New Tower Install: Is it sprint?

[PedroDaGr8]

EDIT: This site was determined to be an AT&T site further down in the thread.

 

There is a new tower being installed near my place. Unfortunately, there are NO carrier markings on any of the equipment. The shack is still being built down in the parking lot. Can anyone tell anything from the attached photos.

 

 

You can see two separate towers for the install. Mind you this is around a softball field oddly enough and this field never had lights before these towers were installed.

 

 

This is the tower on the right. Only two wires to each of these panels (basically one side connected) but that being said this tower does not appear to be complete as the lower "rung" is not populated with RUUs.

 

 

 

This is the left tower, it appear that there are two RUU's per panel. Note that one antena does not appear to be hooked up yet. That the other antenna has all four wires connected.

 

I apologize for the suboptimal quality of the pics, these were taken with my phone. Plus I had to shrink them to fit them in this post. I have more pics of each tower if needed as well as the fullsize images that I can rehost elsewhere.

Edited December 30, 2012 by S4GRU
Added EDIT line to top of post at request of member

[S4GRU]

I cannot say with 100% certainty. It may be. I've never seen an AT&T site with so many RRU's before. However, I never recall seeing a Sprint Alcatel Lucent NV site with panels with an indent along the sides running the length of the panel. That's new to me. Where exactly is this site?

 

Robert

[MacinJosh]

I cannot say with 100% certainty. It may be. I've never seen an AT&T site with so many RRU's before. However, I never recall seeing a Sprint Alcatel Lucent NV site with panels with an indent along the sides running the length of the panel. That's new to me. Where exactly is this site?

 

Robert

 

In all my digging for Vegas Sprint Permits, I found a lot of entries for at&t RRU's. Sometimes between 10 & 15.

[S4GRU]

Also, AT&T sites typically have several different panel types/sizes. However, a new Sprint site would only have one panel type and size. However, it is uncommon at Sprint NV sites to have more than one panel, unless the sites needs more than eight EVDO/1x carriers.

 

Robert

[MacinJosh]

Also, AT&T sites typically have several different panel types/sizes. However, a new Sprint site would only have one panel type and size. However, it is uncommon at Sprint NV sites to have more than one panel, unless the sites needs more than eight EVDO/1x carriers. Robert

 

Some of Sprint's towers in Vegas have 6' panels and some have 4' 6" panels.

[PedroDaGr8]

I cannot say with 100% certainty. It may be. I've never seen an AT&T site with so many RRU's before. However, I never recall seeing a Sprint Alcatel Lucent NV site with panels with an indent along the sides running the length of the panel. That's new to me. Where exactly is this site?

 

Robert

 

Doyle Park Softball Field in the UTC district of San Diego, CA

 

 

I used google maps to plot roughly where they are located.

 

Link

 

A is the right tower and B is the left tower.

 

I do know that Sprint is underspeced in this area. Sometimes even with 5 bars of signal I only get d/l speeds of 0.5M/sec or less. Oddly often u/l is equal or higher than the d/l speed.

[S4GRU]

Some of Sprint's towers in Vegas have 6' panels and some have 4' 6" panels.

 

Yes, but that is for legacy panels. This would be a brand new site with all NV gear. A brand new NV only site would all have panels the same height.

 

Robert

[irev210]

I'm betting AT&T

[PedroDaGr8]

Yes, but that is for legacy panels. This would be a brand new site with all NV gear. A brand new NV only site would all have panels the same height.

 

Robert

 

I apologize if the paralax error (and my phones annoying lens) distorts things but all of the panels at this site appear to be the same size.

[S4GRU]

Doyle Park Softball Field in the UTC district of San Diego, CA I used google maps to plot roughly where they are located. Link A is the right tower and B is the left tower. I do know that Sprint is underspeced in this area. Sometimes even with 5 bars of signal I only get d/l speeds of 0.5M/sec or less. Oddly often u/l is equal or higher than the d/l speed.

 

I was just checking in the site database, and Sprint already has a site at that park on the south side. It is a stealth site, probably mounted to a light pole too. It went live on August 20, 2007. It will likely be converted right where it is. The new site you have found on the north side is likely AT&T.

 

Robert

[PedroDaGr8]

I was just checking in the site database, and Sprint already has a site at that park on the south side. It is a stealth site, probably mounted to a light pole too. It went live on August 20, 2007. It will likely be converted right where it is. The new site you have found on the north side is likely AT&T.

 

Robert

 

Thanks, I'll try and see if I can scout out that tower after tha rain stops. Maybe take some pics of it as well for future reference. It's odd because AT&T already is known for having great coverage in this area. According to Sensorly, both sprint and AT&T get 4-5 bars in this area.

 

Can you tell me if the tower is at the SE or SW side of the park? I understand if you want to keep that level of detail hidden.

Edited December 29, 2012 by PedroDaGr8

[S4GRU]

Thanks, I'll try and see if I can scout out that tower after tha rain stops. Maybe take some pics of it as well for future reference. It's odd because AT&T already is known for having great coverage in this area. According to Sensorly, both sprint and AT&T get 4-5 bars in this area.

 

Can you tell me if the tower is at the SE or SW side of the park? I understand if you want to keep that level of detail hidden.

 

Although the markers can be off a little, but it appears that it's near the baseball diamond at the SW side of the park.

 

Robert

[doug526]

I found an AT&T site in a parking garage here in downtown Austin and was able to visit their equipment up close. This particular cell site is at 9th & Neches. Sorry for the crappy pictures, I don't know how to use a camera. They are using 3 antennas per sector, all are dual 698-896 and 1710-2180 MHz antennas. I think only one antenna per sector has LTE, as I only spotted 3 total Ericsson RRU's in the equipment area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[digiblur]

 

Yes, but that is for legacy panels. This would be a brand new site with all NV gear. A brand new NV only site would all have panels the same height.

 

Robert

 

Some NV sites have shorter but fatter panels. Those are 33 degree beam width panels.

 

-- "Sensorly or it didn't happen!"

 

 

[MacinJosh]

Some NV sites have shorter but fatter panels. Those are 33 degree beam width panels.

 

-- "Sensorly or it didn't happen!"

 

So that will project the signal in a different pattern than the full size panels?

[S4GRU]

Some NV sites have shorter but fatter panels. Those are 33 degree beam width panels.

 

-- "Sensorly or it didn't happen!"

 

We have a few shorter/fatter Verizon LTE panels around here. Very unusual looking. I don't think I've noticed any NV panels like that yet.

 

Robert

[digiblur]

 

We have a few shorter/fatter Verizon LTE panels around here. Very unusual looking. I don't think I've noticed any NV panels like that yet.

 

Robert

 

Look in the NOLA thread where a member linked several site photos with one link. I responded and explained the photos.

 

-- "Sensorly or it didn't happen!"

 

 

[digiblur]

 

So that will project the signal in a different pattern than the full size panels?

 

Yes, the other panels are either 65 or 90 degree beam widths depending on the RF design.

 

They also use the narrower beam width panels to shoot down an interstate between cities. So they aren't just for dense urban areas. Kinda like fine tuning a flash light, the light goes farther but doesn't go as wide.

 

-- "Sensorly or it didn't happen!"

 

 

[MacinJosh]

Yes, the other panels are either 65 or 90 degree beam widths depending on the RF design. They also use the narrower beam width panels to shoot down an interstate between cities. So they aren't just for dense urban areas. Kinda like fine tuning a flash light, the light goes farther but doesn't go as wide. -- "Sensorly or it didn't happen!"

 

So with a narrow beam width panel, they would be targeting a specific spot, like a building?

[PedroDaGr8]

Although the markers can be off a little, but it appears that it's near the baseball diamond at the SW side of the park.

 

Robert

 

Sure enough I found Sprints install. It's surprisingly puny. The light posts its on are so small they couldn't even fit all three antenna on one pole. Two are on B in the link below and one is on A. If Sprint plans on upgrading these to NV there is going to be a LOT of work involved. Comapared to the new installation these light posts are like tooth picks (2/3 the height and likely 1/4 the diameter).

 

The sprint service hut which I SWEAR looks like it used to be the public bathrooms for the park (the new ones are in the large community center and another set on the SE side of the park. There are two bricked up doors and windows on the front. You can kinda of see them but not well because I had the exposure set too high on my phone.

 

 

Compare the sizes (realizing the far ones are two softball fields away) th nearest tower is the same size as the sprint ones.

 

Exact locations of the sprint towers:

Link

 

Nice friendly image taken from below the tower.

 

 

That being said, the aforementioned install is now confirmable as AT&T. When I went to find the Sprint spot, I decided to check out the new install again. On the second time there, I noticed signs on the posts. I don't remember them being there before (workers were there so its possible the signs were just installed but its possible I'm just blind). Anyways, the signs clearly state AT&T Mobile installation. So unless sprint plans on doing a shared installation I have huge doubts the Doyle Park area is going to get renovated.

 

Edited December 30, 2012 by PedroDaGr8

[digiblur]

 

So with a narrow beam width panel, they would be targeting a specific spot, like a building?

 

Possibly. The legacy panels that were narrow beam width have fins on the sides of them. You will see a mixture of them on sites too.

 

-- "Sensorly or it didn't happen!"

 

 

[PedroDaGr8]

Well now that we know this is an AT&T panel. It looks like in two of these situatins the RRU's with the curved top maybe indicative of AT&T?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can clearly see them in doug's image and they are the exact same as the ones on the lightpole in my image (though its harder to tell in mine)

Edited December 30, 2012 by PedroDaGr8

[digiblur]

We have a few shorter/fatter Verizon LTE panels around here. Very unusual looking. I don't think I've noticed any NV panels like that yet.

 

Robert

 

Updated the RRU spotting thread with a picture of these different panels:

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2902-how-to-spot-sprint-panels-and-rrus-ericsson-style/

[S4GRU]

Updated the RRU spotting thread with a picture of these different panels:

 

http://s4gru.com/ind...ericsson-style/

 

I would have not thought it was an NV panel, had it not been for the panels on the other sectors. Good find!

 

Robert

[PedroDaGr8]

s4gru - can you update my first post to denote my post that shows they are conclusively AT&T. So that no one is misled?