Network Vision/LTE - Milwaukee Market (including Madison)

[atm4three]

Depends on where you are heading exactly, but anything West of Mt. Horeb down 151 is definitely roaming land (maybe until the RRP gets going in the future?).  West side of Madison (Madison, Middleton, Verona) has pretty good coverage.  Where specifically are you heading? 

Thanks. Probably the areas you mention in Madison, but then may hit some of the state parks out west of the city around Mt Horeb and Dodgeville. Any recommendations? 

[mmark27]

Thanks. Probably the areas you mention in Madison, but then may hit some of the state parks out west of the city around Mt Horeb and Dodgeville. Any recommendations? 

 

Oh, like a real vacation in the Madison area???  

 

I'd for sure check out New Glarus area (south of Mt. Horeb), not only for the beer (definitely go to the brewery), but there's a nice state park down that way too.  Also, up nearer/on the way to the Wisconsin Dells on hwy 14 Devil's Lake State Park is gorgeous, as well as Mirror Lake.  Sprint signal there is pretty strong, honestly the coverage maps through sprint.com are fairly accurate now.  Coverage can be a little spotty for LTE in some places, but outdoors works pretty well. I haven't been to many of the state parks recently, but there's a good chance some of them have decent signals now.  For a little contribution to this website you can see where all the real action is on tower locations, etc.  Consider donating, the information is incredible! 

 

Despite your time on the westside, make sure to get downtown and check out the capitol building/state street and the Memorial Union Terrace on UW Madison's campus.  It's an unreal place, like no other I've ever been to.  The beer selection is the best in the city!  (plus decent sprint signal)

[Calvin200]

Fastest speed test in Milwaukee I have ever had.    Download 76.03 Up 14.71.   Beats my last score by over 20.  

[jreuschl]

Sprint needs to beef up the B41 signal outside of Miller Park. I shouldn't get in the 90s on B25 (which has horrendous speeds during a game) and then a weak -114 dB signal the rare times it is on.

3.4mbps on a weak 41 speed test.

 

There is supposed to be a DAS here but no evidence of it

 

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[Calvin200]

Whitewater......how does this Sprint work at UWW?

[mmark27]

Whitewater......how does this Sprint work at UWW?

I recall having zero signal until I got into the town of Whitewater, then had great data there. But it's a deadzone from the highway.

 

sent from an underwater dust storm from my Sprint S5

[kb122]

Not sure if this is a phone issue or not, but is anyone else getting dropped to 3G often in the area lately? LTE signal looks fine, but then out of nowhere while I'm using data it'll drop to 3G. Usually have to wait awhile or cycle airplane mode to get back on LTE.

[nick]

Has anyone attended the Wisconsin state fair, I will be there this Friday and wanted to know what to expect as far as data service?

[aackmann]

Has anyone attended the Wisconsin state fair, I will be there this Friday and wanted to know what to expect as far as data service?

 

 

Yea, I did on Saturday I think. It was pretty bad. Data was extremely slow if it worked at all, which it usually didn't. I didn't try texting or calling though.

[nick]

Yea, I did on Saturday I think. It was pretty bad. Data was extremely slow if it worked at all, which it usually didn't. I didn't try texting or calling though.

That's what I figured ) : it was the same last year, I have noticed a lot of band 41 deployment in the area and I was hopeful that would improve the fair experience, millwakee has been a work in progress for awhile now..

 

 

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[aackmann]

I think B41 is pretty much everywhere around Milwaukee. There are very few sites without it, but I guess the sheer number of people at the fair still overload it. I went on a Saturday, so it was super busy. So maybe on a lighter day it might work better. 

[dequardo]

Sprint in MKE has been is and IMO will always be the worst of the major carriers. Regardless of bands. Trying it at any major event is hopeless.

[nick]

Sprint in MKE has been is and IMO will always be the worst of the major carriers. Regardless of bands. Trying it at any major event is hopeless.

why do you feel it's a lost cause? If band 41 covered the fair I see no reason they couldn't deploy 3-4 or more band 41 carriers... That could handle all but the most crowded of events.

 

 

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[nick]

I think B41 is pretty much everywhere around Milwaukee. There are very few sites without it, but I guess the sheer number of people at the fair still overload it. I went on a Saturday, so it was super busy. So maybe on a lighter day it might work better.

I notice a lot of band 41 in Milwaukee but it seems most is not optimized, I find some sites that extend 1.5 even 2 miles while others .5 miles or less. ( same in my home town janesville wi)

 

 

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[Dkoellerwx]

Sprint in MKE has been is and IMO will always be the worst of the major carriers. Regardless of bands. Trying it at any major event is hopeless.

 

Well that's a bit of an exaggeration....

 

You can't possibly know how it will perform going into the future, with B41 2xCA just getting off the ground, and the densification project about to get underway. 

[jreuschl]

Well that's a bit of an exaggeration....

 

You can't possibly know how it will perform going into the future, with B41 2xCA just getting off the ground, and the densification project about to get underway.

 

Yes it is an exaggeration.. For one thing, family member has Magenta. Speeds stink, shows by the lowest RootMetrics score.

 

I'm assuming US Cellular works well, considering they are confident enough to put up a large store in the fair expo center.

 

I will say though..  if US Cellular includes Sprint LTE roaming nationwide soon, that looks like a nice plan

[nick]

Happy to report miller park now has usable data, seems they installed a new DAS. Between the DAS and the great wifi coverage data wasn't a problem. [emoji2]. Also parking lot had full band 41 coverage it was blazing fast for tail gating.

 

 

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[snowmobiler487]

I was at the state fair last night. Data wasn't too fast but it was still usable. I was locked on B26 every time I checked.

[nick]

I was at the state fair last night. Data wasn't too fast but it was still usable. I was locked on B26 every time I checked.

I was at the Allstate fair yesterday (Saturday) found data on band 25, 26 was overloaded and unusable.. But I had band 41 in all of spin city and the far west edge of the fair, it was holding up well didn't do a speed test but it was auto loading videos on my Facebook news feed just fine. I hope that 2 carriers of band 41 blanket the entire state fair next year! ( : it's tough to watch sprint fall down at large events like that because of the limited capacity of band 25/26, people like my girlfriend gets frustrated I heard " I have full lte why won't anything work" so many times. lol

 

 

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[jreuschl]

Happy to report miller park now has usable data, seems they installed a new DAS. Between the DAS and the great wifi coverage data wasn't a problem. [emoji2]. Also parking lot had full band 41 coverage it was blazing fast for tail gating.

 

 

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I was stuck on B25 for the game tonight and data was non existent. The time I was on B26 after cycling airplane mode it was OK.

 

I'm still puzzled why when I get in the 90s on B25 signal why I can't get B41 from the nearby tower.

 

But the good thing is the public WiFi was blazing so it didn't matter...50 mbps

 

I'm still not sure I'm on the DAS. What kind of signal strength were you getting inside? I suppose that could be overloaded too.

[nick]

 

I was on the lower level, behind home plate, I had band 25 most of the game, signal was between 90-100 in the stands and 85-90 by the concessions. It was usable all night, I was curious about the wifi but where I was sitting it was basically dead. I have to imagine they have many antennas for both the sprint system and the wifi, so as you move from antenna to antenna service and speed will change. Overall I was happy with the experience, band 41 was very nice in the parking lot [emoji3]. I wish the DAS had band 41 though, it wasn't a sold out game (33-34 in attendance). I hope the DAS gets upgraded in the coming years with band 41.

 

 

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[mmark27]

With Textra for text messages you can set to prefer WiFi, so if the WiFi is that strong, you'd really have no problem getting messages out. (of course the chat apps would work off that data) It's nice to hear there's something workable at Miller Park.

 

sent from an underwater dust storm from my Sprint S5

[nick]

With Textra for text messages you can set to prefer WiFi, so if the WiFi is that strong, you'd really have no problem getting messages out. (of course the chat apps would work off that data) It's nice to hear there's something workable at Miller Park.

 

sent from an underwater dust storm from my Sprint S5

yeah i had no problem with Imessage, regular texts and phone calls all working fine (wifi calling was turned off).  this was a huge difference from last year when my phone was a paper wight all game.  I have found the millwakee market has been getting better the last couple of months, LTE has been more prevalent and reliable.  Has any found any second band 41 carrier in Milwaukee? I have in iphone so i cant get it ) :

[payturr]

  Has any found any second band 41 carrier in Milwaukee? I have in iphone so i cant get it ) :

You can get it! Go into field test mode and record the EARFCNs. If it's the same one every time it's single carrier, but if you see a different one that means it's a second carrier! You can't get carrier aggregation but you can still find and benefit from those second carriers, hope this helps!

[nick]

You can get it! Go into field test mode and record the EARFCNs. If it's the same one every time it's single carrier, but if you see a different one that means it's a second carrier! You can't get carrier aggregation but you can still find and benefit from those second carriers, hope this helps!

learn something new every day, thanks