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

[j50327]

I go past the fairgrounds every morning. This morning we had the 800 service

[bmoses]

I go past the fairgrounds every morning. This morning we had the 800 service

 

sweet! you should consider becoming a sponsor, we have a spreadsheet and map in the sponsor section that we are maintaining that has the status of just about every tower in the central iowa market

[dleewee]

Speed test done connected to 1x800 (this is not 3g/4g of course, so shouldn't expect much)

This was at -92 rssi, in a location where I used to always be roaming - now stay on Sprint.  

 

 

Love all this progress, can't wait for LTE to light up on more towers.

[JosefTor]

Very nice to hear good news. For you, 800 LTE will be key :-)

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

 

 

[dleewee]

Yes and no, I'm not in a non-evdo location very often, but I thought the 1x800 speeds might be of interest to this thread. With that said, I do see LTE 800 as a game changer for sprint to really win back a lot of folks. My next phone will be tri-band no doubt.

[gostallion]

went on my weekly trip to Bondurant for pizza and my signal check pro showed me 1X800 from the new tower on hwy 65 just north of Bondurant but i was getting NO data! speedtest gave me a no network communication indication.  i'm betting it is in transition to be fully operational, but put it on your map. 

[bmoses]

went on my weekly trip to Bondurant for pizza and my signal check pro showed me 1X800 from the new tower on hwy 65 just north of Bondurant but i was getting NO data! speedtest gave me a no network communication indication.  i'm betting it is in transition to be fully operational, but put it on your map. 

 

 

thanks for the report! thats 3 1x800 towers on that side of town that have come live in the past 2 days. we are keeping track of them all, as well as another little tidbit you would be interested in, in the sponsor section in our spreadsheet and map.

[j50327]

As if this morning we have a 1 x 800 tower in Altoona. 

 

[sarcoptic]

I am waiting for the tower in Bondy to go LTE

[gostallion]

the tower at Hubbell and Broadway has went to 1X800 now.  between Des Moines and Altoona but not the one above on NE64th.

[j50327]

I'm still getting the 1 x 800 service on the new 64th street right now and have been getting it all day. I live in pleasant hill and ever since the one on dean ave and be 64th have gone to 1 x800 I've connected to those instead of the tower in pleasant hill that is still RTT. My wife has an older sprint phone and does not connect to 1x800 towers. She connecting to the pleasant hill RTTtower.

[4starcashier]

I've been getting less than mediocre data service here in the Woodland Heights neighborhood (just West of downtown).  The rep at the corporate Sprint store on University says that he has received multiple calls from my area and he told me they were working on the towers (should I believe him)?  They have to be doing something, because I have been experiencing 1xRTT all weekend, and my HTC ONE and iPhone 4S have been switching between 3G and 1x all weekend as well.

 

Any input???

[Mr.Nuke]

I am waiting for the tower in Bondy to go LTE

I expect you to let us know when it does

[j50327]

Yes I would agree the service there is horrible. I work on Ingersoll

[bmoses]

I've been getting less than mediocre data service here in the Woodland Heights neighborhood (just West of downtown).  The rep at the corporate Sprint store on University says that he has received multiple calls from my area and he told me they were working on the towers (should I believe him)?  They have to be doing something, because I have been experiencing 1xRTT all weekend, and my HTC ONE and iPhone 4S have been switching between 3G and 1x all weekend as well.

 

Any input???

 

short of driving out to the towers and seeing if there are people there working and asking them if they are doing updates there is no way to know if issues like that are just issues or because of upgrades going on. looking at our map in the sponsor section i can tell you that about half of the towers that would cover that area already have the new equipment installed, and the other half hadn't been touched as of the last time someone had driven by them and noted no work going on, which was about two weeks ago or more on most of them.

[bmoses]

I'm still getting the 1 x 800 service on the new 64th street right now and have been getting it all day. I live in pleasant hill and ever since the one on dean ave and be 64th have gone to 1 x800 I've connected to those instead of the tower in pleasant hill that is still RTT. My wife has an older sprint phone and does not connect to 1x800 towers. She connecting to the pleasant hill RTTtower.

 

you should consider becoming a sponsor so you can help us out with updating our spreadsheet and maps and then you would have access to them so you could see where every sprint tower is. the two towers you've listed that you are getting 1x800 from are the only towers that cover pleastant hill, so there isn't another tower in pleasant hill that hasn't gotten converted yet.

 

depending on your exact location, based on the screenshot you posted, i would say 1x800 was (obviously) connected to the 64th st one and EVDO was connected to the dean ave one.

[TMan]

Forgive what I'm sure is a silly question, but what is 1x800 service? Is that an improved-3G-but-still-not-4G type of thing, or what?

[sarcoptic]

Someone correct if I am wrong...but 1x800 is actually slower than 3G however the coverage can go on for miles and miles.  In the case of Sprint its a big deal as the plan is to eventually roll LTE to these 800 mhz bands meaning not only will we have crazy LTE coverage but also the speed on 800 mhz can theoretically push 50 mbps...

[bmoses]

Forgive what I'm sure is a silly question, but what is 1x800 service? Is that an improved-3G-but-still-not-4G type of thing, or what?

 

800 just means that the service is using 800Mhz frequency. currently sprint uses frequencies in the 1900Mhz range. with regards to legacy service this includes voice and 3G data. with the network vision upgrades they are doing they are adding LTE (4G) to 1900Mhz and also adding voice and LTE to 800Mhz and then eventually LTE to 2600Mhz. 800 is a big deal because of the characteristics of the lower frequencies the signal will travel further and penetrate buildings better so you will have better voice coverage and then LTE when they turn that on (and you have a phone that supports it).

 

for example, i've picked up a 1x800 (which is what we use to refer to voice on 800) signal from a tower about 60 miles away from where i was.

[digiblur]

Someone correct if I am wrong...but 1x800 is actually slower than 3G however the coverage can go on for miles and miles.  In the case of Sprint its a big deal as the plan is to eventually roll LTE to these 800 mhz bands meaning not only will we have crazy LTE coverage but also the speed on 800 mhz can theoretically push 50 mbps...

 

1x800 is a 3G a service just as 1x CDMA 1900 is.  You currently have 1x CDMA on 1900mhz that provides you texting, voice, and data if no EVDO or LTE data services are not available.  The 1x on 800mhz will provide you the same services but with enhanced coverage due to the propagation advantages that 800mhz brings.

[bmoses]

Someone correct if I am wrong...but 1x800 is actually slower than 3G however the coverage can go on for miles and miles.  In the case of Sprint its a big deal as the plan is to eventually roll LTE to these 800 mhz bands meaning not only will we have crazy LTE coverage but also the speed on 800 mhz can theoretically push 50 mbps...

 

mostly correct, sprint is deploying a 5x5 LTE carrier in 1900 and another one in 800. the max each of those can achieve is ~37Mbps. someday if they choose to use LTE-advance, they could aggregate those 2 together so it appears as a single 10x10 carrier which would have a max bandwidth of ~74Mbps. they are not adding 3G to 800 at all, just a voice carrier and the 5x5 LTE carrier.

[DsmIowaGuy]

Downtown had lots of times last week it was at 1x in various areas.  I suspect work happening but have yet to verify on the couple sites i know.  Also be aware there is one site that had to be removed completely that mostly covered the East Village area. Its slated to be replaced by a new site but will be a little while.

 

Lots of issues here and there just mean when the end result happens it will be awesome 

[TMan]

Ah, okay. A piece of the spectrum.

 

Looks like my HTC EVO 4G LTE is capable of LTE on 1900 only, while capable of CDMA on 800/850/1900.

[dleewee]

Ah, okay. A piece of the spectrum.Looks like my HTC EVO 4G LTE is capable of LTE on 1900 only, while capable of CDMA on 800/850/1900.

Correct, nearly all existing phones are in this boat. They will get voice & SMS service on 1x800 or 1x1900 as available and LTE on 1900 only.

 

New phones it will be important to look for phones which support all 3 of the future Sprint LTE bands 1900, 800, 2500.

 

I believe currently the LG G2 supports all three and the iPhone 5s supports two of the three.

[sarcoptic]

Well this was a shock...hopped on my phone from inside my house and for the first time ever had an LTE signal.  It wasn't that strong so hard to believe this is the Bondurant tower which is only a mile or so away.  However I was able to capture 2 different cell ids.  I will try to get beside the tower tomorrow and find out for sure.  Is it possible a tower in Altoona went live today and I am picking up those faint signals?