Network Vision/LTE - Cleveland/NE Ohio Market

[Dkoellerwx]

Still so strange... I have no problem getting B41 on my Nexus 5.. I just switched to my Galaxy S5, and Still can not pick up any B41.. Any place.. I can see the tower from my office, Nexus 5 always shows connected to B41, but GS5 Doesn't... All bands are enabled Weird..

 

CLBOWENS: When you have connected to B41 with your GS5, were you in a car? Have you ever connect to B41 on the Highway?

 

I'm just curious and trying to figure out if there is an issue with my GS5..

Just jumping into the conversation, so I may be missing some of the facts.

 

What are you using to determine what band you are on?

 

Sent from my LG G3

[clbowens]

Just jumping into the conversation, so I may be missing some of the facts.

 

What are you using to determine what band you are on?

 

Sent from my LG G3

I am looking in the service mode screen (*#0011#).

[Shawn Riley]

What are Sprint 's plan to upgrade towers that are on top of someone's house? This tower not being upgraded is really a point of contention for me. It renders the service practically useless at my mother and law's house, which is only .7 miles away.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Shawn Riley

[Shawn Riley]

Here is a picture of said tower.

 

Thanks

[Joski1624]

Here is a picture of said tower.

 

Thanks

 

That looks like a TV antenna to me.  I have yet to find any Sprint sites on anyone's house.  There are highrise building mounted sites that I have found in Mentor and Beachwood, but the vast majority of sites are on self supporting lattice/truss towers or on monopoles.

[Joski1624]

As of now, there are 309/622 sites in our market that have B25 LTE confirmed and documented; that's approximately 49.7%.  The spreadsheet (available in the sponsor section) will aid in much faster verifications of B26 installs and possibly 8T8R (depending on how the GCI's are issued) whenever Sprint decides to roll it out.  If you've got anything in your area that isn't on the spreadsheet and map yet, please let me or KD8JBF know, even if it is only one site.  I'd like to eventually start up a B26/41 spreadsheet for our market, but so far the interest in the B25 spreadsheet is lackluster at best.  If there's enough interest, I can certainly make it happen.

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/6041-cleveland-market-mapspreadsheet/

 

Thanks folks!

[pongool]

FINALLY got a 4G phone...iphone 6...but wondering why it never says LTE or 4G around my neighborhood when the Sprint map clearly shows that it is available?  Hmmmmm....interesting....

Edited September 25, 2014 by pongool

[clbowens]

FINALLY got a 4G phone...iphone 6...but wondering why it never says LTE or 4G around my neighborhood when the Sprint map clearly shows that it is available?  Hmmmmm....interesting....

 

Where have you been around Cleveland?  I get 4G all over the area.

[pongool]

Where have you been around Cleveland?  I get 4G all over the area.

 

North Olmsted primarily...western end.  That's my home area and it's not much better than my 4S.

[Joski1624]

Speaking of 4G LTE in North Olmsted, I grabbed B41 near the mall and a speed test result gave me almost 40Mbps down. It appears that many more B41 sites have been activated lately. I had B41 while traversing 480 today more often than not. Unfortunately, the coordinates in the screenshot are not correct. I was at Great Northern Blvd. and Brookpark Rd.

 

 

[Joski1624]

FINALLY got a 4G phone...iphone 6...but wondering why it never says LTE or 4G around my neighborhood when the Sprint map clearly shows that it is available?  Hmmmmm....interesting....

 

 

1X and 3G signals are receivable further than LTE in my experience, though I don't think you should be having problems at least with outdoor conditions.  You might want to check to make sure your device is set to connect to LTE.  I had to manually switch it to LTE initially on my Nexus 5.  I am not familiar with the  iPhone though, so it may be different.

[pongool]

It is set to connect to LTE, but in my neighborhood it does not....sigh

[pongool]

Proof. In my driveway.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[epra72]

Speaking of 4G LTE in North Olmsted, I grabbed B41 near the mall and a speed test result gave me almost 40Mbps down. It appears that many more B41 sites have been activated lately. I had B41 while traversing 480 today more often than not. Unfortunately, the coordinates in the screenshot are not correct. I was at Great Northern Blvd. and Brookpark Rd.

 

 

Screenshot_2014-09-25-17-34-57.png

I was in great northern mall the other day getting b41 also. Speeds were easily in the 30's. I was explaining to the Sprint guy in the kiosk that Spark is live and he had no idea what I was talking about. I couldn't believe it. He has no idea about the phones or the network that he is trying to sell.

[Joski1624]

I was in great northern mall the other day getting b41 also. Speeds were easily in the 30's. I was explaining to the Sprint guy in the kiosk that Spark is live and he had no idea what I was talking about. I couldn't believe it. He has no idea about the phones or the network that he is trying to sell.

I can't say I'm surprised

[Joski1624]

I'm sorry you're having so much trouble with LTE, pongool.  Do you get it LTE elsewhere?  Myself and others have confirmed that there is plenty of LTE to be had at Great Northern, so all you should have to do is travel maybe to the other side of town.  I don't think you would need to even go that far to find some LTE.

[pongool]

I'm sorry you're having so much trouble with LTE, pongool.  Do you get it LTE elsewhere?  Myself and others have confirmed that there is plenty of LTE to be had at Great Northern, so all you should have to do is travel maybe to the other side of town.  I don't think you would need to even go that far to find some LTE.

 

Yeah, must be something about my 'hood.  Once I hit Lorain and go east (towards the mall) the signal gets better and the data rolls faster.  going west it stays horrible.  I can't believe they wouldn't want better signal and speed at the intersection of Stearns and Lorain.

I was told (before they started to build up and activate the new network) that my house was "just outside the range of 3 different towers" and "after we get our new network up and running your neighborhood will be great".  Ummmm...ain't so great.  Walked around my block and didn't connect to LTE but once, and when I ran a speedtest it failed and the LTE icon was gone once the test was done.  Wonder if they would/could "tweak" the towers to make them better, faster, stronger in my area?  I know ATT did that a few years ago when I complained about a bad signal in my area.  Or maybe I'm banished to live in a black hole of technology forever??

[Joski1624]

That's certainly a possibility to call Sprint to see if some adjustment can be made.  My signal didn't really improve once the upgrade happened to my local tower, but I can connect to it up to 10 miles away now, so coverage distance certainly improved.

[Shawn Riley]

First sighting of 800 MHz 1x in Solon, Ohio. Does this mean the IBEZ issue is resolved?

Edited October 1, 2014 by Shawn Riley

[Dfarley]

I hate to tell you this, but that's not 1x800 - you're just roaming on VZW cellular 850 (see the Extended where the carrier usually is). It's cutoff from that screen shot, but if you can capture the System ID that will tell you which carrier you're roaming on. I'm assuming it's VZW because they own virtually all of the Cellular 850 MHz in our market.

[Shawn Riley]

Bummer. The bigger issue or question then is why am I roaming when I usually get pretty good coverage where I'm at? I typically have great LTE coverage where I'm at and have for 6 months.

[pongool]

That's certainly a possibility to call Sprint to see if some adjustment can be made.  My signal didn't really improve once the upgrade happened to my local tower, but I can connect to it up to 10 miles away now, so coverage distance certainly improved.

 

I did call Sprint yesterday and was told that there is a ticket created, but then she said there were outages, but there was a ticket, but there were outages in the area, but there was a ticket created for the outage AND for coverage issues.  Sigh...so I guess they know about the issue since there is a ticket open, but if it's the ticket I opened a year and half ago they aren't very concerned about closing that ticket.

[Dfarley]

Bummer. The bigger issue or question then is why am I roaming when I usually get pretty good coverage where I'm at? I typically have great LTE coverage where I'm at and have for 6 months.

There's a lot of possible reasons - for example my phone occasionally jumps on Extended when I go into our basement and sometimes clings to the Roaming signal for a while even when I go back upstairs. Toggle airplane mode and the phone will cycle back through signals and if Sprint is there it will land on Sprint. Did you notice how long you were roaming (Extended) for? If it was an extended (no pun) period of time there may be a tower outage or some type of upgrade issue occurring in your area.

 

For what it's worth, 1x800 is in our area right now, but it's only being broadcast using testing SIDs so without a specialized PRL it's no benefit to the typical Sprint consumer. The good news is that at least being testing now; the bad news is that I see that you have an iPhone, and the way the iPhone PRL is designed for whatever reason 1x800 is last priority so the phone will cling to 1x1900 for dear life before looking for 1x800.

[Shawn Riley]

I have been on Extended for the majority of the day yesterday and the entire time I've been at work today. If I cycle airplane mode on, then off, it'll pick up 3G, not LTE like it used to, and drop back to Extended again.

 

Possibly an upgrade to LTE? What upgrade though? They can't use 800 MHz LTE yet and I doubt Spark will be this far out from downtown Cleveland.

 

Is there a way to prioritize bands on my iPhone like I could with my G2?

[Dfarley]

I have been on Extended for the majority of the day yesterday and the entire time I've been at work today. If I cycle airplane mode on, then off, it'll pick up 3G, not LTE like it used to, and drop back to Extended again.

 

Possibly an upgrade to LTE? What upgrade though? They can't use 800 MHz LTE yet and I doubt Spark will be this far out from downtown Cleveland.

 

Is there a way to prioritize bands on my iPhone like I could with my G2?

You'd be surprised where they have placed the Spark panels - we're a legacy WiMAX area so they're using those panels on the interim where WiMAX was already deployed, but I've seen the new panels on sites all over the place, rural sites included. I couldn't speculate as to why you're on Extended because even when they're upgrading the sites to Spark they're not turning the other bands off - I'd guess that you have some sort of outage in your area. When you get the chance I'd call in to customer service and report it / find out if they can see what's going on.

 

As far as prioritizing the bands - I don't think it's possible on any phone - even the G2. You may have been able to alter some settings in the background, but ultimately the network will dictate which band you're placed on whether you've changed the settings on the device or not. Regardless, I don't think there's any way to alter those settings on an iPhone.