Shentel / Sprint LTE - (was ntelos - West & N&W Virginia)

[Kala_pathar]

On 2/5/2018 at 9:46 AM, Trip said:

I was also surprised to see Lancaster and Culpeper included, but the rest seems like a good fit.  Sprint currently has a network in those areas that is either entirely non-existent (see Charlotte, Lunenburg Counties), or is the bare minimum to be able to say there's service in the area. 

Take Farmville as an example; two cell sites to cover Farmville, and neither is particularly well-suited to cover Longwood University, leaving plenty of holes where the students are.  Sprint is the only carrier not on the site near the high school, so while B26 connects outside the Wal-Mart, it's 3G or 1X 800 inside.  The LTE is long gone by the time you get the Hampden-Sydney, too, usually 1X 800 even outdoors.  I will be surprised if Shentel builds fewer than three new sites in Farmville proper; Shentel Cable actually owns one of the towers AT&T is on in Farmville, so I would bet we'll see Shentel cell service appear there sooner rather than later.  The other two being the tower by the high school and the tower overlooking Longwood.  (Hampden-Sydney is not in Farmville, but I expect they'll put one there too.)  I also expect to see them beef up the highways around Farmville, as the network is quite sparse there too.

I cannot wait to see what gets built.  Exciting times await!

- Trip

Planned Upgrade and New Sites

Central VA Market

Southern WV and KY Markets

PA Market

[dkyeager]

Here is a picture of a Shentel small cell going in next to Central High school in Woodstock VA from FCC Commissioner Carr. A S4Gru member should find its exact location lat long, take close-up photos, and confirm its signal (too far for me to do).


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[dkyeager]

Planned Upgrade and New Sites
Central VA Market

Southern WV and KY Markets

PA Market

Great to see confirmation that the isolated WV market Logan WV 3G site is going to Shentel and will be upgraded.

I would love to see and similar maps for Shentel's April 2017 expansion areas in Ohio and Maryland. Thanks again.

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[Trip]

6 hours ago, dkyeager said:

Here is a picture of a Shentel small cell going in next to Central High school in Woodstock VA from FCC Commissioner Carr. A S4Gru member should find its exact location lat long, take close-up photos, and confirm its signal (too far for me to do).


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My wife and I like the Shenandoah Valley; I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we find our way out there again.  That is, if nobody else gets there first.

- Trip

[Galaxyguy]

Here is a picture of a Shentel small cell going in next to Central High school in Woodstock VA from FCC Commissioner Carr. A S4Gru member should find its exact location lat long, take close-up photos, and confirm its signal (too far for me to do).


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That looks like one of the two that are already there. I'll have to ride up there to check it when I get a chance. There were two B25 only small cells that were installed there a couple years back. Maybe they upgraded them to B41? I'll check it out when I have time. I only live about a mile from the school.

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[Galaxyguy]

My wife and I like the Shenandoah Valley; I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we find our way out there again.  That is, if nobody else gets there first.

- Trip

It's pretty here. My wife and I moved here in 2006 from PA and we haven't ever really wanted to leave. I live in Woodstock and work in Front Royal, both pretty decent towns.

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[Trip]

8 hours ago, Galaxyguy said:

It's pretty here. My wife and I moved here in 2006 from PA and we haven't ever really wanted to leave. I live in Woodstock and work in Front Royal, both pretty decent towns.

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Our dream house, should it even happen, would be built on a mountain top near Linden.  We like Spelunker's in Front Royal, and find Woodstock to be a very nice town.

- Trip

[dhrumil2504]

Just some more 2x carrier aggrigation from Tanglewood/Roanoke VA.

https://imgur.com/a/f4pak

Edited March 15, 2018 by dhrumil2504

[shawneyboy123]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7TyvLtkcrdGmGRpU2

[bbostwick8]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7TyvLtkcrdGmGRpU2

Wonder if I can go [emoji6]


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[shawneyboy123]

6 minutes ago, bbostwick8 said:

 

Wonder if I can go


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The tweet was from the Raleigh County Chamber account it seems to be open to the public and has an RSVP number to call. I am going to try my best to go just to hear what they have to say. Hopefully, it is more than just s promotional thing to have people sign up.

[bbostwick8]

The tweet was from the Raleigh County Chamber account it seems to be open to the public and has an RSVP number to call. I am going to try my best to go just to hear what they have to say. Hopefully, it is more than just s promotional thing to have people sign up.

Glad to hear they are having an event like this. They should do something like this in the Summers County area. We’ve made huge improvements down that way as far as tower additions go. Now with additional towers in Beckley and expansion into Wyoming McDowell counties coming soon it’s a great time to be a Sprint customer.


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[bbostwick8]

[emoji1]


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[Elijah]

Shentel has confirmed to me over Facebook Messenger that the 4 towers near Cumberland/Frostburg are being migrated to Shentel control / adding 4G to these towers in Q3 of 2018.

Adding on, they confirmed that more towers will be added to enhance coverage. These towers are also being added to Mineral County, WV. 

They also will confirm this with a press release/marketing information when this is settled, and the towers are 4G with more than just 4. 

This website will be updated at the end of Q2 with what I’ve stated today. http://unlimityourdata.com/mynetwork/

[bbostwick8]

Getting better all the time


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[Elijah]

Shentel posts new future updates. Look at that WV  eastern panhandle getting love! Currently 3G only area now. 

 

https://unlimityourdata.com/mynetwork/

[Trip]

There are clearly some issues with that map, but you're right, western MD does look good and like they're planning to cover it well.  Looking at the current Sprint coverage map in voice view, it looks like two or three new sites might be up and running already along I-68.  (If not, then they might be coming very soon.)

- Trip

[chamb]

8 hours ago, Elijah said:

Shentel posts new future updates. Look at that WV  eastern panhandle getting love! Currently 3G only area now. 

 

https://unlimityourdata.com/mynetwork/

I was in Cumberland, Md and Deep Creek , Md on Sunday.  Only had Sprint 1x and the coverage on that was not good.  However, I did have LTE coverage on US Cellular. It was OK, not fantastic, but ok.  Not everywhere but it was where you needed it.  Was on US Cellular EVDO and 1x at times too.   It was great that Sprint allows use of US Cellular facilities while they upgrade their network.

Allegany and Garrett counties were ignored by Sprint for many many years. Now that they have turned that area over to Shentel we are going to see the service greatly improved.  Sprint finally did the right thing. If they could not provide service in the area themselves, turn it over to somebody that can and will. Shentel WILL fix it and soon.

I did note that when driving into the area from Hagerstown, my phone resisted connecting to US Cellular LTE until I started trying to figure out why. I think it might have been the Airplane mode on/off action I took that seemed to wake up US Cellular LTE.  Once it connected one time, then I was good all day.

[chamb]

15 minutes ago, Trip said:

There are clearly some issues with that map, but you're right, western MD does look good and like they're planning to cover it well.  Looking at the current Sprint coverage map in voice view, it looks like two or three new sites might be up and running already along I-68.  (If not, then they might be coming very soon.)

- Trip

I was on I-68 Sunday and did not notice any new Sprint Coverage.  Some 1x was there, no Sprint LTE.  The 1X was well below the standards we would expect and I really did not see any improvement yet. However, as I write this, I am thinking that the US Cellular LTE might have been showing on SCP and I may not have realized that Sprint 1x was available in previously uncovered locations.

[Elijah]

1x in these areas sometimes make simple phone calls fail. I wish we had the mobile selection menu on iOS that T-Mobile allows so I could force over to US cellular in some locations. 

48 minutes ago, chamb said:

I was in Cumberland, Md and Deep Creek , Md on Sunday.  Only had Sprint 1x and the coverage on that was not good.  However, I did have LTE coverage on US Cellular. It was OK, not fantastic, but ok.  Not everywhere but it was where you needed it.  Was on US Cellular EVDO and 1x at times too.   It was great that Sprint allows use of US Cellular facilities while they upgrade their network.

Allegany and Garrett counties were ignored by Sprint for many many years. Now that they have turned that area over to Shentel we are going to see the service greatly improved.  Sprint finally did the right thing. If they could not provide service in the area themselves, turn it over to somebody that can and will. Shentel WILL fix it and soon.

I did note that when driving into the area from Hagerstown, my phone resisted connecting to US Cellular LTE until I started trying to figure out why. I think it might have been the Airplane mode on/off action I took that seemed to wake up US Cellular LTE.  Once it connected one time, then I was good all day.

 

[dkyeager]

After the March 2018 date listed for this coverage map, LTE coverage was not visible to my Sprint and Freedompop phones in unique Shentel areas in the April 2017 expansion area in/near Ohio, however a lot of new equipment was installed. The LTE deadline is 12/31 iirc. Last time they beat that by a few months. I have not checked these areas in a couple of months.

[Trip]

https://imgur.com/XLbo6lo

This is what happiness looks like.  The last major gap on US-15 in the nTelos expansion area is now filled.

- Trip

[bbostwick8]

https://imgur.com/XLbo6lo
This is what happiness looks like.  The last major gap on US-15 in the nTelos expansion area is now filled.
- Trip

Decent speeds?


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[Trip]

11 hours ago, bbostwick8 said:

 

Decent speeds?


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Don't know.  I was barreling down the highway at the time I took the picture, and I don't usually do speed tests anyway.  But considering the available speed used to be zero, I'm going to say it's decent, sure.

On my way home today, I'm going to take a long route to check on some more sites I don't usually go by.  Expect the Premiere map to fill in some after I get home. 

(Also, I'm amused that with yesterday's update to the Sprint coverage map, the Red House tower that's on the air is now missing from the map along with the Hat Creek tower, while the Sugar Hill site that had no antennas two weeks ago is still present.)

- Trip

[chamb]

14 hours ago, Trip said:

https://imgur.com/XLbo6lo

This is what happiness looks like.  The last major gap on US-15 in the nTelos expansion area is now filled.

- Trip

Hummmn, they are still using the old nTelos SID on 1x.