Network Vision/LTE - East Iowa Market (Quad Cities, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Dubuque, Waterloo/Cedar Falls)

[bmoses]

Has anyone heard anything about the Quad City area?

 

nothing reported here yet. most of the east iowa market is at least 3G complete. so I would assume the hold up is backhaul, that and outside of the major cities in east iowa, most of the towers are GMO so they are really low priority.

[njbelf]

did you have sensorly running the whole time and were you using the LTE discovery app? i ask because its been seen that if there is an active data connection and you are on 3G your phone will not switch to 4G even if its there. having sensorly running would count as an active data connection. if you swing past there again make sure to at least do airplane mode to force your phone to scan for 4G. then if you get 4G fire up sensorly

 

I was not using the LTE discovery app at the time but did have sensorly running the whole time.   Not sure when I'll be back that way but I'll keep these tips in mind for when they turn on 4g here in Cedar Rapids.

[BigJohn2]

Wonder what they are doing to this site?  Site ID #dm------

 

 

 

I see it has been upgraded with 3g. 

Later,

John

[Jobber8742]

They must be doing something in here in the Quad Cities, now instead of my poor signals and data crawl, I often fall into roaming in areas where I had signals in the past and a slow/no data crawl. I really can't wait for the updates. I'll be keeping an eye on this forum for updates.

[bkco14]

I have been in communication with someone from Dan@sprint.com. I don't know how reliable they are, but they were saying a lot of the tower work will be done by August. I have been hearing that song and dance for a year now. Based off what I am hearing on this site, I am not getting my hopes up and thinking we may not see anything until the end of the year.

 

I got my hopes up around Christmas that the 3G portion would be fixed since I was seeing around 800k - 1M downloads on a frequent basis, but 2 weeks later it was back down to 30k. Now my signal has degraded to the point where I usually have 4 bars, but now I mostly see 1.

 

I am hoping the 3G will be fixed soon as my parents are now starting to get angry as the network times out on them and they can't really do anything. I keep telling it will get better based off what I have read in the Chicago market thread, but their patience is starting to wear out.

[billyjoejimbob]

I have been in communication with someone from Dan@sprint.com. I don't know how reliable they are, but they were saying a lot of the tower work will be done by August. I have been hearing that song and dance for a year now. Based off what I am hearing on this site, I am not getting my hopes up and thinking we may not see anything until the end of the year.

 

I got my hopes up around Christmas that the 3G portion would be fixed since I was seeing around 800k - 1M downloads on a frequent basis, but 2 weeks later it was back down to 30k. Now my signal has degraded to the point where I usually have 4 bars, but now I mostly see 1.

 

I am hoping the 3G will be fixed soon as my parents are now starting to get angry as the network times out on them and they can't really do anything. I keep telling it will get better based off what I have read in the Chicago market thread, but their patience is starting to wear out.

 

I'm familiar with a couple of Sprint towers in the Quad Cities area that are planned for full Network Vision builds (not GMO), and thus far not much of anything has occurred from what I can tell.  No new antennas or equipment cabinets have been installed.  Physically, the sites look pretty much the same as they did when Sprint purchased IPCS back in 2009.  For some history, IPCS was the local Sprint affiliate in the Quad Cities until Sprint bought the company.

[bkco14]

I'm familiar with a couple of Sprint towers in the Quad Cities area that are planned for full Network Vision builds (not GMO), and thus far not much of anything has occurred from what I can tell.  No new antennas or equipment cabinets have been installed.  Physically, the sites look pretty much the same as they did when Sprint purchased IPCS back in 2009.  For some history, IPCS was the local Sprint affiliate in the Quad Cities until Sprint bought the company.

That is what I was afraid of. Thanks for the information.

[billyjoejimbob]

That is what I was afraid of. Thanks for the information.

 

No problem, I feel your pain on this one.  Sprint for whatever reason, in my opinion, seems to completely disregard the Quad Cities even though it's a metro area with 400,000+ people. 

 

Story time.  I was a Sprint customer back in 2011 when the data network really started getting slow, and Sprint has seemed to be behind the curve on upgrades ever since then.  When it got really slow, I opened network tickets with Sprint and was told that upgrades were scheduled to the nearby towers, the time frame I was given for the upgrade installs was 5 months.   I was under contract, so what choice did I have but to wait.  So I waited, and waited, and 10 months later Sprint called me saying that the upgrades were installed, 50% capacity upgrade.   Sadly, by then the 3G network had gotten so slow that the upgrades only got it back to the slowness it was when I first called them.  I opened more network tickets, they admitted that the previous upgrades weren't adequate and they had immediately ordered more upgrades.  Time frame for install?  6 more months. 

 

I really hope Sprint succeeds with Network Vision, I'd really love to come back if they had a data network throughout the Quad Cities, and the region in general, that functioned in my perception even close to comparably to the other carriers.   The reality though in my opinion?  Even after they get their new antennas and equipment installed, they'll probably be telling you they're still waiting on backhaul.  

 

For my guess on when the problems in the Quad Cities will be fixed...... summer 2014 or optimistically spring 2014 based on all of my past experiences, and experiences of friends that are still Sprint customers.  I really hope I'm wrong and Sprint gets a move on it.   I'll keep an eye on the towers that I'm in close proximity to though and I'll be sure to post back if something actually happens regarding Network Vision.

[gnoj]

I sure hope Sprint can get some NV upgrades done in Iowa City and Ames before the crowd of students and parents arrive. They've got about one month, so I'm not that optimistic.

[dangogel]

They have 66 percent network vision updates in east iowa but no lte updates is there a reason no lte has been done in this area

[bkco14]

They have 66 percent network vision updates in east iowa but no lte updates is there a reason no lte has been done in this area

Hopefully the quad cities isn't in the 66% done figure as the data is still painfully slow and times out on a regular basis.

[bmoses]

They have 66 percent network vision updates in east iowa but no lte updates is there a reason no lte has been done in this area

 

i can think of 2 reasons.

 

1) outside of the major cities the majority of the east iowa towers are GMO sites which are low priority and probably haven't had backhaul run to them yet

 

2) inside the major cities they are probably waiting on backhaul. they can't turn on LTE without the proper backhaul, so if equipment has been installed for awhile and no LTE then its because of backhaul.

[dangogel]

i can think of 2 reasons.

 

1) outside of the major cities the majority of the east iowa towers are GMO sites which are low priority and probably haven't had backhaul run to them yet

 

2) inside the major cities they are probably waiting on backhaul. they can't turn on LTE without the proper backhaul, so if equipment has been installed for awhile and no LTE then its because of backhaul.

[dangogel]

Does that mean that gmo sites will be done last is that when we will get lte? That makes me wonder how Iowa as a whole will ever get done

[bmoses]

Does that mean that gmo sites will be done last is that when we will get lte? That makes me wonder how Iowa as a whole will ever get done

 

GMO sites are supposed to get LTE once they get backhaul, but being low priority who knows when that will be. once NV was done the plan was to come back and convert GMO sites to full build sites.

 

now that softbank is at the helm though this could all change and they may want GMO sites to be full build sites now. 

[dangogel]

Oh ok I just didn't know I thought id ask. Thank you

[dangogel]

I talked with sprint they plan on working on lte in the next 3 months and finishing it up in the next 6 months. I was a little surprised by there time table thats a long time

[dangogel]

Cedar Rapids 1x800 signal check pro

[dangogel]

I went ehrpd to ev-do rev a. Is that a good sign of lte update to a tower

[bmoses]

I went ehrpd to ev-do rev a. Is that a good sign of lte update to a tower

 

could be, but probably not, its just a software protocol and its still out there for non-LTE phones to use so there isn't anything preventing your phone from switching back to it for whatever reason. usually if you get back on evdo rev a you can do airplane mode and get back on ehrpd.

[dangogel]

Nope it didnt work tried to switch using signal check pro and says ev-do

[bmoses]

i did say usually and it could be something or it could be nothing, no way to tell really.

[bmoses]

Robert just posted in the Iowa sponsors thread that the first LTE site in east iowa was accepted! if you are a sponsor you can see the location of it, someone needs to go check that out!

[adame233]

Robert just posted in the Iowa sponsors thread that the first LTE site in east iowa was accepted! if you are a sponsor you can see the location of it, someone needs to go check that out!

 

That's a full-build site. I drove past it in June when I was checking out some of the I-80 towers between Iowa City and Davenport. I'm surprised this is the first accepted LTE site, I always assumed it would be in Iowa City or Cedar Rapids.

 

I may have time to swing by today... if not, this weekend definitely!

[bmoses]

That's a full-build site. I drove past it in June when I was checking out some of the I-80 towers between Iowa City and Davenport. I'm surprised this is the first accepted LTE site, I always assumed it would be in Iowa City or Cedar Rapids.

 

I may have time to swing by today... if not, this weekend definitely!

 

that would be great news, robert just posted back confirming that it is marked as a GMO site, so either its the first GMO site with LTE, or it got converted to full build, which would be even better. make sure to take pics if you make it by!