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Posted

I've seen a 15dB improvement in signal going from band 25 to band 26 in the same spot on the same serving cell (in my office).

 

Optimization still has much to be desired.  I really think Sprint should park handsets on B26 and have them shift up when data is being used.  Otherwise, there is WAY too much band shuffling going on.

 

I recently took a trip to NYC and I will say that Band 25 cannot handle the cell spacing on highways.  You need Band 26 to not fall back on 3G.  It was also silly watching the phone hand off from 41 to 25 to 26 as signal faded.  Idle on 26, shift to higher band if available during active data session.

 

It seems to be par for the course on multiband LTE networks.  I am getting shunted around all day long on AT&T and VZW too.  Even when sitting still on my desk and just using my hotspot.  Unless I stream something, I'm just changing bands all day long.

  • Like 1
Posted

My experience with Sprint 800 LTE has been amazing. Prior to the Network Vision upgrades my area was horrible. I decided to wait out the storm and it has been totally worth it. For just a small piece of what I have seen, The area casino has little to no service for any cell company inside. On Friday I was there streaming a youtube video with 2 bars of service. Everyone else in my party (Sprint haters) had to go outside or to the lobby to use their phones. 

 

Fortunately for me there is a lot of LTE 800. I would love to help map it out but I only connect to it with 1 or 2 bars so I cannot pin point the cell site that is broadcasting it. Hopefully optimization will take place soon and help pin point these sites out.

 

If I look back at Sprint service in general 2 years ago to now. WOW! Good job Sprint.

  • Like 9
Posted

LTE 800 and Network Vision in general have made and incredible difference for me!  Prior to NV 1.0, when I would sit at my desk at work, I was typically sitting on Verizon 1x.  NV was a huge improvement to just get Sprint 1x and EVDO inside my building.  

As LTE was added, band 25 was a challenge to pick up on my old iPhone 5.  I had to stand at just the right spot facing just right to be able to connect.  

 

Now with band 26, I am able to average about -110 db LTE which is still very usable.  I have also noticed that I am connected to LTE A LOT  more often now that I have a triband device when compared to just band 25 a few weeks ago.  It is amazing how far Sprint has come from just 18 months ago!

  • Like 6
Posted

Same here.  At home, I went from barely holding a 3G signal to having -100 to -105 b26.  I am very impressed with the upgrades.

  • Like 2
Posted (edited)

B26 is awesome. It's pretty much everywhere here in the Jacksonville market. I barely held any LTE signal at work with the iPhone 5. Ever since I received the iPhone 6...I get about two or three dots LTE B26 versus one dot 3G with the i5 while indoors at work. 

 

When I'm at home, since the closest Sprint tower is less than half-mile from my house, my phone swaps between B26/25 but lately today I noticed it's been parked on B26 with between -75 to -92 signal depending where I'm at in the house. LOVE IT. I could never switch to another carrier. 

Edited by Faction
  • Like 1
Posted

B26 is awesome. It's pretty much everywhere here in the Jacksonville market. I barely held any LTE signal at work with the iPhone 5. Ever since I received the iPhone 6...I get about two or three dots LTE B26 versus one dot 3G with the i5 while indoors at work. 

 

When I'm at home, since the closest Sprint tower is less than half-mile from my house, my phone swaps between B26/25 but lately today I noticed it's been parked on B26 with between -75 to -92 signal depending where I'm at in the house. LOVE IT. I could never switch to another carrier. 

I only get B41 oddly in my house but the signal is anywhere from 102-122+ but more than usable, here is hoping they tweak B26 soon. :)

  • 3 months later...
Posted

I live in Brooklyn, NYC. Band 26 is all over.

 

At my house im usually band 25, but in the bed room it used to drop to 3g, now its 2 bars of band 26.

  • Like 4
Posted

I live in Brooklyn, NYC. Band 26 is all over.

 

At my house im usually band 25, but in the bed room it used to drop to 3g, now its 2 bars of band 26.

This is EXACTLY how it should be working.

Posted

I live in Brooklyn, NYC. Band 26 is all over.

 

At my house im usually band 25, but in the bed room it used to drop to 3g, now its 2 bars of band 26.

 

In my house in Brooklyn, I have one bar of Band 26 but that's great considering Crown Heights doesn't have the best site spacing and 19th Century brownstones aren't exactly known for being good for RF penetration.

 

It's not only something I observed in mine but in the Upper West Side of Manhattan at one point 1x was the only thing that managed to make it into my friend's brownstone. Now I get 1 bar of Band 26 inside and 2 bars Band 41 outside.

  • Like 1
Posted

In my house in Brooklyn, I have one bar of Band 26 but that's great considering Crown Heights doesn't have the best site spacing and 19th Century brownstones aren't exactly known for being good for RF penetration.

 

It's not only something I observed in mine but in the Upper West Side of Manhattan at one point 1x was the only thing that managed to make it into my friend's brownstone. Now I get 1 bar of Band 26 inside and 2 bars Band 41 outside.

That is awesome stuff.

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

Been with Sprint through all the hard times, and though all the AT&T users laughed while I was pushing 3G, I never lost hope. (Shedding a tear of joy) This afternoon I was amazed to see LTE on my phone while in my house. I would always loose my LTE signal as I drove into my neighborhood, BUT NOT ANY MORE! Band 26 has now made me a very happy sprint customer, lol. I can't wait to see where else my data has improved in south Florida. (Coming from Broward County)

Edited by IgottaTA
  • Like 9
Posted

Follow up: two days later, and after driving through most of the cities in Broward County, I have yet to EVEN SEE a 3G signal on my S5. I have had an average of 3-10 Mbps all around town. Where I used to have a weak LTE signal, I'm now cruising the Web at a wonderful pace. In the place I used to hide my phone, knowing it was only capable of making calls, I now pull it out and start offering to Google everything, lol. So far, life is GREAT in my mobile universe. =-)

  • Like 5
Posted

Been in Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Davie, Sunrise, Tamarac, Coral Springs, Coconut Creek, Deerfield, Margate and Pompano Beach. Thank goodness for unlimited Data, lol.

  • Like 2
Posted

Follow up: two days later, and after driving through most of the cities in Broward County, I have yet to EVEN SEE a 3G signal on my S5. I have had an average of 3-10 Mbps all around town. Where I used to have a weak LTE signal, I'm now cruising the Web at a wonderful pace. In the place I used to hide my phone, knowing it was only capable of making calls, I now pull it out and start offering to Google everything, lol. So far, life is GREAT in my mobile universe. =-)

This is what we like to hear!  :D

  • Like 3
Posted

Follow up: two days later, and after driving through most of the cities in Broward County, I have yet to EVEN SEE a 3G signal on my S5. I have had an average of 3-10 Mbps all around town. Where I used to have a weak LTE signal, I'm now cruising the Web at a wonderful pace. In the place I used to hide my phone, knowing it was only capable of making calls, I now pull it out and start offering to Google everything, lol. So far, life is GREAT in my mobile universe. =-)

Can't wait for that here.

  • Like 1
Posted

Can't wait for that here.

It's worth the wait. I was starting to sound like one of those crazy extremists saying how "sprint will get better, no really, it's coming!" But now I have my fiancé and best friend planning on switching over to sprint. ;-)
  • Like 5
Posted

Follow up: two days later, and after driving through most of the cities in Broward County, I have yet to EVEN SEE a 3G signal on my S5. I have had an average of 3-10 Mbps all around town. Where I used to have a weak LTE signal, I'm now cruising the Web at a wonderful pace. In the place I used to hide my phone, knowing it was only capable of making calls, I now pull it out and start offering to Google everything, lol. So far, life is GREAT in my mobile universe. =-)

I have two Galaxy S-5's on my account.  Both of them just love to hang onto band 26 LTE & Voice.  They do this even though I am in an area with GREAT band 25. No band 41 yet.  I have no idea if the S-5 is unique with this hanging onto band 26 or what but they will hold onto band 26 even when it is worse than a band 25 signal.  They even hold onto band 26 when no data is being transferred.  They will occasionally jump onto band 25, but there does not seem to be any pattern that I can determine.

One thing for sure, if band 25 starts to weaken, the phones move to band 26 easily.

Posted (edited)

I have two Galaxy S-5's on my account. Both of them just love to hang onto band 26 LTE & Voice. They do this even though I am in an area with GREAT band 25. No band 41 yet. I have no idea if the S-5 is unique with this hanging onto band 26 or what but they will hold onto band 26 even when it is worse than a band 25 signal. They even hold onto band 26 when no data is being transferred. They will occasionally jump onto band 25, but there does not seem to be any pattern that I can determine.

One thing for sure, if band 25 starts to weaken, the phones move to band 26 easily.

I've seen that issue once or twice. We have band 41 down here and my S5 seems to always favor it when I'm close enough to pick up the signal. But for the most part it stays on band 26. It will switch over though. For example, at my job I work outside in a mechanic shop. While I'm outside I'm on band 25 because it has a much stronger signal. When I go inside of the building and my band 25 single weakens it jumps to band 26 just like it's supposed to. Before I had been 26 it would stay on band 25 and I would almost have no data. But now while inside I still get on average of 3-7 Mbps while outside on my band 25 I get 4-12 Mbps. Edited by IgottaTA
Posted

I've seen that issue once or twice. We have band 41 down here and my S5 seems to always favor it when I'm close enough to pick up the signal. But for the most part it stays on band 26. It will switch over though. For example, at my job I work outside in a mechanic shop. While I'm outside I'm on band 25 because it has a much stronger signal. When I go inside of the building and my band 25 single weakens it jumps to band 26 just like it's supposed to. Before I had been 26 it would stay on band 25 and I would almost have no data. But now while inside I still get on average of 3-7 Mbps while outside on my band 25 I get 4-12 Mbps.

The site close to my house had 800 turned on a few months back, its now swamped during the evening hours with speeds averaging 1-5Mbps.  My phone use to stay parked on 800 but for the last week its now favoring 1900 LTE with speeds 15Mbps+ most of the time no matter what time of the day it is. 

 

Hopefully within a few months they will have the final few sites lit up with LTE here which will help out dramatically.  

  • Like 2
Posted

My S5 avoids B26 as much as it can, but does fall back to it if B25 and B41 are unavailable.

 

It similarly prefers 1X PCS over 1X 800.

 

- Trip

Posted

My S5 avoids B26 as much as it can, but does fall back to it if B25 and B41 are unavailable.

 

It similarly prefers 1X PCS over 1X 800.

 

- Trip

If my S5 is sitting on Band 26 LTE and a voice call arrives, it probably will be on 1X-800.  Strange how my S5 will camp on Band 26 LTE when the band 25 LTE is capable of faster download speed.  It is actually very difficult for me to get on Band 25 even when the signal level is decent.  I can drive right by several sites with great band 25 and the phone sticks to band 26 most of the time even though the band 26 is starting to get congested. I am in an area with completed band 25 & 26. Great coverage but no band 41 yet.

I am really surprised how two band 25 carriers and a band 26 carrier are all slowing down when I am not in a high density area.

This proves that if you provide good service, people will eat it up.

I travel mostly in Shentel Territory.

Posted

 

It similarly prefers 1X PCS over 1X 800.

 

- Trip

I have an HTC M8 and have this same issue. I really need to stay on 1x800 because the area I live in 1900 sucks but phone stays on it too much and I have to wait to make phone calls. I hope this will improve after they optimize here

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Hopefully Sprint fixes the last few areas in Broward County without Sprint Spark. Im getting a new phone in a week (iPhone 6 plus) And my area Coral Springs / Margate isn't in coverage area according to sprint maps. I just checked I'm in a area Sprint calls "Best 4G LTE" yet i just checked signal. -108 on Band 25 standing outside in road. Defiantly not best signal.

Posted

Hopefully Sprint fixes the last few areas in Broward County without Sprint Spark. Im getting a new phone in a week (iPhone 6 plus) And my area Coral Springs / Margate isn't in coverage area according to sprint maps. I just checked I'm in a area Sprint calls "Best 4G LTE" yet i just checked signal. -108 on Band 25 standing outside in road. Defiantly not best signal.

LTE should be useable all the way down to -115 RSRP. In my experience, once Band 25 gets to -115 then it kicks you over to band 26, if it's available.

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