Network Vision/LTE - SF Bay Market

[mc_gusto]

I was in LA over the holiday and lte was pretty great every where I went. Pretty consistent. A shame sf can't get its act together for whatever reason. I think la started after sf in terms of deployment too. The ramping up of bay area 3g acceptance is promising I just wish there was some knowledge on why sf proper is status quo for several months now.

 

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[lilotimz]

I was in LA over the holiday and lte was pretty great every where I went. Pretty consistent. A shame sf can't get its act together for whatever reason. I think la started after sf in terms of deployment too. The ramping up of bay area 3g acceptance is promising I just wish there was some knowledge on why sf proper is status quo for several months now.

 

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Los Angeles is a 1st round market that began in late 2011. SF Bay is a solid second round market that begun in mid 2012. 

[mc_gusto]

Los Angeles is a 1st round market that began in late 2011. SF Bay is a solid second round market that begun in mid 2012.

Oh OK, mea culpa, that makes me feel a little better. I really was impressed by the coverage in LA. The drive on i5, not so much. I did get cdma 800 from 40 miles away though. That was unexpected.

 

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[utiz4321]

Unfortunately, on workdays Sprint's data is unusable in downtown SF (Financial district) like 50% of the times. And when I say unusable, I mean no data at all. The phone is timing out when trying to resolve DNS on LTE. If I switch to 3G, I get speeds that are embarrassingly close to zero (0.15 - 0.05 Mbps). And in general, you need to do constant airplane mode, power cycle etc. to get data to work. Other carriers might be slower at times / locations, but nothing as bad.

I am seeing it even while on the street.

In fact, I once noticed it just when I was in front of the Sprint store on market st. So I decided to walk in and check how other phones are doing, to eliminate an issue with my phone. The guy there told me I don't need to try. They are all getting the same (close to zero) speeds that I do..

The problem is not slow speeds. The network is just unreliable at the moment. There are also voice issues: lots of dropped calls.

I really hope that things will get better soon enough, but right now the service in downtown SF is just bad.

 

By the way, SF does not have spark. It doesn't even officially have LTE yet.

Downtown SF is no where near complete. In a dense city like SF Samsung and sprint really should have kept lte off limits to the consumers until all the towers (at least in the financial district) where live with lte. For a lot a of people who don't know what is going on this is going to leave them with a bad impression of sprint's lte network.

[mc_gusto]

Sprint must be getting asked about SF alot. Hence the Bay Area being the only market question in the Spark FAQ thread.

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/5007-spark-faqs/

 

Q: Sprint announced that 4G LTE is “coming soon” to the Bay Area. When will that be?

A: We haven’t announced specific date for the rollout of 4G LTE in San Francisco and San Jose. We continue to build out 4G LTE and we will launch when the LTE footprint is large enough to ensure a good network experience. In the meantime, Sprint customers may discover LTE signal (if they have a Sprint LTE compatible device) before we officially launch in that city. [Keep in mind that if they discover LTE today, any speeds, connection or coverage that customers may experience isn't necessarily representative of what they will see in that city at launch.]  We do offer LTE in the following locations in the Bay Area: Contra Costa County, Oakland, Fremont, Hayward, Napa, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Vallejo and Fairfield

[SF SOMA]

I heard Verizon also has very bad LTE in SF. All carriers are having slow data issues in the city from what I seen on my friend's phones (AT&T and Verizon).

In downtown SF, Verizon is not as fast as what people perceive it to be.  However, it's very usable for all applications (ie. 5-8 mbs and at times, 2 mbs).  ATT is still the best and TMO is also very fast.  

 

Sprint's issues do not compare to Verizons unfortunately.

[mc_gusto]

East bay had a nice little 3G update, including Berkeley! Trying to eradicate the purple in the East Bay.

 

Seems like the Berkeley cluster launch was close to the highway probably to help alleviate handoffs issues. 

 

Unfortunately no SF updates. Again.

 

I did find another CDMA 800 site in Daly City. Right near Serramonte mall.  That's the 3rd CDMA 800 site I've found.

[crazy_vag]

Most of South Bay (Mountain View / Sunnyvale / San Jose (Northern in particular) has LTE with 1x800 too.  From the Bay Area markets, I'd say that this will be the next announcement.  Unfortunately, it seems like they are saving SF for last.

[SF SOMA]

Most of South Bay (Mountain View / Sunnyvale / San Jose (Northern in particular) has LTE with 1x800 too.  From the Bay Area markets, I'd say that this will be the next announcement.  Unfortunately, it seems like they are saving SF for last.

 

That's interesting. Do you live in this area and have experience with the LTE speeds there?  If so, how fast is the LTE there?  

[SF SOMA]

BTW, accordingly to Sprint's fearless leader, they expect LTE in SF to be up right after Christmas and before the end of the year.  Based on what I experience, does not seem feasible?

 

http://allthingsd.com/video/?video_id=650BA1E9-19C1-435F-A82C-87526355FC89

 

Edit - Sorry this video was 3 years old!!!!

[crazy_vag]

That's interesting. Do you live in this area and have experience with the LTE speeds there?  If so, how fast is the LTE there?  

 

I took two speed tests, both outside.  The faster one is outside my office and other one is at the Caltrain station in downtown Mountain View.  I did them outside, since each building is different, so YMMV.

 

 

If you look at the map of that area, you'll see that there are towers every 1/3 - 1/2 mile making for pretty solid coverage.

[dbsynergy]

Friend of mine sent me this from the East Bay. 

 

 

 

That's in San Leandro

[mc_gusto]

Friend of mine sent me this from the East Bay.

 

 

 

That's in San Leandro

Sweet. What handset? Tell him to speed test on sensorly to put it on the map.

 

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[dbsynergy]

I got a used LG G2 for my sister for christmas. Went on craigslist and found one for $250.

 

I activated it on my line to try it out, enabled B41, and went looking. Found some Sprint Spark love in Union City at the Union Landing shopping area.

 

 

 

That was under the strongest signal I could find. When I was just 300 yards away in a restaurant, I was only getting -120dBm RSRP and about 6mbps.

[LuisBOSS302]

Has anyone noticed faster data in sf and Oakland ?

[saywhatman]

Has anyone noticed faster data in sf and Oakland ?

 

I haven't been to SF recently, but there have been huge advances in Oakland. I'm back here for winter break and its like night and day compared to where it was when I left 3 months ago. There are still a lot of dead spots, but things seem much better.

[dbsynergy]

Has anyone noticed faster data in sf and Oakland ?

 

 

In Oakland yes, SF no. SF is just as bad as it has ever been. eCSFB in Oakland is working properly and in some spots the LTE is quite nice.

[crazy_vag]

Turn off LTE when you get to SF unless you're hanging out in Union Square area.  Too bad than on S3 you need to reboot the phone for that.

[mc_gusto]

Turn off LTE when you get to SF unless you're hanging out in Union Square area. Too bad than on S3 you need to reboot the phone for that.

Yeah I wish there was a faster way with the s3

 

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[LuisBOSS302]

Is spark active in union square?

 

Was thinking of going shopping there on Saturday

[Thomas L.]

Is spark active in union square?

 

Was thinking of going shopping there on Saturday

I believe someone said it was active there.

 

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[dbsynergy]

I believe someone said it was active there.

 

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No it's not. I got B41 LTE in Union City, but that's in the east bay near Fremont. Union Square is suffering the same eCSFB issues that all of San Francisco is going through.

[AccordingToAlex]

I've been a loyal Sprint customer for over 12 years...er...let me rephrase that.  I've been a Sprint customer for over 12 years, and during this time i've experienced the good, bad, and ugly of their services.  I remember all of my friends envying my Samsung A900 (and A900M after) flip phone.  Not only did it have a groundbreaking high resolution display paired with a Qualcomm radio chipset capable of harnessing Sprint's new blazing fast 'EVDO rev.A' data protocol, it was the first flip phone to have an App Market, Sprint TV, and include a revolutionary new streaming music service called 'Pandora;' all packed into one of the thinnest flip phone packages ever seen (until the Motorola RAZR's debut).

 

Then everything changed when Cingular was swallowed up by AT&T.  With AT&T's monopolistic capital to throw at Cingular's infrastructure, the GSM spectrum exploded across the country, and by marketing the versatility of "SIM Cards," Sprint and Verizon promptly shat bricks.

 

I could continue to rant, but i'll spare you.

 

To summarize, I've been on the phone with Sprint's retention department over the years and every time they've made a conscious and notable effort to keep me as a customer.  In the years when I also had a second line with T-Mobile and AT&T, and subsequently cancelled my plans with them, their retentions departments could've give a rats åss if a customer was lost.

 

This tri-band torture is killing me as a resident of SF using a Nexus 5; frustrating to the point of finding myself considering reactivating my Galaxy Nexus and getting an AIO plan for my N5 until the towers are upgraded, but since Sprint has pulled weight to keep me as a customer, I will reciprocate by giving them 6 months to fix San Francisco before I throw in the towel.

Edited December 21, 2013 by AccordingToAlex

[bucdenny]

I've been a loyal Sprint customer for over 12 years...er...let me rephrase that.  I've been a Sprint customer for over 12 years, and during this time i've experienced the good, bad, and ugly of their services.  I remember all of my friends envying my Samsung A900 (and A900M after) flip phone.  Not only did it have a groundbreaking high resolution display paired with a Qualcomm radio chipset capable of harnessing Sprint's new blazing fast 'EVDO rev.A' data protocol, it was the first flip phone to have an App Market, Sprint TV, and include a revolutionary new streaming music service called 'Pandora;' all packed into one of the thinnest flip phone packages ever seen (until the Motorola RAZR's debut).

 

Then everything changed when Cingular was swallowed up by AT&T.  With AT&T's monopolistic capital to throw at Cingular's infrastructure, the GSM spectrum exploded across the country, and by marketing the versatility of "SIM Cards," Sprint and Verizon promptly shat bricks.

 

I could continue to rant, but i'll spare you.

 

To summarize, I've been on the phone with Sprint's retention department over the years and every time they've made a conscious and notable effort to keep me as a customer.  In the years when I also had a second line with T-Mobile and AT&T, and subsequently cancelled my plans with them, their retentions departments could've give a rats åss if a customer was lost.

 

This tri-band torture is killing me as a resident of SF using a Nexus 5; frustrating to the point of finding myself considering reactivating my Galaxy Nexus and getting an AIO plan for my N5 until the towers are upgraded, but since Sprint has pulled weight to keep me as a customer, I will reciprocate by giving them 6 months to fix San Francisco before I throw in the towel.

 

Would most likely be fixed by then.    We didn't even get Wimax in San Diego, but LTE made it.  It is 50% completed in San Diego and we are seeing pretty good speeds.  My average is 15Mbps+, my brothers iPhone on Verizon average 2-5Mbps. 

 

Cannot wait for Spark 2500Mhz deployment here.

[alt3zza03]

I've been seeing more 1X800 connections in the Peninsula as of late. Nice speeds as well!