Network Vision/LTE - Minnesota Market

[aliensporebomb]

So, tonight as of 6:30 p.m. it will be approximately one week since they turned on LTE operations in certain areas of the Twin Cities. My question is: will more sites turn on tonight?

 

Is it going to be a "several sites per week" operation or is it "they're ready when they're ready?"

 

I'm curious but the sensorly maps for this area shows a pretty good picture of the coverage for this area now:

 

http://www.sensorly....St.%20Paul%20MN

Edited December 6, 2012 by aliensporebomb

[pyroscott]

So, tonight as of 6:30 p.m. it will be approximately one week with LTE operations in certain areas of the Twin Cities. My question is: will more sites turn on? Is it going to be a "several sites per week" operation or is it "they're ready when they're ready?" I'm curious but the sensorly maps for this area shows a pretty good picture of the coverage for this area now.

 

http://www.sensorly....St.%20Paul%20MN

 

There will be more sites coming online every week. How many depends on how aggressive Samsung is going to be in this market. They were really aggressive in the Chicago market, but they were battling handoff issues between new equipment and legacy towers, so they had to go fast to avoid a poor end user experience. Weather could play a big part in the Minnesota market, and could push the techs off the "towers" and onto rooftop sites. We will have to wait and see, but I would think that a good portion of the backhaul has already been installed as once the frost sets in, it gets a whole lot more expensive to lay cable... If the backhaul is in, and Samsung has ample equipment, the contractors should be able to aggressively upgrade the market.

 

Also, if you are interested in becoming a sponsor, there is a weekly update of all the accepted sites and maps showing where they are. How to become a Sponsor

[aliensporebomb]

Thanks for the tip on sponsoring. I'll look into it.

 

So far it's been unseasonably mild in Minnesota of late - it was literally 50 degrees fahrenheit the day before yesterday (I put the Christmas lights on the house in a t-shirt and jeans and no jacket!) and almost strangely warmer than usual although in the last 24 hours the temps have been dropping to in the 30s and 40s so it could be properly heading into winter - I heard someone talking about snow falling tomorrow too. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

Bad enough the poor installer guys have to climb hundreds of feet into the air but it's cold up there too? They definetely work hard for the $.

Edited December 6, 2012 by aliensporebomb

[batboy]

I just got a 4g signal on my S3 about 10 min ago from downtown St Paul. I couldn't get sensorly to post. Kept on getting Error 405 (other 0 This endpoint only supports GET)" .

 

i did a speed test and got 10 down and 1.5 up. excited!

Edited December 6, 2012 by batboy

[busybee]

Another site is on in Plymouth.

[aliensporebomb]

Plymouth and Downtown St. Paul? Anything else?

[busybee]

Linwood Township

[adierks3]

Robert, Any idea of timeline to towers on 94 specifically St. Michael area?

[tbs123456]

Linwood Township

 

I don't have 4g yet. Tower seems to be done, just not broadcasting 4g.

[tbs123456]

I had 4g for about 2 minutes before losing it. 3.6meg down and 1.5 up. Not very good.

[tbs123456]

Pretty close to the tower and depending on where I am in the house, I loose signal. I can get around 6 meg down on my EVO lte, but my dad's galaxy nexus gets 10+ down.

[ott3r]

Still waiting to see a tower light up downtown, the network here is miserably slow.

[aliensporebomb]

Maybe more will show as the day goes on. I've seen no changes in sensorly over the last few days. I suppose it's possible if there's a tower in Linwood Township we might have users who don't even know about Sensorly or other towers in outstate Minnesota etc.

Edited December 7, 2012 by aliensporebomb

[tbs123456]

Maybe more will show as the day goes on. I've seen no changes in sensorly over the last few days. I suppose it's possible if there's a tower in Linwood Township we might have users who don't even know about Sensorly or other towers in outstate Minnesota etc.

 

I'm going to map a little bit when I get off of work.

[Dkoellerwx]

I noticed a blip in downtown St. Paul. Can anyone confirm that? If so, that's good news. It's not downtown Minneapolis, but it's progress!

[tremendousjohnson]

I noticed a blip in downtown St. Paul. Can anyone confirm that? If so' date=' that's good news. It's not downtown Minneapolis, but it's progress![/quote']

 

That's confirmed. It now shows on Sensorly maps. Also one small blip at the airport. You have to zoom in close to see them but they are there.

[aliensporebomb]

Looks like that blip is right near the Landmark Center and another over closer to the river - near Kellogg Boulevard & Shepard Road. Very interesting indeed.

 

The Linwood Township signal is interesting - it appears to curve around Martin Lake directly to the east of St. Francis. Strongest signals are right near the Linwood Fire Department and Township Building and Lutheran Church.

 

So far nothing new (meaning yesterday's power-up of towers) south of 494 this go round that I can see.

 

I don't see any blips near Plymouth but it could just as well be a bleedover from the Corcoran signal as it's showing farther south on the map than it did last week - be interesting to have someone head south on County Road 101 and checking as far as south as Hamel. I bet there is some signal there.

Edited December 7, 2012 by aliensporebomb

[tbs123456]

You just looked at all the stuff that I added in linwood. At the firestation I can get around 15 meg on my evo. At home its around 8 today. Gonna map out some more soon.

 

If you flip over to 2g/3g, youll see on the other side of martin lake it goes down to 3g. Also if you continue west on 22 right to where the 4g dies, i swung a right(north) onto fontana then a right onto 223rd. Lots and lots of trees in that area so back down to 3g. Even that far out on 22 when I did a speed test I was getting around 6 meg down.

[aliensporebomb]

Confirmed on the blips by the airport on the PC version - right off Highway 55 and Federal Drive right next to the Fort Snelling memorial chapel foundation. I need to go near there after work today anyway so I'll check it out.

 

I don't know about the Android version of Sensorly but on the iPhone version airports show up purple. It's maddening since the blips for 4G are purple on that version so it blends together.

[batboy]

downtown st paul is mostly down. I might get 4g for like 5-10 min, then it's down for a couple hours.

[ott3r]

I try to use the "report" on sensorly and just get "Error 405 (other - This endpoint only supports GET.)" - Is it still reporting data at least?

[Dkoellerwx]

I try to use the "report" on sensorly and just get "Error 405 (other - This endpoint only supports GET.)" - Is it still reporting data at least?

 

Try the "map trip" function (make sure to hit start). That sure provide the data for the maps we are looking at. If it's only giving you an error on 4G, there may be an issue with data with the site still being in testing or something.

[xcelor8]

I try to use the "report" on sensorly and just get "Error 405 (other - This endpoint only supports GET.)" - Is it still reporting data at least?

I had a bunch of errors , somehow it did actually update even though I never witnessed it update.

 

St.paul area has been pure crap for me with 4G for the last couple months, i believe the tower I was connecting with was near 35 and randolph, up sometimes and gone all together at other times with data at times in the 100-200k range terrible I'd actually just run 3G most of the time.

[aliensporebomb]

A friend of mine and I ate dinner tonight at the Culvers at 7801 Nicollet Avenue in Bloomington tonight and his Galaxy SIII read 4G (not sure if it does that all of the time but it sure seemed like his phone was responding quicker than usual).

 

My own iPhone5 did not pick up LTE although it may be a stretch at that distance from one little tower.

 

He's not into LTE geekery and doesn't have any speedtest or sensorly apps on his phone otherwise I'd have done some testing. Shrug.

[sprintuserryan]

I can tell you guys there's some 4G in Oak Grove.. Oak Grove is north of Coon Rapids and Andover.. I know someone who has the Optimus G and she got 4G in that area.