Network Vision/LTE - Minnesota Market

[harleyy2]

At Como Park it is blazing.  Downtown St. Paul I only get a faint signal outdoors from a distant tower outside of downtown.  In my office in the North Loop of Minneapolis I get LTE.  You are right though that it's currently hit or miss in places, but they keep lighting up more towers each week and it's been getting better and better. 

 

Awesome - yeah it is getting lit up each week.  I got a LTE signal in my neighborhood at one spot 4 bars and was able to complete a speed test....it was 24 down and 14 up...but then I lost that signal and haven't gotten it since!

[goferfan]

Might be hearsay, but a friend who is familiar with the tower upgrades in the area says word is Duluth LTE will be live by the first of the year.  Will be welcome since it seems to be lighting up all around us (Cloquet, Hinckley, Superior) but the brief flickers of LTE we've seen in Duluth seemed to have petered out.

[shifted]

At Como Park it is blazing.  Downtown St. Paul I only get a faint signal outdoors from a distant tower outside of downtown.  In my office in the North Loop of Minneapolis I get LTE.  You are right though that it's currently hit or miss in places, but they keep lighting up more towers each week and it's been getting better and better. 

While this is true, this hit or miss stuff that's been going on for probably a year now is really annoying.  If you take mass transit to work it makes the internet basically unuseable due to the signal bouncing back and forth between 3G and 4G.  I had no idea the rollout was going to be so long and annoying.  I thought it would just sort of turn on and boom, all of the cities has 4G.  Boy was I wrong.

[derianlebreton]

Mt.Tom is the one you want to keep an eye on for LTE at UWEC/downtown. I believe the lowest rack is sprint. Only legacy panels last time I saw. Altoona has a site with NV Panels but no LTE yet. There's a live site up by north crossing and south of 94 near the mall.

Looks like they've finally scheduled it for an upgrade!  Network.sprint.com says "1 data speed upgrade."  Here's hoping it gets LTE...

[putterizer]

Anyone around the La Crosse, WI area having issues with no 4G data? Phone says it's connected but will not load any data. A call to Sprint to report the problem resulted in me being told that they can't open a trouble ticket on it because my line comes up as an "employee" line. The only reason it shows up as an employee line is because I am on a referral plan of my buddies. I still pay $$$$ to have monthly service, why should I be treated any different? I'm still a paying customer.

[tommym65]

I am at a customer site on Minnehaha Ave in Minneapolis and am getting Band 41 LTE on my Zing hotspot. I will post the site ID on the 2500/2600 TDD-LTE thread. The speed is not spectacular, but is a start, and is fast enough that I just used it for a demo.

 

 

 

Edit: Later, also at N 49th Ave near Brooklyn/Xerxes.

 

Still later: It's everywhere! It's everywhere! Or at least at CR-10 & Xerxes.

 

And fast!

 

 

[AA/FC]

Site nearest me looks like they could switch it on today.  Site second nearest to me they've done fiber and nothing else.  And one up in Richfield looks ready to go too but it's been quite a while waiting.  And third nearest to me it doesn't look like much has happened though I've seen an Ericsson truck at the site.  So.  Still in process for a lot of things.

I am begining to think Sprint forgot to throw the switch on the 94th and Penn ave tower. lol.   It's been almost 2 months since the tower has been upgraded and still no LTE.   It seems like most of the surrounding towers are already live with LTE....  wonder why they're waiting on this one?

[Dkoellerwx]

I am begining to think Sprint forgot to throw the switch on the 94th and Penn ave tower. lol. It's been almost 2 months since the tower has been upgraded and still no LTE. It seems like most of the surrounding towers are already live with LTE.... wonder why they're waiting on this one?

Its probably waiting for a cluster launch like the rest of the Samsung markets.

 

Due to the eCSFB issue affecting tri-band devices, Samsung is not firing up any new LTE until that site, and the rest in the cluster have NV 3G and eCSFB active. Once the NV 3G cluster is activated, any sites that are ready for LTE will be brought online as well.

 

Even if the surrounding towers have LTE active already, if they do not have NV 3G active, new LTE will not be brought online in the area.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[blakebaa]

Its probably waiting for a cluster launch like the rest of the Samsung markets. Due to the eCSFB issue affecting tri-band devices, Samsung is not firing up any new LTE until that site, and the rest in the cluster have NV 3G and eCSFB active. Once the NV 3G cluster is activated, any sites that are ready for LTE will be brought online as well. Even if the surrounding towers have LTE active already, if they do not have NV 3G active, new LTE will not be brought online in the area. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

That is nice to know, however, the tower nearest me has only had the 3G upgrade and is the last/only tower left in my area that doesn't have 4G. Is there a reason they haven't done this one?

[Dkoellerwx]

That is nice to know, however, the tower nearest me has only had the 3G upgrade and is the last/only tower left in my area that doesn't have 4G. Is there a reason they haven't done this one?

Unfortunately, I don't have a description for every possible scenario. Likely if its been 3G for a long time, and the others around have LTE, its a backhaul issue and not a Sprint issue. Are the other sites surround 3G/4G or just 4G?

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

[blakebaa]

Unfortunately, I don't have a description for every possible scenario. Likely if its been 3G for a long time, and the others around have LTE, its a backhaul issue and not a Sprint issue. Are the other sites surround 3G/4G or just 4G?

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

2 of them 3G/4G, and the other one just 4G.

[Dkoellerwx]

2 of them 3G/4G, and the other one just 4G.

That may be the reason, or it may be backhaul related.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

[chrisabaker]

Is the Network Vision/LTE Deployment Running List up to date for MN? I see it has us at a Current Production Rate Completion of Feb 2014 but it says that was posted back in May. Perhaps that is the original post date?

 

Like a lot of people I've been experiencing the dropped calls when transferring between new and old towers here in Maple Grove. I really want to hold because this is going to be a great product when it's done, but just want to see if they're still thinking significant completion by February. Thanks!

[aliensporebomb]

Its probably waiting for a cluster launch like the rest of the Samsung markets. Due to the eCSFB issue affecting tri-band devices, Samsung is not firing up any new LTE until that site, and the rest in the cluster have NV 3G and eCSFB active. Once the NV 3G cluster is activated, any sites that are ready for LTE will be brought online as well. Even if the surrounding towers have LTE active already, if they do not have NV 3G active, new LTE will not be brought online in the area. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

I believe you are correct.  They are trying to avoid what happened in Chicago by bringing the sites up in clusters.  The site nearest this one to the north is the aforementioned Richfield site and the site at Valley West and Loehmann's just got their cabinets within the last couple of weeks and the one at Loehmann's doesn't even appear to be completed (there is wiring wrapped in plastic but only half of it is connected to the ground mounted RRUs yet).  

 

Hopefully before Christmas but you never can tell.  As far as backhaul goes the 94th site has had it installed for a while now.

[schalicto]

I've asked this a couple times, but I'm still wondering if anyone has any information about improvements in downtown Minneapolis.  Over the past couple of weeks it seems like things have gotten worse.  I was outside the other day and took a speed test while connected to LTE, and here are my results ( http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/672474659 ).  Do you think this is due to congestion?  It is not my intention to complain, i'm just looking for information.

[mozamcrew]

I've asked this a couple times, but I'm still wondering if anyone has any information about improvements in downtown Minneapolis.  Over the past couple of weeks it seems like things have gotten worse.  I was outside the other day and took a speed test while connected to LTE, and here are my results ( http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/672474659 ).  Do you think this is due to congestion?  It is not my intention to complain, i'm just looking for information.

 

Any sites still with eCSFB issues won't let you connect to them over LTE, as a result of that, and the ongoing NV work in MPLS, you might be seeing some issues.

[schalicto]

Any sites still with eCSFB issues won't let you connect to them over LTE, as a result of that, and the ongoing NV work in MPLS, you might be seeing some issues.

 

You can set your phone to LTE only, and you'll connect to LTE (But you can't make or recieve calls or text). 

[mozamcrew]

You can set your phone to LTE only, and you'll connect to LTE (But you can't make or recieve calls or text). 

 

Yup, that's because of eCSFB. There is a good article about this on The Wall. This is why the focus has shifted to getting sites 3G completed in Minneapolis. They want to get this fixed. This is only an issue for those with newer triband phones, since they don't do SVLTE.

[schalicto]

Yup, that's because of eCSFB. There is a good article about this on The Wall. This is why the focus has shifted to getting sites 3G completed in Minneapolis. They want to get this fixed. This is only an issue for those with newer triband phones, since they don't do SVLTE.

Thanks!

[schalicto]

I received an LTE signal at the Maplewood Mall park and ride this morning with my Nexus 5.  On Monday this week I only got 3g.  They must have gotten some eCSFB going on one of the towers over there.

[monkeyw]

The Xcel tower in EP on Technology Dr. that has been serving LTE from the old legacy antennas looks like it's getting it's cabinets upgraded this week. I assume tower climbers will be seen within a couple weeks to replace them.

 

There is also Nextel equipment half way up the tower. Any guesses as to whether they pull that equipment out at the same time while they have those huge lines shut down? 

[schalicto]

I started receiving 4G LTE on my Nexus 5 at my home near Century College in White Bear Lake.

[Sanyo M1]

Any reason for my phone not picking up LTE even though one of the Sprint tower in Austin has been 3G/800/LTE complete?  What's weirder is that SignalCheck now shows my connection as EV-DO all the time now, used to be eHRPD.  Not sure if that is significant or not.

[PinkSparkleFace]

yeah I'm not picking up LTE anymore either. I used to get it throughout my whole place without it ever being interrupted. for the past few days I've only been able to pick up 3G and even that comes and goes. I live in NE Minneapolis 55418.

[supert0nes]

It's certainly not the first time LTE on surrounding sites has been temporarily disabled while testing a new site.  I'm not sure if they are adjusting down tilt with new sites as well.  The good news is we're coming up on the home stretch in Minneapolis.