SpecialEdVTEC Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 (edited) Sprint's coverage maps also include the roaming coverage, as well. Just figured you should know so that you don't check Sprint and get any false expectation from there, either. No worries there. On the Sprint coverage maps, off network roaming is defined. However, the Sprint coverage maps already set false expectations by showing that their coverage is better than it is, even if you filter out future Sprint towers. For example, they have the entire Tri County metropolitan area in SEFL blanketed in 4G. However, some areas have small gaps in 4G coverage or it is very weak due to the towers not completely overlapping. Also, some areas have not been upgraded, yet. For example, there is a tower South of Sunrise Blvd, East of University Dr, that is still 3G/WIMAX only. I stand by my opinion that the Sensorly coverage maps should not be mapping off-network roaming as coverage of the provider in question. Edited December 1, 2013 by SpecialEdVTEC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digiblur Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 I've found the Sprint voice maps to be pretty dead on. The LTE ones are just dead wrong. You'll see they show LTE coverage where they only have roaming coverage. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickel Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 I've found the Sprint voice maps to be pretty dead on. The LTE ones are just dead wrong. You'll see they show LTE coverage where they only have roaming coverage. Yeah, they're really wrong when you consider all the unlaunched markets that have had LTE for months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digiblur Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Yeah, they're really wrong when you consider all the unlaunched markets that have had LTE for months. Well I was talking about launched markets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickel Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Well I was talking about launched markets. I figured as much, however it still makes them inaccurate, but I understand why they do it that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWMich4G Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 I guess I'll be the first to complain. I really dislike the new gray maps on the website. Makes it much harder to see and is much less visually pleasing. I also dislike how there is no fullscreen option anymore. Also I really don't need a giant red marker telling me where Michigan is and blocking the tiles. How do I get rid of it? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yuhfhrh Posted December 4, 2013 Share Posted December 4, 2013 Yeah... I'm not going to use sensorly anymore lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asaini007 Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 This whole time, I've been patiently waiting for LTE to finally reach my area. Because that was the goal - that was the end. And, with Sprint's improvements, it's steadily been coming closer. But now, I realize, that LTE comes in a lot of flavors. Sure obviously there are different frequencies, backhauls, etc. that impact performance, but to the regular consumer, it comes down to speed. And Sprint is simply the slowest - so much slower than every other carrier! Sensorly made this clear to me, it lets you look at a portion of a map and gives information based on speed test done by users of LTE on all four carriers. It comes down to the following chart: Fraction of speed test results, by carrier, within download speed categories. Like.... just... 92% below 15 Mbps Sprint? Really? This isn't surprising though, I've noticed it in my own speed tests. I exported them into Excel (29 LTE tests of the last month) and found: A mean result of 8.7 mbps A median of 7.8 mbps, and the following distribution (histogram): Basically what I'm saying is, on average, Sprint's LTE is overwhelmingly slow compared to other carriers (even peak speeds are substantially lower - I'd say about half as much, and that's being generous). Now I know what you're gonna say - but Sprint Spark, TDD-LTE, upgraded backhaul are rolling out as we speak, bringing greater speed joy! To what end though - it's not like the other carriers are not improving their LTE networks, too. Then, of course, you might say, Sprint's network is improving faster than other carriers' networks are, so in the long run it will overtake them. And to that I say - really? The order of LTE launches: Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile. But while Sprint improves its network in stages (3G, 1900 MHz LTE, backhaul, 800 MHz LTE, 2500 MHz LTE, and on), T-Mobile and AT&T are already there (where Sprint Spark is trying to take us) with peak speeds of over 50 mbps! And you can't argue that AT&T's amazing speeds are because it's newer and therefore less saturated - because it's not. Who knows how much T-Mobile and AT&T will have progressed by the time Sprint Spark finishes rolling out? On that note I'd like to end this rant/post with the following disclaimer: the data here reflect Sprint speeds in my area (around Boston) - I can't claim to know the nationwide state of Sprint's network, so if you're enjoying consistent 20+ mbps, then congrats and I wonder why it's not happening here, in this first round market. Maybe there is a reason? Who knows... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Newhart Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 Their website is pretty user unfriendly now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejeep Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 Their website is pretty user unfriendly now. I'm not a huge fan of the gray map background color, but otherwise the website seems pretty similar to what it always has been...? -Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWMich4G Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 This whole time, I've been patiently waiting for LTE to finally reach my area. Because that was the goal - that was the end. And, with Sprint's improvements, it's steadily been coming closer. But now, I realize, that LTE comes in a lot of flavors. Sure obviously there are different frequencies, backhauls, etc. that impact performance, but to the regular consumer, it comes down to speed. I'm gonna stop you right there. I see you did a lot of work, but that first point is simply not true. The VAST majority of people would never know the difference between 5 mbps and 50 mbps, assuming they have the same ping/latency. While it may be true people respond to numbers in advertising, in real life usage they will personally not even be able to tell the difference. Once you reach a certain bandwidth, all the matters for everyday phone use is ping. While it's nice to have that ability to say "10 times faster than carrier X!" in marketing, it doesn't seem any faster to the consumer. Hand them 2 phones and they'll think the one with lower pings is faster, even if the bandwidth is lower. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asaini007 Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 I'm gonna stop you right there. I see you did a lot of work, but that first point is simply not true. The VAST majority of people would never know the difference between 5 mbps and 50 mbps, assuming they have the same ping/latency. While it may be true people respond to numbers in advertising, in real life usage they will personally not even be able to tell the difference. Once you reach a certain bandwidth, all the matters for everyday phone use is ping. While it's nice to have that ability to say "10 times faster than carrier X!" in marketing, it doesn't seem any faster to the consumer. Hand them 2 phones and they'll think the one with lower pings is faster, even if the bandwidth is lower. True story, I agree, I was just pointing out my findings. For me, as long as I can stream HD YouTube videos without buffering, I'm happy. But it is what it is. Didn't mean for that post to get to so long, I basically was crunching the numbers out of curiosity then decided to share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Newhart Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 I'm not a huge fan of the gray map background color, but otherwise the website seems pretty similar to what it always has been...? -Mike You used to be able to link to full screen maps with a zip code. For example, I used to use this: http://sensorly.com/fullscreen/map/4G/US/USA/ATandT_Mobility/lte_310410#q=98001 Now when you enter a zip code, you have to wait for it to search for the city, then you click it. Then you select carrier. Then you wait, Then you select 3g or 4g, then you wait. Then it asks you if its ok to save cookies. Still can link to direct maps though. http://www.sensorly.com/map/4G/US/USA/ATandT_Mobility/lte_310410#q=Auburn%2C+WA+98001%2C+USA Looks like they are using the same web site designer as T-Mobile. Life is hard for me now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejeep Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 You used to be able to link to full screen maps with a zip code. For example, I used to use this: http://sensorly.com/fullscreen/map/4G/US/USA/ATandT_Mobility/lte_310410#q=98001 Now when you enter a zip code, you have to wait for it to search for the city, then you click it. Then you select carrier. Then you wait, Then you select 3g or 4g, then you wait. Then it asks you if its ok to save cookies. Still can link to direct maps though. http://www.sensorly.com/map/4G/US/USA/ATandT_Mobility/lte_310410#q=Auburn%2C+WA+98001%2C+USA Ahh I see. It looks like linking to a zip code URL still works, but no fullscreen options anywhere. I never even realized there were fullscreen maps available. I know they received a big capital investment earlier this year, I'm sure that had something to do with all of the major changes to the site and the app. -Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWMich4G Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 The lack of color is becoming even more annoying that I thought it'd be. Not only can I not easily see where the coverage starts and stops due to the lack of contrast, I also can't find where I am on the map. With an overlay (the coverage) on a map you NEED an easy way to quickly identify where you're looking. They've removed the ability to quickly scan for things like parks, hospitals, schools, major highways, city limits, etc. Those are all colored on the old maps, and now EVERYTHING is gray, so now you're basically left with reading the street names, which conveniently auto-resize to around 7pt font for most streets. I don't know who's doing the beta testing there, but I want their eyesight if they can quickly read gray-on-gray, 7pt text that has a ~67% opaque purple overlay on top of it. I understand it's a business and cost was probably a factor, but it's hard to make money when you lose the majority of your contributing users by making your product far less user-friendly. And I'm not trying to sound rude, since I used to love the site and app, and would gladly pay $10 for the old versions were they not free. I just can't express how bad some of the changes have been without coming across as harsh. I also appreciated that we actually had a rep coming to our forum before, despite us only representing 1 of hundreds of carriers they cover. I'd love to know the reasoning for the changes, but they way things are going OpenSignal is looking a lot more attractive despite being incredibly inaccurate. At least I can read their maps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paynefanbro Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 Two things: The maps are getting kind of outdated and I wanted to know how long it takes for a part of the map to get updated if you go over a certain area that's already been mapped. I found that I went into an area that according to the map was about 1 bar but in reality it was almost all bars because a site went up and no one mapped it. This is not necessarily Sensorly related but why does T-Mobile seem to have more dark purple from a single site than Sprint? Does T-Mobile turn up the power on their T-Mobile sites or something? Just wondering because I've noticed it in nearly every city where both Sprint and T-Mobile have coverage. If this is the case then, Sprint could easily turn up power on their sites and I'd have a better LTE signal in my home. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digiblur Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 The maps are getting kind of outdated and I wanted to know how long it takes for a part of the map to get updated if you go over a certain area that's already been mapped. I found that I went into an area that according to the map was about 1 bar but in reality it was almost all bars because a site went up and no one mapped it. Updates happen within minutes at times. It does take anywhere from an hour to 24 hours for you to see sometimes though based on tile caching. But I bet what you are seeing are areas that had low coverage mapped before but now a site went live and you expect to see dark purple right away. The mapping is based on averaging the data that is turned in for that point. If a bunch of people mapped it with 1 bar it's going to take a bunch of people to get the average up. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thensley1983 Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 why is 1X800 not showing up on sensorly i've tried to map this a few times as it shows i have zero coverage where i am and i have 80 to 90 DBM now i will say i have ZERO data coverage around my area dose sensorly only show data coverage not voice and text? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dave Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 why is 1X800 not showing up on sensorly i've tried to map this a few times as it shows i have zero coverage where i am and i have 80 to 90 DBM now i will say i have ZERO data coverage around my area dose sensorly only show data coverage not voice and text? Did you switch it to "Sprint 2G/3G" view? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiWavelength Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 why is 1X800 not showing up on sensorly i've tried to map this a few times as it shows i have zero coverage where i am and i have 80 to 90 DBM now i will say i have ZERO data coverage around my area dose sensorly only show data coverage not voice and text? Sensorly may not have databased Sprint's CDMA1X 800 SIDs. AJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speed4evr Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 Whenever I do passive scans or map trip on my tab 3/N5, the update shows in couple of hours at most. I do live SE idaho n we have 4 towers in our area Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWMich4G Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Ew just noticed (since I almost never go there anymore) that the new maps don't even have railroad tracks. It's like they were designed to make it as difficult as possible to tell where you're looking. I'm surprised they even label the streets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tampaflusa Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 When mapping now it doesn't even map in solid lines now, just random circles along the road that's being mapped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWMich4G Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 When mapping now it doesn't even map in solid lines now, just random circles along the road that's being mapped. It was always circles. They may have changed the rate at which it updates though, so now there's more space between the circles (e.g. one point every 5 seconds now vs one point every 3 seconds before or something like that). On old data if you zoom all the way in anywhere there's a single pass mapped, you can see the overlapping circles. I've also noticed the circles don't seem to overlap on much of the mapping I did this month, so the individual data points are more visually obvious and don't merge together into lines. I imagine it was just a temporary issue with either their servers, the app, or my gps, since it's not ALL spread apart, but some of my mapping is definitely dotted lines recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brometheus Posted January 2, 2014 Share Posted January 2, 2014 Just did a check on my area and the 4g coverage is spotty. One this i noticed is the 4g covers basically the whole expressway. Do carriers focus on major highways for coverage? I assume for better navigation connection. Dont really have lte in my house but when i go to a local park i have hit 6mb down and 3 up with a weak lte connection. 3g i can barely squeak by with a .19 :/. Thankfully i have wifi. Just renewed my contract with sprint so hopefully this year it will vastly improve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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