Network Vision/LTE - Minnesota Market

[bogeypro]

Has anyone been noticing any work being done? I am in Willmar, and nothing has changed for nearly a year. Still waiting for 1 tower to get upgrades yet. 

I was in the paynesville, new London, spicer, willmar area over the holidays.   I feel as voice was very good and data not so much.  I would roam and have lots of 1x for data where I used to have 3g. Where I did have LTE I thought it was quite good.  I'm thinking nothing must be optimized in this area.  

[blakebaa]

I was in the paynesville, new London, spicer, willmar area over the holidays.   I feel as voice was very good and data not so much.  I would roam and have lots of 1x for data where I used to have 3g. Where I did have LTE I thought it was quite good.  I'm thinking nothing must be optimized in this area.  

Yeah, I too am thinking the same thing. Voice never seems to fail me around here, but data on the other hand. Can't load anything unless on LTE, but getting LTE is difficult unless you're right in the middle of town. Hopefully they optimize stuff soon, and upgrade the last 3G tower to LTE sometime soon. 

[tbs123456]

I was in mystic lake casino tonight and had band 41. Was getting around 20 down and 5 up in the middle of it. Forgot to check when I was outside, but was surprised to get band 41 in the casino.

[bogeypro]

Mystic has been good.... B41 has been awesome out there!!!!! Boom

[njjdnt]

I was in mystic lake casino tonight and had band 41. Was getting around 20 down and 5 up in the middle of it. Forgot to check when I was outside, but was surprised to get band 41 in the casino.

S4gru would like a donation of your winnings. 

[tbs123456]

I would like to take up a collection to cover my losses.

[Dustinr90]

Just spotted band 41 in Eau Claire Wisconsin. Getting download speeds around 34 mbs.

[jburk82]

Where in Eau Claire did you find band 41?

[Dustinr90]

By Birch street. Havent checked anywhere else yet.

[Dustinr90]

[dnwk]

Just visit Minneapolis/st. Paul. The spark coverage here is amazing

[mjplaetz]

Windom, MN and Marshall, MN now have LTE!! Pretty awesome seeing it light up around me

[greencat]

Windom, MN and Marshall, MN now have LTE!! Pretty awesome seeing it light up around me

Probably some of the least used towers in the entire Sprint Network. I bet speeds are great.

[aliensporebomb]

It's amazing how much this has changed since the start of the NV rollout -  I've gone on trips all over Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin, Michigan.  There are gaps to be sure (especially west of Grand Forks or northern Wisconsin but it's massively better overall compared to say 18 months ago and the real fun thing is having a Band 41 tower 900 feet from my place.  Crazy. 

[jakeuten]

I really want to try Sprint out in Duluth. Does anyone have recent experience? It looks like their coverage is sketchy at best for Spark, and looking on Sensorly isn't too appealing either. I also don't like the thought of being stuck on another 5x5 network (AT&T/TMO are both 5x5 primarily)

[Dkoellerwx]

I really want to try Sprint out in Duluth. Does anyone have recent experience? It looks like their coverage is sketchy at best for Spark, and looking on Sensorly isn't too appealing either. I also don't like the thought of being stuck on another 5x5 network (AT&T/TMO are both 5x5 primarily)

 

I don't have any direct experience on the network in Minnesota, but I can tell you that both Band 25 and Band 26 should be on nearly every site in Duluth, and that at least 1 new site is in the works. That should make for a generally good network experience. I can't share the specifics on the Band 41 (Spark) deployment in this thread, but there is some B41 there. Since Duluth is not a focus market, B41 will only be deployed in a hotspot nature - only to sites that are heavily congested. Once the focus markets are closer to being finished, B41 will be added more liberally in surrounding markets. 

[Nogib]

Is something goofy going on in the metro today?  Specifically the south metro?  All of the sudden today I am no longer able to maintain an LTE connection on my Galaxy S6 anywhere.  It'll jump onto LTE for about 10-15 seconds and then go back to 3G until it tries again in a few minutes.  Happening at multiple locations.  Just baffling as I have not had LTE connection issues in these areas before.  It is literally like someone flipped a switch.  Tried profile and PRL updates and reboots with no change.  Meanwhile a Galaxy S5 Sport at the exact same locations stays locked solid on LTE without issue. -_-

[aliensporebomb]

I'm noticing this at the tower 900 feet from my home.  

 

Wife who works from home noticed it started yesterday sometimes.

 

Her iPhone 5S and my 6 Plus will connect briefly to LTE but switch to 3G and stay there.

 

If I go to the north I then connect to LTE but the southwest antenna array on that tower that covers my area appears to be out of sorts.

 

Looked at the tower and cabs, looks like no work in progress that I can see and no visible storm damage or the like.

 

I live in Central Bloomington if that helps.

[Nogib]

I'm noticing this at the tower 900 feet from my home.  

 

Wife who works from home noticed it started yesterday sometimes.

 

Her iPhone 5S and my 6 Plus will connect briefly to LTE but switch to 3G and stay there.

 

If I go to the north I then connect to LTE but the southwest antenna array on that tower that covers my area appears to be out of sorts.

 

Looked at the tower and cabs, looks like no work in progress that I can see and no visible storm damage or the like.

 

I live in Central Bloomington if that helps.

 

Just W of the MoA and my overnight Time Without Signal is now over 80% as it rotates through the signal connections! Sigh.  Wish it were easier to bring this to Sprint's attention but they'll always just assume it is a device problem and never their end.

[mntatonka]

Just W of the MoA and my overnight Time Without Signal is now over 80% as it rotates through the signal connections! Sigh.  Wish it were easier to bring this to Sprint's attention but they'll always just assume it is a device problem and never their end.

 

standard from sprint.  They announced LTE for Winona in January of 2013, and said it would be ready in a few months.  Fast forward two and a half years, and they again said "upgrades will start in the next few months".  Bullshit.

[Sanyo M1]

standard from sprint. They announced LTE for Winona in January of 2013, and said it would be ready in a few months. Fast forward two and a half years, and they again said "upgrades will start in the next few months". Bullshit.

The amount of times I drop to "3G" (1xRTT according to SCP) in and around the cities is just unacceptable. It's even worse, given that Minneapolis/MN is supposed to be a "good" market for Sprint. I wouldn't mind it so much if "3G" was usable. It's constantly buffering music or skipping songs entirely due to connection issues. Seriously frustrating having to toggle airplane mode because it won't switch to LTE because of Navigation running.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Nogib]

The amount of times I drop to "3G" (1xRTT according to SCP) in and around the cities is just unacceptable. It's even worse, given that Minneapolis/MN is supposed to be a "good" market for Sprint. I wouldn't mind it so much if "3G" was usable. It's constantly buffering music or skipping songs entirely due to connection issues. Seriously frustrating having to toggle airplane mode because it won't switch to LTE because of Navigation running.

 

When I used the Nexus 5 for a year before getting this S6, I had a lot of that too.  Mostly time without signal issues.  I figured that when I got the S6 at launch in April that having a variant of a phone specifically for their network might work better than one that works on all like the Nexus 5.  And for two months that was true.  Very good LTE reception up until three days ago and it just cratered at my house. -_-  Adding insult to injury my connection to their network is so bad that it can't complete the handoff to WiFi Calling.  They really fubar'd some of these towers or something.

[Sanyo M1]

When I used the Nexus 5 for a year before getting this S6, I had a lot of that too. Mostly time without signal issues. I figured that when I got the S6 at launch in April that having a variant of a phone specifically for their network might work better than one that works on all like the Nexus 5. And for two months that was true. Very good LTE reception up until three days ago and it just cratered at my house. -_- Adding insult to injury my connection to their network is so bad that it can't complete the handoff to WiFi Calling. They really fubar'd some of these towers or something.

Agreed, I have been commuting to the cities for the last 8 months and this is a very recent problem, throughout the whole commute I either keep dropping to 1xRTT or I keep getting connection issues that requires multiple airplane mode toggles and in severe cases a phone restart.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[aliensporebomb]

Seems like things have stabilized to normal now in my area.

[Nogib]

Seems like things have stabilized to normal now in my area.

 

Lucky!  Still having major issues.