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WiMax Protection Site Operation Confirmation


S4GRU

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Ok...please forgive me' date=' but this question has been bothering me....

 

What is a Protection Site?

 

KCT - "No Matter Where You Go, There You Are!"[/quote']

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/6-what-are-protection-sites/

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

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What is a Protection Site?

 

A license protection site is the condom of the wireless world. It does not offer much wireless pleasure, but it gets the job done.

 

AJ

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Got a chance to check out Kerrville's WiMAX tower earlier today. For the meaty details see here:

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1919-wimax-in-tx-austin-kerrville/page__view__findpost__p__42782

 

Short version: used a Clear Hub Express for testing at two points and the roads in between. At the two points I had near or actual line of sight to the tower at ~1.00 and ~0.85 miles away. Speeds peaked at nearly 10 Mbps down and close to 1.5 Mbps up, but usually were in the 2-6 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up range.I'm going to guess the tower is backhauled by something with only 10 Mbps of downstream capacity. Latency was par for the course (100-120ms, routed to Dallas, not Houston, by Clearwire).

 

Just in case anyone didn't catch that, the above test was done in ideal conditions with a desktop-class modem a mile or less from the tower with line of sight or close to it, on Clearwire (vs. Sprint) equipment. My guess is that the tower's usable range on a phone is 1.5 miles outdoors, significantly less indoors. The signal appears to be coming from a water tower in the NE quadrant of town; Clear doesn't show a tower location on their map.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I can confirm that "Pennsylvania>State College" has some WiMax coverage. On Penn State's campus, there are few locations with WiMax. The one notable one I found is by the Bryce Jordan Center. I am not sure, however, which tower this is from, as I had poor signal at this location. I also encountered WiMax at the intersection of N Aaron Dr. and Martin St. Sensorly Maps also point to WiMax far down College Ave, but I cannot confirm this. All the WiMax signals I acquired were on my HTC Evo Shift, which has been replaced by the Photon Q. When and if I ever get a chance to check for WiMax signal again, as in I get the Evo Shift back, I will try to locate which towers are in use, and run some speedtests.

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When and if I ever get a chance to check for WiMax signal again, as in I get the Evo Shift back, I will try to locate which towers are in use, and run some speedtests.

 

Do you know of a map of Clearwiire's Wimax towers? AFAIK we don't have one.

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Do you know of a map of Clearwiire's Wimax towers? AFAIK we don't have one.

 

I do not have a map of Clear's network. Clear actually provides the location of their towers in official markets. There's an option in their coverage map that allows you to see Clear towers. I can't guarantee that the map is accurate for tower location, but from my experience its somewhat accurate.

 

http://www.clear.com/coverage

 

I assumed that Clear and Sprint shared the towers in this location (State College, PA). I know in New York and other metro areas, Clear towers were independent of Sprint, hence why I sometimes was on the verge of Sprint's CDMA signal, but had beautiful WiMax coverage.

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I do not have a map of Clear's network. Clear actually provides the location of their towers in official markets. There's an option in their coverage map that allows you to see Clear towers. I can't guarantee that the map is accurate for tower location, but from my experience its somewhat accurate.

 

http://www.clear.com/coverage

 

 

Thanks. I had never zoomed in far enough to see the towers. This confirms what I suspected about a couple of towers in my own city.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

FYI - Minnesota - St Cloud still has the legacy 3G 2.5/2.6GHZ service in operation. I did not check the coverage on the I-94 corridor to Albany. Backhaul to Brainerd appears to stop at Fort Ripley. The Crow Wing Lake site which also fed the Brainerd site has been disable due to facilities ownership change. Red Rock Radio purchased WWWI radio in Brainerd which leased tower space to Clearwire. Red Rock immediately canceled the carriers tower lease agreement and wanted to renegotiate at a substantially higher cost than Clearwire was wiling to pay.

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FYI - Minnesota - St Cloud still has the legacy 3G 2.5/2.6GHZ service in operation. I did not check the coverage on the I-94 corridor to Albany. Backhaul to Brainerd appears to stop at Fort Ripley. The Crow Wing Lake site which also fed the Brainerd site has been disable due to facilities ownership change. Red Rock Radio purchased WWWI radio in Brainerd which leased tower space to Clearwire. Red Rock immediately canceled the carriers tower lease agreement and wanted to renegotiate at a substantially higher cost than Clearwire was wiling to pay.

 

In our Premier Sponsor section we have complete maps of all the Clearwire Expedience sites still in operation around the country, including the St. Cloud market. I appreciate the update info about the backhaul and tower leases.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

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  • 2 weeks later...
Here is a speedtest from my phone connected to a FreedomPop hotspot' date=' connected to JA23XC100 (a protection site in Gainesville, FL):

 

[/quote']

 

Thanks!

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Live in Asheville, on the original evo and there is no WiMAX anywhere around here. And if there was, the sprint store is right by one of those towers and surely would've noticed while there trying out phones

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  • 2 weeks later...

I work in SD county occasionally. There is a WiMax protection site in Encinitas ping avg 120ms, uplink approx 800 kilobit, downlink 1.5 megabit, Also another in the downtown San Diego area on what I believe is atop the old Hotel Del Coranado, ping avg 100, uplink 500 kilobit and downlink 600 kilobit. The UCSD tower is active and operates in the vacinity of the Salk Institute/Muir College along El Camino Real. Uplink/downlink varies widely due to the college kids, but avg is 500-800kbit/300-500kbit respectively. There is a tower in Escondido but I have yet to test its speed ranges. All of these tests are pre NV though and I can confirm that they utilize old leased T1 carrier lines.

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