Network Vision/LTE - Milwaukee Market (including Madison)

[aackmann]

On my drive to work saw work being done on the new Berlin water tower off of 43 and moorland. Looked like panels were being installed not sure if this is new news or not, or if its nv or not.

 

HEY HEY! That definitely IS news. I think Sprint is the only carrier using that water tower, and there were NO NV panels on there last time I checked a week or so ago. That's awesome news! That's like one of the last few towers in the Western Milwaukee/Waukesha area that hadn't been touched yet. 

 

I hope all those rumblings about Milwaukee market and the end of November are right! I can't wait to see some more action around here.

[mmark27]

Oh MY SO MUCH GREEN!!!!!! 

 

If you're not a sponsor, you're missing the pretty colors. 

[jreuschl]

Oh MY SO MUCH GREEN!!!!!! 

 

If you're not a sponsor, you're missing the pretty colors. 

 

Yeah yeah, that Madison stuff.  lol

[smalltimehack]

So with all those pretty colors how are the G2 and the N5 doing out there? Anyone have one to test out?

[grumpwagon]

Oh MY SO MUCH GREEN!!!!!! 

 

If you're not a sponsor, you're missing the pretty colors. 

 

Yeah, now we just have downtown and a few stragglers left. Great to see all this progress!

 

 

So with all those pretty colors how are the G2 and the N5 doing out there? Anyone have one to test out?

 

I'm curious about this too. I've narrowed down my next phone choice to one of those two now (waiting for Anandtech's N5 review to finalize my decision). I've heard they both do pretty well, reception wise, but it would be interesting to hear local impressions. They both seem really nice. Seems like the choice will come down to Battery & Camera Vs. Stock Android/fast updates & better materials.

[Polo8403]

HEY HEY! That definitely IS news. I think Sprint is the only carrier using that water tower, and there were NO NV panels on there last time I checked a week or so ago. That's awesome news! That's like one of the last few towers in the Western Milwaukee/Waukesha area that hadn't been touched yet.

 

I hope all those rumblings about Milwaukee market and the end of November are right! I can't wait to see some more action around here.

I'm thinking that I'm seeing things, but I got some 4G action on the Northside of Milwaukee. I'm gonna have to download the required apps (if someone can help me with a list, you would rock). I'm going to upload the speedtest pics now.

Edited November 20, 2013 by Polo8403

[mmark27]

I'm thinking that I'm seeing things, but I got some 4G action on the Northside of Milwaukee. I'm gonna have to download the required apps (if someone can help me with a list, you would rock). I'm going to upload the speedtest pics now.

 

That's the highest ringtone volume I've ever seen on 4G  

[jreuschl]

I'm thinking that I'm seeing things, but I got some 4G action on the Northside of Milwaukee. I'm gonna have to download the required apps (if someone can help me with a list, you would rock). I'm going to upload the speedtest pics now.

 

You could be getting signal from the Shorewood tower or one of the two towers in Milwaukee that are active on the north side vs. a new one

[ThomasM]

If you are connected to 800, signal check will show that.

 

Connecting to a site 6 miles away is not unreasonable, even on PCS 1x. That's a perfectly normal range for that frequency.

 

I don't know about CDMA but when I worked at Nextel I had all kinds of fun editing the equivalent of a PRL only in this case it was a frequency list the phone used to scan for a signal when it was turned on.

 

I could regularly "fool" the phone and connect to sites 15-20 miles away and even make calls on them!!  This, of course, was iDEN 800 and Nextel had much higher (and better) sites than Sprint seems to.....

[mmark27]

There's a penske box truck back at my tower this am. Clean up crew? 2600 crew? Or different carrier work? One of the Madison crews were using a penske box truck for Sprint work.

 

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The crew was the clean up crew. All of the legacy equipment is now removed, the network vision antennas look so lonely up there. So if you see a Penske box truck around any tower in Madison, they're the clean up crew.

 

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[kb122]

Big hidden water tower in Sussex is broadcasting 800 this morning, also one near Goetz's Driving Range... indicated by SignalCheck (it was flipping between those two towers).

[napali]

HEY HEY! That definitely IS news. I think Sprint is the only carrier using that water tower, and there were NO NV panels on there last time I checked a week or so ago. That's awesome news! That's like one of the last few towers in the Western Milwaukee/Waukesha area that hadn't been touched yet. 

 

I hope all those rumblings about Milwaukee market and the end of November are right! I can't wait to see some more action around here.

I can confirm as of this morning this is new and NV is up on the tower sides. That part of the tower neck has been empty forever and the new NV antenna are now there. This is (almost) the last piece of the puzzle for the southwest corner of Waukesha County and I am surprised it took as long as it did. Based on it's location, this will probably be one of the most used towers in the area and it sat dry for so long. I spent some time around the tower today and the 3g service was not as good as it had been in the past. This was a solid 1-1.5m tower for a year or 2 now and it was quite a bit slower today. I saw someone heading into work on it today as a truck was unlocking the gate to the entrance road of the tower. If anyone is familiar with this tower, it is buried on a long (closed) back road and has zero accessibility by the public, probably one of the only ones I know that you cannot actually see the bottom of the tower from any vantage point except a quick glance getting on 1-43 heading east.

 

My home tower (as I have written before about) is a lost cause at this point. This is the one I have been waiting for (Big Bend/ Vernon off of Cheri Drive and 164) and the latest update from the Town of Vernon (last week)  is that Sprint has still not presented a acceptable upgrade plan to Waukesha County for them to give approval. I am doubting this is Waukesha's issue as other sites have been approved.... I also think a tower on top of High power lines can create an additional delay based on what I have heard..

So... we wait and hope things start switching on SOON...

 

Can Anybody in Mukwonago confirm that NV is on the I-43 tower out there? I know I found approval from the City way back in Dec 2012 for the upgrade, but I don't get out there enough to check it out... Any Help???? 

[kallistos]

No idea! My only guess would be they're waiting for the 5 downtown most towers to all go at once. The only 5 remaining. 3/5 have NV equipment as of a couple weeks ago.

 

Actually, you're a sponsor so could you look up the addresses of the two towers downtown nearest the Capitol and go see of they have NV equipment on them? Follow the links in my signatures for the sites and pictures of what to look for. One is off Henry, big apt building. The other is a small apartment building with the legacy equipment visible last I checked 3 weeks ago before these acceptances started to happen. Just off East Wash behind that new huge apt building. Really wish Sprint would relocate towers to some higher positions.

 

Wasn't sure if you could go over to them quick since you're more in that area than I am. I can't make it during day light any more.

 

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I'll try to check it out next Monday

[andyp]

 This was a solid 1-1.5m tower for a year or 2 now and it was quite a bit slower today.

 

wow! i have been driving past this tower for 3 months not and every time im on it have never gotten more than .06m down. or anywhere in Milwaukee.

[napali]

wow! i have been driving past this tower for 3 months not and every time im on it have never gotten more than .06m down. or anywhere in Milwaukee.

My experience with the speed of that tower has been sitting in the Target parking lot or in the local area sitting in one spot. I don't check speeds while driving. I mostly stay off viewing my phone while moving, I find it to be an unsafe practice. Also, I have gotten the best speeds with my newer Samsung g4, didn't always see over 1mg with my previous phones....   

[andyp]

driving, sitting, standing, walking, eating, drinking, jumping, facebooking, any verb really. my speeds are always .05m the most.

 

does anyone know he said that the g4 has decent speeds has anyone else had that success? and what makes the g4 special to get these speeds?

[jreuschl]

I had a 2.1 mbps speed test by I-894 and Greenfield on a Sunday morning.  Not much network traffic I'm sure, but that was before any NV work started.  I also just did a test here in Delafield and received 1.93mbps and no NV work has happened.

[dequardo]

The phone model will make virtually no difference in DL or UL speeds. The network is the problem.

[napali]

driving, sitting, standing, walking, eating, drinking, jumping, facebooking, any verb really. my speeds are always .05m the most.

 

does anyone know he said that the g4 has decent speeds has anyone else had that success? and what makes the g4 special to get these speeds?

If you don't think driving bay a tower at 65mph and sitting still make a difference in what speeds you may get, you have not been paying attention to your phone. The 3g in that area of New Berlin has been faster then just about any surrounding area 3g towers, but clearly better when not moving as would be the same for just about anywhere. I don't get down below 124th much, but like I have had said many times, I would have changed carriers a long time ago if I had to deal with the nearly non-existent speeds in the General Southern Milwaukee County area. Southern Waukesha county has always had decent 3g, mostly because I assume there are far fewer users per tower then say a City like West Allis. I was comparing a EVO 4g to the Samsung S4 and the speeds have been almost always better where I spend the majority of my time.

[Jswets]

So is the general consensus that the market needs to be complete before throwing the switch on 800LTE? What timeframe are you guys predicting for our market to be done?

[napali]

So is the general consensus that the market needs to be complete before throwing the switch on 800LTE? What timeframe are you guys predicting for our market to be done?

The closest real information I have is from a Samsung Programmer that was at the Muskego( Racine Ave) water tower about 2 weeks ago. He told me twice to look at the end of November. That was in response to the direct question of when the tower was going to be lit with 4g... so take it for what its worth, but at least it come from somebody who may have some knowledge in the matter...

[jreuschl]

So is the general consensus that the market needs to be complete before throwing the switch on 800LTE? What timeframe are you guys predicting for our market to be done?

 

From reading other posts, it sounds like 800 LTE would be turned on only in clusters, not one at a time.

[Taxman]

Big hidden water tower in Sussex is broadcasting 800 this morning, also one near Goetz's Driving Range... indicated by SignalCheck (it was flipping between those two towers).

 

Haha I was in Merton when that happened! I was at a client's location and heard SignalCheck go off and was like "what the hell?" Saw the 1x800 and did a couple fist pumps.

[smalltimehack]

800 has to be on in racine and just not showing on the app. I have never seen my voice signal be so low decibel wise. - 59 the whole time I was at the gym and I'm prolly close to a mile away from the tower. Just let it show in the app already!

[jd777]

1x800 is voice only. 800 LTE is a was away yet. I suspect Sprint will wait until a significant number of tri band phones are on the street. In the meantime many existing customers will benefit from the 1x800 voice.

 

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