Network Vision/LTE - Milwaukee Market (including Madison)

[S4GRU]

3G here!?!? I did get 2.1 mbps at 94/26 on 3G

 

So why is 3G so terrible in Fort Atkinson with the upgrade? Didn't try it in Lake Mills.

 

And OOPS. I forgot to turn on Sensorly.. :/

 

The site is not 3G accepted, only 4G accepted so far. 3G upgrades have to be brought online in clusters. LTE upgrades can go live immediately upon conversion if the backhaul is in place.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

[mangurt]

Well hopefully this will get some better data, instead of buffer, buffer, buffer listening to Radioio.com while driving on the beltline.

[S4GRU]

I made a Sensorly loop around the McFarland tower. Near lake Kegonsa I passed under a small ridge and lost the LTE signal despite being fairly close to the tower. It seems that the 1900Mhz signal is very line of sight. ~800ft from the tower I ran a couple speed tests... they averaged 19Mbs down and 9Mbs up.

 

You may have been between two sectors at that location. LTE 1900 performs the same as 3G EVDO on 1900, all things being equal. The only difference between the two will be out at the service edge of the cell.

 

Also note, if earth ever gets between you and a radio panel, it's bye bye signal. No radio wave can penetrate dirt more than about an inch. The only reason people can get signal in basements is because of penetrating the structure overhead or windows. RF cannot penetrate earth.

 

Even VZW and AT&T LTE 700 would have failed in that same location if installed at the exact same place on the tower as Sprint LTE 1900 if the cause of the signal drop was because of going behind a small ridge. We don't need line of sight to an LTE tower. However, if you draw a line from your device to the panel on the tower, it cannot ever pass through dirt...or no bueno. Or too thick of concrete or masonry.

 

If the cause of your signal drop was because of a small ridge, you may have been just barely in the RF shadow. As stupid as it sounds, just holding your device up in the air in your car is enough to keep it out of the RF shadow created by a small hill. I do this all the time in the areas I know that are problematic.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

[mr.phoneguy]

I made a Sensorly loop around the McFarland tower. Near lake Kegonsa I passed under a small ridge and lost the LTE signal despite being fairly close to the tower. It seems that the 1900Mhz signal is very line of sight. ~800ft from the tower I ran a couple speed tests... they averaged 19Mbs down and 9Mbs up.

 

The surprise came when I was driving back into Madison on 51 when the phone flipped over to LTE between Pflaum and Cottage Grove Rd. While stuck in traffic I tried a speed test, 500kbs down and 60kbs up (better than the typical crappy 3G service in Madison).

 

It's an interesting experiment to map a single tower out. You get to see exact footprint of the tower without getting readings off of the other towers nearby.... that said I'm looking forward to more towers.

I just drove the entire lenghth of Stoughton road running sensorly and LTE discovery mode and I didn't get an LTE signal at all. Maybe they shut it off to do more work on it?

[tommym65]

 

I just drove the entire lenghth of Stoughton road running sensorly and LTE discovery mode and I didn't get an LTE signal at all. Maybe they shut it off to do more work on it?

 

The evo 4G LTE is notorious for not locking on to isolated LTE sites.

[mr.phoneguy]

Exactly. Hence the reason I was running LTE discovery app. The app puts my phone into airplane mode which is supposed to help. Oh well, no biggie.

[jreuschl]

Maybe if the weather gets consistently better we can have a Wisconsin S4GRU meetup. One possible place would be having a picnic at the I-94 E rest stop at Lake Mills (Since we'd be under 4G)

[mmark27]

Maybe if the weather gets consistently better we can have a Wisconsin S4GRU meetup. One possible place would be having a picnic at the I-94 E rest stop at Lake Mills (Since we'd be under 4G) <img src='http://s4gru.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' ' />

 

 

nothing like a bunch of dudes meeting at a rest stop.

 

Haven't you seen Something About Mary?

Edited May 3, 2013 by mmark27

[jd777]

I'm using a SG3 with SignalCheck Pro. The phone does switch over to LTE on it's own without toggling airplane mode... usually. After I lost the signal behind the ridge it did not reconnect even when I could see the tower. Toggling airplane mode caused the phone to immediately switch to LTE.

 

SignalCheck plays a happy little tune whenever the phone switches to LTE. It surprised the heck out of me the first time it happened

[mr.phoneguy]

 

 

nothing like a bunch of dudes meeting at a rest stop.

 

Haven't you seen Something About Mary?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Lmfao!!

[mr.phoneguy]

 

 

nothing like a bunch of dudes meeting at a rest stop.

 

Haven't you seen Something About Mary?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Maybe there would be a truckers shower room too. I hear the showers get the best reception! Lol

[jreuschl]

Normally a meetup spot would be a bar or something but.. better to be outdoors to get signal

[johnathonb]

Hey, first post here but have been following this thread for awhile now..

 

Last night I was with my girl friend and she has the Photon 4G and it showed 4G on the Eastside of Milwaukee last night. I have the iPhone 5, and didn't show LTE so I take it the 4G she was receiving wasn't LTE.

 

Just thought I'd share that information, she was loading everything fast and my 3G download speeds still are terrible and unusable.

[jreuschl]

Last night I was with my girl friend and she has the Photon 4G and it showed 4G on the Eastside of Milwaukee last night. I have the iPhone 5, and didn't show LTE so I take it the 4G she was receiving wasn't LTE.

 

Just thought I'd share that information, she was loading everything fast and my 3G download speeds still are terrible and unusable.

 

The Photon is 4G WiMAX, not LTE. There are a couple of WiMAX towers in Madison for licensing reasons only. They've been up for a couple of years now. There are also a couple in Milwaukee.

[mr.phoneguy]

Hey, first post here but have been following this thread for awhile now..

 

Last night I was with my girl friend and she has the Photon 4G and it showed 4G on the Eastside of Milwaukee last night. I have the iPhone 5, and didn't show LTE so I take it the 4G she was receiving wasn't LTE.

 

Just thought I'd share that information, she was loading everything fast and my 3G download speeds still are terrible and unusable.

The photon 4g is connected to wimax data. Wimax is Sprint's original 4g network and is only available on certain wimax capable phones. Your iphone does not have wimax capability's due to Sprint decision to stop building out the Wimax network in favor of useing LTE as the preferred 4g data service. Milwaukee and other cities have un-finished wimax network build out's, which are only available in small area's of certain cities.

 

At some point, Wimax will not be operational for sprint customers whom already own a wimax phone. Also, Sprint no longer sells Wimax phones at thier retail or 3rd party stores (radio shack, Best buy, ect) Amazon and Ebay still sells Wimax phones. but with the rapid deployment of LTE, it would be pointless and waste your money buying one, unless you need one for a broken phone replacement to tide you over until you can use an upgrade for an LTE phone.

Edited May 3, 2013 by mr.phoneguy

[mmark27]

I can't tell you how excited this makes me:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/60396219/Untitled-1.gif

 

Great job on mapping guys! I'll be down that way over the weekend, and I'll get more purple on there! Excited to see Stoughton Rd. up further into Madison get some purple too!

[mr.phoneguy]

The evo 4G LTE is notorious for not locking on to isolated LTE sites.

Know of any stock program that will force the evo into discovery mode?

[supert0nes]

Know of any stock program that will force the evo into discovery mode?

 

Flipping in and out of airplane mode or the lte discovery app floating around these forums.

[supert0nes]

The EVO LTE has more issues than just isolated LTE sites. It has a limited range compared to other phones as well.

[tommym65]

 

Know of any stock program that will force the evo into discovery mode?

 

Signal Check Pro written by an active S4GRU member has a "Reset" button and works really well for discovering LTE. It also displays a lot of interesting information.

[Jswets]

The EVO LTE has more issues than just isolated LTE sites. It has a limited range compared to other phones as well.

 

I went to Florida in late march and had nothing but issues trying to connect to LTE with my EVO. Couldn't hold a signal to save my life.

[mr.phoneguy]

I went to Florida in late march and had nothing but issues trying to connect to LTE with my EVO. Couldn't hold a signal to save my life.

I will notice the signal bars will always fluctuate drastically, even while sitting in one spot. Just thought i was the network

[Jswets]

 

I will notice the signal bars will always fluctuate drastically, even while sitting in one spot. Just thought i was the network

 

Yup. That's the EVO for you.

[Calvin200]

Yup. That's the EVO for you.

Well the Evo LTE is what I have to replace my Evo WiMax until a triband comes around. Just got the LTE free a few days ago. I'll wait.

[mr.phoneguy]

Anyone in the Madison area plan on driving around town this weekend mapping out more LTE goodness? I hope more sites come online in the coming days/weeks.