Network Vision/LTE - Minnesota Market

[aliensporebomb]

I'm hoping for that one they were working on at the end of february near me. It's a 5 minute drive and lunch hour is only 3 hours away.

[jonnberg]

No kidding. I hope something pops up near Lafayette and 7th because I get less than 20Kbps on average while at work. Boo! The crappy thing is that since we use Sprint for all of our work phones, my personal phone has to compete against a lot more for the tower(s) near us...

 

 

[bertimus2002]

Has anyone noticed that sometimes your phone will say 4G and have a signal, but not actually send/receive any data? I have a great 4G signal at my house and it's hit or miss if it will actually allow data transmitting or not.

 

Maybe it's because the market isn't "officially" rolled out yet, or maybe it's my phone.

[njjdnt]

Has anyone noticed that sometimes your phone will say 4G and have a signal, but not actually send/receive any data? I have a great 4G signal at my house and it's hit or miss if it will actually allow data transmitting or not.

 

Maybe it's because the market isn't "officially" rolled out yet, or maybe it's my phone.

Are you measuring signal strength from the engineering screen, because bars lie

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2040-bars-lie-for-lte-signal-strength-how-to-determine-your-actual-lte-signal-strength/

[ZZ The Ninja]

Nothing yet?

[bertimus2002]

Are you measuring signal strength from the engineering screen, because bars lie

http://s4gru.com/ind...ignal-strength/

 

When I look at the LTE Engineering page, it says State = Connected, but no IP address which would lead me to believe that I have a 4G signal, but no IP address = no 4G data access.

 

The only way to get cellular data then is to switch it down to CDMA mode only and skip out on it until it would be rolled out completely.

[supert0nes]

Nothing yet?

 

AT&T is that you?

[aliensporebomb]

It looks to be that either some folks have been mapping more south of Burnsville Minnesota or we have a new tower on down there either south of the one that's already on or one nearby. Anecdotally.

[ZZ The Ninja]

You are funny @supert0nes

[ZZ The Ninja]

Did s4gru forget to spring their clock or is it me. My iPad showes 12:20 am

[S4GRU]

Did s4gru forget to spring their clock or is it me. My iPad showes 12:20 am

 

Each individual profile has their own time zone setting, including Daylight Savings Time selections. You can edit it in your profile.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

 

[blakebaa]

Not much happened this week. But let's hope with nicer weather this next week as we get closer to spring more and more towers will be put up and we will have solid LTE throughtout MN!

[njjdnt]

I saw people on the tower near 35E & Roselawn Ave today. I wasn't able to get pictures though.

[ZZ The Ninja]

That is the tower that I mentioned a week or so but i didn't know if it was sprints

[aliensporebomb]

Friend of mine who lives in Apple Valley indicated he seemed to see more LTE in the Lakeville and points south area. Seems to be the case regarding Sensorly as well.

[AA/FC]

Welcome to the forums.

 

TS

 

Thank you, Sir!

 

It's actually a primary Hennepin county tower that is now tied into armer.... sorta kinda my thing (shrug)

 

I figured it was. I know VERY little about cell towers, or cell systems in general. However, the Minnesota ARMER system is a bit of a hobby for me.

 

Picture time:

 

 

The tower on the left (to the left of the storage facility) is the one both myself and AA/FC posted. The tower on the right side of the screen (to the right of the storage facility) I believe is the Sprint tower for that area.

 

Some interesting stuff there, it looks like there's both legacy cabinets and the LTE cabinets (it's hard to see due to the immense amount of brush against the fence keeping the facility secure).

 

But there's no sign of any other LTE stuff happening there - the top antenna array is pure 3G and the bottom collar is weird - it looks EMPTY. You can see cables snaking out of the pole to the edge but it doesn't appear there's any elements in operation unless they are very thin or a type I'm in familiar with. Mophomanners will know.

 

Don't try driving back there, it's literally slippierier than an ice rink and to get a closer look at cabinets on the ground you'd have to park in the middle of a driveway, cross snow covered railroad tracks and peek thru a fence that is mostly covered with foliage.

 

I drove over there today and brought my DSLR camera with me to get better shots of the tower west of the storage facility. (near the RR tracks)

Pics at bottom of post....

 

Without looking I would assume it's a hacked out nextel site they have been hacking them out prior to modernization.

 

Are you able to tell from these pictures if it's an old Nextel site, a Sprint site, or something completely different?

 

 

 

 

[MophoManners]

I'd venture to guess a really old sprint site and Nextel was on the collar below it would be easier to tell if is saw the ground EQ

[AA/FC]

I'd venture to guess a really old sprint site and Nextel was on the collar below it would be easier to tell if is saw the ground EQ

 

Gotcha..... Next time I'm in the area I'll see about getting some ground equipment shots.

 

If this is indeed a Sprint site, will this one eventually be getting the new LTE equipment? Or is Sprint re-designing their netwrok to such a degree that some older towers will now be obsolete? (i.e. this old tower will no longer be needed)

Edited March 17, 2013 by AA/FC

[MophoManners]

I would assume it would be upgraded, I'm not up to speed on all the NV intricacies. Although I do believe the plan was that if say a Nextel site was in a more prime location than say the sprint site that site may be moved to the old nextal site as a switcharoo but otherwise ALL the metro cell equipment is coming out one way or another,

[aliensporebomb]

I believe that tower is on the list to be upgraded.

 

Oddly, I believe it's in the fenced yard of the facility that used to check auto vehicle emissions.

[MophoManners]

What site do you think this is ?

[aliensporebomb]

It appears to be -REDACTED -ASB.

[supert0nes]

It appears to be *********.

 

Please don't post tower Id's outside of the sponsor section.

[aliensporebomb]

We should take this conversation to the sponsor section actually.

 

BUT - the tower is easily enough determined - it's directly across from the American Boulevard Home Depot in Bloomington adjacent to the railroad tracks and the storage facility.

 

If you have access to the sponsor section you can determine the tower ID from the information provided sponsors.

 

Is that better?

[MophoManners]

Thats a primary ring site since it's next to 494 it will be done.