Network Vision/LTE - VT/NH/ME Market (including Manchester, Nashua, Portsmouth, Burlington, Portland, Bangor)

[banananuts87 148]

I was over there in June. Beautiful area...not so much for cell service though. One thing I found was that i was roaming on some carrier called "Devon Mobile Communication" now and then according to signal check. Never heard of them.

I breifly roamed on Extended LTE passing Montpielier. That could be it.

[swintec 372]

I breifly roamed on Extended LTE passing Montpielier. That could be it.

 

Oh hhhmm.  I only used their EVDO.

[signalchaser 14]

I have found a few Nextel towers that still come up as licensed in Southern NH but have no signals out of them. One of the licenses shows about a dozen frequencies in the 862mhz range. Does anyone know what these would be used for now? Do some people still have an IDEN type service? I would be thrilled if Sprint were to put a 1x800 signal on them since service West of Goffstown is basically non existent. 

[swintec 372]

possibly they are GMO setups?  I feel like they have essentially abandoned us up here.  Nextel stuff is still up on my local GMO tower.

[signalchaser 14]

There is no signal that I can detect from either of them. The one near Francestown is callsign WPBN325  

[swintec 372]

There is no signal that I can detect from either of them. The one near Francestown is callsign WPBN325  

 

Hhhmmm...looking at southern maine, it seems the towers for nextel were just recently updated with the FCC, they all show "(Effective: 07/26/2016 - Expires: 07/26/2026)".  Why would they extend out so long?  Is that the minimum license length?  Is it possible that as long as the equipment is located on the tower, it needs to be registered with the FCC?  It seems for at least the past year, all upgrades and what not have come to a halt in this market, unfortuantely so it may take them until 2026 to get the stuff down.

[signalchaser 14]

I am curious if they are still using nextel type services for people who still rely on this for work. I found an old Nextel map of the area but now I can't find it. Nonetheless, there are few Sprint towers in my area. T-mobile has added quite a few in the last year while Sprint's footprint is essentially the same here.

[swintec 372]

 there are few Sprint towers in my area. T-mobile has added quite a few in the last year while Sprint's footprint is essentially the same here.

 

You are preaching to the choir, buddy.    Although southern maine isnt to bad, the huge amount of GMOs around the market doesnt help things.

 

From what I have seen, most of the nextel used towers, also have a sprint set up on them.  Maybe that is why they are still using the old nextel name on licenses since they plan on leaving the sprint equipment operational?

 

I doubt very much any nextel gear still on site is even being used.

[JDP121 183]

Has anyone used the network in Maine lately? If so has it improved for the best? 

 

Thinking about taking a trip up to see family and friends at the end of June if I'm able to. 

[banananuts87 148]

Has anyone used the network in Maine lately? If so has it improved for the best?

 

Thinking about taking a trip up to see family and friends at the end of June if I'm able to.

No issues in Portland or around I-95

[JDP121 183]

No issues in Portland or around I-95

Nice. What about the Bangor Area?

[swintec 372]

Nice. What about the Bangor Area?

 

Bangor is fine if you are literally right in the city and outskirts.  You will also have service right up 95 with no issues (voice and text, LTE sparse).  bangor has decent LTE.  Southern and central maine just started allowing US Celluar LTE roaming this past week while northern maine had it for almost a year now so you will be good in that regard.

[JDP121 183]

Nice. Thanks you all. 

[WiseGuy321 128]

Has anyone used the network in Maine lately? If so has it improved for the best? 

 

Thinking about taking a trip up to see family and friends at the end of June if I'm able to. 

 

 

It baffles me how Sprint has this huge gap in their LTE coverage on 95 from the NH/ME border. Then you get near Portland, and Sprint LTE comes back.

 

No one else's coverage is this sparse in the area, even Tmo

[S4GRU 57,278]

With USCC LTE Roaming now, though, that gap is less annoying than it used to be.  Now if USCC would only become a LTE RRPP Partner where you didn't have to use your roaming limits.

[RAvirani 1,871]

Now if USCC would only become a LTE RRPP Partner where you didn't have to use your roaming limits.

I posted this in another thread just an hour or two ago ????.

[swintec 372]

With USCC LTE Roaming now, though, that gap is less annoying than it used to be.

 

Yea but the sprint lte gap simply means we fall back to Sprint EVDO which is adequate but we still wont failover to USCC LTE since sprint 3G service is there.

[mikejeep 4,502]

With USCC LTE Roaming now, though, that gap is less annoying than it used to be.  Now if USCC would only become a LTE RRPP Partner where you didn't have to use your roaming limits.

 

The map around Lake Winnipesaukee (central NH) seems to show mostly "LTE Roaming" on Sprint's map, with some "Off-Network Roaming" -- what is the difference between these two? Do both count against your roaming cap? I'm guessing it's USCC around there.

 

-Mike

[Flompholph 1,207]

USCC counts against your roaming. The good news they are sometimes slow to report to sprint your usage. So you may be able to go over the roaming limit. At least I was able to for a weekend then two days latter I get an email about hitting my limit and roaming was blocked.

[swintec 372]

USCC counts against your roaming. The good news they are sometimes slow to report to sprint your usage. So you may be able to go over the roaming limit. At least I was able to for a weekend then two days latter I get an email about hitting my limit and roaming was blocked.

 At least with USCC LTE roaming, its a matter of an hour or two for reporting from what I have seen these days.  Also, speeds seem to be capped at about 2 megabits in both directions for LTE roaming...anyone else confirm?

[swintec 372]

Huge progress on GMO sites being upgraded the past few weeks to have band 25 LTE.  Seems the rate they are going, all GMO sites in maine will be done by end of summer or sooner.

[Jones 533]

Looks like a future plan actually happened...

 

https://www.wirelessweek.com/news/2017/07/sprint-teams-great-north-woods-wireless-provide-lte-roaming-new-hampshire

 

I'll be driving to visit my parents in Coos County next week too! Bad part is that we'll be making a 14 hr drive with a 2 and 6 year old and a dog.

I'll report back with results, if I'm still alive/sane

 

 

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[Kevster1321 165]

So I was looking at this http://specmap.sequence-omega.net map of sprints spectrum and it looks like sprint doesn't own any BRS spectrum in Vermont is this true and if so are they just using EBS?

[signalchaser 14]

According to the Sprint NH coverage tool, it looks as if all towers have been upgraded to LTE! I was driving along 202 a couple weeks ago and noticed new band 26 along my drive passing the Pat's peak area.

[Tengen31 695]

So I was looking at this http://specmap.sequence-omega.net map of sprints spectrum and it looks like sprint doesn't own any BRS spectrum in Vermont is this true and if so are they just using EBS?

That's a good question. That area could be one where they need to buy more B41 spectrum

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