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Sprint to expand to Montana using shut down CellularOne sites


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....Outbound calls frequently failed after a short beep sound....

 

Airaves emit a beep when you make calls.  Perhaps a neighbor had one.  They can cover a 1/2 mile radius or more when there is no other signal.  I had one in operation that covered most of a college campus while the cell tower was down for NV upgrade.

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Just back from visiting Billings MT for a week. Our Sprint iPhone 6 roamed PCS on SID 5230. Worst cellular service I've ever experienced. Failure to complete or receive calls. Data didn't work at all despite the Sprint Extended 3G display.

 

Outbound calls frequently failed after a short beep sound. Couldn't make SMS or iMessage work. No data of any kind.

 

Weird and bad is what one sees there at the moment. This is a far cry from the days we had the old Qwest sites marked as native and much of Alltel marked as native. Roaming or no for billing sake, the network in Billings is very definitely broken.

 

The only saving grace is we had WiFi much of the time, and enabled WiFi calling or it would of been even more ridiculous than it was. Anyway, sad to see things decline to the current level.

 

-Dan

Sprint is actively deploying on old Chinook Wireless sites in the area. Thankfully what you report is coming to an end. Likely this year.

 

Using Tapatalk on Note 8.0

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Just back from visiting Billings MT for a week.  Our Sprint iPhone 6 roamed PCS on SID 5230.   Worst cellular service I've ever experienced.  Failure to complete or receive calls.  Data didn't work at all despite the Sprint Extended 3G display.

 

Outbound calls frequently failed after a short beep sound.  Couldn't make SMS or iMessage work.  No data of any kind.

 

Weird and bad is what one sees there at the moment.  This is a far cry from the days we had the old Qwest sites marked as native and much of Alltel marked as native.  Roaming or no for billing sake, the network in Billings is very definitely broken.  

 

The only saving grace is we had WiFi much of the time, and enabled WiFi calling or it would of been even more ridiculous than it was.   Anyway, sad to see things decline to the current level.  

 

-Dan

 

You should have been able to roam on Verizon 1x CDMA for calls and SMS.... or maybe Sagebrush Cellular.

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/5684-sprint-to-join-rural-operators-roaming-hub-cca-and-rrpp-thread/?p=303898

http://www.nemont.net/pdfs/Nemont-local-wireless-coverage.pdf

 

Do you have Boost/Virgin mobile instead of Postpaid Sprint, or maybe you had roaming disabled on your phone?

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SID 5320 shows up as grandfathered to Montana PCS Alliance A M. I believe that may have been Alltel at some point in the past. If I had to guess, I'd say that it's probably some deprecated roaming network that Verizon (or AT&T?) is doing the bare minimum to maintain in order to finish honoring an Alltel agreement.

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You should have been able to roam on Verizon 1x CDMA for calls and SMS.... or maybe Sagebrush Cellular.

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/5684-sprint-to-join-rural-operators-roaming-hub-cca-and-rrpp-thread/?p=303898

http://www.nemont.net/pdfs/Nemont-local-wireless-coverage.pdf

 

Do you have Boost/Virgin mobile instead of Postpaid Sprint, or maybe you had roaming disabled on your phone?

 

Our Sprint phone is my wife's and she's on another trip so I can't easily check the PRL version at the moment.  I can say that I ran the ##UPDATE# and got a success message in a strong Sprint native area (Eugene, OR) before we left. 

 

I realize the PRL may have several entries by priority-- and I do assume that Verizon is one of them.  Verizon being very strong in Montana.   Anyway, default behavior was to connect to the busted SID...   I have a screenshot of the debug screen if helpful.  SID # was definitely 5230-- and no I couldn't find that one either.   Someone in Howard Forums indicated it was formerly a Cellular One SID. 

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Looks like Sprint LTE is live in parts of Missoula according to Sensorly and someone's post on Reddit.

 

Sent from OnePlus 2 using Tapatalk

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I have a screenshot of the debug screen if helpful.  SID # was definitely 5230-- and no I couldn't find that one either.  

 

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1880438-Sprint-in-Billings-MT-FYI?p=16495571#post16495571

 

I couldn't find SID 5230 either, but it definitely looks like 5320.

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Map of Sprint Possible LTE Areas in Montana

 

Based on Sprint FCC filings show above. 

Blue Balloons = only on FCC Maps

Green Balloons  = Also on Sensorly or Sprint Coverage Maps

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looks like Sprint LTE is live in parts of Missoula according to Sensorly and someone's post on Reddit.

 

Sent from OnePlus 2 using Tapatalk

 

 

Completely off topic but important question but my girlfriend lives in Marquette MI and it says roaming area for coverage. She said that lately she's been seeing more sprint commercials whereas before she hadn't. Now I'm curious why would sprint have local advertising in an area that offers no sprint coverage ? I assume they don't plan on expanding in Marquette anytime soon if at all ???

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Completely off topic but important question but my girlfriend lives in Marquette MI and it says roaming area for coverage. She said that lately she's been seeing more sprint commercials whereas before she hadn't. Now I'm curious why would sprint have local advertising in an area that offers no sprint coverage ? I assume they don't plan on expanding in Marquette anytime soon if at all ???

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bpuuj8mvatev170/Sprint%20coverage%20map%20updated%20Jan%2010%202016.JPG?dl=0

 

This Sprint coverage map was last updated January 10, 2016.  The area is covered by Cellcom under 3G & more.  Let us know if you get LTE. 

 

Next time start your own thread. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a long ways from Montana. Maybe a moderator will do this for you.

 

 

.

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Completely off topic but important question but my girlfriend lives in Marquette MI and it says roaming area for coverage. She said that lately she's been seeing more sprint commercials whereas before she hadn't. Now I'm curious why would sprint have local advertising in an area that offers no sprint coverage ? I assume they don't plan on expanding in Marquette anytime soon if at all ???

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bpuuj8mvatev170/Sprint%20coverage%20map%20updated%20Jan%2010%202016.JPG?dl=0

 

This Sprint coverage map was last updated January 10, 2016.  The area is covered by Cellcom under 3G & more.  Let us know if you get LTE. 

 

Next time start your own thread. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a long ways from Montana. Maybe a moderator will do this for you.

 

Please follow up with us on what you experience in Marquette. I have the U.P. towers in my premier thread and I'd like to officially update the stats with the information.

 

Brynn, do you still have an iPhone 5? Or have you upgraded? 

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Please follow up with us on what you experience in Marquette. I have the U.P. towers in my premier thread and I'd like to officially update the stats with the information.

 

Brynn, do you still have an iPhone 5? Or have you upgraded?

Although I don't Marquette is in the Green Bay BEA, most of Cellcom is definitely around the northern Wisconsin Market. Thus this makes sense.

 

Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk

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I'll be in MT next weekend. There is a Chinook tower about a mile from where I'm staying I'll be sure to check for activity.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Please follow up with us on what you experience in Marquette. I have the U.P. towers in my premier thread and I'd like to officially update the stats with the information.

 

Brynn, do you still have an iPhone 5? Or have you upgraded?

 

 

iPhone 6S plus

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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iPhone 6S plus

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks, definitely follow up with us and/or shoot me a PM with any screenshots or information you have.

 

Also be sure to update your profile on here so it says 6S Plus and not 5!  :)

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Just a quick followup to my Billings visit and terrible Sprint roaming.  I was there 5 days.  I traveled over town.  My experience wasn't limited to any one location. I was actively testing at different spots-- so, no air rave issue (or if so, doesn't account for other locations in town). 

 

I'll be curious if Sprke will be able to use his phone at all for any purpose save WiFi.  It was really, really bad.  

 

I had better experiences back in the analog days roaming, no exaggeration.  But let's see what the report is.  

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Just a quick followup to my Billings visit and terrible Sprint roaming.  I was there 5 days.  I traveled over town.  My experience wasn't limited to any one location. I was actively testing at different spots-- so, no air rave issue (or if so, doesn't account for other locations in town). 

 

I'll be curious if Sprke will be able to use his phone at all for any purpose save WiFi.  It was really, really bad.  

 

I had better experiences back in the analog days roaming, no exaggeration.  But let's see what the report is.  

 

This appears to back some limited root metrics results.  No wonder it is not on the coverage maps yet.  Lets hope the continue to improve it.

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Just a quick followup to my Billings visit and terrible Sprint roaming.  I was there 5 days.  I traveled over town.  My experience wasn't limited to any one location. I was actively testing at different spots-- so, no air rave issue (or if so, doesn't account for other locations in town). 

 

I'll be curious if Sprke will be able to use his phone at all for any purpose save WiFi.  It was really, really bad.  

 

I had better experiences back in the analog days roaming, no exaggeration.  But let's see what the report is.  

 

Were you getting good signal. What RSSI or RSRP or signal bars.  Perhaps the issue is backhaul.

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