Network Vision/LTE - Minnesota Market

[aliensporebomb]

The other thought is that LTE is online off 94 in Lakeland/Hudson. So Stillwater is not that far away. LTE progress seems slow as this winter has been challenging. But spring is coming.

[dkisling]

Thanks for the succint responses!I was aware of my hotspot limitations and is the main ewason I'm looking at alternatives.I have been following the Sensorly map progress around Hudson and Washington county-10 mi from me.

Sprint led me to belive Wimax would be coming here back when I signed up and changed the data plans so I'm stuck with paying $80 for limited data and outdated technology.

Bottom line any customer loyalty to any provider is stupid these days!

[aliensporebomb]

I think the biggest problem is that technology is moving faster than ever - the whole industry standardized on LTE instead of Wimax or other methods and then we have new phones coming out every business quarter more amazing than the last but the phone companies still want you to sign up for two years.

[ott3r]

Argh! That Burnsville tower came up, but the range stops about a quarter mile from my place. Why must you torture me so, Sprint? Why..? WHY?!?

 

I did most of the mapping down there, I'll get side streets and the southwest area when I travel down there later this week.

Edited February 12, 2013 by ott3r

[aliensporebomb]

ott3r - thanks for the mapping. I did notice that on my own phone I was able to head east almost all the way to Apple Valley and STILL got some LTE. But I was driving west thru Burnsville and could have sworn I saw some work being done on another Sprint site. I'll see if I can get photos..

[blakebaa]

I just got really hopeful for Willmar, I was just on facebook when all of the sudden all of my 3G went off. I went and asked the rest of my family if the same thing happened to them and they said yes, so I was hoping they would be upgrading their towers here. But, after about 10 minutes it came back on with .1mbps download and .3mbps upload... :/

[webby_s]

It's Thursday!

 

So yesterday I mapped a few new road in Rochester then took a turn down an old mapped road and dropped LTE like a bad habit. Does that have to do with things being "moved" on a tower to project to a different area and no longer get it where I had previously? I used to get a solid lock on that road but now nothing.

 

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

[supert0nes]

It's Thursday!

 

So yesterday I mapped a few new road in Rochester then took a turn down an old mapped road and dropped LTE like a bad habit. Does that have to do with things being "moved" on a tower to project to a different area and no longer get it where I had previously? I used to get a solid lock on that road but now nothing.

 

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

 

First, it's wireless, meaning highly dynamic, so anything you can imagine like weather or your phone can affect it. Also, since more sites are coming online around Rochester as we speak, they could be adjusting downtilt on the existing sites. These side effects are bound to happen until blanket coverage is established.

[aliensporebomb]

Any reports of new sites online? I've checked Sensorly but it's early yet. I usually don't see anything new until late in the afternoon.

[supert0nes]

I'm kindof hoping the one on Zane and 610 comes online today.

[webby_s]

Downtilt that's the word I was thinking of. Thanks guys and happy LTE hunting.

 

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

[Epiclawn]

Any reports of new sites online? I've checked Sensorly but it's early yet. I usually don't see anything new until late in the afternoon.

 

Nothing new in my area....

[aliensporebomb]

From what I can see (unless I haven't been paying attention) we have new LTE from Eau Claire almost all the way to Rice Lake Wisconsin (the Northeast Side, really starting in or near Chippewa Falls proper) and then also between Stanley and Thorp, Wisconsin.

 

And LaCrosse LTE extends west nearly to Sparta. Looks like there's some LTE north of Tomah, WI a bit too.

I've been focusing on Minnesota more than Wisconsin so this may have been active.

 

Not sure if there's any new Minnesota LTE but I haven't really done a lot of searching.

[supert0nes]

Some of the upgraded sites over the last week have been close to other upgraded sites. It's easier to see in the sponsor section

[aliensporebomb]

That's true but I wasn't going to say anything in the non-sponsor area about it!

[Mooeydj]

Not sure if it was mentioned earlier, but a couple of blips on sensorly at 94 and Lowrey.

[MophoManners]

How are you guys seeing this in the sponsor section? pm's will work

[ZZ The Ninja]

Lets all hope after this LONG winter sprint speeds up there progress on the deployment!!

[Nevis]

I installed the SignalCheck Lite app the other day, and noticed that I was getting LTE signal sporadically throughout the day in Eden Prairie. No 4G, but the LTE bar would lite up for several seconds at a time. Then today, nothing...nothing at all. I'm not sure that it means anything, but from what I gather things seem to happen on Thursdays.

[supert0nes]

We kindof just made up the Thursday thing as speculation. In retrospect, it's probably completely untrue. Who knows maybe they just try to complete work by the end of the week.

[supert0nes]

I installed the SignalCheck Lite app the other day, and noticed that I was getting LTE signal sporadically throughout the day in Eden Prairie. No 4G, but the LTE bar would lite up for several seconds at a time. Then today, nothing...nothing at all. I'm not sure that it means anything, but from what I gather things seem to happen on Thursdays.

 

My tactic is to fire up Sensorly and then going into the view Sprint 4g LTE coverage map section. Then I'll travel into an area with solid purple. If my phone hasn't switched to LTE, I'll toggle Airplane mode.

 

If you get LTE at that point or the LTE bar lights up, try going to the LTE engineering screen to get a better understanding of your LTE connection. If you write down the signal metrics people here can tell you if you had a strong LTE signal.

 

I'm being lazy or I would have provided links to the signal bars lie forum post and the LTE signal measuring article.

[wildsioux]

Well looks like I won't get to see Sprint LTE in MN. Sprint sent me a letter saying I have been going over the 300mbs of roaming data. Due to my job I'm in Montana where Sprint is non existent and is all roaming off Verizon towers.

 

So I got them to waive my ETF and am looking at switching to Verizon. Sucks but I can't continue without service. Plus this last weekend we were in Omaha at the Sioux Omaha hockey games. All downtown and at the arenas we did not have data, text, and picture mail even though it was full bars. Have also had poor service in around the twin cities.

 

My wife will still have to pay an ETF. Unless we stay a little longer.

[S4GRU]

Well looks like I won't get to see Sprint LTE in MN. Sprint sent me a letter saying I have been going over the 300mbs of roaming data. Due to my job I'm in Montana where Sprint is non existent and is all roaming off Verizon towers.

 

So I got them to waive my ETF and am looking at switching to Verizon. Sucks but I can't continue without service. Plus this last weekend we were in Omaha at the Sioux Omaha hockey games. All downtown and at the arenas we did not have data, text, and picture mail even though it was full bars. Have also had poor service in around the twin cities.

 

My wife will still have to pay an ETF. Unless we stay a little longer.

 

I have this same problem, as I travel a lot in non Sprint areas for work. So I picked up a VZW hotspot to supplement my data usage when roaming. But that is not practical for everyone.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

[blakebaa]

Doesn't look like much has happened in the MN market this weeks as the past few, but still great to hear they are putting LTE in! I love this site because the official sprint site STILL doesn't have MN on the Coverage maps for LTE. So awesome to stay updated and lets just hope more coverage will be out in MN in the upcoming months!

 

Thanks for the updates guys!

[Nevis]

My tactic is to fire up Sensorly and then going into the view Sprint 4g LTE coverage map section. Then I'll travel into an area with solid purple. If my phone hasn't switched to LTE, I'll toggle Airplane mode. If you get LTE at that point or the LTE bar lights up, try going to the LTE engineering screen to get a better understanding of your LTE connection. If you write down the signal metrics people here can tell you if you had a strong LTE signal. I'm being lazy or I would have provided links to the signal bars lie forum post and the LTE signal measuring article.

 

OK, I finally got over myself, and re-installed Sensorly today, and will do my best to have it on while driving around. I actually already know that my phone will connect to LTE automatically. I have seen it twice. Once in East Bethel and once in Saint Louis Park. Cool, right?

 

The head scratcher is that I work in Eden Prairie, and have been in the purple areas, but have yet to see the 4G indicator around there (even closer to Chanhassen, where it is dark purple). I guess my previous post was more about the fact that we know there is a signal in the area, yet they have not had it available while I have been there. With that other app, I could see that there was a LTE signal, but no 4G. Is that even possible? Maybe that other app was lying...