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


marioc21

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I currently live in Morgantown, and have been wanting to try Sprint out as an alternative to US Cellular, but after hearing that LTE will not happen till at least 2016 is just insane. Now i know i'll defenitly stay with USCC for 2 more years.

That's what I would do if I were in your situation. And even if you're tied to USCC for 2 more years, maybe you'll get to experience Sprint through RRPP! (if Sprint and USCC can hurry up and come to an agreement.)
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Same here.  I can stomach 3 years behind VZ & ATT (well...kinda but not really) but US Cellular?  Come on man!  You mean to tell me the farmers have LTE on their tractors in the middle of po-dunk and I can't get it on Sprint?  SMH

 

If anything, being behind US Cellular is more understandable, at least in my mind.  Whereas the big four would need to upgrade thousands of cell sites they have in big cities presumably before moving on to the rural areas, US Cellular primarily serves rural areas, so it would understandably get to those rural areas faster since it wouldn't need to build out thousands of cells in New York, Los Angeles, etc.

 

- Trip

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I don't know who else to ask about this so I'm just going to ask here. I live in Morgantown and I just recently upgraded to a Note 4. It's great but my data speeds have tanked. I've gone from ~1 mbps with my GS3 to 0.05 mbps with the Note 4. Has anyone in this area run into a similar problem and found a solution? 

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I don't know who else to ask about this so I'm just going to ask here. I live in Morgantown and I just recently upgraded to a Note 4. It's great but my data speeds have tanked. I've gone from ~1 mbps with my GS3 to 0.05 mbps with the Note 4. Has anyone in this area run into a similar problem and found a solution?

I have had those speeds all day in ntelos market. In Uniontown,Pa just 20 miles northeast of Morgantown I was getting 40+ Mbps and now that I am in North Carolina it's back to higher speeds(6Mbps). I wonder if ntelos is working on a switch. All i know is it was painful to go through their market today.
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I have had those speeds all day in ntelos market. In Uniontown,Pa just 20 miles northeast of Morgantown I was getting 40+ Mbps and now that I am in North Carolina it's back to higher speeds(6Mbps). I wonder if ntelos is working on a switch. All i know is it was painful to go through their market today.

Hmm, maybe I just got really unlucky with the timing of my upgrade then? Thanks for the information!

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Yeah, unfortunately, this is par for the course:

I can live with .5Mbps but today it was .05 Mbps. Where it is struggling to load websites. Don't even think about streaming music.

 

I guess I should have put in my post not to expect lte or >3 Mbps for a long time. But ispythesky said ~1Mbps which is what i normally get in the Cheat Lake/Morgantown area. I think ispythesky was trying to see if it was the note 4 or the network being extra slow. No one else was experiencing an extra slow netork today? I guess ispythesky could take a half hour drive north to test the device.

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What I don't understand is why people in Morgantown even chose sprint at all. For years I had sprint in Morgantown. Prior to lte the service was comparable to the other carriers. I remained with them simply because my Sero plan could not be touched in terms of price. But rates are as low as they've been in years! I finally saw the light and couldnt be happier and with no end in site to ntelos users it's like beating yourself in the head repeatedly. Slow speeds and prices that are no longer that competetive. Sure it's unlimited but when your speeds max out at .50mb it would take you 3 months to hit the 3Gb, 5 GB , or 10GB plans that are available. Hell, Verizon now is offering 10GB shared between two lines for $110 now.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A

Edited by blackwaterstout
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Ha! I can beat all of that this is from Pulaski VA last weeked

279e8e3c859b6b4fc96506053ee5265a.jpg

 

And this is my all time best 3G speedtest in nTelos land (Roanoke VA 2 months ago)

bbd21215bfcfe17e4a88bac6e94cab62.jpg

 

And this is the normal speed I get most days

221e3ec305259d9357aa32d6b69cddb2.jpg

As you can see most of the time its okay for web browsing but 90% of the time streaming music/video is completely out of the question unless nobody is on the tower and the clouds are lined up just so with the wind blowing 4.556 MPH to the west

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What I don't understand is why people in Morgantown even chose sprint at all. For years I had sprint in Morgantown. Prior to lte the service was comparable to the other carriers. I remained with them simply because my Sero plan could not be touched in terms of price. But rates are as low as they've been in years! I finally saw the light and couldnt be happier and with no end in site to ntelos users it's like beating yourself in the head repeatedly. Slow speeds and prices that are no longer that competetive. Sure it's unlimited but when your speeds max out at .50mb it would take you 3 months to hit the 3Gb, 5 GB , or 10GB plans that are available. Hell, Verizon now is offering 10GB shared between two lines for $110 now.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A

I'm still with Sprint because I'm a student on a family plan. It costs me litteraly nothing, and my parents are in an area with better service, so they're happy. Otherwise I would seriously consider switching to something that actually functions here.

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And it turns out the timing was just horribly unlucky...I reactivated my old phone and was getting the exact same data speeds. Thank god I don't have to go through changing anything else. I wish Sprint and nTelos communicated a bit more and when I called Sprint they could tell me something was going on with the service...

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Please do not post slow 3G speedtest screenshots. We know nTelos 3G is not good. Sprint has signed a new agreement for nTelos to provide LTE. But their timelines are not going to be quick.

 

You will be suffering nTelos 3G speeds for some time. If you cannot wait it out, move to another provider.

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Please do not post slow 3G speedtest screenshots. We know nTelos 3G is not good. Sprint has signed a new agreement for nTelos to provide LTE. But their timelines are not going to be quick.

 

You will be suffering nTelos 3G speeds for some time. If you cannot wait it out, move to another provider.

I am sorry it was my request not the screenshots but people's experiences. I experienced extra slow data going from tower to tower in parts of the network which are normally are very usable (>.5Mbps) I traveled this path probably 30 times a year. I spend a good deal of time in cheat lake/bruceton mills area. My post and ispythesky posts were not about lte or high speed it was a request if an event has happened that has changed the normally usable (not great or even good but usable) network to something unuseble(<.05Mbps).

 

On the lte front I still believe Morgantown will see Pittsburgh market band 26 before ntelos gets their lte up and running. This coming after I've even seen the schedule map for Pittsburgh Maket and you know how sad of a statement that is.

 

I should have asked ispythesky to drive 5-10 miles north and toggle airplane mode to test the phone. I have connected to 1x800 south of Morgantown so they should be just outside of band 26 currently. I should take a trip to five guys and go through Point Marion to Morgantown and see how close band 26 gets.

 

Again sorry for the screenshots.

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I always found nTelos service usable in Morgantown even though its only 3G. I would also think that WVU has a wifi solution on campus by now?

I dont stream music though and I never understood people with earbuds in walking to class...how would you know if there is a car about to hit you??

 

I left there in 2010 after 8 years with some undergrad and grad degrees. That place is my mountain mama.

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I am sorry it was my request not the screenshots but people's experiences. I experienced extra slow data going from tower to tower in parts of the network which are normally are very usable (>.5Mbps) I traveled this path probably 30 times a year. I spend a good deal of time in cheat lake/bruceton mills area. My post and ispythesky posts were not about lte or high speed it was a request if an event has happened that has changed the normally usable (not great or even good but usable) network to something unuseble(<.05Mbps).

 

On the lte front I still believe Morgantown will see Pittsburgh market band 26 before ntelos gets their lte up and running. This coming after I've even seen the schedule map for Pittsburgh Maket and you know how sad of a statement that is.

 

I should have asked ispythesky to drive 5-10 miles north and toggle airplane mode to test the phone. I have connected to 1x800 south of Morgantown so they should be just outside of band 26 currently. I should take a trip to five guys and go through Point Marion to Morgantown and see how close band 26 gets.

 

Again sorry for the screenshots.

 

So, would you, or anyone else with experience in this area (north central / eastern panhandle WV) recommend I renew my contract with US Cellular, or take a chance and try Sprint or a different network?

 

I know USCC has LTE in most normal parts of the state but their data speeds are not amazing, but definitely sufficient. 

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So, would you, or anyone else with experience in this area (north central / eastern panhandle WV) recommend I renew my contract with US Cellular, or take a chance and try Sprint or a different network?

 

I know USCC has LTE in most normal parts of the state but their data speeds are not amazing, but definitely sufficient. 

I currently live in Morgantown and have Sprint. I don't know what to tell you about renewing your contract, I  can't predict what the Sprint network will be like in a year or two, but I can tell you right now it is pretty slow. I am on my parents plan, and that's really the only reason I stayed with Sprint. I appreciate the company, the pricing structure and all that, but being a customer in the nTelos region is tough. The speeds are usable for surfing the net and looking things up, but beyond that it gets a little difficult. The reason this thread has gotten popular in the last couple days is because the service here seems to have degraded a lot in the last couple days, so inconsistency in this area is also something you'll most likely see with Sprint (or nTelos).

 

I would just do a bit more research and see what plan options are available to you. Try to talk to people that have service from different carriers and find out what their service is like. I probably wouldn't recommend Sprint in the Morgantown area, but if you think you can put up with slow data speeds, voice coverage has been okay here.

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So, would you, or anyone else with experience in this area (north central / eastern panhandle WV) recommend I renew my contract with US Cellular, or take a chance and try Sprint or a different network?

 

I know USCC has LTE in most normal parts of the state but their data speeds are not amazing, but definitely sufficient.

The recommendation for ntelos area is usually not sprint. I have heard good things about uscc. I normally roam on uscc when i have to roam. Off the interstate I have weak to no signal or roam on uscc. Verizon I think is your only other real option.
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The recommendation for ntelos area is usually not sprint. I have heard good things about uscc. I normally roam on uscc when i have to roam. Off the interstate I have weak to no signal or roam on uscc. Verizon I think is your only other real option.

AT&T has 850MHz A block, 700MHz C block, along with ~20MHz FDD across multiple blocks of PCS, and ~15MHz FDD across a couple of blocks of AWS-1 in the area. I would imagine that AT&T has a better performing network than nTelos with that much spectrum.

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It's true AT&T performs best and has the best coverage in Western nTelos land. (Based on many in-laws who have AT&T in central WV and in Blacksburg, VA) They would be the carrier of choice if you must leave sprint.

My sister's boyfriend has Verizon and it has just as many holes in coverage as Sprint does but the difference is that Verizon's coverage is all LTE.

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So, would you, or anyone else with experience in this area (north central / eastern panhandle WV) recommend I renew my contract with US Cellular, or take a chance and try Sprint or a different network?

 

Eastern Panhandle is where my home town is, and I visit usually once a month. Shentel is a wonderful force for Sprint there. I have complete coverage with LTE and fast speeds on all roads and buildings except when I visit a brother-in-law who lives in a holler in Morgan County. 

He enjoys the isolation though...no cable TV or internet, long and windy roads that occasionally become gravel - not a single luxury.

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Well I can tell you from first hand experience that AT&T has the best service in the Morgantown area. I spent 8 years on sprint here and also 2 concurrent years with a Verizon work phone. 3 months ago I switched to Cricket which uses AT&T LTE network and it has surpassed both Sprint and Verizon here by a wide margin. Granted the LTE is capped at 8mb/sec but that is plenty enough for everything including netflix and hbo go. USCC is also pretty good here in Morgantown and a lot of WV but their drawback is there LTE is small and because I spend a lot of time in PA and pittsburgh they are not really an option.

 

If you intend to stay primarily in Morgantown area I'd rank them ATT, USCC, Verizon, then Sprint.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry to post something that isnt good news but I had seen post way back wondering what ntelos speeds were in Beckly. Well I happened to have both my ntelos and Sprint pho es in Beckly and did a speed test on both to the same server.

 

Should be able to figure out whats what by the speeds....

 

4c0b306da45ff845e22fbe3e6e6f2ea1.jpg

 

5628445cad648d6921e35500848a322e.jpg

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