thread (Sponsor only) -> http://goo.gl/q2nKs
• Milwaukee, Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin Market maps (Sponsor only) -> http://goo.gl/VX5JPI

[smalltimehack]

 

 

I have a tri-band G2. Check out this speed!! This was Highway 100 just south of Hales Corners. The future is looking bright! (PS, sorry about the huge image, I'm not quite sure how to scale this down).

Those are some awesome speeds for the relatively low signal strength you're showing in signal check.

[Jswets]

was it me or were the 894 towers on the map just upgraded to yellow? anyone know if they have CSFB installed? i supposed ill find out on the drive to work tomorrow... would explain the lul in service i had early last week over there....

 

894 & 60th now has LTE on my nexus 5. Must be the loomis rd tower.

[Jr43]

Those are some awesome speeds for the relatively low signal strength you're showing in signal check.

 

Smalltime,

 

When I did the scan itself I had full signal.  It took me a few minutes to figure out how to take a screenshot.  When I finally took the screenshot, my signal was lower, but the at the time of the test I had full bars.  

[theg00ds0n]

Over the last 2 days, I've put down quite a bit of new purple on Sensorly, it doesn't show until you zoom all the way in though.

 

Hwy 100 south of Forest home all the way up to Lincoln-ish in West allis, some along Forest Home, and a bit of 43N just where you merge onto 894 and I maintained that along 43N up to about Holt, including right through the tunnel. 

 

Yesterday I could pick up LTE outside the office (110th & Edgerton), today I'm maintaining the signal inside the office. 

 

Also ran a few Speedtests which do appear on Sensorly.

 

If this rate of progress continues, we'll all be getting LTE for Christmas!

 

EDIT: I have yet to pick up 1x800 anywhere in WI, and I have traveled to quite a few areas that have it. I pick it up in IL right away. I know my PRL is rather old (I'm running CM10.1 on a GS3), could that be a factor?

[repete]

Nice! Do you work there? I used to work as a network admin for the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office and had to spend some time out at children's court helping swap out PC's last year.

[repete]

No I'm a social worker. Lots of time out there

[Sal82]

Dtown Milwaukee on extended network.

[Calvin200]

My G2 was making calls and then disconnecting, I could only hold a call for about 2 seconds.    I saw I was getting 800 at my house, which I never did before.  I live on 9th and Morgan and I was getting a 800 signal from 7th and Cleveland.  They told me to put my phone into cdma and not lte cdma.  Anybody else getting dropped calls?

[Shltsw34k]

My G2 was making calls and then disconnecting, I could only hold a call for about 2 seconds.    I saw I was getting 800 at my house, which I never did before.  I live on 9th and Morgan and I was getting a 800 signal from 7th and Cleveland.  They told me to put my phone into cdma and not lte cdma.  Anybody else getting dropped calls?

Yes, I live near 27th and Loomis and it's bad... It's only because we are on the boarder of old and new tech. It should be taken care of by 12/23

[CJOHNSONTHE2ND]

 

I agree with some difficulty in how things are parsed out on this website.  Great material, but hidden all over the place.  Most important stuff is stickied in the

 

Have speeds increased for you on home tower yet?

[mmark27]

Have speeds increased for you on home tower yet?

Me, in Fitchburg? My tower is steady mid 20s down and mid/upper teens up. Always has been. There's no 2600 work there yet nor can I detect it with my phone.

 

On a side note, I had 5 up and down INSIDE West Towne mall shopping today, which for anyone who knows that area is crazy good. And when it fell back on 3G it was a usable 1.8 down, 1 up. Can't wait for 800LTE.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

 

[mmark27]

More Milwaukee love in the acceptance reports! Whoo! However, no change in Madison.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

 

[andyp]

I have had no coverage at all today on the east side of Milwaukee, cant even make calls. hopefully that means that there is work being done.

[kluecke1]

Long time lurker, first time poster.... Is anyone having issues with 800 voice quality in Madison? I've been very excited for 800 to roll out downtown, but now that it has, I wish it hadn't. We live in a dead zone near Mifflin & Ingersoll on the isthmus and have had an airave that has worked well. Our phones now pick up 800 over the airave, even when right next to the unit. I thought this would be great, but unfortunately the voice quality is unusable - people can hear us fine, but they come through totally scratchy and garbled on both an Evo LTE and an S3. This is with -100 or so 800 service. I have the same issue at my office on the Square with a signal around -70 - voice quality is so bad you cannot understand the other party. Anyone else having these issues? Any chance it will improve or any way to get my airave to overrule the 800? Thanks for any comments!

[jreuschl]

Long time lurker, first time poster.... Is anyone having issues with 800 voice quality in Madison? I've been very excited for 800 to roll out downtown, but now that it has, I wish it hadn't. We live in a dead zone near Mifflin & Ingersoll on the isthmus and have had an airave that has worked well. Our phones now pick up 800 over the airave, even when right next to the unit. I thought this would be great, but unfortunately the voice quality is unusable - people can hear us fine, but they come through totally scratchy and garbled on both an Evo LTE and an S3. This is with -100 or so 800 service. I have the same issue at my office on the Square with a signal around -70 - voice quality is so bad you cannot understand the other party. Anyone else having these issues? Any chance it will improve or any way to get my airave to overrule the 800? Thanks for any comments!

I know that at my condo in Pewaukee, the 800 signal is stronger yet choppy. 1900 is better quality even though lesser signal. 1900 signal is -95 dBm, ec/lo -3.5 dB. 800 is -88/-4.

 

So far no issues in other areas though.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[aackmann]

I have a question about LTE signal strength and what-not.... I live on 92nd and Layton, and all 4 towers around me I believe are broadcasting LTE. However, in my house, my 1xRTT signal will be like -85 or something, but my LTE signal will be like -105 or -115. I know that LTE signal strength is measured differently and has different thresholds for usable signal, but is it really that big of a gap? I'll more often than not fall back to 3g cuz the LTE signal is too weak. I'm going to wait to pass judgement because those towers just got marked live a few days ago, so maybe they have some tweaking to do or maybe other towers in the area need to have LTE turned on to form the complete picture.... But man, that's kind of disappointing so far...

Edited December 16, 2013 by aackmann

[Taxman]

First time I've gotten LTE on my phone at my house on 60th and Lloyd. I think the Hawley Rd water tower is broadcasting.

[mmark27]

I have a question about LTE signal strength and what-not.... I live on 92nd and Layton, and all 4 towers around me I believe are broadcasting LTE. However, in my house, my 1xRTT signal will be like -85 or something, but my LTE signal will be like -105 or -115. I know that LTE signal strength is measured differently and has different thresholds for usable signal, but is it really that big of a gap? I'll more often than not fall back to 3g cuz the LTE signal is too weak. I'm going to wait to pass judgement because those towers just got marked live a few days ago, so maybe they have some tweaking to do or maybe other towers in the area need to have LTE turned on to form the complete picture.... But man, that's kind of disappointing so far...

 

I asked a similar question in a different thread a while back. I'll do a kinder job than the responses I received and I know you know most of this already..... 

 

Basically, each signal tech becomes more and more fragile. So 1xRTT is super robust, 3G is weaker and finally LTE is like tissue paper airplane in a rainstorm. The difference in measurement of RSSI and RSRP levels for the different tech can't really be compared, as you said.  That value for 1xRTT isn't that strong compared to what I see around me.  I live about 200 yards from a tower at home and see 1x800 and 1xRTT in the range of -45 to -55 (indoors).  The accompanying LTE RSRP values are -85 to -95, sometimes I'll break into the high -70s.  So, with your scores in the -85 to -90 range for 1xRTT, your LTE is going to be pretty low from what I've experienced. 

 

Now that said, after a couple weeks since towers were first turned on around me, I saw an increase in strength and such within other businesses and stores (indoors) in my area and much further reach outdoors. It's hard to judge in my house because my values are maxed out, pretty much.  So as you say, I'd wait to get too upset about it yet.  There's a location on my drive into work everyday (corner of Nakoma, Odana and Monroe streets) that is just the pits for signal of any kind.  Now I pick up LTE there and hold it, albeit its a -110 signal, it holds and can get some data. This started once they turned on the West Washington tower, which doesn't make a lot of sense, but these towers can really cover some distance.  I'm excited to see it all tuned.

[mmark27]

Long time lurker, first time poster.... Is anyone having issues with 800 voice quality in Madison? I've been very excited for 800 to roll out downtown, but now that it has, I wish it hadn't. We live in a dead zone near Mifflin & Ingersoll on the isthmus and have had an airave that has worked well. Our phones now pick up 800 over the airave, even when right next to the unit. I thought this would be great, but unfortunately the voice quality is unusable - people can hear us fine, but they come through totally scratchy and garbled on both an Evo LTE and an S3. This is with -100 or so 800 service. I have the same issue at my office on the Square with a signal around -70 - voice quality is so bad you cannot understand the other party. Anyone else having these issues? Any chance it will improve or any way to get my airave to overrule the 800? Thanks for any comments!

 

In my office on UW's Campus over near Camp Randall, my voice quality on 1x800 has been awful. Really choppy audio like I've never had before, I can't really make phone calls on my cell phone. I sent in a report and had my area flagged, but they said I should just move to an area with better signal.....well, it worked here before the 1x800, so why shouldn't it work here now?! They have no response to that.  I'm hoping it will get better.  They just turned on the 1x800 downtown here, so I think we need to give it a few weeks before raising the pitch forks. 

 

I'm not familiar with Airrave's, so I'm not sure you can prioritize that unless you make a custom PRL that prefers those bands.  Did you try turning off the airrave to see if that's causing your interference?  Perhaps you're getting good enough signal now natively?   Mifflin and Ingersol is about 3 blocks from your nearest tower behind Madison Bus depot on Baldwin....you won't need an airrave there anymore I'd guess as you don't have any real impediments like hills between you and it.  Once the tower is LTE approved, you should be rocking pretty solid LTE too. It's only 3G accepted now.  Hell, the Blount street tower is a little further away towards the capitol, you should be fine for coverage once they finish up those tower acceptances.

 

EDIT: once last thing, firstly do a PRL update on both your phones, second, get the signalcheck app (in my signature) on your phone and tell us what tower address your 1x800 is coming from.  I know your downtown one will be 118 Henry, but not sure about the one near your house.  Perhaps Baldwin is not broadcasting 1x800 and you're picking it up from somewhere else. 

 

Sorry for the two posts in a row, should have just hit the multiquote button. 

[kluecke1]

Thanks for your replies mmark27. A few more things to note:

 

• I am aware of how close to existing towers we are - there is an odd dead zone right near Lapham School on the near east side. Odd because there are mutiple nearby towers, and odd because things are pretty flat. Sprint's map shows signal going from "Excellent" to "good" around my house, but I would say more accurate is going from "mediocre" to "spotty within nothing indoors." It is werird.
• All of our PRLs are updated.
• Signal check info is attached.

 

I haven't shut down the Airave as we do sometimes connect to it, and it provides much better coverage. I also haven't gotten too upset about this yes as I am aware that the network is still in the works, and things will hopefully improve. Trying to explain that to my non-techie wife who can no longer use her phone as a phone hasn't gone well though.

 

Hopefully things start to improve over the next couple of weeks.

 

Thanks again for your comments

 

[kb122]

I asked a similar question in a different thread a while back. I'll do a kinder job than the responses I received and I know you know most of this already..... 

 

Basically, each signal tech becomes more and more fragile. So 1xRTT is super robust, 3G is weaker and finally LTE is like tissue paper airplane in a rainstorm. The difference in measurement of RSSI and RSRP levels for the different tech can't really be compared, as you said.  That value for 1xRTT isn't that strong compared to what I see around me.  I live about 200 yards from a tower at home and see 1x800 and 1xRTT in the range of -45 to -55 (indoors).  The accompanying LTE RSRP values are -85 to -95, sometimes I'll break into the high -70s.  So, with your scores in the -85 to -90 range for 1xRTT, your LTE is going to be pretty low from what I've experienced. 

 

Now that said, after a couple weeks since towers were first turned on around me, I saw an increase in strength and such within other businesses and stores (indoors) in my area and much further reach outdoors. It's hard to judge in my house because my values are maxed out, pretty much.  So as you say, I'd wait to get too upset about it yet.  There's a location on my drive into work everyday (corner of Nakoma, Odana and Monroe streets) that is just the pits for signal of any kind.  Now I pick up LTE there and hold it, albeit its a -110 signal, it holds and can get some data. This started once they turned on the West Washington tower, which doesn't make a lot of sense, but these towers can really cover some distance.  I'm excited to see it all tuned.

 

800 LTE should get the levels closer to that of 1xRTT.  To compare, my Verizon phone's LTE and 1xRTT levels are within 5-6 dBm of each other.  That's running on 750 LTE and 1900 1xRTT I believe.

 

I've had usable LTE up to -120 on my Sprint S3... not the fastest, but more usable than the legacy network.  At the end of the first post in this thread there's a scale for LTE levels: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2040-bars-lie-for-lte-signal-strength-how-to-determine-your-actual-lte-signal-strength/

[Jswets]

Im really curious to see how long Sprint sticks with EVDO. It is a thorn in what could be a great device experience. I don't understand why my device will switch from LTE to 3G when the LTE signal is 4 times faster and with a much lower ping. Im talking about around a -95 EVDO signal vs a -105 LTE signal. Why would Sprint want me to be on slow 3G? I don't really believe the arguments suggesting that with NV my speeds will be much better on 3G...because they are not. Even if i get a 1+mbps 3G connection...LTE at low signal strength is still superior. LTE is just far and away better than 3G, i should be able to turn off 3G completely once the Milwaukee market is complete.