Network Vision/LTE - Central Illinois Market (Peoria, Springfield, Quincy, Bloomington/Normal, Terre Haute)

[userkv8031]

I'm having trouble finding the link, but I believe Sprint has at least one nationwide licence, so it would follow that yes, they do have licences where they do not have coverage. An additional licence in one of these areas likely won't change the approach, but I really have no idea what Sprint's plans are for expansion beyond NV.

 

That is correct...I think it was AJ that had a map showing the 1900 spectrum in MHz that Sprint owned across the US. I think it was posted long ago over at howardforums. If it was another user sorry on the mix up...not that I can even find the map now anyway. If I remember right, Sprint only had 10 MHz in some IL markets. I think this was well before the G-band was part of the holdings. Even so, that map should provide useful information in that it would show what can be devoted to 1x and EVDO I have GIS but for this exercise it wouldn't show anything useful. A better exercise would be finding detailed coverage maps for USCC (they don't exist beyond just coloring things blue) and overlaying those with Sprint coverage maps. There are a lot of areas that will go from having USCC signal to no or weak Sprint signal. The cities will mostly escape that but the more rural areas will be hit hard. Just have to hope that if USCC sells network assets that Sprint will buy them to quickly expand. I wish Sprint would buy the areas covered by SID 1914 and 221, network assets and customers. They need a big coverage boost across those two SIDs.

Edited September 12, 2013 by userkv8031

[gnoj]

I think most of that is due to the USCC network being shut down which means those users will automatically be moved to the Sprint network which is seeing NV work. USCC did not sell the network assets in those areas...yet. As of last quarter they were looking into selling those assets. I think USCC is looking to sell a few more markets. I hope Sprint picks them up instead of Verizon. Verizon would be most likely as USCC has some cellular licenses where Verizon holds none. The Quincy area is one place where Verizon offers no service. That extends east along US 24 almost to Rushville, IL.

 

Statements from Sprint/Softbank does make it sound like they are exploring purchases of smaller carriers. I would have to guess USCC is on the list.

 

Not to be too picky, but USCC customers will not be automatically moved to Sprint. All the press headlines saying that Sprint acquired ~500,000 subscribers from the sale were inaccurate. It was purely a spectrum transfer. Come October for St. Louis subs, or January in Chicago, if a USCC customer has made no moves to find another carrier and port out their number, their cell service will go dead (apart from 911).

 

While I would prefer that USCC remain an independent company, if the Carlson family is looking for a buyer, I would certainly prefer Sprint to acquire them rather than VZW. Sprint has needed the rural coverage badly ever since they missed out on merging with Alltel, and it's only gotten worse since all but one (nTelos) of their SRA partners (that provide pseudo-native coverage) have bailed.

 

The only licenses that Sprint holds nationwide are in PCS G and most of SMR. When it comes time to build protection sites for that spectrum, it will be interesting to see if Sprint converts any of those to full builds.

 

As for USCC native coverage, you can go to their coverage map here and zoom in until you see where there are "splotches" of blue rather than the grid for partner/roaming coverage. As far as the Midwest goes, there are large portions of Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin that do not overlap with Sprint's network.

[daevans315]

800 mhz just outside of Peoria.   I'm still having hand off issues to and from this tower at times.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4r4o18wppn5d42d/2013-09-12%2006.40.15.png

[userkv8031]

Not to be too picky, but USCC customers will not be automatically moved to Sprint. All the press headlines saying that Sprint acquired ~500,000 subscribers from the sale were inaccurate. It was purely a spectrum transfer. Come October for St. Louis subs, or January in Chicago, if a USCC customer has made no moves to find another carrier and port out their number, their cell service will go dead (apart from 911).

 

While I would prefer that USCC remain an independent company, if the Carlson family is looking for a buyer, I would certainly prefer Sprint to acquire them rather than VZW. Sprint has needed the rural coverage badly ever since they missed out on merging with Alltel, and it's only gotten worse since all but one (nTelos) of their SRA partners (that provide pseudo-native coverage) have bailed.

 

The only licenses that Sprint holds nationwide are in PCS G and most of SMR. When it comes time to build protection sites for that spectrum, it will be interesting to see if Sprint converts any of those to full builds.

 

As for USCC native coverage, you can go to their coverage map here and zoom in until you see where there are "splotches" of blue rather than the grid for partner/roaming coverage. As far as the Midwest goes, there are large portions of Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin that do not overlap with Sprint's network.

 

It was poor wording on my part. If Sprint sweetens the pot enough they might get a good chunk of those that remain on USCC. The problem with Sprint is reputation in some of the areas. St. Louis used to be not so good on Sprint but back then there was no one that was great. Sprint still isn't great in Springfield. There are too many areas that have signal that is basically useless or doesn't work indoors. It is a tower density issue and that would be due to iPCS. They went for covering the main roads and just enough pops to meet obligations. They didn't care if they had usable service or service that sat at -110 dB  which is unusable by any phone.

 

I don't place much confidence in those maps as I know of a lot of areas painted blue that really have nothing from USCC. At least they are building towers at a pretty good pace in this area. VZW is also building towers at a good pace from Rushville over toward Quincy. I guess they are using 700 in that area. Sprint had a bunch of new towers in this area at one time but they were cancelled once iDEN conversion stopped. It would have been smart for Sprint to keep those four towers as they covered areas where Sprint roams. I expect Sprint to redeploy near those towers at some point in the future. I will find it a bit funny if they use the same iDEN towers when they do add service.

 

Hopefully once Sprint deploys more of the NV gear in this small area service will improve a small bit. Seems they have been messing with things lately as service has been very erratic.

[userkv8031]

800 mhz just outside of Peoria.   I'm still having hand off issues to and from this tower at times.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4r4o18wppn5d42d/2013-09-12%2006.40.15.png

 

It probably isn't integrated very well into the network yet. I drop calls when I go from the one NV tower in this area to the legacy equipment. Until all the towers here are upgraded I expect that to the new normal. In time the network will work better.

[mhammett]

Sprint's PCS B licence covers the entire affected area, as does the G licence, but we know that one's going to LTE.

 

I'll work on putting together some KMLs with Sprint licenses. I'll do Illinois for sure, but how much more I do depends on how hard it is. ;-)

[blu_jet_92]

I'm new to this whole thing, but I've been following this thread for quite some time.  would just like to add that I had LTE on 24 from ICC to due north of Washington this morning.

 

Does anyone know how to see more detailed tower info on an iPhone 5?  I have sensorly, but that doesn't tell me much.

[Dkoellerwx]

I'll work on putting together some KMLs with Sprint licenses. I'll do Illinois for sure, but how much more I do depends on how hard it is. ;-)

 

 

I was going off of this site, I assume it's mostly correct. http://specmap.sequence-omega.net/

[mhammett]

I was going off of this site, I assume it's mostly correct. http://specmap.sequence-omega.net/

Check out my post in the maps section. I started my own.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[9690austin]

I'm new to this whole thing, but I've been following this thread for quite some time.  would just like to add that I had LTE on 24 from ICC to due north of Washington this morning.

 

Does anyone know how to see more detailed tower info on an iPhone 5?  I have sensorly, but that doesn't tell me much.

Hey I live in Mackinaw. besides that point did you map it in sensorly.

[Dkoellerwx]

Hey I live in Mackinaw. besides that point did you map it in sensorly.

 

iPhones can't map for Sensorly.

[9690austin]

iPhones can't map for Sensorly.

Didnt know that always have had android and only will be androids.

[daevans315]

I'm new to this whole thing, but I've been following this thread for quite some time.  would just like to add that I had LTE on 24 from ICC to due north of Washington this morning.

 

Does anyone know how to see more detailed tower info on an iPhone 5?  I have sensorly, but that doesn't tell me much.

 

I also got 4g in the area for the first time today.  10-15 mb up and down 100 yards from the tower.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3t00aaca761qslh/2013-09-12%2016.29.18.png

[9690austin]

I also got 4g in the area for the first time today.  10-15 mb up and down 100 yards from the tower.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3t00aaca761qslh/2013-09-12%2016.2

Was this buy Walmart and Menards in washington. how long where you connected.

[userkv8031]

I also got 4g in the area for the first time today.  10-15 mb up and down 100 yards from the tower.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3t00aaca761qslh/2013-09-12%2016.29.18.png

 

Sensorly is now showing a good splotch of purple in the Peoria area. Maybe this means that they will start rolling things out a bit faster across the market. Hopefully they will be well along before the first snow flies or it gets too cold/windy to work on the towers. At that point work will progress slowly and cause frustration among those tired of the slow speeds.

[daevans315]

 

I also got 4g in the area for the first time today.  10-15 mb up and down 100 yards from the tower.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3t00aaca761qslh/2013-09-12%2016.2

Was this buy Walmart and Menards in washington. how long where you connected.

 

This was by the hotel on Cummings Lane, behind Cherry Tree shopping center.   I was on for 10 mins or so while I drove back over to Germantown.   I've picked up the tower a few times via 4g on 116 in Germantown, thats about 3-4 miles from the tower.  It wasn't usable but my signalcheck pro alarms went off.   I've been running sensorly so some some of the purple around Washington is my doing.  

 

 

[blu_jet_92]

I just had 13.6 down, 1.3 up off the tower on Cummings.

[blu_jet_92]

Tested it on the way home from school. Got 24 down, 8 up

[daevans315]

They are appear to still be working in Peoria today.   I was having flaky service all morning and then this afternoon I was on the 1st floor of my building inside a concrete block room where nobody has cell service and my 800mhz alarm went off.  Sure enough, strong 800 mhz signal.   The 800mhz has been up and down several times over the last couple hours but it seems to have stabilized.  I hope they leave it on.

I see we picked up another 4g tower in the Sunnyland area as well.

[Lolanerd]

Any news on the champaign/Urbana area?

[wesman]

I was near springfield road by route 98 near groveland IL. and picked up LTE just for a minute than it went back to 3G. they must be working on that tower

[JosefTor]

Thanks for reminding me about this. It always confused me why the speeds on 800 were slow. So, the data portion will only come through 800 LTE?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

 

 

[mhammett]

Thanks for reminding me about this. It always confused me why the speeds on 800 were slow. So, the data portion will only come through 800 LTE?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

Yes.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[9690austin]

NetMonitor does not tell you which LTE site you're connected to. Only which 1x site you're connected to. You can only tell which LTE site you're connected to by looking at the LTE Engineering screen in your debug menu.

 

Rooted devices do not get faster speeds on the network. You were either connected to a different site, to a different sector on the same site, or your dad's device is a weaker RF performer than yours.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 4

Thanks for the clarification and is the RF dependent upon devices because we have the same phone.

[wesman]

When will Peoria IL area be all LTE?