Comments related to the NV Running List Thread

[Sgt. Slaughter]

I found the last 5 speed tests where I had written them down. Not sure what happened to the rest.

Ping. Download. Upload

183 .31 mbps .18 mbps

860 .12 mbps .16 mbps

418 .04 mbps .33 mbps

1140 .12 mbps .11 mbps

252 .54 mbps .44 mbps

 

They also had me get these numbers Rx signal strength 68 Rx power 68.5 dbm active set PN 279

 

After the last test, they couldn't get off the phone fast enough.

The conversation was something like ".54 megabits per second is within the accepted range of .40 to .70 and the tower seems to be working perfectly" click.

 

That is one reason my signature on tapatalk is:

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

Average speeds as per their site are 600kbps-1.4Mbps.....so if ur not getting that there they should give the discount...

 

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[stitch1007]

Is there and more detailed information about each of the cities? I have seen them replace an entire tower near where I live. Also my speeds and signal at my work has gotten a lot better. But when should they make the real switch to the new network? I live on the MO side of Kansas City but work in Overland park KS. I know and knew KC was going to be part of the 1st group of cities. But I really want to know more. Also what should we truly expect from these updates? I know what all is getting upgraded. My question is more on the lines of we have never seen a network like this before. Some say it will blow everything else out of the water while others say their LTE wont be as good as Verizon's. I would really like to know what kind of upgrade we will see from 3g.

 

Heres a pic of the speeds im finally getting now on 3G at my work. I was getting super slow speeds till about a week or so ago. Overland Park's network had been way overloaded.

[cupcak3]

They opened a trouble ticket on the tower nearest my house and had me run at least 100 speed tests over a 3 day period. Then I finally had 1 result over 400 kbps and they told me that was acceptable speed for 3g. I spent hours on the phone with them. I would say you got the rare CSA, not the other way around.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

I agree with you. Yours is more extreme than most cases I've read online but same outcome of no discount as me and many other accounts I've read.

[pyroscott]

Is there and more detailed information about each of the cities? I have seen them replace an entire tower near where I live. Also my speeds and signal at my work has gotten a lot better. But when should they make the real switch to the new network? I live on the MO side of Kansas City but work in Overland park KS. I know and knew KC was going to be part of the 1st group of cities. But I really want to know more. Also what should we truly expect from these updates? I know what all is getting upgraded. My question is more on the lines of we have never seen a network like this before. Some say it will blow everything else out of the water while others say their LTE wont be as good as Verizon's. I would really like to know what kind of upgrade we will see from 3g.

 

Heres a pic of the speeds im finally getting now on 3G at my work. I was getting super slow speeds till about a week or so ago. Overland Park's network had been way overloaded.

 

I would think Overland Park would have 3G speeds maxxed out. Towers every hundred feet. You can't be slow in your own back yard...

[stitch1007]

I would think Overland Park would have 3G speeds maxxed out. Towers every hundred feet. You can't be slow in your own back yard...

 

HAHAHAHA Yeah right! One would think so, but unfortunately our area has had horrible service and still is lacking compared to the others. 4G is a joke around here. I used to work across the street from the Sprint HQ. I could literally see it out my window. No bars. At that time I had ATT and was fine but in that same building they still can't get more then one bar of 4g. 3G is better now but still kinda sad.

 

To say I am really hoping the network upgrades can turn sprint around would be an understatement.

[pyroscott]

HAHAHAHA Yeah right! One would think so, but unfortunately our area has had horrible service and still is lacking compared to the others. 4G is a joke around here. I used to work across the street from the Sprint HQ. I could literally see it out my window. No bars. At that time I had ATT and was fine but in that same building they still can't get more then one bar of 4g. 3G is better now but still kinda sad.

 

To say I am really hoping the network upgrades can turn sprint around would be an understatement.

 

I wonder what Sprint Employees carry. Sprint, T-Mobile? Or maybe they have Airraves floor to ceiling...

[kustu82]

HAHAHAHA Yeah right! One would think so, but unfortunately our area has had horrible service and still is lacking compared to the others. 4G is a joke around here. I used to work across the street from the Sprint HQ. I could literally see it out my window. No bars. At that time I had ATT and was fine but in that same building they still can't get more then one bar of 4g. 3G is better now but still kinda sad.

 

To say I am really hoping the network upgrades can turn sprint around would be an understatement.

 

One would think going by sprint HQ they would have decent 3g speeds but not really. Whenever I'm over there I do a speed test and the results are sub 500.

 

I work in Olathe and the speeds for the past couple of months have been up and down. It would be kind of nice to know what clusters will be turned on first in the KC area. I live on the MO side near the stateline and at my house I still get no service.

[stitch1007]

I wonder what Sprint Employees carry. Sprint, T-Mobile? Or maybe they have Airraves floor to ceiling...

 

Every Sprint employee have know carries a Sprint phone. They get a great deal for working there. But I think that is one of our local issues. There are just too many people on Sprint around here overloading the towers.

[pyroscott]

Every Sprint employee have know carries a Sprint phone. They get a great deal for working there. But I think that is one of our local issues. There are just too many people on Sprint around here overloading the towers.

 

I think there were numbers posted somewhere here that T-Mobile actually had the most subscribers in the KC market. Might have been in a chat. I think AJ posted it. I will see if I can dig it up.

[lrmcgarvey]

I called to complsin about speeds, and no discount here either. They did check the towers I have tge most trouble with. Gave me cdma drop rates and all that stuff.

 

They did tell me about all of the towers I use are scheduled for additional carriers and backhaul upgrades in the next few months. But other than that to wait for network vision.

 

I'm just hoping the band aid fixes are good enough to improve and handle capacity un yu il NV gets here.

 

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[Sgt. Slaughter]

 

Every Sprint employee have know carries a Sprint phone. They get a great deal for working there. But I think that is one of our local issues. There are just too many people on Sprint around here overloading the towers.

 

Well ur getting awesome 3G speeds now so I'd be happy.

 

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[BenChase7]

Well ur getting awesome 3G speeds now so I'd be happy.

 

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk

 

+1 I've never seen a 3G speed that high on any network.

[Sgt. Slaughter]

 

+1 I've never seen a 3G speed that high on any network.

No kidding I don't know what I'd do if I had that speed result....except try to debunk it as there's no way I'd believe it was real here. Haha

 

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[gr8nuguy]

i get great speeds most of the time, speed tests have been posted on here already just waiting on lte here

[irev210]

Robert,

 

In your most recent article it sounded like you were pretty confident that sprint would be rolling out 5x5 800MHz LTE in urban or capacity constrained areas + 1xAdvanced everywhere. You also mentioned that there will be a 20% improvement in coverage. Is that just a result of new equipment and RRUs @ 1900Mhz?

 

Is that confirmed?

 

Also, can you shed some more light on 1xAdvanced? With current 1x, data speeds are limited to about 144k/sec or so... what are the capabilities of 1xAdvanced from a coverage and data speed standpoint? I know that the qualcomm marketing material always says "4x the capacity or 4x the coverage" but what is sprint expected to do and how will that effect coverage?

 

Glad you are getting in-depth on this stuff, it's super interesting. I (and I am sure many others) appreciate all the hard work and time you've put into this.

 

Still wondering

 

Is it official that there are NV sites actually providing service to regular customers yet, or are they still testing?

Edited March 9, 2012 by irev210

[MaxPower]

I just lost my 3G connection for a few minutes, signal showed near full strength but no 3G. I don't even care about 4G right now, I just want decent 3G

 

 

I find it really odd that my signal strength has been fluctuating a lot the past couple of weeks. It will show 0 bars for a few seconds then jump to full strength for another few seconds then go down to 3 or 4 bars where it stays at most of the time. It does this pretty much all day.

[McDroidBurger]

Still waiting on South Bend.....lol.

[McDroidBurger]

The life of a cdma antenna, always looking.

 

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[gr8nuguy]

just checked out our tower, nothing new (yet)

[S4GRU]

Sorry everyone. It's been a very busy week for me. Every spare second I've had has been used for chat and articles. I'm trying to catch up!!! See my responses below...

 

In your most recent article it sounded like you were pretty confident that sprint would be rolling out 5x5 800MHz LTE in urban or capacity constrained areas + 1xAdvanced everywhere. You also mentioned that there will be a 20% improvement in coverage. Is that just a result of new equipment and RRUs @ 1900Mhz? Is that confirmed?

 

Yes, the 20% coverage increase is on 1900. 1900 signal will travel approximately 20% farther with the new RRU's. Not just that, but anywhere within the coverage of that 1900 site will now see a stronger signal. For instance, the circle around a tower that used to get a -85dBM signal, now will be 20% farther from the tower than before. Sprint is planning to put 800 1xA at almost every site, but they are not planning on 800 LTE at every site. I would say by what I've seen, it's about 75% of all their sites will get 800 LTE. Sprint will not be putting 800 carriers at any site that they are unable to use tower mounted RRU's. Although, I'm uncertain why. If the RRU's stays at ground level, there is no 800MHz service at the site. These points are all based in the documents I've seen and not based on personal speculation.

 

Also, can you shed some more light on 1xAdvanced? With current 1x, data speeds are limited to about 144k/sec or so... what are the capabilities of 1xAdvanced from a coverage and data speed standpoint? I know that the qualcomm marketing material always says "4x the capacity or 4x the coverage" but what is sprint expected to do and how will that effect coverage?

 

Glad you are getting in-depth on this stuff, it's super interesting. I (and I am sure many others) appreciate all the hard work and time you've put into this.

 

No one I've talked with inside Sprint can explain this to me. I seem to be more up on Qualcomm and 1xAdvanced than they are. And that concerns me a little bit. None of the documents I've seen ever reference anything meaningful about 1xA. I'm still in the dark. The one guy who did seem to at least understand what I was talking about said he understands that 1xA carrier deployment settings are going to be variable by site. I could not get a further elaboration, but I interpreted that to mean that rural locations may focus on coverage enhancement and urban sites would focus on capacity enhancement. This makes a lot of sense, but this unconfirmed and the details are not known. And thanks for the compliments!

 

Is there any info on Arizona at all? I dont even see the point of asking sprint any more because they always say the same damn thing. When i signed the contract.. "Oh, i really want this evo 4G! It looks really cool!" "Alright lets get all the paperwork up and get you on your way." "Sounds good, also when will there be 4G in Tucson?" "Its coming very soon." 6 months later.. "Hey i was told that we were getting 4G soon when i signed up, what gives?" "Oh, we are working on getting it working and will be up very soon." Sorry, just bummed. I Left verizon because it was getting expensive and they were getting rid of their unlimited data plans. Now they have 4G as well as T-Mobile, and AT&T in my area. I feel that i picked wrong.

I'm really sad I haven't seen Arizona on the list yet. I upgraded from my Samsung Moment to the Epic 4g and was then charged the data fee that was attributed to 4G phones only even though I didn't have any 4G to connect to. I paid the fee thinking that one day I'd get the 4G and the little bit I was paying would help that along. Now I hear that Sprint is moving to LTE meaning that my WiMax Epic would never see the light of 4G. I had hoped that Sprint would correct this by announcing Phoenix as an LTE city within 2012 but with the recent updated from S4GRU my hopes are fading fast. I really hope I see Phoenix on the list soon....

 

I have a lot of sympathy for our friends in Arizona. It's been a bum deal. Sprint is getting to Phoenix, and it won't be at the end. But I think they should have made Phoenix a priority, myself. Maybe Mr. Hesse doesn't like your Governor and Sheriff?

[S4GRU]

Do you have any more specifics regarding the NV rollout in Atlanta? I am quite curious which clusters/towers might be going up first, undergoing testing, or have already been switched on, if you are privy to those kinds of details.

 

I would love to get the details for the Atlanta market that I have gotten for Chicago. But I'm way short on Atlanta details.

 

I commented in the NJ wall post but wanted to be sure you saw it.

 

1) The point of sites being brought live in clusters.... is this specific to this market and other markets, or is this how they are going to be doing it nationwide going forward b/c it contradicts what was said about Boston being brought live site by site...OR can this just be specific to how A/L is going to do it and Samsung and others could do it site by site?

 

Sorry again for the delay. Been a busy week. The cluster development plan is nationwide. In each market, the OEM's pre-identified clusters with approx. 20 sites each for deployment to be worked out. I have seen the clusters in almost approx. 50% of the markets. However, in many instances, a tower here, or a few towers here, or there, do not make sense to put into any cluster. These "renegade" towers that are not part of any cluster appear to be worked on first in some markets. This is occurring in the Boston market right now in Cape Cod.

 

2) In the NJ article its stated:

 

Will "adding carriers" require truck rolls each time??? If so then why are they not going ahead and adding all they have right now while they are at the tower and also putting it(LTE) on 800MHz if thats the full blown plan 100% sure? Is there not a way to have LTE on 800MHz set up and ready to flip on the moment they shut off iDEN and get FCC approval for the change over???

I'm still kinda surprised they haven't proposed the change over for the 800MHz to the FCC yet at this point...is that not still the case though, or have they already gotten approval to repurpose the spectrum there??? If not whats the hold up on this being done?

 

There has been an update since you posted this question. AJ wrote an article today about the FCC approval of wideband operations on 800. This is no longer going to be an issue. It's my understanding from conversations (and the docs I have seen seem to support this) that the sites that are identified to get 800MHz service will get fully deployed now with a complete install during Network Vision. There will not need to be another truck roll, except for possibly drive testing, in the future. It should be able to be brought up online whenever Sprint feels it's time, remotely. I do not know anything about the testing of 800MHz service details, like I do for 1900.

 

After this FCC approval, the only thing stopping Sprint from lighting up its 800 1xA service is interference from iDEN operations. But if iDEN was shunted over to 900MHz (which I believe all their devices out there support), then they could start 800 CDMA service pretty soon. However, starting 800 LTE soon doesn't make any sense, since there are no devices out there that would run on it.

 

I wanted to know how many rounds are there going to be?

 

Four

[S4GRU]

Would it be fair to say that there is already a completed Live LTE area (Hammond, Indiana as per the article). If so why is it not listed on the NV running list? or am I reading it incorrectly?

 

Two reasons. 1. The list tracks markets, not individual communities within a market. 2. Hammond was a 4G LTE FIT (field testing cluster). At these sites, only LTE was deployed. These sites in the Hammond cluster have not been fully outfitted with NV and are not currently broadcasting 3G and 1x on the new system. They are still broadcasting on the legacy system, except LTE. However, this work is underway now. The Hammond cluster should be testing soon and converted off the legacy system. We have several S4GRU members who live in Hammond. They will be certain to let us know when their 3G vastly improves.

 

They didn't offer me jack when I called.

 

They don't offer me anything either. Maybe they are bigoted against us poor white trash?

 

Is there and more detailed information about each of the cities? I have seen them replace an entire tower near where I live. Also my speeds and signal at my work has gotten a lot better. But when should they make the real switch to the new network? I live on the MO side of Kansas City but work in Overland park KS. I know and knew KC was going to be part of the 1st group of cities. But I really want to know more. Also what should we truly expect from these updates? I know what all is getting upgraded. My question is more on the lines of we have never seen a network like this before. Some say it will blow everything else out of the water while others say their LTE wont be as good as Verizon's. I would really like to know what kind of upgrade we will see from 3g. I was getting super slow speeds till about a week or so ago. Overland Park's network had been way overloaded.

 

I don't have many details about the Kansas market. All I know about deployments there is what I hear from S4GRU members.

 

I post all the details that my sources allow me to. Some are more daring. Some are very paranoid. There are lots of things I receive that I have to sit on. However, Kansas City details are not one of the things I've ever received.

 

However, I can tell you based on documents I have seen on a national level, the design Sprint employed on the new network was to target 3G speeds between 1 - 2Mbps on 3G EVDO and 6 - 8Mbps on LTE. There will be some 2Mbps+ and 12Mbps+ on 3G and LTE networks. However, the design goal was to try to keep these 1-2 and 6-8 Mbps speeds consistently in all coverage areas on the network.

 

I think there were numbers posted somewhere here that T-Mobile actually had the most subscribers in the KC market. Might have been in a chat. I think AJ posted it. I will see if I can dig it up.

 

AJ did post it in a Live Chat session in The Lounge at S4GRU.

 

+1 I've never seen a 3G speed that high on any network.

 

We have one site in Albuquerque that was installed in the past 12 months that gets consistently 1.8Mbps to 2.3Mbps. It all depends on the backhaul. Many of the T1 lines that Sprint has used for the EVDO network over the years are limited to 1.4Mbps. But many of the newer sites around the country appear to have faster speeds. Sites with EVDO connected to enhanced backhaul will really be a lot faster like this.

 

I just lost my 3G connection for a few minutes, signal showed near full strength but no 3G. I don't even care about 4G right now, I just want decent 3G I find it really odd that my signal strength has been fluctuating a lot the past couple of weeks. It will show 0 bars for a few seconds then jump to full strength for another few seconds then go down to 3 or 4 bars where it stays at most of the time. It does this pretty much all day.

 

This is unlikely due to Network Vision. Network Vision testing is being done in the PCS G-Block which is not on any public PRL to date issued by Sprint. So your device will not be able to accidentally get on these frequencies. If you are in a Network Vision cluster under going testing, it will be undetectable to you. Sprint has relegated their NV OEM's to test in PCS G Block as to not interfere with existing customers.

 

What you will likely notice though, when you are in a Network Vision cluster when it goes live, is you will likely lose your signal altogether when they switch from legacy service to new NV service. Your device may even roam for a few minutes during the change over. Then when it comes back and connect to the Sprint network after a few minutes, you will likely notice a slightly stronger signal then before. If you had a device with six bars available in the indicator, it would probably go up one. Or if you had a device with only a four bar indicator, you likely wouldn't notice it go up any, unless you were already at the top edge of one bar to another. Then, a data speed test would likely really clue you in.

 

However, signals going in and out consistently, etc. are not signs of Network Vision work but could be a sign of of the temporary band-aid improvements that Sprint is doing ahead of Network Vision and announced on network.sprint.com.

 

Still waiting on South Bend.....lol.

 

You just keep on waiting. South Bend gets it much sooner than New Mexico!!!

 

just checked out our tower, nothing new (yet)

 

Keep us posted. You will likely get upgraded in the next 3 months or so, I'd guess. I would love more details on the Kansas market deployment!

[Sgt. Slaughter]

...

There has been an update since you posted this question. AJ wrote an article today about the FCC approval of wideband operations on 800. This is no longer going to be an issue. It's my understanding from conversations (and the docs I have seen seem to support this) that the sites that are identified to get 800MHz service will get fully deployed now with a complete install during Network Vision. There will not need to be another truck roll, except for possibly drive testing, in the future. It should be able to be brought up online whenever Sprint feels it's time, remotely. I do not know anything about the testing of 800MHz service details, like I do for 1900.

 

After this FCC approval, the only thing stopping Sprint from lighting up its 800 1xA service is interference from iDEN operations. But if iDEN was shunted over to 900MHz (which I believe all their devices out there support), then they could start 800 CDMA service pretty soon. However, starting 800 LTE soon doesn't make any sense, since there are no devices out there that would run on it.

...

What do you mean by this??? Its no different than saying there are no devices that would run on the 1900 b/c there are non right now either....Less you know exactly the devices in the future planned for sure are not set to run on 800MHz and thats why you say it, OR b/c devices cant run or crews even test on it till iDEN is moved?

 

So not all towers will get 800MHz LTE? would I be correct in assuming that most will get it and there will only be certain areas where there is too much overlap that wouldn't get/warrant it?

 

Really seems they should just push all of iDEN to 900 so they can get the 800 up running too now while they are at the towers doing the work....Understand theres not much spectrum at 800MHz for much LTE but some is better than none

[S4GRU]

What do you mean by this??? Its no different than saying there are no devices that would run on the 1900 b/c there are non right now either....Less you know exactly the devices in the future planned for sure are not set to run on 800MHz and thats why you say it, OR b/c devices cant run or crews even test on it till iDEN is moved?

 

So not all towers will get 800MHz LTE? would I be correct in assuming that most will get it and there will only be certain areas where there is too much overlap that wouldn't get/warrant it?

 

Really seems they should just push all of iDEN to 900 so they can get the 800 up running too now while they are at the towers doing the work....Understand theres not much spectrum at 800MHz for much LTE but some is better than none

 

You are missing my main point. Right now there are devices that millions of Sprint customers possess right this very second that are capable of running on 800 CDMA. But there are zero that run on 800 LTE. It's possible that the first Sprint LTE devices may support 800. And I don't know definitively. But I am guessing that the first ones will not.

 

As for the sites that will not get 800 LTE, many are overlap locations. However, there are lots of rural locations that do not get it also. Like Ontario, Oregon (and dozens of other communities). There are also places where 800 LTE service is skipped either because of adjacent license holders or rebanding efforts. For instance, Los Angeles County will not get any 800 LTE within 10 miles of Orange County.

 

I too support the idea of shunting iDEN to 900 now. Especially now that the FCC 800 wideband issue is going by the way side. CDMA 800 could be running right away. LTE 800 could be running as soon as devices that support it are on the market.

[Sgt. Slaughter]

 

You are missing my main point. Right now there are devices that millions of Sprint customers possess right this very second that are capable of running on 800 CDMA. But there are zero that run on 800 LTE. It's possible that the first Sprint LTE devices may support 800. And I don't know definitively. But I am guessing that the first ones will not.

 

As for the sites that will not get 800 LTE, many are overlap locations. However, there are lots of rural locations that do not get it also. Like Ontario, Oregon (and dozens of other communities). There are also places where 800 LTE service is skipped either because of adjacent license holders or rebanding efforts. For instance, Los Angeles County will not get any 800 LTE within 10 miles of Orange County.

 

I too support the idea of shunting iDEN to 900 now. Especially now that the FCC 800 wideband issue is going by the way side. CDMA 800 could be running right away. LTE 800 could be running as soon as devices that support it are on the market.

 

Again though if at the tower setting up lte & cdma on 800 and testing makes as much sense as doing it for lte on 1900 right now.

Currently there are zero devices that support either so saying it makes little sense to do lte on 800 and test right now is no different than what they are doing on 1900 now already...unless like I said they still for some reason do not know if they will even put lte on 800 along side cdma1x too...or you took me saying that lte on 800 would mean no cdma1x if lte was there, which was not what i ment. I ment for both to be there from start.

I see no reason why they when they would flip on live cdma 1x on 800 and NOT lte there too, less I'm missing something....

 

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