Chicago and Boston LTE discoverable on Sept 21

[abepilot]

 

I connected to LTE for the first time driving on NW highway through palatine on my way to Lake Barrington. The connection was solid. I did many speed tests. The average was around 7 mbps down and 6 mbps up. Latency between 40-60ms. I have a Galaxy Nexus LTE and the 4G indicator had full bars.

Edited September 17, 2012 by abepilot

[StephanStengel]

 

I connected to LTE for the first time driving on NW highway through palatine on my way to Lake Barrington. The connection was solid. I did many speed tests. The average was around 7 mbps down and 6 mbps up. Latency between 40-60ms. I have a Galaxy Nexus LTE and the 4G indicator had full bars.

 

sweet...i live in palatine, just off NW Hwy, and my EVO LTE arrives tomorrow!

[abepilot]

sweet...i live in palatine, just off NW Hwy, and my EVO LTE arrives tomorrow!

 

FYI. It basically starts at NW highway and 59. I played golf in Lake Barrington and I had a consistent 4G signal. I actually downloaded you tube videos, checked email, placed a few phone calls, and conducted a video Google Hangout with my wife who was at work on Wi-Fi. Crystal clear video. This of course was after my round of golf! I also noticed that when connected to Sprint LTE my battery did not drain while using my golf GPS app. Charge went from 100% after disconnection from my car down to 63% 4 hours later. Amazing!

[akm1104]

I captured this at the corner of Lake cook rd and Wilmot rd in Deerfield.

[akm1104]

Corner of Lake cook rd and Wilmot rd in Deerfield

[S4GRU]

Corner of Lake cook rd and Wilmot rd in Deerfield

 

Likely from the site at Lake Cook Road and Discover Way, just to the west of there. Right behind the Holiday Inn Express. You can see this site, and other completed sites in our NV Sites Completed thread that gets updated every week. It's located in our Sponsor section. For more info about becoming a S4GRU Sponsor, you can visit this thread: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1195-information-about-s4gru-sponsorship-levels-and-how-to-become-a-sponsor/

 

Robert

[nomad64]

Awesomesauce...pure awesomesauce!

 

I haven't been in the northern IL area for a while, but I live right down the street from a 3G/4G tower. Another 3G/4G tower is right where I spend a lot of other time (shopping, gym, food, movies). Super excited!

[akm1104]

Is the rest of Deerfield getting turned on Friday?

[jkess]

Just wanted to add my two cents...I'm in Round Lake Beach (~10 mi west of Waukegan). My phone is acting strange...I can connect to LTE when I turn my phone on, and keep a signal for approximately 45-60 seconds once it's locked. I ran a speedtest and was getting ~2-2.5 Mbps down. The strange part is that I drop the connection and switch to 3G after that time. This has been over the last few nights ~10pm-12am. I just tried it again, and I am not even getting the 4G connection. On top of that, it's taking ~2-3 minutes to connect to 3G from a fresh reboot in current hours.

 

I'm sure this will be resolved soon, Sprint is doing everything they can to keep me on...

[shockerengr]

And you probably really had zero bars of LTE. Either two signal strength indicators is needed or they should have it switch to read LTE signal strength when a LTE connection is made.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

Long term once NV is complete it will be less of an issue though since all the towers will have LTE, it'll be less likely to be grabbing a remote LTE and nearby 1x....at least that might be some of the reasoning. In general, it's worked well for 1x and EVDO

[Tiger]

I also live in RLB, but I can say I have not gotten a 4G signal yet here on my EVO. I have picked 4G up in other places for short periods of time but then it is gone when I drive back through. I have been out to Waukegan a few times and can say they are getting it all the time now. I think we will find out on Friday the 21st.....

[S4GRU]

 

Long term once NV is complete it will be less of an issue though since all the towers will have LTE' date=' it'll be less likely to be grabbing a remote LTE and nearby 1x....at least that might be some of the reasoning. In general, it's worked well for 1x and EVDO[/quote']

 

The issue will become less and less over time. But will always be an issue at the edge of service, in the area where LTE starts to peter out but 1x is still going strong. LTE will drop off around -93dBm RSSI but 1x will go out to -106dBm from the same site. Much different coverage between LTE and 1x.

 

So even in a fully deployed area, you are still going to have people with mid range 1x signal with the 4G icon showing, but an extremely weak LTE signal being received. And they will be thinking they have a mid range LTE signal and only getting 1Mbps. They will think something is wrong with Sprint's LTE. And if they have 800 CDMA, but 1900 LTE, they may even have full bars showing when this occurs, even in a fully deployed NV network.

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

[Kevster1321]

I'm just going to be happy when they turn on 800mhz 1x in Boston market so i can keep a phone call.

[jamesinclair]

So anyone know WHY they dropped the wimax system which showed a separate signal bar for 4g than for voice?

[djmiro83]

So anyone know WHY they dropped the wimax system which showed a separate signal bar for 4g than for voice?

 

Probably because WiMax ran on a different spectrum than CDMA (2500MHz vs 1900MHz). Odds are it was probably easier to make separate signal meters for those two spectrums. With the new NV config, that may complicate it just a tad as CDMA and LTE will run simultaneously on the same spectrum (at least for now until LTE on SMR goes live, which would then add another layer of complexity).

 

 

Sent from my JB iPhone 4S using Forum Runner

[akm1104]

Got this in lake cook rd again right next to 294

[Chriscic]

Hello all,

I realize I am really just asking for folks' informed specuation here, but trying to decide if a Sprint iPhone 5 is going to be a viable solution here in the Western Chicago 'burbs. My wife currently has AT&T (and I hate that company) with a legacy unlimited data account, so I could get her the iPhone 5 through them, but I would rather not. I'd rather go with Sprint, for whom I have a soft spot and of course they offer unlimited data as opposed to Verizon. With the LTE rollout happening now wondering if the Sprint network will be pretty robust by the end of the year, or if I'm fooling myself and I should just suck it up and stick to AT&T.

 

If it were my phone I'd probably make the leap to Sprint and hope for the best, but my wife is not going to be happy if I saddle her with a crummy network : ) Also I understand that AT&T spectrum is limited in Chicago, so their LTE here is slower than Verizon's and hopefully slower than what Sprint's will be.

 

Any thoughts appreciated; I will definitely be checking in here for user reports as the network starts to come up.

I live in Aurora and work in Naperville, so a solid LTE signal there is a must.

[S4GRU]

End of the year? Yes. Next week...spotty. but getting better and better every week through the end of the year.

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

[Chriscic]

Come to think of it... are there any maps which show Sprint's intended LTE coverage for the Chicago market? My google's came up empty on that.

[S4GRU]

Come to think of it... are there any maps which show Sprint's intended LTE coverage for the Chicago market? My google's came up empty on that.

 

Sprint is deploying over every site in its network. They are not picking and choosing like AT&T and Verizon.

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

[Chriscic]

Yes but how far out is considered "the Chicago Market?" I can see from their maps that 3G coverage expands way past Aurora (where I live) into far Western Illinois, but certainly they aren't going way out there with LTE anytime soon.

 

I would think Aurora with it's large population (and I live on the East side closer to Naperville) would have to be covered, but I don't want to assume. Thanks.

[Chriscic]

Ah, I see that by becoming a sponsor, which I am happy to do, I can see better maps.

Edited September 20, 2012 by Chriscic

[S4GRU]

The Chicago market extends past Rockford to Freeport and Dixon to the west, La Salle to the SW, Kankakee to the south, Portage IN to the east and the Wisconsin border to the north.

 

They are putting LTE on all the sites in the market. All of them. Even the rural sites. Even sites in DeKalb, Marengo, Ottawa, Rochelle, Matteson, Kentwood, Valparaiso. All of them. And the physical work at most of these sites is complete. Just waiting on backhaul. Some will start to go live as soon as this weekend. Others will take a few more weeks, and some a few more months.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[Mike014]

Does anyone know when the towers are switched to discoverable? would it be 12:01am tomorrow, or just at some point during the day?

[S4GRU]

Does anyone know when the towers are switched to discoverable? would it be 12:01am tomorrow' date=' or just at some point during the day?[/quote']

 

They already seem to be popping up one at a time. There have been several new site sightings in the past 24 hours in both Boston and Chicago. I think this will continue all day today and tomorrow.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner