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What happens to Nextel towers?


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There is a cell site about 2 miles from my house, that I believe has Nextel at the top position on the tower, and possibly Sprint right below it. I also think T-mobile and/or MetroPCS are on it as well on the bottom positions.

 

I was wondering how a site like this might be upgraded. Would they remove the Nextel antennas, and move the Sprint NV antennas up to the top?

 

I ask because I have a decent (2-4 bars) Sprint signal in my house, but I usually had a almost all bars signal on Nextel in my house (I think debug modes measured it around -78dbm. When NV comes to my area next year, I'm hoping that if they are able to move things up on the tower, I'm going to have some really awesome coverage. They added capacity around June last year, and that got speeds up from 200-300Kbits/sec to about 800-1200Kbits/sec, but now it has dropped again to around 400Kbits/sec.

 

I'm really trying to be patient and hold out with Sprint. I have an upgrade due on Jan. 1st, and I think after reading the comments on the board, I may just spring for a device right away. I figure that when LTE hits my area, even if I only get 3-4Mbps/sec, it is more than adequate for me. I don't think I'd want to wait for 800 LTE, as when I'm indoors, I wouldn't be using it anyway (at home I use Wifi, and at work I have to work :) )

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I was wondering how a site like this might be upgraded. Would they remove the Nextel antennas, and move the Sprint NV antennas up to the top?

 

I ask because I have a decent (2-4 bars) Sprint signal in my house, but I usually had a almost all bars signal on Nextel in my house (I think debug modes measured it around -78dbm. When NV comes to my area next year, I'm hoping that if they are able to move things up on the tower, I'm going to have some really awesome coverage.

 

The most likely reason for the difference in signal strength is the difference in propigation between 800MHz (Nextel) and 1900 MHz (Sprint) not where the antennas were mounted on the tower.

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It is unlikely that Sprint Network Vision panels will move up the tower to be in the place of Nextel panels on a colocated site. Usually Nextel is higher because they have a lot less site density and try to cover as much geographic area as possible and just add carriers for capacity.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

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That's too bad. Will the old Nextel antennas just stay in place? I guess that has a precendent, if you Google "AT&T long lines" and look at the history of microwave links that AT&T used, there are still microwave towers that have been decommissioned that they haven't torn down yet.

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That's too bad. Will the old Nextel antennas just stay in place? I guess that has a precendent' date=' if you Google "AT&T long lines" and look at the history of microwave links that AT&T used, there are still microwave towers that have been decommissioned that they haven't torn down yet.[/quote']

 

Nextel network will start being dismantled after June 30, 2013. All the gear will be removed from sites so Sprint can start saving money on tower leasing. The hardware will be sold on the market for pennies on the dollar.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

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Nextel network will start being dismantled after June 30, 2013. All the gear will be removed from sites so Sprint can start saving money on tower leasing. The hardware will be sold on the market for pennies on the dollar.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

 

SoutherLINC better buy it all up since they'll be keeping IDEN around forever... ;)

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm located in an area where the tower is nextel only...no sprint CDMA. I use my AIRAVE or roam on Verizon for service. I'm curious if any one has information or prediction on what they might do with locations like these?

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I'm located in an area where the tower is nextel only...no sprint CDMA. I use my AIRAVE or roam on Verizon for service. I'm curious if any one has information or prediction on what they might do with locations like these?

 

Most likely nothing.

 

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

 

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I'm located in an area where the tower is nextel only...no sprint CDMA. I use my AIRAVE or roam on Verizon for service. I'm curious if any one has information or prediction on what they might do with locations like these?

 

There are two towers over on the west edge of Grand Traverse Bay that should reach you for 800Mhz/SMR 1xA and SMR LTE once that launches. Depending on tower height and what is in between, you might get some PCS from one of the two towers. One tower is north of Sutton's Bay, the other is south of the bay.

 

Your EVO LTE will only be able to get LTE on PCS though...

 

Donate to become a sponsor and you will be able to see the tower maps.

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  • 9 months later...

What happens to Nextel "towers"?  They go to "tower" heaven.

 

AJ

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That's too bad. Will the old Nextel antennas just stay in place? I guess that has a precendent, if you Google "AT&T long lines" and look at the history of microwave links that AT&T used, there are still microwave towers that have been decommissioned that they haven't torn down yet.

A large majority of the AT&T long lines microwave towers were sold to American Tower back in I want to say the late 90's. I believe I read an article back in March/April 2013 where the new AT&T is/was in talks with AMT to sell off additional sites or non-core assets.

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