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

[Dkoellerwx]

How can you tell of backhaul is being upgraded on a tower? Are "jumpy" speeds in a speed test a sign of this?

My speed tests are resulting in 1-1.5 Mbps (or lower) for upload and download, but they jump to 2-3 Mbps throughout the test.....all sites in my area are 3G/800......

 

 

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If backhaul is upgraded, you'll see LTE. Anything else is likely just a symptom of the load on the tower. Or lack thereof. 

 

A site running on legacy backhaul can still push 3Mbps if there is not much activity at the moment. The new NV equipment is able to bond the several T1 lines together, the old equipment could not do that, which allows for a small boost in performance. 

[mhammett]

In parts of northern Illinois, backhaul has taken a year or more to be installed, so 5-6 months sounds pretty good.

A year? Sounds optimistic. ;-)

 

 

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[tommym65]

A year? Sounds optimistic. ;-)

 

 

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Hey, Dekalb got an upgrade last week. That's only . . . 19 months.  Or is it 20?  And only 2 more sites to go. You should be fully upgraded by 2019 or so. You're right up there with the real world!!!

 

[For those of you who are not blessed/cursed with the sarcasm gene, please disregard the above post. I am sometimes overwhelmed by my own incisive sense of humor.  But, Damn!, I do make me laugh!]

[mhammett]

Hey, Dekalb got an upgrade last week. That's only . . . 19 months.  Or is it 20?  And only 2 more sites to go. You should be fully upgraded by 2019 or so. You're right up there with the real world!!!

 

[For those of you who are not blessed/cursed with the sarcasm gene, please disregard the above post. I am sometimes overwhelmed by my own incisive sense of humor.  But, Damn!, I do make me laugh!]

 

For those that don't know...  DeKalb was one of the first sites to have the new hardware installed in 2012 and got our first LTE site turned up this month. They still aren't all done yet.

[blc95]

Well I had LTE at parkland college in champaign last night, and today, good ole 3G

 

 

 

 

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[JPSmith]

Well I had LTE at parkland college in champaign last night, and today, good ole 3G

 

 

 

Yeah, C-U is in LTE testing mode so you will catch glimpses of it from time to time.    But it won't be full-time until the new backhaul is installed.

 

 

[thefisch6]

I heard from someone that some the sites in central Illinois that have seen essentially no movement (e.g. Bloomington, Springfield, C-U) are designated as "problem areas" by Sprint. Regardless of the accuracy of this claim, is there any reason that upgrades in these areas are taking so long? Obviously, I get that it is all about the backhaul and not Sprint's fault exactly, I just still fail to see why these areas are posing such a problem. And I get that places off highways and near existing fiber are easier to upgrade, but why is the backhaul upgrade so hard for Bloomington, but other metro areas have seen plenty of upgrades in the time it has taken for Bloomington to see exactly zero LTE active sites? Makes zero sense to me.

[blc95]

I heard from someone that some the sites in central Illinois that have seen essentially no movement (e.g. Bloomington, Springfield, C-U) are designated as "problem areas" by Sprint. Regardless of the accuracy of this claim, is there any reason that upgrades in these areas are taking so long? Obviously, I get that it is all about the backhaul and not Sprint's fault exactly, I just still fail to see why these areas are posing such a problem. And I get that places off highways and near existing fiber are easier to upgrade, but why is the backhaul upgrade so hard for Bloomington, but other metro areas have seen plenty of upgrades in the time it has taken for Bloomington to see exactly zero LTE active sites? Makes zero sense to me.

I completely agree with you! -- I understand that backhaul can take some time to install, etc...But you would think that CU being a town with a university and thousands of people (current and potential customers), that something would be done to get these sites upgraded just a bit quicker....I mean Verizon and AT&T were able to launch LTE in this area!?!

[Vince]

It's not just the lack of fiber that can hold up sites. Permit issues are usually the other cause. Not every tower sits in the middle of a field. Towers on privately owned buildings, water towers, high tension power structures, etc. Plus, it's usually easier to get fiber to the middle of that field than it is to an inner-city area.

[S4GRU]

Many of the problems in Central Illinois are in CenturyLink areas. CL has been a major problem supplying backhaul for Sprint. If you are in a CL market and still do not have Sprint LTE, the wait may still be awhile.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

 

[thefisch6]

Does CenturyLink have some substantive issues with deployment or are they just dragging their feet for the sake of doing so?

[blc95]

Many of the problems in Central Illinois are in CenturyLink areas. CL has been a major problem supplying backhaul for Sprint. If you are in a CL market and still do not have Sprint LTE, the wait may still be awhile.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

How would we find out if we are in a CL market? I'm in Champaign-Urbana.....

 

 

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[njjdnt]

How would we find out if we are in a CL market? I'm in Champaign-Urbana.....

 

There is a list of some backhaul vendors for some markets in the Premier sponsor section. 

[thefisch6]

There is a list of some backhaul vendors for some markets in the Premier sponsor section.

Haha maybe once I'm no longer a broke college student, I'll be able to find out

[njjdnt]

Haha maybe once I'm no longer a broke college student, I'll be able to find out

You learn more here, than you do in most classrooms. 

[thefisch6]

My bad

[S4GRU]

Does CenturyLink have some substantive issues with deployment or are they just dragging their feet for the sake of doing so?

 

There is no way to know definitively.  However, if CenturyLink is the local ILEC and there are Sprint 3G Network Vision sites complete in the city with no LTE at all, there is a good chance that CenturyLink is the local backhaul provider for Sprint.  And if it's Windstream, then that makes sense too.  As Windstream is also way behind in their backhaul commitments to Sprint.

 

Robert

[thefisch6]

So long story short, don't expect anything in the near future?

[JPSmith]

There is no way to know definitively.  However, if CenturyLink is the local ILEC and there are Sprint 3G Network Vision sites complete in the city with no LTE at all, there is a good chance that CenturyLink is the local backhaul provider for Sprint.  And if it's Windstream, then that makes sense too.  As Windstream is also way behind in their backhaul commitments to Sprint.

 

Robert

Wouldn't Sprint's contracts with the backhaul providers include failure to perform clauses that would allow them to engage alternate providers at some point?   If such clauses exist, why would Sprint put up with such lengthy delays from the contracted providers?   Are there not viable alternative backhaul providers in these markets, or are there other considerations that make switching providers impractical? 

[S4GRU]

Wouldn't Sprint's contracts with the backhaul providers include failure to perform clauses that would allow them to engage alternate providers at some point?   If such clauses exist, why would Sprint put up with such lengthy delays from the contracted providers?   Are there not viable alternative backhaul providers in these markets, or are there other considerations that make switching providers impractical? 

 

Yes, the contracts do have failure to perform clauses.  We don't know how they're defined though.  They may, or may not be in default.  And they are more likely to bend over backwards for CenturyLink than other backhaul providers, as Sprint used to own a big chunk of what is now CenturyLink.  The Sprint landline business is now in the hands of CL and a lot of their executives and upper management.  Sprint is much more likely to tolerate problems from CL.

 

Also, and now that they are this far along, and CL is close to having backhaul ready, do you fire them now and start redoing all the contracts?  At this point, Sprint probably believes it is faster to get CL across the finish line than start all over.  And now at this point, it probably is true.  However, CL was missing deadlines over a year ago.  Sprint should have taken action then.

 

I don't excuse any of the CL problems.  It's awful.  And I have been critical of Sprint about it for a long time.  But what is done is done at this point.  We will watch CL slowly cross the finish line, albeit very late.  But at least we are getting reports of CL fiber digging and connections in a few places around the country.  It appears the logjam is finally starting to clear.

 

Robert

[thefisch6]

So we really ha e zero idea of a timeline on any site waiting for CL? Could be tomorrow, could be a year from now?

[thefisch6]

Have*

 

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[9690austin]

I dont think it will be a year from now. Sprint plans to be wrapping up things by the middle of the year. It will be great to see Sprint launch LTe in Peoria, Washington, Morton, And Pekin. Also does anyone know what is going on in Glaesburg they were the first area to start seeing LTE and they still dont have anything in Galesburg. Is everyhting on delay because of the Freezing Temps. TIRED OF WINTER. Spring Pleaase.

[9690austin]

I was Just thinking of this also. It irrelivant but why does Sprint use 6 bars for indications but every other carrier uses Fours. any Ideas just wondering if there is any reasoning.

[Dkoellerwx]

So we really ha e zero idea of a timeline on any site waiting for CL? Could be tomorrow, could be a year from now?

 

Pretty much. Though it really shouldn't take a year. Most sites that aren't GMO sites or the really hard to get ones should be LTE by this summer. *should*. We'll see though. If there's been no movement by May, hopefully Sprint has started looking for other solutions by then.