will sprint be expanding coverage in cities that have outgrown it?

[WiWavelength]

Yeah I have to believe the asking price couldn't have been too high yet they couldn't get Sprint, T-Mobile nor any other regional to bite. /Shrug

 

 

Red was actual coverage, gray was planned but of course, never realized.

 

Note how well this map lines up with the Montana portion of Sprint's CCA map.  As a result, we can forget about Sprint RRPP across most of Montana -- except for Sagebrush Cellular in the northeastern corner.

 

 

AJ

[WiWavelength]

You're right, but I believe that it is a combination of both. I don't think that 6 Million people moved into Sprint's footprint alone.

 

How much did the US population grow during that time?  An increase of six million in a year and a half would be only about one percent growth per year.  Think about it.

 

AJ

[greenbastard]

How much did the US population grow during that time? An increase of six million in a year and a half would be only about one percent growth per year. Think about it.

 

AJ

Also don't forget about the recession that has made many people from small towns and communities move into cities for work. Lot of movement of incoming foreigners here in Texas as well. (Central America, Mexico, and Louisiana.....yes, I consider Cajuns as foreigners. Weird dialect.)

[Deval]

I see this happening more and more in Jersey as well. There are new or pseudo new developments which are coming up now which have poor Sprint coverage, even with 1x 800. I really hope that eventually a new analysis is done on coverage in metro areas.

[Paynefanbro]

I see this happening more and more in Jersey as well. There are new or pseudo new developments which are coming up now which have poor Sprint coverage, even with 1x 800. I really hope that eventually a new analysis is done on coverage in metro areas.

Sprint has been doing a good job of adapting in Brooklyn. There has been a new site put up in Downtown Brooklyn, my guess is to alleviate capacity because of all of the new highrises and skyscrapers being put up there. They also put up a new site by the Barclays Center for added capacity.

[joeljack326]

Is there a list out there of the new towers added...the 145 towers mentioned earlier in the thread?  Or does anybody know about future towers?  I think most american cities are in the same boat with the newer fringe development needing additional towers. 

 

I count about 8 towers needed to be added in Omaha/ Lincoln and about a dozen in Iowa.  This would go a long ways!  #1 missing town in my opinion in Iowa is between Ames and Des Moines on I-35...sprint won't hold a single right now and this is a very busy interstate commuter corridor. 

[ImmerStark]

There have been two new sites added in the OKC market in the past month. One at 59th and S. Shields which I'm thinking might have been added for capacity more than coverage. Another at SW 74th and Council which is 3 miles away from two other towers so I think it may have been for coverage reasons. Sadly a good deal of SW OKC that has been growing rapidly for the past 20 years is still lacking in much needed sites. The worst thing is that there are a couple of former Nextel sites that have been decommissioned that would have been ideal for conversion or at least close to it.

[WillM]

I see this happening more and more in Jersey as well. There are new or pseudo new developments which are coming up now which have poor Sprint coverage, even with 1x 800. I really hope that eventually a new analysis is done on coverage in metro areas.

 

Tell me about it. They still have a lot of work to do in the well established areas in my area. You would think it shouldn't be that hard to cover the most densely populated State. I could be wrong but I get the feeling that NJ just isn't an important market for Sprint. 

[Deval]

Tell me about it. They still have a lot of work to do in the well established areas in my area. You would think it shouldn't be that hard to cover the most densely populated State. I could be wrong but I get the feeling that NJ just isn't an important market for Sprint. 

 

It's weird because a lot of parts are covered decently, up north at least.

 

I know once you pass exit 8 on the Turnpike, it goes to hell

[bmoses]

Is there a list out there of the new towers added...the 145 towers mentioned earlier in the thread?  Or does anybody know about future towers?  I think most american cities are in the same boat with the newer fringe development needing additional towers. 

 

I count about 8 towers needed to be added in Omaha/ Lincoln and about a dozen in Iowa.  This would go a long ways!  #1 missing town in my opinion in Iowa is between Ames and Des Moines on I-35...sprint won't hold a single right now and this is a very busy interstate commuter corridor. 

 

yes there are quite a few spots around here that could use some expansion of towers. the main problem with signal between ames and des moines is that the tower outside of huxley is GMO and GMO towers seem to be causing/having their own set of problems. Once that goes full build it *should* be much better through there

[WillM]

It's weird because a lot of parts are covered decently, up north at least.

 

I know once you pass exit 8 on the Turnpike, it goes to hell

 

Yes, coverage in the north east part of the state is generally better. Where I work on Rt. 1 is super busy and has been built up for years but coverage is too sparse in lots of areas. 

 

At least it's not as bad as Maine. I was up there last week and the network is really weak. 

[anotherBAM]

Is there a list out there of the new towers added...the 145 towers mentioned earlier in the thread?  Or does anybody know about future towers?  I think most american cities are in the same boat with the newer fringe development needing additional towers. 

 

I count about 8 towers needed to be added in Omaha/ Lincoln and about a dozen in Iowa.  This would go a long ways!  #1 missing town in my opinion in Iowa is between Ames and Des Moines on I-35...sprint won't hold a single right now and this is a very busy interstate commuter corridor. 

 

I'll have to keep an eye out on that section the next time I drive through that area. The one I've noticed is at the IA/MN border. There's got to be 25 miles between the two towers there! 

 

I don't recall the history, but I'm going to guess these areas may have been built out by a former affiliate and some of the large gaps in towers could possibly have been between native/affiliate coverage areas or just a lazy/cheap affiliate.

[WiWavelength]

I'll have to keep an eye out on that section the next time I drive through that area. The one I've noticed is at the IA/MN border. There's got to be 25 miles between the two towers there! 

 

I don't recall the history, but I'm going to guess these areas may have been built out by a former affiliate and some of the large gaps in towers could possibly have been between native/affiliate coverage areas or just a lazy/cheap affiliate.

 

The wireless gods have already addressed that question...

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4711-nebraska-iowa-market-spreadsheets-and-maps/?p=341156

 

 

AJ

[Destroyallcubes]

The wireless gods have already addressed that question...

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4711-nebraska-iowa-market-spreadsheets-and-maps/?p=341156

 

 

AJ

On what you said, I get signal at home through the East Texas Trees(mostly pine, RF killers from what I see) from a site 14 miles away. And that's on 1900. Usable at -95 to -100 , 800 from this site is around -90. So PCS can go surprisingly far if needed to.

[anotherBAM]

The wireless gods have already addressed that question...

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4711-nebraska-iowa-market-spreadsheets-and-maps/?p=341156

 

 

AJ

 

LOL. That's very good info there. It always amazes me how many specific areas of the network have been addressed on this site.

[Deval]

Yes, coverage in the north east part of the state is generally better. Where I work on Rt. 1 is super busy and has been built up for years but coverage is too sparse in lots of areas. 

 

At least it's not as bad as Maine. I was up there last week and the network is really weak. 

 

Yeah same goes for my family even in North Brunswick. Just not enough sites on air.

[cdk]

Current Totals from 5/28/13 - 9/7/14

 

178 new sites

87 iDEN conversions

35 new DAS sites

0 Clearwire conversions

1 new COW/NASCOW

1 new Pico Cell site

30 deactivations

 

For a net total of 272 new sites. We are approaching the 100 mark for iDEN conversions, it will be interesting to see if they continue past that point....

[cdk]

Current Totals from 5/28/13 - 9/25/14

 

186 new sites

91 iDEN conversions

37 new DAS sites

0 Clearwire conversions

1 new COW/NASCOW

1 new Pico Cell site

30 deactivations

 

For a net total of 286 new sites.

[cdk]

Current Totals from 5/28/13 - 10/17/14

 

195 new sites

96 iDEN conversions

37 new DAS sites

0 Clearwire conversions

0 Clearwire B41 only conversions

1 new COW/NASCOW

1 new Pico Cell site

30 deactivations

 

For a net total of 300 new sites.

 

Nextel conversions have nearly reached the magic 100 mark, hopefully they will continue well past that point (I can count over almost a 150 in one market alone that would be good conversion sites). However that is not the big news. If you have not been paying attention here at S4GRU, former Clearwire sites have begun to receiving Sprint site IDs. While it is not 100% Clear yet what Sprint's plans are for these sites, it is reasonable to expect some to become full NV sites while others may be Band 41 only sites. Most of these sites are in areas that already have Sprint coverage, but some maybe protection sites outside of current coverage areas.

[greencat]

.79 of 1% new towers of the total tower count in approx 15 months is not really going to move the needle.

Edited October 23, 2014 by greencat

[Josh]

.79 of 1% new towers of the total tower count in approx 15 months is not really going to move the needle.

 

While I am typically one to point out that these numbers are not anything to write home about, it does show that they are doing something to address gaps in coverage or capacity. And it is much better than shrinking the number of towers, but I just hope it continues.  I know that one of the new sites here in the Pittsburgh area is in a more expensive area, and was probably for a combination of coverage and capacity. 

This makes me think they are being smart and improving areas that they know they will make money from. 

 

They will not likely make any large expansion projects, because they want to first finish NV then see where they stand with coverage from 800MHz. Maybe after they bid on 600Mhz spectrum they will make a more aggressive coverage play, but I doubt it. 

 

The best they could hope for is to buy US Cellular as it would give them rural coverage in areas where they are lacking, and then they could work on expanding that to other areas with 600Mhz. 

[greencat]

At some point I feel like we have to judge what they've done and what they're doing.

 

They added 300. There are 10,000's of towers out there without Sprint equipment on them in areas where Sprint needs better service. Yeah, they're going to bid on 600Mhz probably and they're going to add band 41, but for a lot of areas that's years down the line. Can these places get by with just turning on LTE 800 in the next year? How many years can Sprint survive with that type of service?

[S4GRU]

At some point I feel like we have to judge what they've done and what they're doing.

 

They added 300. There are 10,000's of towers out there without Sprint equipment on them in areas where Sprint needs better service. Yeah, they're going to bid on 600Mhz probably and they're going to add band 41, but for a lot of areas that's years down the line. Can these places get by with just turning on LTE 800 in the next year? How many years can Sprint survive with that type of service?

They can survive forever with it. Sprint could even remove service and survive. Tmo has proven you can even be a successful provider with virtually nothing but urban service.

 

Most of Sprint customers survive now without all this additional added coverage you claim is needed for them to survive. Only the people who travel to those affected areas often notice it. Stop with superlatives. All the places Sprint doesn't have service now, they've never had service. It's not like they're removing service. Only with Nextel has some service been lost, and those customers already bolted.

 

Sprint is adding service. As they can afford to, and in the highest priority. Sprint is not trying to be the all coverage provider right now. But they are adding slowly through lower frequency spectrum and select site adds.

[Josh]

The whole idea of this post was to talk about sprint adding towers in areas that they serve, but the population has expanded faster than the coverage. A few hundred extra sites is probably what they need to maintain service, and once 800 is optimized they will be able to see exactly what they need.

 

I know that I have lived in 7 other places, some better with sprint coverage and some worse. But what I see is that people want service for a certain driving radius around their home, which is understandable. A few miles north of me, my coverage STOPS and although I seldom go to that area, having a few extra towers north of us would help people in my area feel confident in switching. I am sure that this is an oversimplification of the matter, but this is the type of expansion in coverage that sprint needs... They don't need to cover all the rural areas, but expand enough so people that live near them feel confident they won't lose service.

[bigsnake49]

The whole idea of this post was to talk about sprint adding towers in areas that they serve, but the population has expanded faster than the coverage. A few hundred extra sites is probably what they need to maintain service, and once 800 is optimized they will be able to see exactly what they need.

 

I know that I have lived in 7 other places, some better with sprint coverage and some worse. But what I see is that people want service for a certain driving radius around their home, which is understandable. A few miles north of me, my coverage STOPS and although I seldom go to that area, having a few extra towers north of us would help people in my area feel confident in switching. I am sure that this is an oversimplification of the matter, but this is the type of expansion in coverage that sprint needs... They don't need to cover all the rural areas, but expand enough so people that live near them feel confident they won't lose service.

 

Yes, they do need to cover urban, suburban and exurban as well as have highway coverage. They can leave the CCA carriers to cover the truly rural areas.