Network Vision/LTE - Milwaukee Market (including Madison)

[mmark27]

I checked out 4 towers this AM in Madison -> 2 for 4 on action.  

 

One downtown on the near west of the Capitol does not appear to have any work, however, it does have the room for the NV panels now.  The other that is a bust was the one nearest east of the Capitol just off East Wash.  It's a small apartment building that appears to only have legacy panels visible.

 

This one is downtown on Baldwin Street in Madison. Second RRU is edge on in this view, they're up there though. 

 

 

The water tower in Monona.......

Guys just started Sprint work. So nothing in view, however, I talked with them briefly and they said they were putting up Sprint antennas today.  The Fiber is already run into this site they say. Wasn't able to get any pictures of the boxes. Perhaps someone can go back later and take shots?  There are a lot of Ericsson boxes on this tower in all locations most likely for VZW setup.

 

[mmark27]

Other towers someone still needs to get pictures of include:

 

EAST MADISON the one on Buckeye past the interstate as well as the one behind Super Walmart on South Towne drive. 

WEST MADISON the one on the catholic school by Gammon and Sauk, Pleasant View GC entrance, Hilldale (was just there two weekends ago and there was no work on it yet).

 

I'll attempt to fabricate reasons to drive those routes, but don't get out there enough. I'm keeping a daily eye on West Wash, Fish Hatch and the Beltline and of course, Home Tree....the last remaining Fitchburg tower.

[mangurt]

I drove around the west side/near west side today.  Nothing being done, no increase in signal, so it looks like no luck on the west side.  I'm rather shocked that Sprint did not fire up the tower on Tokay Blvd.  That one has been done for awhile now, and still nothing.

[mmark27]

I drove around the west side/near west side today.  Nothing being done, no increase in signal, so it looks like no luck on the west side.  I'm rather shocked that Sprint did not fire up the tower on Tokay Blvd.  That one has been done for awhile now, and still nothing.

 

I mapped out a few more blips of LTE along High Point Rd.  When I came to the top of the hill where the water tower was, my phone lit up into LTE.  The engineering screen said that it was a different tower than the Middleton one, perhaps it was the High Point Tower testing?  I also was able to pull blips of LTE on the eastside, then again along East Wash.  It'll happen one of these days.  When I spoke to the guys this AM, I was just yelling up to them on the cherry picker, ha. If they were on the ground, I would have asked more questions about other towers.

 

So did you check out the aforementioned towers in my post on the West Side?  Did you take any pictures?

[mangurt]

I did not take any pictures (I was driving around for work).  I did not get out to High Point road today.  I will be out that way tomorrow and can check my phone then.  There was nothing going on in the Hilldale area (I was at the radio shack on University and had horrible 1x signal (which switched to roaming).  Verona road and 12/18 has nothing for a signal (still), and the signal is still horrible in the research park area.  I was on the East side of Madison yesterday (the sprint store) and I was still roaming there.

[andyp]

The sense of entitlement is a bit unnecessary. You're not the only one that has issues. If you are given a g2 at the price you expect it for I will pay you back for it. Working in a store I've never seen anything remotely close to that happen. The furthest upgrade I've seen was a s2 to a s3 only because someone messed up their working and they had to honor it.

It may be stated it will ship then, my personal experience with device release is the employees aren't told officially until a week before.

And correct again on the premier program. Everything is subsidy or one up now. No in between.

 

i have seen it before. i know several people who have gone into the store and gotten the new phone with out the new contract for the resigning price. Im not planning on staying with sprint if the service doesn't improve but feel that i should be equipped for when and if it happens. In addition sprint's retention department is trying to keep people. I want them to keep me, this is what they can do to keep me.

 

and yes i realize we are all in this together and im not the only one with issues. most people that go to the store dont generally go there complaining about the service. the few people that are on the forum are the people that care enough about it.

 

not trying sound like i am complaining its just how i feel.

[smalltimehack]

More power to you if you get what you want. I don't see it happening but I've been wrong before.

[jreuschl]

Ok, let's get back on topic here!

 

I did notice that at least as of Sat night, the LTE-approved tower at WI-60 and US-41 was not broadcasting LTE, and the nearby 800 approved towers were not broadcasting 800.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[mmark27]

Blanked again on the Acceptance reports from last night! Unfortunately, the new in progress sites didn't make the map either.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

 

[mr.phoneguy]

Blanked again on the Acceptance reports from last night! Unfortunately, the new in progress sites didn't make the map either.

Anyone else getting bored with network vision rollout? It's so friggin slow I almost don't care anymore.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

[mangurt]

I was surprised last night when I was driving on East Washington and my phone flipped over to LTE by Ella's Deli.  I had the signal for a few seconds, but that is at least promising.  The signal the rest of the way out of Madison on East Washington was normal though (no signal).  Hopefully that is a sign that the towers are being worked on and Sprint my actually flip the switch soon.

[mmark27]

Anyone else getting bored with network vision rollout? It's so friggin slow I almost don't care anymore.

Things are happening, towers are being worked on. It's coming.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

 

[aarofloyd]

Blanked again on the Acceptance reports from last night! Unfortunately, the new in progress sites didn't make the map either.

 

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

the one at badger interchange made it...that one definitely wasnt there before and was one of the ones i reported.

[mangurt]

The 3g signal is way better this morning on the west side of Madison.  I know that really does not matter for LTE, but maybe Sprint is ramping up the testing.

[mmark27]

The 3g signal is way better this morning on the west side of Madison.  I know that really does not matter for LTE, but maybe Sprint is ramping up the testing.

 

Well, yes and no.  What are you getting for speed tests?  If you're getting over 1-2 mbps down and 500+ kbps up, then that's an improvement and it usually accompanies sites that are now close.  However, last time I was at Don Miller Dodge over a month ago, right next to the Tokay tower, I was pulling 2mbps+ downloads from that tower on eHRPD 3Geez.  I was out that way over the weekend and wasn't getting that, so perhaps an improvement is a good sign???

[kb122]

Ok, let's get back on topic here! I did notice that at least as of Sat night, the LTE-approved tower at WI-60 and US-41 was not broadcasting LTE, and the nearby 800 approved towers were not broadcasting 800. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

I was in Hartford on Saturday night, right off of 60 near Pike Lake, and was getting occasional 800 and low signal but usable LTE.  I've never had good signal there, data usually dropped to 1X with 0-1 bars.  LTE got stronger the closer I got to downtown Hartford, but I think I lost 800.  Maybe was the tower on 83, but I don't know for sure.  Main purpose out there wasn't looking for Sprint signal, so I didn't look at my phone very often

[norsairius]

Not too many updates to offer in downtown Milwaukee-land. Signal is about the same as it was last week - not too good. My phone flips to 1x more often and stays there longer, if not for most of the day, when I actually got an indicated 3G most of the day a couple weeks ago. Granted, response times (ping) and speeds were hardly usable. I can barely grab emails as it is. My battery just gets killed every day with the weak signal. Bringing my charger cable to work with me has become a regular habit.

 

I wonder if that's because of more work going on or if there's just more subscribers hitting the network. In any case, it doesn't look good here. Speed Tests aren't even worth attempting right now. My hope is that work will receive more priority around here given the state of the service quality. Alternatively, I hope a lot of the work is done and the towers are just waiting to be turned on.

 

That rumored October time frame for this area is closing quickly as we'll be hitting November next week.

 

I'm not trying to sound like a complainer, but these are just the facts. The network isn't that usable downtown and hasn't been for the most part since I joined Sprint last year.

[dequardo]

Sad fact is you could back date these posts one year and they would be close to current. Yes I realize some LTE has rolled out. Big picture is it's 4th quarter 2013 and there is little to no confidence the Milwaukee area will be officially announced.

[mmark27]

Sad fact is you could back date these posts one year and they would be close to current. Yes I realize some LTE has rolled out. Big picture is it's 4th quarter 2013 and there is little to no confidence the Milwaukee area will be officially announced.

 

Yes, however, persons in Milwaukee could be helping to instill some confidence in movement if they were hunting and photographing towers.  Instead of just saying "there's no LTE and therefore no work".  There are very few towers in Madison that are not being worked on or having NV equipment installed. You'd probably find the same if there was more effort in MKE.

[mangurt]

Well, yes and no.  What are you getting for speed tests?  If you're getting over 1-2 mbps down and 500+ kbps up, then that's an improvement and it usually accompanies sites that are now close.  However, last time I was at Don Miller Dodge over a month ago, right next to the Tokay tower, I was pulling 2mbps+ downloads from that tower on eHRPD 3Geez.  I was out that way over the weekend and wasn't getting that, so perhaps an improvement is a good sign???

I got 2.5 mbps down and 1 mbps up this morning.  Now that more people are on the network, it's back to 0.75 mbps down and 0.07 mbps up.  This makes me a said panda

[jreuschl]

I was in Hartford on Saturday night, right off of 60 near Pike Lake, and was getting occasional 800 and low signal but usable LTE.  I've never had good signal there, data usually dropped to 1X with 0-1 bars.  LTE got stronger the closer I got to downtown Hartford, but I think I lost 800.  Maybe was the tower on 83, but I don't know for sure.  Main purpose out there wasn't looking for Sprint signal, so I didn't look at my phone very often

 

I did have a little faint LTE there.  According to the accepted site report, LTE should be strong there from a nearby tower.  You may have been pulling in another LTE signal.

[aackmann]

Yes, however, persons in Milwaukee could be helping to instill some confidence in movement if they were hunting and photographing towers.  Instead of just saying "there's no LTE and therefore no work".  There are very few towers in Madison that are not being worked on or having NV equipment installed. You'd probably find the same if there was more effort in MKE.

 

 

I've been out hunting the whole time man. It doesn't pay to take pictures anymore because most of the towers in my area have NV panels up already. So we're all waiting for an unseen delay at this point.

 

My tower on 92nd and Beloit has all of it's panels replaced. I see all the old panels are off and all new ones are up. Most of the panels have both RRU's sitting behind them, but there are a couple that only have one RRU behind them, and the ropes are still hanging from the rack, so I'm guessing they still have a couple to mount. After that, it should be ready to go. Fiber and new cabinet has been in place for a while now. 

 

I don't know what they're waiting for. The contractor I talked to said they turn on LTE in "clusters", but that doesn't seem to be the case for the Milwaukee area's existing LTE towers. So far the towers that are broadcasting LTE aren't in any kind of "cluster", they're kind of spread out. So I don't know if I really believe the cluster theory. I just can't wait to see some more action around here. It looks like literally every tower outside of the Milwaukee/Waukesha area has had at least one upgrade (3g, 800, or LTE). So they've essentially "worked their way in" and all that's left is the actual Milwaukee/Waukesha areas. 

[mmark27]

I've been out hunting the whole time man. It doesn't pay to take pictures anymore because most of the towers in my area have NV panels up already. So we're all waiting for an unseen delay at this point.

 

yes I know you've been hunting, sorry didn't mean to lump everyone together. I just get tired of the complaining from some without any real contributions to the rest of us or site (not meaning financially).  Okay, back on topic.

 

I agree with rebuking that cluster theory.  The tower here in Madison by the airport just got accepted and its live.....it certainly hits the urban area.  I think that the best reason I've heard is from lilotimz on another thread about the "Winter Push" where they're not spending time getting towers accepted because that takes more man hours, instead they are just busting arse on as many towers as possible before the freeze.  Then go back and work on acceptance checks, testing and paperwork.  For that I'm okay with if true! (And if they come online before the Spring...)

[aackmann]

yes I know you've been hunting, sorry didn't mean to lump everyone together. I just get tired of the complaining from some without any real contributions to the rest of us or site (not meaning financially).  Okay, back on topic.

 

I agree with rebuking that cluster theory.  The tower here in Madison by the airport just got accepted and its live.....it certainly hits the urban area.  I think that the best reason I've heard is from lilotimz on another thread about the "Winter Push" where they're not spending time getting towers accepted because that takes more man hours, instead they are just busting arse on as many towers as possible before the freeze.  Then go back and work on acceptance checks, testing and paperwork.  For that I'm okay with if true! (And if they come online before the Spring...)

 

Haha, I wasn't offended  We all know that things are getting done, people are just getting antsy not being able to "see" progress (i.e. sites being accepted). I'm fully expecting that at some point, Milwaukee/Waukesha will start seeing big numbers of sites accepted every week. It's just painful to wait for that time to come. Although I am encouraged by all the NV panels I see everywhere. 

 

 

The only 2-3 sites that I haven't seen any NV panels on are...

124th & Beloit

Moorland and i43

Cleveland & Calhoun

(general areas)

 

I know 124th & Beloit had Fiber run to it a couple months ago. If I take the right route home from work today, I can drive past all 3 and check em out today.

[smalltimehack]

I'm surprised we have no accepted sites today. I have a weird feeling we'll be 4g launched soon. A few weeks ago I saw numbers that we were at 24% completion. With all of the outskirts West of 94 done now I'd think we're nearly accepted as a 4g market