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

[bmoses]

I talked to some guys at the MLK tower and they said they were there testing to turn stuff on, I think we are getting closer.

 

nice! what time were you there? i drove by that one and saw there was someone there but didn't stop did they specifically say if 4G was going to be turned on? or just that the tower was going to get accepted?

[gonkwr]

Wife works within 2 blocks of the capital. I picked her up from work today and did a litle test. On her S3, lte picked up and stayed connected. Speed test showed 5.85 down. On my new G2,lte would connect, then go back to 3g after 5 seconds or so.

 

Now, my dilemma is do I keep the G2 an hope this all works out sooner rather than later, or do I return it and wait for a while. I only got the G2 now because of the $99 price tag Best Buy. Without that in place I would not have upgraded as there is currently no other device I'm interested in. If I return the G2 and don't get something else, my upgrade is gone.

 

I'm not opposed to waiting it out if it's not going to be a long time before the G2 can use lte. I also don't want to be stuck waiting for 4g again. What would you guys do?

[Mr.Nuke]

Wife works within 2 blocks of the capital. I picked her up from work today and did a litle test. On her S3, lte picked up and stayed connected. Speed test showed 5.85 down. On my new G2,lte would connect, then go back to 3g after 5 seconds or so.

 

Now, my dilemma is do I keep the G2 an hope this all works out sooner rather than later, or do I return it and wait for a while. I only got the G2 now because of the $99 price tag Best Buy. Without that in place I would not have upgraded as there is currently no other device I'm interested in. If I return the G2 and don't get something else, my upgrade is gone.

 

I'm not opposed to waiting it out if it's not going to be a long time before the G2 can use lte. I also don't want to be stuck waiting for 4g again. What would you guys do?

First off welcome. I'd wait it out if it were me. You have a top of the line phone that has a temporary issue (and it could be argued it is more of a network issue than the phone issue). Having a tri-band device sets you up well for the future. Sprint knows of the issue and Samsung (the sprint NV contractor in Iowa and Nebraska) is aggressively getting sites NV accepted in clusters to fix it. It is hard to put an actual timeline on this, but we already know the majority of the Central Iowa sites are in progress. East Iowa is by-and-large done. Lincoln Nebraska just had a cluster of sites accepted today, etc. They're working hard on it.

 

The other aspect of this and bmoses may disagree with my interpretation of what we are seeing a bit here , is we have seen the priority shift to getting sites NV 3G accepted. If that holds, there are only a limited number of sites broadcasting LTE in the Des Moines metro and it may stay that way until the market is completely NV 3G accepted.* I know it is frustrating to see your wife's phone connect to LTE and yours not (you could force it to by going to LTE only mode) but unless you live or work near one of the LTE accepted sites you aren't missing a heck of a lot right now.

 

*At that point they'll come back and fire off LTE for the sites that have backhaul shortly thereafter. This has ranged from a day to a couple of weeks in other markets.

[Dkoellerwx]

Wife works within 2 blocks of the capital. I picked her up from work today and did a litle test. On her S3, lte picked up and stayed connected. Speed test showed 5.85 down. On my new G2,lte would connect, then go back to 3g after 5 seconds or so.

 

Now, my dilemma is do I keep the G2 an hope this all works out sooner rather than later, or do I return it and wait for a while. I only got the G2 now because of the $99 price tag Best Buy. Without that in place I would not have upgraded as there is currently no other device I'm interested in. If I return the G2 and don't get something else, my upgrade is gone.

 

I'm not opposed to waiting it out if it's not going to be a long time before the G2 can use lte. I also don't want to be stuck waiting for 4g again. What would you guys do?

I agree with Mr. Nuke.

 

It won't be any longer than 90 days and your G2 will work fine. Samsung is aggressively fixing the network issue that is preventing your phone from connecting to LTE.

 

The entire city of Madison, WI had the issue fixed in the last couple of days. Lincoln, NE started seeing the fixes come online today. It's only a matter of time before the wave hits Des Moines. When it does, I expect any sites that have 4G ready to come online as well.

[gonkwr]

First off welcome. I'd wait it out if it were me. You have a top of the line phone that has a temporary issue (and it could be argued it is more of a network issue than the phone issue). Having a tri-band device sets you up well for the future. Sprint knows of the issue and Samsung (the sprint NV contractor in Iowa and Nebraska) is aggressively getting sites NV accepted in clusters to fix it. It is hard to put an actual timeline on this, but we already know the majority of the Central Iowa sites are in progress. East Iowa is by-and-large done. Lincoln Nebraska just had a cluster of sites accepted today, etc. They're working hard on it.

 

The other aspect of this and bmoses may disagree with my interpretation of what we are seeing a bit here , is we have seen the priority shift to getting sites NV 3G accepted. If that holds, there are only a limited number of sites broadcasting LTE in the Des Moines metro and it may stay that way until the market is completely NV 3G accepted.* I know it is frustrating to see your wife's phone connect to LTE and yours not (you could force it to by going to LTE only mode) but unless you live or work near one of the LTE accepted sites you aren't missing a heck of a lot right now.

 

*At that point they'll come back and fire off LTE for the sites that have backhaul shortly thereafter.

I agree with Mr. Nuke.It won't be any longer than 90 days and your G2 will work fine. Samsung is aggressively fixing the network issue that is preventing your phone from connecting to LTE.The entire city of Madison, WI had the issue fixed in the last couple of days. Lincoln, NE started seeing the fixes come online today. It's only a matter of time before the wave hits Des Moines. When it does, I expect any sites that have 4G ready to come online as well.

Thanks for the rapid responses. So if my understanding is correct, once lte is fully fired up there won't be an issue. Is that correct? I was concerned that once lte was fully implemented the issue would remain until Sprint made changes to get it fixed. If that's not the case then I'm just fine. I have no issue waiting for lte until it's full throttle.

[Dkoellerwx]

Thanks for the rapid responses. So if my understanding is correct, once lte is fully fired up there won't be an issue. Is that correct? I was concerned that once lte was fully implemented the issue would remain until Sprint made changes to get it fixed. If that's not the case then I'm just fine. I have no issue waiting for lte until it's full throttle.

If Samsung continued to follow the old method for deployment, then yes there would have been issues.

 

Thankfully, unbeknownst to us, they switched gears. When new LTE comes online, it will be with the new software and fixes to allow it to work with your device. You should have nothing to worry about!

[DsmIowaGuy]

Thanks for the rapid responses. So if my understanding is correct, once lte is fully fired up there won't be an issue. Is that correct? I was concerned that once lte was fully implemented the issue would remain until Sprint made changes to get it fixed. If that's not the case then I'm just fine. I have no issue waiting for lte until it's full throttle.

 

Another thing besides those hardware discussion would be that you are really on the fringe of LTE near the capitol - not because you are that far from a live LTE tower but you are closer to a tower that is not LTE. So taking into account actual signal strength it's not uncommon to switch over to that 3G site.  Nothing is for sure in radio and airwaves because you can go across town and connect to that LTE for a brief period but then pretty quick your device will move you to a better/generally closer tower.

 

Welcome to S4GRU.  Check things out, read a while and consider becoming a sponsor and supporting the group if your interest grows. In addition to just browsing around (which can be overwhelming) some of us have links and/or info on our signatures when we post - so you'll get some additional reading - maybe more than you want 

[gonkwr]

If Samsung continued to follow the old method for deployment, then yes there would have been issues.Thankfully, unbeknownst to us, they switched gears. When new LTE comes online, it will be with the new software and fixes to allow it to work with your device. You should have nothing to worry about!

Excellent to hear since I really don't want to give up this phone. It's fantastic. Again, thanks for the rapid response

[koolaide]

won't be any longer than 90 days

 

Can you please provide a source on this? Ever since I joined the Sprint network, over a year ago, all I've heard is "less than 90 days" or "within three months" as a response to every question, and I've been disappointed every time. Just to be clear, mods (don't ban me again), I have VERY strong faith in NV and I actively recommend Sprint to friends who ask me about phone carriers, but I'm just asking this person for some sort of definitive proof that this issue will actually be resolved within 90 days as he/she claimed.

[Mr.Nuke]

Can you please provide a source on this? Ever since I joined the Sprint network, over a year ago, all I've heard is "less than 90 days" or "within three months" as a response to every question, and I've been disappointed every time. Just to be clear, mods (don't ban me again), I have VERY strong faith in NV and I actively recommend Sprint to friends who ask me about phone carriers, but I'm just asking this person for some sort of definitive proof that this issue will actually be resolved within 90 days as he/she claimed.

The source is us. You have access to the very detailed maps for all of Nebraska and Iowa. East Iowa is done as far as this issue is concerned. 1/4 of Lincoln Nebraska got the fix today. We've found probably 15 sites new sites in Omaha over the past 2-3 weeks. Central Iowa is getting down to a limited number of sites. Samsung knows they need to get legacy sites converted to NV status ASAP. 90 days is very likely and it may be on the conservative side.

[Dkoellerwx]

Can you please provide a source on this? Ever since I joined the Sprint network, over a year ago, all I've heard is "less than 90 days" or "within three months" as a response to every question, and I've been disappointed every time. Just to be clear, mods (don't ban me again), I have VERY strong faith in NV and I actively recommend Sprint to friends who ask me about phone carriers, but I'm just asking this person for some sort of definitive proof that this issue will actually be resolved within 90 days as he/she claimed.

Just to be clear, I'm not claiming LTE will be activated in less than 90 days (thought it most likely will) I'm claiming that the issue preventing Tri-Band devices from connecting will be fixed within 90 days.

 

This is confirmed by an internal Sprint memo, and additional information that Robert has received, all spelled out in his article. We don't try to spit out false good news to get people to go away happy, we tell it like it is. If we really didn't think it was going to happen in 90 days or less, we would say so.

 

Here's the article for reference: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-357-nexus-5-and-lg-g2-experience-temporary-sprint-lte-connectivity-issues-due-to-circuit-switched-fallback-technology/

[koolaide]

Thank you for the prompt replies.

[Justindcarter79]

I was there around 11 a.m. and yes he said 4G. I walked over and asked and he said they are going around testing the towers.

[cerebasan]

Des Moines metro is so data starved at this point that i would relish having ANY data, 3G or LTE. I really want to see what my iPhone can do in the wild.

[jeffcarp]

Des Moines metro is so data starved at this point that i would relish having ANY data, 3G or LTE. I really want to see what my iPhone can do in the wild.

So sorry to say that I agree with you. It's been a long road being a loyal Sprint customer in Des Moines. If you see a guy using his smartphone at Jordan Creek with a Verizon Mifi in his pocket - that's me! Hopefully good times are ahead.

[cerebasan]

LOL im using a tmo windows phone as a hotspot downtown to at least send texts and basic web surfing.

[bmoses]

there is a cluster being worked on today! picked up 1x800 from 4 new towers this morning

[cerebasan]

there is a cluster being worked on today! picked up 1x800 from 4 new towers this morning

Where at???

[bmoses]

Where at???

 

as always, where everything new is posted, you can find out in the sponsor thread.

[cerebasan]

I think I found them! Not by me but any progress only helps the whole.

[4starcashier]

No matter how much I tell Sprint, they claim there are no outages in West Des Moines...but of course they don't LIVE in WDM...Odd how only at Jordan Creek and surrounding I experience HORRIBLE data!  I can call and text all I want, but God forbid if they actually update the 3G technology even at the mall...especially with an authorized Sprint retailer in it!

[cerebasan]

No matter how much I tell Sprint, they claim there are no outages in West Des Moines...but of course they don't LIVE in WDM...Odd how only at Jordan Creek and surrounding I experience HORRIBLE data!  I can call and text all I want, but God forbid if they actually update the 3G technology even at the mall...especially with an authorized Sprint retailer in it!

I always wondered about that too! You would think there would be LTE by the official store on University....but no.

[cerebasan]

 

You would also think they would deploy based on amount of users....like getting the work done quicker downtown, by the mall, or near large school/college campuses...but also no.

[WiWavelength]

No matter how much I tell Sprint, they claim there are no outages in West Des Moines...but of course they don't LIVE in WDM...Odd how only at Jordan Creek and surrounding I experience HORRIBLE data!  I can call and text all I want, but God forbid if they actually update the 3G technology even at the mall...especially with an authorized Sprint retailer in it!

 

S4GRU is not a site for Sprint complaints.  Read the rules:

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1197-s4gru-posting-guidelines-aka-the-rulez/

 

This is a warning to you and all others in this thread.  Further rants will result in disciplinary action.

 

AJ

[S4GRU]

No matter how much I tell Sprint, they claim there are no outages in West Des Moines...but of course they don't LIVE in WDM...Odd how only at Jordan Creek and surrounding I experience HORRIBLE data!  I can call and text all I want, but God forbid if they actually update the 3G technology even at the mall...especially with an authorized Sprint retailer in it!

 

Complaints regarding Sprint need to be addressed to Sprint customer service channels.  We cannot do anything about them, and we know that the legacy 3G network sucks.  That's why they are upgrading their entire network.  And we don't want our site clogged up with complaints.  We all have complaints.  But no one wants to hear them.

 

Robert