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Network Vision/LTE - Washington DC Market

dstrait

By dstrait
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lilotimz Member Level: LTE Advanced

lilotimz

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The good news is when the Massey building is torn down at the Fairfax court complex, the big 4 will be moving their antennas to The Fairfax Building, which my company owns. So once the city green lights all the site plans we have from Sitelink Wireless for their antennas on OUR roof, I'll be posting plenty of build out pictures.

 

 

Pictures for days!

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RedSpark
RedSpark

At the Nationals Game today! My iPhone XS automatically connected to a private WiFi network “provided by Sprint” at Nationals Park. Check out the data speeds here during the game. Nice

Trip
Trip

I continue to be amazed at how quickly upgrades are occurring.  Yesterday I drove to visit my parents and then today I drove back.  On my way down, I had LTE all the way from my home next to the Hunti

Trip
Trip

I really like this picture from a Washington Post article about OPM. - Trip

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kct1975 Member Level: 4G LTE

kct1975

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The good news is when the Massey building is torn down at the Fairfax court complex, the big 4 will be moving their antennas to The Fairfax Building, which my company owns. So once the city green lights all the site plans we have from Sitelink Wireless for their antennas on OUR roof, I'll be posting plenty of build out pictures.

Sorry for going off topic, but when is the Massey Building being demolished?
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Trip Member Level: 4G LTE

Trip

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I went to the patriot center for some UFC action today and could not believe how absurdly awful the service is at GMU. Sitting in my truck in the parking lot I volleyed between LTE and 1X, and could not use my phone in the arena. I remember being on the event floor in 2010 for graduation and not being able to use it but 5 years later and no improvement is embarrassing.

 

I wouldn't say GMU service is awful so much as inconsistent.  I know there's a tower on campus, but whenever I drop my sister off, I seem to be on B41 or 1X and nothing in between.  And often the B41 is from Massey and not the presumably closer one on campus.  Maybe it's got something to do with the building materials?

 

- Trip

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S4GRU Member Level: LTE Advanced

S4GRU

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It's funny. I saw GMU, and at first I thought it was an acronym for Ground Mount Unit. Then it dawned on me, it must be reference to George Mason University. [emoji38]

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

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zippychance Member Level: 1x Advanced

zippychance

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Trip, there is a tower on top of Science and Tech I (if that's even what it's called still), but I have no idea what they have spectrum wise. Our next visit is from the backhaul engineer so I'll ask him what he knows about the service there. Building materials didn't prevent my friends with AT&T from posting pictures though. I was parked in lot A by the old police station when the trouble started. It's too bad professer Kelley died, he was good friends with my Dad. He could have probably let me climb the tower if I asked nicely.

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kct1975 Member Level: 4G LTE

kct1975

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It's funny. I saw GMU, and at first I thought it was an acronym for Ground Mount Unit. Then it dawned on me, it must be reference to George Mason University. [emoji38]

 

Using Moto X² on Tapatalk

LOL!

 

Being a graduate of George Mason University, of course I knew immediately [emoji6]

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Trip Member Level: 4G LTE

Trip

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Trip, there is a tower on top of Science and Tech I (if that's even what it's called still), but I have no idea what they have spectrum wise. Our next visit is from the backhaul engineer so I'll ask him what he knows about the service there. Building materials didn't prevent my friends with AT&T from posting pictures though. I was parked in lot A by the old police station when the trouble started. It's too bad professer Kelley died, he was good friends with my Dad. He could have probably let me climb the tower if I asked nicely.

 

Cool, thanks.  I'll be interested to know what you find out!

 

Based primarily on public records, I came up with this a few weeks ago:

 

GMUCellTowers.png

 

The 35 icon is Sprint/Clear, while the 78 icon is Verizon/T-Mobile.  I couldn't locate good information on AT&T.  I would have thought, though, that Sprint being so close to where I drop my sister off that the signal would be better.

 

Not sure if any of it is 100% accurate though; you will probably have better info than I do. 

 

- Trip

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nahum365 Member Level: eHRPD

nahum365

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Ow. LTE is essentially dead here at the Cherry Blossom festival. I just had a speed test fail to initialize... on band 41. That's a first. 2nd carrier is really necessary here. 3G is great though, almost 2mbps down. Probably because the vast majority of people here are on LTE.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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jroepcke51 Member Level: 4G WiMax

jroepcke51

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Ow. LTE is essentially dead here at the Cherry Blossom festival. I just had a speed test fail to initialize... on band 41. That's a first. 2nd carrier is really necessary here. 3G is great though, almost 2mbps down. Probably because the vast majority of people here are on LTE.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Crazy. Enjoy those trees. Thank the Japanese.
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nahum365 Member Level: eHRPD

nahum365

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What tower were you looking at? Or could you tell?

 

- Trip

Couldn't tell, but one of the sites was reported as an 8T8R by CellularInfo so possibly WA98XC300.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Trip Member Level: 4G LTE

Trip

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Do you have the GCI?  I would be very surprised if it's WA98XC300, because that tower's range is very poor from what I've seen.  Of course, I'll be out looking at the cherry blossoms with my fiancee this afternoon, so I should be able to see for myself in any case.

 

- Trip

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Trip Member Level: 4G LTE

Trip

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Well, maybe not so surprising.  A week ago or so, when I reported the site was live, I could barely get it below the -90 dBm necessary for a report to be accepted.  This morning on my way in, I saw -76 dBm while casually walking by the building.  So I'm guessing they turned it up by at least 10 dB.

 

- Trip

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nahum365 Member Level: eHRPD

nahum365

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Well, maybe not so surprising. A week ago or so, when I reported the site was live, I could barely get it below the -90 dBm necessary for a report to be accepted. This morning on my way in, I saw -76 dBm while casually walking by the building. So I'm guessing they turned it up by at least 10 dB.

 

- Trip

I didn't get the GCI, looks like you saw it though. Was it working alright down by the trees?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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rmorrisonva Member Level: iDEN *chirp*

rmorrisonva

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I ran periodic speed tests (about say 6-8 total) the other day while going down 267 west from Route 7 all the way to the Greenway toll booths... lowest DL was 8Mbps, the average was north of 30Mbps, the highest was just over 50Mbps... UL speeds and pings were decent too. I stayed on Sprint B41 the entire time as well... WOW, I'm quite impressed (especially given the less than perfect weather, and heavy traffic that day!)

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Trip Member Level: 4G LTE

Trip

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Better service in the stations, which does NOT require any track closings, would be an amazing start.  Wish they could at least do that much!

 

My phone only works about 1/3 of the time when I'm waiting for a train at L'enfant, the transfer point where five of six Metro lines meet.  That is not acceptable, by any stretch of the imagination.  Last time I was there, Farragut North had no service at all!

 

Getting LTE into the stations, or even just properly functioning 3G, would be a vast improvement over right now.

 

- Trip

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RedSpark Member Level: LTE Advanced

RedSpark

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Excuse my continuous eye rolling at WMATA.... I get the initial delay because of the PowerWave Bankruptcy, but come on!

 

http://wamu.org/news/15/04/15/metro_to_start_on_improvements_for_first_responder_radios_passenger_cell_service_in_january

 

Stuff like this makes me sad. Considering how many government employees regularly use the Metro, isn't there a national security interest in having complete coverage? Of course, this is in addition to the general public interest. It's a bit alarming to be out of coverage and sitting in a dark tunnel.

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Trip Member Level: 4G LTE

Trip

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Here at my desk at work, I usually sit on B26 or Clear B41 from a site at least 6 blocks away.  The one right across the street is very weak and around the corner from where my office is.

 

Suddenly, this morning, I connected to a new B25 site.  I'm guessing it's either this building or the one next door (which was "B25 Accepted" a long time ago but I have never seen live).  It's still preferring B41 from the more distant site when it can see it, which is the correct choice in my mind, but when that's too weak, I'm holding B25 now at something like -80 instead of falling to 3G from the building's DAS.

 

- Trip

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coorsleftfield Member Level: 3G EVDO

coorsleftfield

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How much of DC downtown is complete at this point? I've been here a week and the sprint experience has been average. I'm still seeing a lot of 3G on my phone around the area and about half of that time there is no data available on 3G

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Dkoellerwx Member Level: LTE Advanced

Dkoellerwx

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Couldn't tell, but one of the sites was reported as an 8T8R by CellularInfo so possibly WA98XC300.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pulling up a somewhat old post, haven't been in this thread for a while. Just wanted to point out that given the 98XC in the site ID, that is likely a DAS rather than a macro site, so you likely were not connected to B41 coming from that site.

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