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Network Vision/LTE - Central Iowa Market (Des Moines and surrounding areas)


sweyers

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Weird ? I live in Altoona and haven't had any LTE ?

 

I think that is because there are no live LTE towers in Altoona. While there are LTE other places, you will connect normally to the closest tower or best signal which in your case isn't LTE  :(

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Wait ! Take that back ! I just turned my phone off and then back on and it got LTE for like 1 sec !

This is the screen shot I got ! Very poor signal !

 

if you get connected again follow the steps in this link to get the cell ID, that will tell us if you are connected to a known LTE tower or a new one :)

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Update to the Winterset site again October 1 2013 all the old cabinets gone only 2 on site now. Fiber optic run completed.

 

thanks for the update! that is interesting info as this is a GMO site and since the legacy cabinets have been removed that means service is obviously running through the NV cabinets. do you know if LTE is live at this site? how about the 3G speeds how are those? with fiber being run to the site if LTE isn't live that means either the legacy panels can't support it, or no one has been back to the site to hook up the fiber and turn on LTE yet. if the fiber is hooked up though 3G speeds should be great.

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was on the east side of ankeny and found another 1x800 signal! this one from the 4G accepted tower in Mitchellville.

 

2013-10-02_11-40-49.png

 

also stopped by one by clark st and there was a crew there eating lunch. nothing had been installed yet that i could see, i'm guessing this is the first day they have been at this site.

 

IMAG0452.jpg

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I just drove around Ames and tried to pick up the LTE in spots that were on sensorly and didn't get anything after reboots and airplane toggling.  They may have just turned it on briefly I am not sure.  I'll be on the lookout though

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I've looked around a bit and excuse the noob question, but what's the difference in the "flagpole" tower and the "normal" towers? I'm in Ankeny, and I've seen the one behind the Sprint store as well as the one behind Village Inn. I never knew the one behind Vilage Inn was a cell tower until I saw the maps.

There is also a flagpole tower in the middle of the ballfields over on 18th (not Sprint). Where do they put the RUUs?

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I've looked around a bit and excuse the noob question, but what's the difference in the "flagpole" tower and the "normal" towers? I'm in Ankeny, and I've seen the one behind the Sprint store as well as the one behind Village Inn. I never knew the one behind Vilage Inn was a cell tower until I saw the maps.

There is also a flagpole tower in the middle of the ballfields over on 18th (not Sprint). Where do they put the RUUs?

 

only difference is the "flagpole" ones are considered stealth sites so they are supposed to blend in better so you don't notice them. as far as the RRUs, if they can't be mounted up with the panel, or within about 6' of the panel, they will mount them down with the base cabinets. that can apply to any site where the RRU won't fit with the panel, not just the flagpole ones.

 

also since you are a sponsor make sure you check out this thread here (if you haven't already) we are keeping track of the updates in our own spreadsheet and map. so if you see any work being done on the other ankeny towers be sure to let us know there so we can update them! so far the only ankeny tower to have work done is the one behind the sprint store :(

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Has anyone experienced "tower bouncing" lately?  Quite frequently has me and my partner's HTC One devices been bouncing from tower to tower.  It's just not at my house, but at work, too (Fleur Drive).

 

Can anyone relate?

 

It's not unusual if you are at the perimeter of any number of site's coverage areas. Are you seeing any network performance issues? Or just the bouncing? I'm at the edge of coverage between three sites at my house, and I regularly see my phone bounce between them. The network may bounce you to an adjacent site if the current one has high traffic, or decides the signal has gotten to weak - even if only temporarily. 

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yes, i have noticed alot of tower bouncing since i started watching signal check pro.  but it is common and seamless. 

 

i was in Bondurant doing the pizza thing again and POOF!!! i got 4G LTE, see below.  numbers are increasing!

 

Bondurant10-04-2013_zpsece70aff.jpg

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any hope for East Des Moines soon? Sure seems slow getting here- Sprint sales folk always say should be real soon...

 

It looks like more work has been completed around East Des Moines (as compared to West Des Moines where a lot is marked as in progress). There appears to be a few 4G accepted around your area. However I don't have enough information to make a guess as to when real soon will actually be....

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Guest mbrinson

I know sprint is currently working on the towers around here finally which is good, what goes along with that is service being a little more slower/crappier than usual. I called into sprint and did a little complaining, so they gave me a $10 dollar bill credit, the rep did go on to tell me that 4G should be wrapped up by years end. Hope to see it sooner but we will see. :tu:

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I had LTE on Fluer going towards grand today for just a brief time then lost it. I was past greys lake so I didn't think it was the south side tower that has LTE. Is this maybe testing going on?

 

do you remember what your signal strength was? since you have an iphone the bars would have indicated LTE signal strength. 0-1 bars you were probably connected to the one on the south side, anything higher it could have been a new tower testing.

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As you mention it certainly can be possible to get some signals from them testing at sites. The live site in Des Moines can defintely reach over on Fleur but would generally not be the closest tower.

 

If you have that happen again check out this link to see if you can get the ID numbers from the tower.  Also if you have IOS 7 that cell identity maybe cut off but you can go into settings>General>Accessibility>Bold Text - set that to ON then you will get the whole number.

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