Network Vision/LTE - Charlotte Market

[theDrizzle]

Beware.... AM speeds (at least in my neck of the woods in Cary) have been quite skewed. Although lately, the speeds have been quite steady through the day. From what I recall, won't we see the signal be ehrpd before they turn on the LTE? Or will they just flip the switch? Ehrpd confuses me, but I do know its a handoff to LTE.

[S4GRU]

eHRPD sometimes goes live early in a market, sometimes late. Very inconsistent. However, by the time time LTE is no longer blocked, eHRPD should be up for good.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[chrad44]

seems to hold through noon anyway.....

 

[Sgt. Slaughter]

Beware.... AM speeds (at least in my neck of the woods in Cary) have been quite skewed. Although lately, the speeds have been quite steady through the day. From what I recall, won't we see the signal be ehrpd before they turn on the LTE? Or will they just flip the switch? Ehrpd confuses me, but I do know its a handoff to LTE.

 

Lol, I didn't just fall off the truck here. Haha the time of day the speed was taken was the main reason I took the extra seconds to type it in while driving by it.

 

ill try to leave a lil earlier tomorrow for work and try to scoot on Merideths campus since that's where the tower technically is and see if I can get some better info...

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

[GraPHiC1982]

i noticed a few weeks back that 3 sites were added to the NV Sites Complete in charlotte. Just wondering if anyone in charlotte had noticed any increased speeds near those areas or possibly any LTE sightings.

[spotmeterf64]

The tower near NCSU's campus (close to Rosemary / Hillsborough intersection) was worked on last week. Phone was in 1x mode most of last week, this week I am in strong 3G. It's crazy fast for 3G actually. No speed tests yet, maybe this coming week when I am at work.

 

The speeds seem to have gotten much better around Raleigh as a whole (at least the areas I frequent) so I am very pleased. Still waiting for LTE, but at this point with the 3G speeds I am seeing (which is fine for my needs) I'm starting to think LTE is just a battery hog..

[kendokken3]

I was running speed tests on the way to work this morning and eHRPD was live all the way !! I was on the southern side of city along I-485 from Monroe Rd to S.Tryon St. It's exciting to finally see it here in Charlotte after reading about it for so long now. Hopefully LTE is just around the corner.

[GraPHiC1982]

got eHRPD in Salisbury this morning. Thought I'd try to cycle CDMA-CDMA/LTE as i drove past a tower this morning, and there is was. It held all the way to work, even though I barely have signal at all at work. I really thought it'd drop once my coverage got worse, but it didn't. Suffice to say, I'm gonna take the long way home tonight and see if I can confirm it in other places around town. I was started to get worried how it seemed almost everyone else was getting eHRPD and I wasn't finding it in NC.

[oversteer325]

eHRPD in the Ballantyne area as of this morning! Woohoo!

[S4GRU]

got eHRPD in Salisbury this morning. Thought I'd try to cycle CDMA-CDMA/LTE as i drove past a tower this morning' date=' and there is was. It held all the way to work, even though I barely have signal at all at work. I really thought it'd drop once my coverage got worse, but it didn't. Suffice to say, I'm gonna take the long way home tonight and see if I can confirm it in other places around town. I was started to get worried how it seemed almost everyone else was getting eHRPD and I wasn't finding it in NC.[/quote']

 

eHRPD is the same thing as EVDO, except its data is routed through the LTE core. So you will get it in exactly the same locations and signal strength as EVDO.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[oversteer325]

Looks like they rolled back the eHRPD sofware in south Charlotte. I'm back on EVDO today.

[kendokken3]

I posted in another thread that the last 3 days I've had it early in the morning till around noon or so then back to EvdoA. I actually had it last night at home while connected to my WIFI around 10. I'm going to check throughout the evening to see when it switches back.

[smkyle]

I'm downtown

[airs0ft3r]

Do you have speedtests?

[lilotimz]

EHRPD does not indicate NV. It's a software update to allow seamless handoffs between LTE and CDMA 3g. It's been said many times around here that EHRPD does not indicate NV and that many markets already have EHRPD but no actual work being done yet.

[smkyle]

RPD does not indicate NV. It's a software update to allow seamless handoffs between LTE and CDMA 3g. It's been said many times around here that EHRPD does not indicate NV and that many markets already have EHRPD but no actual work being done yet.

 

So then how do you know which 3g connection you have? When I turn off lte it goes back to EVDO A. Does connecting to the upgraded 3g require using a different radio? I'm so confused now

[S4GRU]

 

So then how do you know which 3g connection you have? When I turn off lte it goes back to EVDO A. Does connecting to the upgraded 3g require using a different radio? I'm so confused now

 

No. The sites that have 3G upgrades instituted can be used by all Sprint 3G devices. There is not really much difference between EVDO-A and eHRPD. I discuss the difference here: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1819-what-is-ehrpd/page__view__findpost__p__52976

 

However, only LTE devices will connect to 3G using eHRPD. But there is really not much advantage of EVDO over eHRPD coming from the same exact site on the same channel. The biggest advantage of eHRPD is it allows LTE to seamlessly handoff to 3G. So you data streaming can continue when transfer from 4G to 3G.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

[Sgt. Slaughter]

Headed down to Concord, NC for the Race this weekend. Looking forward to getting some solid speeds as the towers around there should be gtg near the track. Will be much better than my neck of the woods in Raleigh.

 

 

I do wonder if the COW's Sprint uses is still using legacy equipment or if they have been tweaked to use the new stuff... I'd expect not all would be upgraded but the giant COW's that are the size of 18 wheeler's with SPRINT all over them I'd wonder if they took the time to upgrade those for when deployed to areas that have NV upgrades well underway, like it is in the Charlotte Market.

Speeds have typically stunk at the Track even with the COW's in place the past few years. maybe I actually get a chance to see someone going in/out of the COW this time as im in the infield 24x7 here this weekend.

[smkyle]

No. The sites that have 3G upgrades instituted can be used by all Sprint 3G devices. There is not really much difference between EVDO-A and eHRPD. I discuss the difference here: http://s4gru.com/ind...dpost__p__52976

 

However, only LTE devices will connect to 3G using eHRPD. But there is really not much advantage of EVDO over eHRPD coming from the same exact site on the same channel. The biggest advantage of eHRPD is it allows LTE to seamlessly handoff to 3G. So you data streaming can continue when transfer from 4G to 3G.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

 

Thank you for the explanation. I think your description of the benefits doesn't generalize well. This morning I did not have eHRPD for whatever reason and my morning bus ride phone experience suffered quite a bit. I suspect that what is happening is that my closest tower changes quite a few times during my ride, and every time it does I can't get data for a minute or two. Also, during peak times, I have noticed that eHRPD makes a HUGE difference. There are times when my data speed slows to a crawl for the entire bus ride home and becomes unusable. Google maps? Forget about it. So I think that routing my data through an LTE core, even though my speedtests aren't impressive, makes an enormous difference to me. Mostly I am browsing web pages which I don't think is very data intensive, so perhaps the reduced ping alone is enough to make a big difference. I can't think of any other explanation assuming I am using the same towers in both cases. In summary, I think there may not be much difference if you are still and the network isn't particularly clogged. But as a bus commuter, I am not still during a lot of my phone usage, and when at work, most of the Charlotte metro area is downtown too so the networks are clogged.

 

You are the expert though, so is my explanation plausible? Any other folks in Charlotte noticing a boost in performance on eHRPD days?

 

Also, is it possible that eHRPD DOES coincide with network upgrades in this area? Based on what you and others have said, there is no way to know just by using my phone.

Edited October 12, 2012 by smkyle

[S4GRU]

 

Thank you for the explanation. I think your description of the benefits doesn't generalize well. This morning I did not have eHRPD for whatever reason and my morning bus ride phone experience suffered quite a bit. I suspect that what is happening is that my closest tower changes quite a few times during my ride' date=' and every time it does I can't get data for a minute or two. Also, during peak times, I have noticed that eHRPD makes a HUGE difference. There are times when my data speed slows to a crawl for the entire bus ride home and becomes unusable. Google maps? Forget about it. So I think that routing my data through an LTE core, even though my speedtests aren't impressive, makes an enormous difference to me. Mostly I am browsing web pages which I don't think is very data intensive, so perhaps the reduced ping alone is enough to make a big difference. I can't think of any other explanation assuming I am using the same towers in both cases. In summary, I think there may not be much difference if you are still and the network isn't particularly clogged. But as a bus commuter, I am not still during a lot of my phone usage, and when at work, most of the Charlotte metro area is downtown too so the networks are clogged.

 

You are the expert though, so is my explanation plausible? Any other folks in Charlotte noticing a boost in performance on eHRPD days?

 

Also, is it possible that eHRPD DOES coincide with network upgrades in this area? Based on what you and others have said, there is no way to know just by using my phone.[/quote']

 

You may notice a difference in performance while connected to eHRPD. The bottom section of the explanation in the link I provided explains why. But it is not because eHRPD is faster than EVDO. There is no better explanation out there than the link I provided.

 

In most instances eHRPD is deployed over a whole market at once. It is not installed only on upgraded sites. Also, it is counterintuitive. eHRPD is needed on the non upgrade sites most, as it is 3G that accepts LTE handoffs from upgraded sites.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

[Sgt. Slaughter]

FWIW on my way to concord, nc from Burlington on I connected to eHRPD along i85... Wouldn't of thought the core would of been installed for there yet...less they share charlotte core?...

 

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[S4GRU]

FWIW on my way to concord' date=' nc from Burlington on I connected to eHRPD along i85... Wouldn't of thought the core would of been installed for there yet...less they share charlotte core?...

 

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[/quote']

 

There is not one core per market. There are approximately two dozen cores for 97 markets and two affiliates. So there is a lot of core sharing going on.

 

Additionally, site/core connection is dynamic. Once Network Vision is farther along and all the cores are operational, sites can be diverted to a different core than their primary assigned core dynamically and as necessary depending on traffic and outages, etc. This is a measure to not repeat VZW LTE problems they had initially and to create a superior redundant set up.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

[Sgt. Slaughter]

Makes total logical sense there. Thanks Robert! Now I just wonder when the core that feeds Raleigh gets flipped on as I've seen no eHRPD there yet. That or they just decided to flip towers in Burlington to use the new LTE core bc they are closer to charlotte than raleigh...

 

Now with that said I'm here in Concord and had no LTE at all from the two towers near the track and mall...the one near the track has been upgraded some it seems as I pulled 1.5 down though ping was around 200ms...

 

Guess they are behind a tad in this small area... Oh well, once its fully done its gonna be amazing!

 

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[GraPHiC1982]

I'm starting to wonder if the Charlotte market has been pushed back. I haven't seen any work anywhere.

[owensri2]

While in Charlotte this past weekend, I connected to LTE in near Matthews, NC on Pineville-Matthews Rd and Providence Rd. It was only for about a mile or so, then it dropped back to 3G. Couldn't get an LTE connection after that the rest of the weekend. I managed to snag a SpeedTest before the connection dropped: