Network Vision/LTE - Milwaukee Market (including Madison)

[Jswets]

I have still been doing sensorly with the LTE discovery app on my 21 mile route to work every morning. Nothing new to report and its been almost 2 months. Does it seem like there are only a few crews working in our market? At the current pace we will be lucky to get LTE by late this year in the MKE Metro Area.

[dequardo]

Call me jaded but since Sprint will not provide even soft date committals take any timeframes with huge dosages of salt. When I commiserated with the store rep about the horrible data service on 3G when I returned my phone, I got the sense their return rate had skyrocketed. He also said they are pulling off the Nextel antennas, etc. and that this was degrading the bandwidth even more.

 

Dies this make sense ?

[tommym65]

Call me jaded but since Sprint will not provide even soft date committals take any timeframes with huge dosages of salt. When I commiserated with the store rep about the horrible data service on 3G when I returned my phone, I got the sense their return rate had skyrocketed. He also said they are pulling off the Nextel antennas, etc. and that this was degrading the bandwidth even more.

 

Does this make sense ?

 

No, because Nextel is on a totally different frequency (800 Mhz) than Sprint 3g (1900 Mhz). What you will see is Sprint 800 SMR turning on in the Milwaukee market after the Nextel decommissioning (from July 1 on), and dramatic improvements in voice & text.  This has certainly happened in the Chicago market, which has been able to convert excess Nextel 800 Mhz capacity to 1x800 service even in advance of the Nextel shutdown.

 

For example, driving back to Crystal Lake from Milwaukee just a few minutes ago, I picked up 1x800 in Richmond IL (literally at the Cheddar Curtain sorry, Wisconsin state line), and carried a conference call entirely on 1x800 all the way from there to south of McHenry IL (about 15 miles with widely spaced towers) without any static, no drops, no hiccups in voice quality, in short, with perfect reception for the whole distance.  This would have been unlikely or impossible 3 or 4 months ago when only 1900 Mhz 1xRTT was available.

 

(Thanks to SignalCheck Pro for watching the connection for me!)

[mitch10102000]

Last night at my home in Cottage Grove, WI (near Madison), I noticed LTE pop up on my phone.  It was off and on (probably doing some testing), but it was definitely there.  Signal was between -110 and -116, so I wasn't super close to the tower.  I was able to obtain this tower information: 

 

MCC - 310

MNC - 120

Cell 191 Band 25

UL Ch: 26665 DL Ch: 8665

 

My location in Cottage Grove was just off the interstate by the Kwik Trip gas station on Hwy N.  My speeds were only around 3 Mbit/sec download and 2 Mbit/sec upload, but I imagine that will change if they have backhaul work to do yet.

[mmark27]

I'm out in San Francisco now and there's LTE everywhere! But the speeds are not great. Hoping to see Wisconsin improvements when I return!

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[dequardo]

Bad sign if LTE speeds are already not great in mature markets.

[mangurt]

Last night at my home in Cottage Grove, WI (near Madison), I noticed LTE pop up on my phone.  It was off and on (probably doing some testing), but it was definitely there.  Signal was between -110 and -116, so I wasn't super close to the tower.  I was able to obtain this tower information: 

 

MCC - 310

MNC - 120

Cell 191 Band 25

UL Ch: 26665 DL Ch: 8665

 

My location in Cottage Grove was just off the interstate by the Kwik Trip gas station on Hwy N.  My speeds were only around 3 Mbit/sec download and 2 Mbit/sec upload, but I imagine that will change if they have backhaul work to do yet.

That portion was already marked on Sensorly.  I believe the tower is on the North side of I-94.

[mmark27]

The speeds in San Francisco are widely variable. You can see that my LTE signal is -108 and I am indoors. However, data is actual usable, which differs from Sprint's 3G. I have done outdoor tests and it's not really any better.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[mitch10102000]

That portion was already marked on Sensorly.  I believe the tower is on the North side of I-94.

It could be the same tower, but what I'm seeing on Sensorly is over by I-94 and Highway 73.  I'm seeing -90 db when I walk around outside where Hwy N and I-94 are (that's a pretty good signal from that distance).  I did a drive-around in my area with Sensorly's "Map Trip", but I still don't see the data on the map.  I've always had problems with Sensorly posting my data (not sure what the problem is).

[smalltimehack]

^ it can take a day or two for the data to show up on their maps and I've noticed sometimes you have to scroll in really close for it to show up. It doesn't always load what's there.

[waoonetwork]

In the early development down in Chicago like we are in. The network was unstable as far as speed and kept switching between 3G and 4G LTE. I was down there a month ago and everything as drastically improved. The network doesn't keep switching between 3G and 4G LTE. The speeds are consistent now as well. I'm sure there will be a bumpy ride at first but it will get better in Milwaukee and Madison as they fine tune everything for the location of the towers.

[WhosTylerLeis]

I'm traveling across the country, we left from ohare... I'm gonna say.. Absolutely amazing LTE and speed. Would have run speed tests but I was in the airport. Vancouver, BC on the other hand... 0 service at all on my iPhone. Does anyone know how service in Alaska is?

[Calvin200]

On Skokie in Northbrook, Illinois LTE definitely faster, but not amazing.  Sensory has it light purple but phone was struggling to make it to 5MB.  Is this what we have to look forward to once Milwaukee is complete?  Lacklusture?!

[aackmann]

A tower got marked 4g complete on Sherman Blvd and Silver Spring near or in Glendale! I'm gonna go drive past that sucker tonight and rejoice, I mean, see if it really is broadcasting LTE.

[drreif]

That was me at around six tonight. I drove around and mapped it, hopefully the start of the city.

[smalltimehack]

Any speed tests from that tower? Curious if it was a test run or if they're actively broadcasting.

Any other updates? It got kinda quiet.

[Schikka]

Is Sheboygan part of Milwaukee market or the Northern Wisconsin market?

[Jeffas332]

Is Sheboygan part of Milwaukee market or the Northern Wisconsin market?

 

Sheboygan is part of the North Wisconsin market. It's pretty much on the boarder of the North Wisconsin and Milwaukee market border line.

[aackmann]

Any speed tests from that tower? Curious if it was a test run or if they're actively broadcasting.

Any other updates? It got kinda quiet.

 

 

 

http://postimg.org/image/ybc7jzycr/

 

 

When I first showed up to the tower, I couldn't get any LTE signal. I was running the LTE discovery app so it was cycling airplane mode on and off. I did that for about 15 min. Then I drove around the site to the north of it, then all of the sudden I grabbed an LTE signal. It was from that tower because in signal check pro, the LTE signal was very strong. Then I ran a bunch of speed test as I drove around the blocks near there mapping it on sensorly. 

[drreif]

My co-workers were getting 20 down and about 6-8 up on GS3's. On my Torque I was getting 25 down and same uploads.

[aackmann]

My co-workers were getting 20 down and about 6-8 up on GS3's. On my Torque I was getting 25 down and same uploads.

 

 

Yea, I had some real good speeds in there, but it seemed to vary pretty widely from test to test as you can see from my screen shot. Given, I was driving around (slowly) while I was taking those tests... It's still very early in the rollout in this area though, so I'm sure it will get even better as more towers around it come online.

[smalltimehack]

Those are some pretty good speeds for it being a fresh tower. Seems to be the trend with sprint that they start it up with slow speeds til they get everything tuned in the right way. Thanks for the reply and speed test data.

[jreuschl]

http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/17/sprint-launches-lte-in-22-new-cities/

 

Sprint today announced Fond du Lac as being officially launched and Fort Atkinson and Watertown being "soon"

[waoonetwork]

LTE live on I94 for 4 miles between Waukesha, wi and Delafield, wi. Also I got a blimp pop up in Oconomowoc, wi. I'll post speed test results later.

[dequardo]

NFW! I can't believe it. Woohoo, please post more. Thanks