Report Shentel LTE Sightings Here

[Phil2577]

I live in the north end of Hagerstown and have had lte for a month or 2 now.I have noticed speeds arent as fast a

 

Verizons lte service which is also available in Hagerstown.My question is will these speeds improve ?Are we

 

just in the early stages of Shentels upgrade process? I know that verizon is using 700 mhz spectrum where

 

Sprint is using 1700 mhz I believe,is shentel using the higher frequences as well? If so is this the reason for the

 

slower speeds?Worse, is this as good as Sprints lte service will get for our area? Im not complaining because the

 

current speeds I get are easily 10 to 20 times faster then Sprints 3g service ,am just hoping to see the 20 mbps

 

down and 14 mbps up that a Verizon mifi device consistently yeilds in my home while my Sprint Galaxy S 3 sees

 

only about 4 mbps up / 2 mbps down

Edited December 19, 2012 by Phil2577

[jroepcke51]

I live in the north end of Hagerstown and have had lte for a month or 2 now.I have noticed speeds arent as fast a

 

Verizons lte service which is also available in Hagerstown.My question is will these speeds improve ?Are we

 

just in the early stages of Shentels upgrade process? I know that verizon is using 700 mhz spectrum where

 

Sprint is using 1700 mhz I believe,is shentel using the higher frequences as well? If so is this the reason for the

 

slower speeds?Worse, is this as good as Sprints lte service will get for our area? Im not complaining because the

 

current speeds I get are easily 10 to 20 times faster then Sprints 3g service ,am just hoping to see the 20 mbps

 

down and 14 mbps up that a Verizon mifi device consistently yeilds in my home while my Sprint Galaxy S 3 sees

 

only about 4 mbps up / 2 mbps down

 

First off, Sprint is using 1900 PCS G Block. Secondly, the speeds you are noticing must mean you are on the outer ring of the tower near you. You have to have really low signal.

[jroepcke51]

I live in the north end of Hagerstown and have had lte for a month or 2 now.I have noticed speeds arent as fast a

 

Verizons lte service which is also available in Hagerstown.My question is will these speeds improve ?Are we

 

just in the early stages of Shentels upgrade process? I know that verizon is using 700 mhz spectrum where

 

Sprint is using 1700 mhz I believe,is shentel using the higher frequences as well? If so is this the reason for the

 

slower speeds?Worse, is this as good as Sprints lte service will get for our area? Im not complaining because the

 

current speeds I get are easily 10 to 20 times faster then Sprints 3g service ,am just hoping to see the 20 mbps

 

down and 14 mbps up that a Verizon mifi device consistently yeilds in my home while my Sprint Galaxy S 3 sees

 

only about 4 mbps up / 2 mbps down

Also this is the first posting I have ever read about someone complaining about LTE service. Apparently no one can be satisfied.

[Phil2577]

First off, Sprint is using 1900 PCS G Block. Secondly, the speeds you are noticing must mean you are on the outer ring of the tower near you. You have to have really low signal.

Thanks bud ! I wasnt positive that it was 1700mhz.... hence the "I believe" lol Ive been reading so much about

 

this wasnt sure if I remembered what I had read,thanks for correcting me there.The tower location according to the

 

maps provided in a previous post in this thread show that im less then a half mile from the tower,so Im sure my

 

signal isnt low.Now back to my question will these speeds improve or is this as good as it gets?

Edited December 19, 2012 by Phil2577

[Phil2577]

We have a new Shentel LTE Launch article on the Wall: http://s4gru.com/ind...n-black-friday/

 

Robert

 

According to the maps contained in this link Im within shouting distance of the tower !

[jroepcke51]

I don't know exactly where you are. However, if you become a member, see link http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1195-information-about-s4gru-sponsorship-levels-and-how-to-become-a-sponsor/

, you may pull up maps to review where the closest tower is.

 

If a tower is right next to you, it may come down to building materials, foliage and other external factors.

[leozno1]

Thanks bud ! I wasnt positive that it was 1700mhz.... hence the "I believe" lol Ive been reading so much about

 

this wasnt sure if I remembered what I had read,thanks for correcting me there.The tower location according to the

 

maps provided in a previous post in this thread show that im less then a half mile from the tower,so Im sure my

 

signal isnt low.Now back to my question will these speeds improve or is this as good as it gets?

 

Sprint's speeds will definitely improve over time. Hagerstown is not done upgrading so there is potential that a tower will light up closer to your home and provide you with stronger signal. LTE speed is greatly dependent on signal strength so while you may see 4mbps in your home, if you stand outside and run the speed test again, in some cases you can easily get speeds that are twice as fast.

 

Also in regards to the rollout not being complete, next year Sprint will be rolling out LTE on Sprint's 800Mhz spectrum which will travel much farther and penetrate buildings much better than their current 1900Mhz spectrum so inside your home you will see greatly improved speeds. Sprint's LTE is definitely in its infancy and you can definitely expect many improvements over the course of the upcoming months and throughout the course of next year.

[Phil2577]

I don't know exactly where you are. However, if you become a member, see link http://s4gru.com/ind...come-a-sponsor/

, you may pull up maps to review where the closest tower is.

 

If a tower is right next to you, it may come down to building materials, foliage and other external factors.

 

Maybe you misunderstood me bud ? I do have access to said maps and can clearly see I am about 8 small city

 

blocks from the tower location.Even directly under this tower location im not seeing speeds greater then 8 mbps

 

down and 4 up.Thanks again for your concern,but Im just hoping to see comprable speeds to the Verizon lte

 

service in my area .I dont think tower local is as much a factor as your making it to be, rather the type of lte

 

connection and spectrum being used ........thus my question is this as good as it gets?

 

gets?

Edited December 20, 2012 by Phil2577

[Dkoellerwx]

Maybe you misunderstood me bud ? I do have access to said maps and can clearly see I am about 8 small city

 

blocks from the tower location.Even directly under this tower location im not seeing speeds greater then 8 mbps

 

down and 4 up.Thanks again for your concern,but Im just hoping to see comprable speeds to the Verizon lte

 

service in my area .I dont think tower local is as much a factor as your making it to be, rather the type of lte

 

connection and spectrum being used ........thus my question is this as good as it gets?

 

gets?

 

There are many many more maps that you do not have access to. These are in the sponsors section, they show many more towers than that article you linked to. If you have slow speeds, that is almost always an indication of a weak LTE signal. If you can show us a strong LTE signal, and a slow speed, then we can talk.

 

So, no. It will get better. There are still more towers to be upgraded.

 

Also, what do you need speeds that fast for anyway? Anything over 2 or 3Mbps on a smartphone will satisfy nearly every app you can use.

[Phil2577]

Sprint's speeds will definitely improve over time. Hagerstown is not done upgrading so there is potential that a tower will light up closer to your home and provide you with stronger signal. LTE speed is greatly dependent on signal strength so while you may see 4mbps in your home, if you stand outside and run the speed test again, in some cases you can easily get speeds that are twice as fast.

 

Also in regards to the rollout not being complete, next year Sprint will be rolling out LTE on Sprint's 800Mhz spectrum which will travel much farther and penetrate buildings much better than their current 1900Mhz spectrum so inside your home you will see greatly improved speeds. Sprint's LTE is definitely in its infancy and you can definitely expect many improvements over the course of the upcoming months and throughout the course of next year.

Thanks for that info and answering my question ....just wonder if my town will see that 800mhz spectrrum ever lol

[Dkoellerwx]

Thanks for that info and answering my question ....just wonder if my town will see that 800mhz spectrrum ever lol

 

I believe nearly every tower is getting 800 Voice, and about 80% of towers will be getting 800 LTE (fewer since it takes less to cover dense areas).

[boomerbubba]

There are many many more maps that you do not have access to. These are in the sponsors section, they show many more towers than that article you linked to.

 

But as far as I know, there are no equivalent Sponsor maps of the Shentel market area, which is not directly served by Sprint and outside the scope of the main Sponsor maps.

[Phil2577]

There are many many more maps that you do not have access to. These are in the sponsors section, they show many more towers than that article you linked to. If you have slow speeds, that is almost always an indication of a weak LTE signal. If you can show us a strong LTE signal, and a slow speed, then we can talk.

 

So, no. It will get better. There are still more towers to be upgraded.

 

Also, what do you need speeds that fast for anyway? Anything over 2 or 3Mbps on a smartphone will satisfy nearly every app you can use.

Wasnt my intention to challenge anyone here bud just gather some information Now that said :http://s4gru.com/ind...n-black-friday follow that link and plug in 600 North potomac ave.Hagerstown Md. 21742 and you will see im less then a half mile from the tower location and as I stated I can drive to the tower in about 3 minutes stand outside my vehicle and still not see speeds greater then 8 to 10 mbps

 

You ask why I desire to see greater speeds? Idk say one was to tether his laptop to his device or what if Im interested in dumping my 65 dollar a month home internet service(which is a good bit slower then verizons lte in my area) to get a Sprint hotspot device .....just a few reasons Id like to see Sprints lte improve as I said im not complaining just tryin get some good info bud.....

Edited December 20, 2012 by Phil2577

[Dkoellerwx]

But as far as I know, there are no equivalent Sponsor maps of the Shentel market area, which is not directly served by Sprint and outside the scope of the main Sponsor maps.

 

We do have completed sites reported from a source on the Alcatel-Lucent maps in the sponsors section, but you are right, we don't have a map of all towers serving the Shentel area.

[pyroscott]

I live in the north end of Hagerstown and have had lte for a month or 2 now.I have noticed speeds arent as fast a

 

Verizons lte service which is also available in Hagerstown.My question is will these speeds improve ?Are we

 

just in the early stages of Shentels upgrade process? I know that verizon is using 700 mhz spectrum where

 

Sprint is using 1700 mhz I believe,is shentel using the higher frequences as well? If so is this the reason for the

 

slower speeds?Worse, is this as good as Sprints lte service will get for our area? Im not complaining because the

 

current speeds I get are easily 10 to 20 times faster then Sprints 3g service ,am just hoping to see the 20 mbps

 

down and 14 mbps up that a Verizon mifi device consistently yeilds in my home while my Sprint Galaxy S 3 sees

 

only about 4 mbps up / 2 mbps down

 

The frequency has very, very little to do with LTE speeds. As was stated earlier, LTE is very signal strength dependent. If you are seeing a low, or noisy signal, you will not have good speeds. See this post to determine your LTE signal http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2040-bars-lie-for-lte-signal-strength-how-to-determine-your-actual-lte-signal-strength/

 

Thanks bud ! I wasnt positive that it was 1700mhz.... hence the "I believe" lol Ive been reading so much about

 

this wasnt sure if I remembered what I had read,thanks for correcting me there.The tower location according to the

 

maps provided in a previous post in this thread show that im less then a half mile from the tower,so Im sure my

 

signal isnt low.Now back to my question will these speeds improve or is this as good as it gets?

 

If your signal is actually high, then yes, I would imagine speeds will improve. Some members in markets that are farther along in the deployment have said that the downtilt was adjusted as more LTE sites came online, improving the ground level signal strength and speeds greatly. If you are having good signal and slow speeds, I would assume that the site is not fully optimized. Unless the site has a ton of traffic, you should be seeing at least 25 Mbps at the base of the tower. It is possible that the tower you went to is not active, or is 3G only. Sometimes our info is incorrect, that should be expected since we are not affiliated with Sprint.

 

Maybe you misunderstood me bud ? I do have access to said maps and can clearly see I am about 8 small city

 

blocks from the tower location.Even directly under this tower location im not seeing speeds greater then 8 mbps

 

down and 4 up.Thanks again for your concern,but Im just hoping to see comprable speeds to the Verizon lte

 

service in my area .I dont think tower local is as much a factor as your making it to be, rather the type of lte

 

connection and spectrum being used ........thus my question is this as good as it gets?

 

gets?

 

I doubt that is as good as it gets.

 

Thanks for that info and answering my question ....just wonder if my town will see that 800mhz spectrrum ever lol

 

I'm not sure if Shentel will deploy 800mhz LTE or Voice. I would sure think they would, but it all depends on their agreement with Sprint. If Shentel is deploying, I would give it a 95% chance that it will be on the cell site you are connecting to.

 

Wasnt my intention to challenge anyone here bud just gather some information Now that said :http://s4gru.com/ind...n-black-friday follow that link and plug in 600 North potomac ave.Hagerstown Md. 21742 and you will see im less then a half mile from the tower location and as I stated I can drive to the tower in about 3 minutes stand outside my vehicle and still not see speeds greater then 8 to 10 mbps

 

You ask why I desire to see greater speeds? Idk say one was to tether his laptop to his device or what if Im interested in dumping my 65 dollar a month home internet service(which is a good bit slower then verizons lte in my area) to get a Sprint hotspot device .....just a few reasons Id like to see Sprints lte improve as I said im not complaining just tryin get some good info bud.....

 

I don't believe that Sprint will be selling unlimited data on MiFi devices. Something like that might be in the works with the Clearwire spectrum, but I really don't have any idea. I can't see it ever happening using the PCS or ESMR spectrum.

[Phil2577]

The frequency has very, very little to do with LTE speeds. As was stated earlier, LTE is very signal strength dependent. If you are seeing a low, or noisy signal, you will not have good speeds. See this post to determine your LTE signal http://s4gru.com/ind...ignal-strength/

 

 

 

If your signal is actually high, then yes, I would imagine speeds will improve. Some members in markets that are farther along in the deployment have said that the downtilt was adjusted as more LTE sites came online, improving the ground level signal strength and speeds greatly. If you are having good signal and slow speeds, I would assume that the site is not fully optimized. Unless the site has a ton of traffic, you should be seeing at least 25 Mbps at the base of the tower. It is possible that the tower you went to is not active, or is 3G only. Sometimes our info is incorrect, that should be expected since we are not affiliated with Sprint.

 

 

 

I doubt that is as good as it gets.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if Shentel will deploy 800mhz LTE or Voice. I would sure think they would, but it all depends on their agreement with Sprint. If Shentel is deploying, I would give it a 95% chance that it will be on the cell site you are connecting to.

 

 

 

I don't believe that Sprint will be selling unlimited data on MiFi devices. Something like that might be in the works with the Clearwire spectrum, but I really don't have any idea. I can't see it ever happening using the PCS or ESMR spectrum.

Thank you !! This is all the answers and then some appreciate that greatly sir !

Edited December 20, 2012 by Phil2577

[Phil2577]

Now as far as my distance from the tower as said I am about 8 blocks away.I used the link provided to obtain my actual lte signal strength and ....well see for yourself!

with a excellent signal this is the average daily (outdoor) speeds

 

Didnt someone here reply if I could show strong signal and slow speed then we would talk? Lets talk !!

Edited December 20, 2012 by Phil2577

[Phil2577]

Also this is the first posting I have ever read about someone complaining about LTE service. Apparently no one can be satisfied.

IM NOT COMPLAINING EITHER !!! DID YOU EVEN BOTHER TO READ MY ENTIRE POST OR DID YOU SIMPLY SWOOP IN TO CORRECT ME AS SOON AS YOU SEEN I WASNT CORRECT ON THE SPECTRUM SPRINT IS USING GEEZ

[pyroscott]

IM NOT COMPLAINING EITHER !!! DID YOU EVEN BOTHER TO READ MY ENTIRE POST OR DID YOU SIMPLY SWOOP IN TO CORRECT ME AS SOON AS YOU SEEN I WASNT CORRECT ON THE SPECTRUM SPRINT IS USING GEEZ

 

Settle down!

[leozno1]

The frequency has very, very little to do with LTE speeds. As was stated earlier, LTE is very signal strength dependent. If you are seeing a low, or noisy signal, you will not have good speeds. See this post to determine your LTE signal http://s4gru.com/ind...ignal-strength/

 

Well that's not entirely true since they are somewhat correlated. If LTE is deployed on a higher frequency it can affect your signal strength more than LTE deployed on a lower frequency if you go indoors or move further away from the tower. But you are definitely correct that in perfect conditions the frequency does not affect LTE speeds.

[pyroscott]

Now as far as my distance from the tower as said I am about 8 blocks away.I used the link provided to obtain my actual lte signal strength and ....well see for yourself!

with a excellent signal this is the average daily (outdoor) speeds

 

Didnt someone here reply if I could show strong signal and slow speed then we would talk? Lets talk !!

 

That is a weak signal. The site 8 blocks from you is probably not broadcasting LTE and you are picking it up from another site. If you are 8 blocks away, I would expect -80dbm or better rsrp

[leozno1]

Now as far as my distance from the tower as said I am about 8 blocks away.I used the link provided to obtain my actual lte signal strength and ....well see for yourself!

with a excellent signal this is the average daily (outdoor) speeds

 

Didnt someone here reply if I could show strong signal and slow speed then we would talk? Lets talk !!

 

Well I have noticed that I get vastly different speeds depending on the server you are connected to. I live in York, PA but I have noticed that I get my best speedtest results if I connect to the Washington DC server. Try that and see if your speeds increase at all. If not then I would leave one of the experts on here answer your question cuz I would be stumped as well.

[Phil2577]

That is a weak signal. The site 8 blocks from you is probably not broadcasting LTE and you are picking it up from another site. If you are 8 blocks away, I would expect -80dbm or better rsrp

ummmm NO!

Its actually strong bud and my town is small 8 blocks may be equal to 4 in your city I really dunno, but I can walk to the tower in about 10 mins

• Better than -96dBm is a great signal
  
• Between -97dBm and -107dBm is good
  
• Between -108dBm and -114dBm is fair
  
• Worse than -115dBm is poor
  

Edited December 20, 2012 by Phil2577

[pyroscott]

 

Well that's not entirely true since they are somewhat correlated. If LTE is deployed on a higher frequency it can affect your signal strength more than LTE deployed on a lower frequency if you go indoors or move further away from the tower. But you are definitely correct that in perfect conditions the frequency does not affect LTE speeds.

 

That's why I didn't say frequency has "nothing" to do with speeds. Weak signal yields slow speeds on any frequency, and in this discussion, it is not relevant to insert in the discussion.

[pyroscott]

ummmm NO!

Its actually strong bud and my town is small 8 blocks may be equal to 4 in your city I really dunno, but I can walk to the tower in about 10 mins

• Better than -96dBm is a great signal
  
• Between -97dBm and -107dBm is good
  
• Between -108dBm and -114dBm is fair
  
• Worse than -115dBm is poor
  

 

Yeah, I was thinking RSSI numbers...

 

If you want answers on why the speeds are slow off that tower, you'll need to call shentel or sprint for troubleshooting.