Sprint LTE Coverage Maps via Sensorly

[Bob Newhart]

Please make an option to view the non-roaming and roaming maps separately.

 

This makes them useful for non-LTE maps.

[kg4icg]

Phones don't tell sensorly when they are roaming, so how you gonna do that.

[mikejeep]

Phones don't tell sensorly when they are roaming, so how you gonna do that.

 

Actually, there is a roaming flag in Android that Sensorly could catch.. I have found it to be reliable, at least on CDMA devices.

 

-Mike

[tampaflusa]

What's going to happen now when triband phones come out like the LG 2 next month? I know there are live 2500 mhz sites live here in Tampa that are no where near live 1900 LTE sites yet. Will it lay down dark purple in areas single band phones can't recieve LTE giving the false hope to a person with a One or EVO lets say that there is LTE available when there's not?

[digiblur]

What's going to happen now when triband phones come out like the LG 2 next month? I know there are live 2500 mhz sites live here in Tampa that are no where near live 1900 LTE sites yet. Will it lay down dark purple in areas single band phones can't recieve LTE giving the false hope to a person with a One or EVO lets say that there is LTE available when there's not?

Probably so.. Unless they can figure out how to read the band.

 

I wish they would do a 800smr map since our phones report 1x correctly even when on LTE and they could just read the 224xx SIDs and put them on a map. Seems pretty easy and I am sure Sprint would be interested in seeing it themselves.

[Yuhfhrh]

Probably so.. Unless they can figure out how to read the band.

 

I wish they would do a 800smr map since our phones report 1x correctly even when on LTE and they could just read the 224xx SIDs and put them on a map. Seems pretty easy and I am sure Sprint would be interested in seeing it themselves.

 

I really wish they would too, but I don't think they ever will.

[Bob Newhart]

I really wish they would too, but I don't think they ever will.

 

Do they need to though?

 

Sensorly maps populate the 3G signals the same whether you're in Sprint 1900, Verizon 850, Verizon 1900, US Cellular 1900, etc...

 

So separating Sprint 800/1900 LTE or 800/1900 CDMA is the least of their issues. 

[Yuhfhrh]

Do they need to though?

 

Sensorly maps populate the 3G signals the same whether you're in Sprint 1900, Verizon 850, Verizon 1900, US Cellular 1900, etc...

 

So separating Sprint 800/1900 LTE or 800/1900 CDMA is the least of their issues. 

 

You're right, I wish they would have separate roaming shades or maps, but then Specific frequency maps! lol

[sensorly]

Probably so.. Unless they can figure out how to read the band.

 

I wish they would do a 800smr map since our phones report 1x correctly even when on LTE and they could just read the 224xx SIDs and put them on a map. Seems pretty easy and I am sure Sprint would be interested in seeing it themselves.

Can you explain more on this ? What is the purpose of getting the 1x SID ?

[Yuhfhrh]

Can you explain more on this ? What is the purpose of getting the 1x SID ?

 

For Sprint on 1x, if the SID is in the 224xx range, then you are on the 800mhz SMR band. This is also how the app Signalcheck determines what band you are on.

[sensorly]

For Sprint on 1x, if the SID is in the 224xx range, then you are on the 800mhz SMR band. This is also how the app Signalcheck determines what band you are on.

How does that relate to LTE ? The radios are distinct, why would that be the LTE band ?

[Yuhfhrh]

How does that relate to LTE ? The radios are distinct, why would that be the LTE band ?

 

Digiblur was referring to how even when connected to LTE, the 1x information is still reported correctly.

(He was also referring to an 800mhz 1x map, not an 800mhz LTE map.)

[digiblur]

Digiblur was referring to how even when connected to LTE, the 1x information is still reported correctly.

(He was also referring to an 800mhz 1x map, not an 800mhz LTE map.)

Correct even while connected to LTE I can watch the signal strength on 1x and as it hands off between site to site.

 

If Sensorly went back to capturing the 1x data points while connected to LTE and took all the ones attached to 224xx SIDs then they could build a Sprint 1x800mhz SMR map off that data. It would be a brand new game for everyone at S4GRU tracking down and mapping out 800mhz 1x.

 

Now for the LTE 800, they might populate the network with a different Mcc Mnc than 310-120 but some phones report 310-000 so I am not sure if this will work to determine the band.

[PDXmike]

It would be a brand new game for everyone at S4GRU tracking down and mapping out 800mhz 1x.

 

I, for one, would definitely be all right with that!

[digiblur]

I, for one, would definitely be all right with that!

And if they kept track of the Basestation IDs in the points and made click able maps where we could see what BID provided that coverage that would be down right awesome!

[PDXmike]

And if they kept track of the Basestation IDs in the points and made click able maps where we could see what BID provided that coverage that would be down right awesome!

That would be amazing! Almost as amazing as the fact that college football is back!

[azoclark]

And if they kept track of the Basestation IDs in the points and made click able maps where we could see what BID provided that coverage that would be down right awesome!

 

And the next step would be a layer that would just show data points from that BID.  Maybe, a multi-color map (think world political map) that shows the area that a BID covers.  Could even shade colors between BID to see the overlap.

 

This is of course coming from someone that has no idea what is involved to do something like this.

[sensorly]

And if they kept track of the Basestation IDs in the points and made click able maps where we could see what BID provided that coverage that would be down right awesome!

Hey digiblur, we can do that. Next time you have stuff like that, pop me an email. We can't always do it immediately but we can sometimes and now is a good time.

I like the idea of the base station based on the latitude,longitude provided by the network, will try to add it in the next release.

 

We also collect the 1x signal and its SID, so you're saying it would be useful to have a separate map, but why ? Sorry if I'm being thick but it's hard to follow all conversations.

[Yuhfhrh]

Hey digiblur, we can do that. Next time you have stuff like that, pop me an email. We can't always do it immediately but we can sometimes and now is a good time.

I like the idea of the base station based on the latitude,longitude provided by the network, will try to add it in the next release.

 

We also collect the 1x signal and its SID, so you're saying it would be useful to have a separate map, but why ? Sorry if I'm being thick but it's hard to follow all conversations.

 

A separate map for 800mhz 1x. The benefit would be to show how much 800mhz improves coverage, but also phones released before 2011 don't support 800mhz 1x. For people on older phones, sensorly coverage maps could become misleading.

 

Its the same thing for LTE, all phones released so far do not support 2600mhz or 800mhz LTE. So the coverage maps would again become misleading in the future for people that only have single band 1900mhz LTE phones.

[digiblur]

Hey digiblur, we can do that. Next time you have stuff like that, pop me an email. We can't always do it immediately but we can sometimes and now is a good time.

I like the idea of the base station based on the latitude,longitude provided by the network, will try to add it in the next release.

 

We also collect the 1x signal and its SID, so you're saying it would be useful to have a separate map, but why ? Sorry if I'm being thick but it's hard to follow all conversations.

 

Keep in mind that the latitude and longitude coordinates for a lot of the basetstations are incorrect.  Some markets that are perfect, some seem to be offset by half a mile from each sector.  Since they are incorrect my area I personally do not look at the coordinates myself but I do look at the basestation ID to determine which site I'm connected to.  I will type up the design of how and what should be done and post it here and send you an email so you can have it for your records.   Not taking it as being hard at all as I understand you are very busy.  Thanks for listening to us! 

[The Dave]

I don't have an LTE phone yet, but looks like I made my first contribution to the wimax cause. Almost looks like I have a tower in my backyard :-D

 

I would also like to thank the Sensorly rep for his active involvement with this community. It's awesome to see an app developer work so hard to improve their product for their customer base. It's guys like you and Mike from Signal Check that set the gold standard for customer service and satisfaction. Keep up the great work.

[sensorly]

Thanks for everyone's kind words.

 

We just implemented a slight improvement to the LTE maps : they're drawn down to the pixel now whereas they used to be drawn to 2-pixels. It's subtle but once you notice it looks much better. Not all parts of the maps were updated, only the main markets because there's too much to redraw. But if you collect data and look at the map a couple hours later, you will see it. We redrew about 16 millions map parts yesterday for that.

 

Also, I changed the CDN config : LTE tiles are now cached only 2h max with a 30minute expiry time for the browser so even if you visit a map area in the morning, you should see the updates at noon.

[digiblur]

Thanks for everyone's kind words.

 

We just implemented a slight improvement to the LTE maps : they're drawn down to the pixel now whereas they used to be drawn to 2-pixels. It's subtle but once you notice it looks much better. Not all parts of the maps were updated, only the main markets because there's too much to redraw. But if you collect data and look at the map a couple hours later, you will see it. We redraw about 16 millions map parts yesterday for that.

 

Also, I changed the CDN config : LTE tiles are now cached only 2h max with a 30minute expiry time for the browser so even if you visit a map area in the morning, you should see the updates at noon.

I noticed that the other day and thought thinks looked crisp on the map. Then I thought I was just seeing things. It does look great though! Good job!

[digiblur]

Hey digiblur, we can do that. Next time you have stuff like that, pop me an email. We can't always do it immediately but we can sometimes and now is a good time.

I like the idea of the base station based on the latitude,longitude provided by the network, will try to add it in the next release.

 

We also collect the 1x signal and its SID, so you're saying it would be useful to have a separate map, but why ? Sorry if I'm being thick but it's hard to follow all conversations.

Sprint has taken their Nextel iDen frequencies and are refarming them to CDMA 1X and LTE. Most areas this will be one 1X Advanced carrier and one 5mhz LTE carrier. Sprint is using separate SIDs for the CDMA side of 800SMR which is referred to as Band Class 10. All of the SIDs are in the 224xx range. An exact list of them can be found on the iFast SID listing or I can send them to you. There are some other international 224xx ones from what I remember.

 

Since the SID is easily obtainable with Android calls, Sensorly could read these points and put them on a separate Sprint 800 CDMA map. Usually the areas where the 800 cdma will be found is in areas where LTE 1900mhz is deployed. I know previously you stopped counting the 2g/3g points while on LTE. This would need to be reversed on Sprint devices when connected to 800 SIDs. From the devices I have messed with on Sprint they seem to track the 1x signal and LTE very closely at the same time. As I said before I would also hang on to the basestation IDs. This would be great data if it could be displayed some how since many of us track these to determine if new sites are activated.

 

I am sure several of us would be glad to Beta test this. It would be a brand new game for Sensorly spotting.

[The Dave]

In the immortal words of Sherlock Holmes, "The game is afoot".