Network Vision/LTE - South Bay Market (San Jose/Salinas/Monterey)

[njjdnt]

How many days does it take to upgrade a single tower to LTE? And whats the radius of a single LTE tower?

 

Hours, days, weeks, months, it varies because of many variables are involved.

The radius also varies because of the many variables involved.

 

 

aka: It depends.

[S4GRU]

How many days does it take to upgrade a single tower to LTE? And whats the radius of a single LTE tower?

 

Good questions. But neither have a definitive answer.

 

Sprint has three different OEM's managing the deployment with their equipment. Alcatel Lucent, Samsung and Ericsson. Each OEM has hired dozens of subcontractors. All these different companies working with different equipment in different climates/weather and different people who work at different speeds. And each site is unique, some are harder than others. Then there could be inspection and bureaucratic delays. Backhaul problems. Provisioning issues.

 

So we have seen that most sites take between 3 weeks and 3 months from start to finish. We had one site in New Orleans that appeared to finish in one week. We also have had one site start 9 months ago in Kansas and now finishing up. So there is a lot of variability.

 

As for how far an LTE signal can reach...it is also highly variable. In Sprint deployments it can be as little as a few blocks in a dense urban environment, or as much as 10 miles in a flat rural area outdoors.

 

Cell sizes are engineered precisely. RF Engineers design each LTE signal to propagate a certain distance for maximum benefit. They adjust transmission power and panel downtilt accordingly. They cannot extend the signal as far as possible where it interferes with other Sprint sites broadcasting on the same channel. Each site can only overlap the next sites signal by a little bit.

 

In denser city and suburban locations, if they allowed the signal to broadcast as far as possible, it would reach over the adjacent two or three sites in each direction and cause severe interference. The LTE performance would plummet as a result. So these cells are designed to be much, much smaller. Rural LTE sites on boomers can be hundreds of square miles in coverage though.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

[cuthroat]

 

Hours, days, weeks, months, it varies because of many variables are involved.

The radius also varies because of the many variables involved.

 

 

aka: It depends.

Good questions. But neither have a definitive answer.

 

Sprint has three different OEM's managing the deployment with their equipment. Alcatel Lucent, Samsung and Ericsson. Each OEM has hired dozens of subcontractors. All these different companies working with different equipment in different climates/weather and different people who work at different speeds. And each site is unique, some are harder than others. Then there could be inspection and bureaucratic delays. Backhaul problems. Provisioning issues.

 

So we have seen that most sites take between 3 weeks and 3 months from start to finish. We had one site in New Orleans that appeared to finish in one week. We also have had one site start 9 months ago in Kansas and now finishing up. So there is a lot of variability.

 

As for how far an LTE signal can reach...it is also highly variable. In Sprint deployments it can be as little as a few blocks in a dense urban environment, or as much as 10 miles in a flat rural area outdoors.

 

Cell sizes are engineered precisely. RF Engineers design each LTE signal to propagate a certain distance for maximum benefit. They adjust transmission power and panel downtilt accordingly. They cannot extend the signal as far as possible where it interferes with other Sprint sites broadcasting on the same channel. Each site can only overlap the next sites signal by a little bit.

 

In denser city and suburban locations, if they allowed the signal to broadcast as far as possible, it would reach over the adjacent two or three sites in each direction and cause severe interference. The LTE performance would plummet as a result. So these cells are designed to be much, much smaller. Rural LTE sites on boomers can be hundreds of square miles in coverage though.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

 

I Thank you both for answering my questions.

[Kajuklan]

i live in Salinas, Ca which is listed as a pre-launch...the question i have is....i get 4g just north of salinas..and when i say just north...i mean less than 3 miles.....and then its spotty 3g within salinas......however if go past king city which is about 30-45 minutes south.....i get a strong 4g signal...only problem...the area that i sstrong 4g is an unpopulated area.....why would they upgrade an area that doesnt have the most populus first?

[Dkoellerwx]

i live in Salinas, Ca which is listed as a pre-launch...the question i have is....i get 4g just north of salinas..and when i say just north...i mean less than 3 miles.....and then its spotty 3g within salinas......however if go past king city which is about 30-45 minutes south.....i get a strong 4g signal...only problem...the area that i sstrong 4g is an unpopulated area.....why would they upgrade an area that doesnt have the most populus first?

 

Sprint isn't upgrading towers based on population, usage, economic status, or anything like that. They upgrade each and every towers as soon as all the pieces fall into place. They aren't sitting around and waiting for the towers in the big cities to be ready, and ignoring sites in rural areas. As soon as the permits, crews, equipment and other pieces are in place, they upgraded the site. This makes it seem more scattered in nature, at least at first, but it actually allows them to upgrade the network faster.

[mc_gusto]

i live in Salinas, Ca which is listed as a pre-launch...the question i have is....i get 4g just north of salinas..and when i say just north...i mean less than 3 miles.....and then its spotty 3g within salinas......however if go past king city which is about 30-45 minutes south.....i get a strong 4g signal...only problem...the area that i sstrong 4g is an unpopulated area.....why would they upgrade an area that doesnt have the most populus first?

 

Have you downloaded and ran sensorly yet? It would help community pin down actual 4g coverage.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[Kajuklan]

 

 

Have you downloaded and ran sensorly yet? It would help community pin down actual 4g coverage.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

Yes, I even have it set to run when it moves a certain distance as measured by gps

[mc_gusto]

Ah ok. I just noticed that king city purple.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[Kajuklan]

Lately it seems as though my signal has gotten worse, rather than better given the updates that are supposedly going on here in Salinas, Ca. .... Anyone else experienceing the same?

[David Mackler]

Lately it seems as though my signal has gotten worse, rather than better given the updates that are supposedly going on here in Salinas, Ca. .... Anyone else experienceing the same?

 

Hmmm. Same here in Sunnyvale. I am back to only WiMax on my Tri-Fi. Seems the LTE signals are not active except in the vicinity of the Apple Campus (a couple of miles down the road from here). Then again, we have not officially launched in the South Bay, so hard to say what this means.

[mc_gusto]

Some signs of watsonville and more of salinas shaded in. I also see someone did the drive to yahoo hq.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[mc_gusto]

Toro park and san martin near gilroy looks like they have active towers now. That toro park one looks like a new tower that might not be on sponsor map yet.

[JimBob]

I will be in Sunnyvale in two weeks to take a class at one of HP's buildings. Unfortunately, it is not mapped on Sensorly.

 

But there is 4G shown down the street, so maybe it is just awaiting someone to map the rest.

[David Mackler]

I will be in Sunnyvale in two weeks to take a class at one of HP's buildings. Unfortunately, it is not mapped on Sensorly.

 

But there is 4G shown down the street, so maybe it is just awaiting someone to map the rest.

 

LTE is on and off in Sunnyvale. Some of the towers shown as accepted are not broadcasting LTE regularly yet, or else my Tri-Fi just doesn't want to pick up the signal. There are steady signals around Lawrence Epwy and on much of 280. There is also a pocket on DeAnza near the Apple campus. We are still pre-launch, so no surprises there.

 

That said, the WiMax pretty much blankets the area and is quite speedy if you have a compatible device.

[JimBob]

I am currently staying at the DoubleTree hotel in San Jose. Sensorly says that it is covered by LTE, but my phone is only picking up 3G.

[David Mackler]

I am currently staying at the DoubleTree hotel in San Jose. Sensorly says that it is covered by LTE, but my phone is only picking up 3G.

 

Yup, I work in San Jose and transit through Santa Clara. The LTE signal does come and go. I'd probably be more irritated if I hadn't been prepared by S4GRU on what to expect in pre-launch.

 

The tower closest to my house is mapped as LTE, however I only get an EVDO signal now.

 

I am trying to be patient until a proper launch. Should be soon. Or so I keep telling myself…

[iain9996]

Does anyone know if there will be work done on the southern sections of Capital expressway between 101 and 87? Its the big hole in the map, and i havent seen any recent action except that random strip down monterrey 82 which doesn't appear when i drive down it...

[S4GRU]

Does anyone know if there will be work done on the southern sections of Capital expressway between 101 and 87? Its the big hole in the map, and i havent seen any recent action except that random strip down monterrey 82 which doesn't appear when i drive down it...

 

Each site is worked on the moment it is ready.  Which is after backhaul has been installed, zoning and permits are approved and the equipment is delivered.  So the order is very random, and it is not known when any specific tower will go live.  However, once a site is complete, Sprint fires it up.

 

Robert

[David Mackler]

This site -- SF60XR850 -- is right near my house, I walk past it almost everyday when walking the dog. I looked up this site number, but it does not seem to exist in the data base. I can think of two reasons. First, I did not look it up correctly, which is surely possible. Second, this could be either a defunct site and no one took down the sign.

 

Here is the photograph I snapped on my walk:

[S4GRU]

This site -- SF60XR850 -- is right near my house, I walk past it almost everyday when walking the dog. I looked up this site number, but it does not seem to exist in the data base. I can think of two reasons. First, I did not look it up correctly, which is surely possible. Second, this could be either a defunct site and no one took down the sign.

 

Here is the photograph I snapped on my walk:

 

It's an XR site.  Most Sprint Macro Sites are labeled XC in the Site ID where this one says XR.  XR's are repeaters.  Repeaters are typically not listed in the NV Sites Database, because they do not get macro site upgrades.  A repeater will repeat an NV signal the same as a legacy signal.  One day repeater sites may get upgraded to be able to repeat LTE.  But it's not a part of NV 1.0.

 

Robert

[David Mackler]

It's an XR site.  Most Sprint Macro Sites are labeled XC in the Site ID where this one says XR.  XR's are repeaters.  Repeaters are typically not listed in the NV Sites Database, because they do not get macro site upgrades.  A repeater will repeat an NV signal the same as a legacy signal.  One day repeater sites may get upgraded to be able to repeat LTE.  But it's not a part of NV 1.0.

 

Robert

 

Ah hah! I keep learning at this site and it never stops. Love it.

 

And, of course, that leads to another question. Does this likely mean that whilst I have a strong CDMA signal, I may not have a strong LTE signal? Is there a reliable way to identify whether I am connected to a repeater versus the macro site for which it is acting as a repeater?

[S4GRU]

Ah hah! I keep learning at this site and it never stops. Love it.

 

And, of course, that leads to another question. Does this likely mean that whilst I have a strong CDMA signal, I may not have a strong LTE signal? Is there a reliable way to identify whether I am connected to a repeater versus the macro site for which it is acting as a repeater?

 

As far as I know, there is no way to know if you're on a repeater or not.  As far as LTE goes, there are so many dynamics involved with a repeater, there is no way for me to be able to guess whether this affects LTE in your neighborhood or not.  I'm sorry I cannot be of more help.

 

Robert

[LuisBOSS302]

Has anyone gotten TD LTE in the San Jose area?

 

Usually there twice a month.

 

Lately the 4G has become stronger and more reliable. I get LTE pretty much everywhere I go in the South Bay.

[Thomas L.]

Has anyone gotten TD LTE in the San Jose area?

 

Usually there twice a month.

 

Lately the 4G has become stronger and more reliable. I get LTE pretty much everywhere I go in the South Bay.

I know it is live there in quite a few places.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

 

 

[monty9996]

Is it me, or has the LTE signal strength in the bay area got stronger in the last few days? Ive got more distance with the LTE than usual?

 

Also, any updates on new LTE sites in south east San Jose?