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4G LTE not working in Wichita KS


dueces1

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Supposedly 4g LTE has been working in Wichita since Monday, Sept 24. I've been all over East Wichita the last few days and have yet to connect to LTE.

 

Is it really here? Why isn't it working?

 

All of our members reports of live sites have been on the West side, out toward the Airport and Goddard. However, some of our members have encountered completed sites shown on the coverage map that are not live (or possibly being blocked).

 

If you are solidly in the Sprint LTE coverage area shown on the maps, I would call and complain. I believe they have some more Wichita sites that they need to unblock connections to. And if they get a ticket opened up for it, they will likely unblock it.

 

Is Sprint trying to fuel the Westside/Eastside rivalry in Wichita? :lol:

 

Robert

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Is Sprint trying to fuel the Westside/Eastside rivalry in Wichita? :lol:

 

With Koch Industries smack dab in the middle of Wichita. Wait, the Koch brothers in the middle? No, that can't be right.

 

;)

 

AJ

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I have been able to almost fully maintain a signal down the 135 corridor. South has some areas, north has some areas, west has some areas. Had it in Maize yesterday. I don't think much east of 135 is publicly accessible until you hit Andover.

 

No bias here. /westsider ;)

 

With Koch Industries smack dab in the middle of Wichita. Wait, the Koch brothers in the middle? No, that can't be right.

Koch is actually off to the right a bit. :lol: Their tower is not live yet.
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This week I have started to pick up 4g signal at HawkerBeechcraft (south end). Using speed test on my S3, I get 5.5Mb down and 1.0Mb up with a ping rate of 72ms. The service is not solId as when I walk in the parking lot, the signal drops to 3g.

 

LTE performance is very signal strength dependent. If you are only getting 5.5Mbps, then you have a pretty weak signal and near the edge of LTE service. In that condition, you would probably lose LTE when walking inside. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2040-bars-lie-for-lte-signal-strength-how-to-determine-your-actual-lte-signal-strength/

 

Robert

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I got my GSIII just a couple days ago and was stoked to finally be able to use 4g, but when I got home, of course, I could only pick up 3g. So, I was driving by all star sports on the west side and decided to stop to test the 4g because I know that a tower is right there. Worked like a charm. So then I decided to see how long I could hold on to the 4g signal as I made my way home. Determined to not give my phone a chance to let it go I did constant speed tests until I made it home (13th and West area) and was pleasantly surprised when I made it home and was still getting down speeds of 12mbps and up speeds of 8mbps. Of course this didn't last long... as soon as I tried to do something else with my phone it went right back to 3g... This makes me think that I might be able to get 4g at home, but for some reason my phone is switching to 3g... perhaps the 3g signal is way stronger so it thinks that will be better? I don't know...

 

I figured all the experts were here so I wanted to ask for some opinions on this... Checking on the sprint coverage map it looks like the 13th and West area should be well covered with 4g... Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.

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I got my GSIII just a couple days ago and was stoked to finally be able to use 4g, but when I got home, of course, I could only pick up 3g. So, I was driving by all star sports on the west side and decided to stop to test the 4g because I know that a tower is right there. Worked like a charm. So then I decided to see how long I could hold on to the 4g signal as I made my way home. Determined to not give my phone a chance to let it go I did constant speed tests until I made it home (13th and West area) and was pleasantly surprised when I made it home and was still getting down speeds of 12mbps and up speeds of 8mbps. Of course this didn't last long... as soon as I tried to do something else with my phone it went right back to 3g... This makes me think that I might be able to get 4g at home, but for some reason my phone is switching to 3g... perhaps the 3g signal is way stronger so it thinks that will be better? I don't know...

 

I figured all the experts were here so I wanted to ask for some opinions on this... Checking on the sprint coverage map it looks like the 13th and West area should be well covered with 4g... Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Go to this thread and read how to get your LTE signal strength in dBms. Let us know what your signal strength is inside your home and outside. My guess is you have a really weak LTE signal at home.

 

Robert

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I assume I have to be connected to lte to get a reading?

 

That means I'd have to drive somewhere to connect to lte, do constant speed tests while I drive home again, and then follow those steps quick enough that it didn't switch to 3g?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

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I assume I have to be connected to lte to get a reading?

 

That means I'd have to drive somewhere to connect to lte, do constant speed tests while I drive home again, and then follow those steps quick enough that it didn't switch to 3g?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

Yes. Whenever you are out and about next time and can monitor it. Let us know what you see as far as LTE signal strength goes on your return home.

 

Robert

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I am surrounded by towers according to Sprint's website...

 

Is there any way to tell which of them support lte?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

We have a nationwide interactive map of completed Network Vision/LTE sites that gets updated every week. It is located in our Sponsor section. For more information about how to become a Sponsor, go to this thread: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1195-information-about-s4gru-sponsorship-levels-and-how-to-become-a-sponsor/

 

Robert

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Ok so I am looking at the interactive maps and you have WT03XC027 listed as being a 4g completed site... That is less than .3 miles away from me and I am not getting 4g...

 

There are quite a few completed sites in the Wichita/Newton area that are not live. One of our core members, Jeremy, has been opening tickets on some of them with Sprint. Sprint blocks connections to sites before launching markets, that is not unusual. What is unusual is Sprint has now announced Wichita and showing the coverage on the maps, and still has several blocked.

 

Robert

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I am also fairly certain that WT60XC001 is live with LTE as I was sitting in the parking lot looking at it last night and getting over 30mbps downstream. What would you need from me to verify? What is the best way to tell what tower you are pulling data from?

 

Sorry if my noob questions are annoying, I'm just trying to learn enough that I can contribute information about LTE in the Wichita area.

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I am also fairly certain that WT60XC001 is live with LTE as I was sitting in the parking lot looking at it last night and getting over 30mbps downstream. What would you need from me to verify? What is the best way to tell what tower you are pulling data from?

 

Sorry if my noob questions are annoying, I'm just trying to learn enough that I can contribute information about LTE in the Wichita area.

 

The best way to tell which site you are connected to is to use our Site Maps, then monitor your LTE signals in the LTE Engineering screen. If you get a really strong LTE signal near a site, you have confirmation. In this thread it talks about how to get to your Engineering screen, and what is a good signal: http://s4gru.com/ind...ignal-strength/

 

Sites go live all the time before they show up on our maps. Our maps are only updated once per week, and the list that gets uploaded comes directly from Sprint. It includes only sites that Sprint has accepted from the OEM. There are some sites that the OEM's have turned on for testing prior to having Sprint inspect and approve them. You may have found one, if you can confirm it is live but not yet on the map.

 

Robert

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The best way to tell which site you are connected to is to use our Site Maps, then monitor your LTE signals in the LTE Engineering screen. If you get a really strong LTE signal near a site, you have confirmation. In this thread it talks about how to get to your Engineering screen, and what is a good signal: http://s4gru.com/ind...ignal-strength/

 

Sites go live all the time before they show up on our maps. Our maps are only updated once per week, and the list that gets uploaded comes directly from Sprint. It includes only sites that Sprint has accepted from the OEM. There are some sites that the OEM's have turned on for testing prior to having Sprint inspect and approve them. You may have found one, if you can confirm it is live but not yet on the map.

 

Robert

 

Awesome thanks for the info. I didn't realize that the sites on the list come directly from a Sprint list. I thought they were from users and I would be helping to update it.

 

So, how would I go about opening a ticket to let Sprint know that WT03XC027 is blocked? I mean is it as simple as calling *2? I assume the normal csr's wouldn't know what I was talking about... not that I know a lot, but hey, I'm trying to learn

 

Again, thanks for the info Robert!

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Awesome thanks for the info. I didn't realize that the sites on the list come directly from a Sprint list. I thought they were from users and I would be helping to update it.

 

So, how would I go about opening a ticket to let Sprint know that WT03XC027 is blocked? I mean is it as simple as calling *2? I assume the normal csr's wouldn't know what I was talking about... not that I know a lot, but hey, I'm trying to learn

 

Again, thanks for the info Robert!

 

Yes, just call customer service. They will likely give you the run around and tell you the site is not active yet. Just be persistent and say that the area is in their coverage map, you have confirmed that the site is visually complete, and you have confirmed with S4GRU. Also give them the Site #. When you have the Site #, they know you are not some fly by night idiot. Insist on opening a ticket. Without a ticket number, you have nothing.

 

Robert

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Yes, just call customer service. They will likely give you the run around and tell you the site is not active yet. Just be persistent and say that the area is in their coverage map, you have confirmed that the site is visually complete, and you have confirmed with S4GRU. Also give them the Site #. When you have the Site #, they know you are not some fly by night idiot. Insist on opening a ticket. Without a ticket number, you have nothing.

 

Robert

 

So what would someone look for when trying to visually confirm that an LTE site is complete? I mean how can I tell that it is ready for LTE and not just an EVDO site?

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So what would someone look for when trying to visually confirm that an LTE site is complete? I mean how can I tell that it is ready for LTE and not just an EVDO site?

 

There is no way to tell whether only 3G upgrades are live over LTE based only on visual inspection. However, no sites in the Kansas market have their 3G upgrades live yet. Only LTE. So this is not a factor.

 

Robert

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There is no way to tell whether only 3G upgrades are live over LTE based only on visual inspection. However, no sites in the Kansas market have their 3G upgrades live yet. Only LTE. So this is not a factor.

 

Robert

 

I didn't mean live, I just meant what would I be looking for as far a the looks of 4g equipment? Does 4g equipment look different than 3g equipment? And how would one know if the upgrade is complete (not necessarily live, but all installed)?

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I didn't mean live, I just meant what would I be looking for as far a the looks of 4g equipment? Does 4g equipment look different than 3g equipment? And how would one know if the upgrade is complete (not necessarily live, but all installed)?

 

You can tell visually by looking at a site whether Network Vision upgrades have been done or not done. All the visible hardware for 3G and 4G go in at the same time (like panels, RRU's and base cabinets). So you cannot tell more than the physical work has been completed. You cannot tell whether the 3G or 4G is ready based on looking at a site.

 

But I can tell you (and as you can see on our maps), the Kansas market only has 4G improvements live so far at their Network Vision sites.

 

Robert

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You can tell visually by looking at a site whether Network Vision upgrades have been done or not done. All the visible hardware for 3G and 4G go in at the same time (like panels, RRU's and base cabinets). So you cannot tell more than the physical work has been completed. You cannot tell whether the 3G or 4G is ready based on looking at a site.

 

But I can tell you (and as you can see on our maps), the Kansas market only has 4G improvements live so far at their Network Vision sites.

 

Robert

 

Ok, I see. Thanks for tutoring me on the subject.

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There are quite a few completed sites in the Wichita/Newton area that are not live. One of our core members, Jeremy, has been opening tickets on some of them with Sprint. Sprint blocks connections to sites before launching markets, that is not unusual. What is unusual is Sprint has now announced Wichita and showing the coverage on the maps, and still has several blocked.

 

Robert

 

It looks like Jeremy may have beat me to this one. I talked to customer service and they said that there is already a ticket open on WT03XC027. I had him give me the ticket number to make sure I wasn't getting the run around and so I would be able to check up on it later if needed, but I accidentally cleared it from my clipboard. :(! Anyway, supposedly the ticket was opened today and is scheduled to be resolved tomorrow.

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