Questions about towers

[yousefk]

Hello,

 

I have 2 questions about sprint's towers.

• What is the range of each tower - For each 1900mhz tower, how many feet/miles does it go before going below -95dBm?
  
• How can I check which 3G tower I'm currently connected to? Preferably without having to use any dial codes, since I'm on Cyanogenmod.
  

Thanks!

 

EDIT: Thought I'd also throw in,

 

Is it possible to get the stock dial codes back in Cyanogenmod (##DATA#, ##PRL#, etc.)? I know this was possible on the Evo 3D with replacing a certain system app, but I've forgotten the app name and am wondering if it's possible with the Galaxy S3.

[JohnnyAwesome]

Well with any wireless network(be it 2g,3g, 4g, Wifi, Wimax, even AMPS) the distance a signal can travel will depend on many possible things including geography (both natural and Urban geography) Urban zones are very difficult to meet capacity and coverage wise. trees, mountains and valleys and what else can drop that signal down below -96dBm. I work in a very old building in Center City Philadelphia and the signal is fine right outside but as soon as I walk inside the door signal begins to decrease. There's many variables in what will effect the distance a signal can travel.

 

Also the configuration of the site including how the sectors are setup and what power levels the sites are configured for.

[Feech]

I use CDMA field test to see what tower I am connected to if I want to know. I'm not sure how accurate it is but for me it seems to tell me the right tower when I cross check with Roberts map info on LTE sites. I think that when LTE is here though it will change because I think you can actually be connected to two different towers at the same time.

[S4GRU]

What is the range of each tower - For each 1900mhz tower' date=' how many feet/miles does it go before going below -95dBm?

[/quote']

 

The range is between 5 blocks and 7 miles for -95dBM RSSI (-120dBm RSRP equivalence), outdoors...of course. The variability is because RF design and conditions are so variable from site to site. Some sites are designed to have very small cells to maximize capacity (usually in urban areas). Others are designed to be very large to maximize coverage (usually in rural areas).

 

There is no normal or average, as each site, and each sector within a site, is engineered specifically for that cell.

 

Robert via Moto Photon Q using Forum Runner

[GoWireless]

The range is between 5 blocks and 7 miles for -95dBM RSSI (-120dBm RSRP equivalence), outdoors...of course. The variability is because RF design and conditions are so variable from site to site. Some sites are designed to have very small cells to maximize capacity (usually in urban areas). Others are designed to be very large to maximize coverage (usually in rural areas).

 

There is no normal or average, as each site, and each sector within a site, is engineered specifically for that cell.

 

Robert via Moto Photon Q using Forum Runner

 

Robert, what's the expected maximum usable range/cell reach for LTE on 800Mhz?

[S4GRU]

Robert, what's the expected maximum usable range/cell reach for LTE on 800Mhz?

 

Up to 30% - 40% further than LTE 1900, but it will be highly variable site by site depending on RF engineering and downtilt of the site.

 

Robert

[nahum365]

I was in Timonioum, and according to Robert's completed sites map, I was about 3 miles away from the closest LTE site. But I was still getting 2 bars (iPhone 5 does show LTE signal strength) of LTE. Speedtest showed about 20Mbps. I was also close to a completed 3G site (my 1X was connected to this site.). If 1900 LTE can travel that far in this very urban area, 800 will be amazing!

[Ascertion]

I can answer the Cyanogenmod question! The dialer is not a Touchwiz/Sense one (depending on which phone you're using), which enables these features of accessing phone programming. You'll have to return to the stock based roms to get your dialer options back.

[mrzood]

*#*#DATA#*#* and *#*#DEBUG#*#* (plus lock code 777468) dialer codes should work in Cyanogenmod as they are the AOSP dialer codes, YMMV.