Sprint Roaming+ - Coverage Map Update

[DurhamHusker]

Most of the drive from northwest of Des Moines, IA up to Okoboji, IA is in US Cellular roaming territory. However, for most of the drive despite being connected to US Cellular LTE, I had no data connection whatsoever.

 

Did you restart? I find that once I enter USCC territory that I connect to EVDO / LTE but data doens't work. A restart fixes it for me every time.

 

I go into USCC territory often in TN/NC.

This happened to me in rural KS with my GS7 on multiple occasions. No amount of reboots, air plane mode toggles, or calls to customer service could help me. Something goofy is going on there.

[Dkoellerwx]

This happened to me in rural KS with my GS7 on multiple occasions. No amount of reboots, air plane mode toggles, or calls to customer service could help me. Something goofy is going on there.

Where in KS? I had great LTE on NexTech and saw some Pioneer last time I was out there too.

 

Sent from my LG G5

[S4GRU]

 

 

Where is KS?

Just north of OK. C'mon! I thought you were a meteorologist? Don't they teach geography anymore? Sheesh!

 

*hides under table*

 

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[Dkoellerwx]

Just north of OK. C'mon! I thought you were a meteorologist? Don't they teach geography anymore? Sheesh!

 

*hides under table*

 

Using Tapatalk on Note 8.0

Well I thought I proofread that.... I guess not.

 

Sent from my LG G5

[shockerengr]

 

This happened to me in rural KS with my GS7 on multiple occasions. No amount of reboots, air plane mode toggles, or calls to customer service could help me. Something goofy is going on there.

 

 

I had trouble getting data to connect on USCC on my GS7 as well.  turning the roaming guard for data ON and getting it to through the prompt up finally fixed it.

 

Also, it was surprisingly hard to get data to stay off while I was out there while still leaving the voice network up.  (several times the restrict background data option would reset itself)

Edited August 16, 2016 by shockerengr

[jeffcarp]

I returned yesterday along the same roads that I traveled on Saturday and therefore came back into USCC territory. I again could not establish any data throughput. My wife's phone worked fine in the same spot.

 

A reboot did not fix it. I also tried to upgrade the PRL even though it didn't need it and did a profile update. Neither fixed it.

 

For some reason, I thought to try to place a voice phone call. The voice call went through and the minute I hung up I had blazingly good LTE data on USCC.

 

It seems as though I just wasn't getting registered properly on their network and by placing a phone call, that flipped the switch somehow.

[WiWavelength]

For some reason, I thought to try to place a voice phone call. The voice call went through and the minute I hung up I had blazingly good LTE data on USCC.

 

It seems as though I just wasn't getting registered properly on their network and by placing a phone call, that flipped the switch somehow.

 

These things can make phone calls?  You learn something new every day.  I thought that they were just handheld, wireless data computers.

 

AJ

[DurhamHusker]

I had trouble getting data to connect on USCC on my GS7 as well. turning the roaming guard for data ON and getting it to through the prompt up finally fixed it.

 

Also, it was surprisingly hard to get data to stay off while I was out there while still leaving the voice network up. (several times the restrict background data option would reset itself)

I returned yesterday along the same roads that I traveled on Saturday and therefore came back into USCC territory. I again could not establish any data throughput. My wife's phone worked fine in the same spot.

 

A reboot did not fix it. I also tried to upgrade the PRL even though it didn't need it and did a profile update. Neither fixed it.

 

For some reason, I thought to try to place a voice phone call. The voice call went through and the minute I hung up I had blazingly good LTE data on USCC.

 

It seems as though I just wasn't getting registered properly on their network and by placing a phone call, that flipped the switch somehow.

I was on the phone a couple of times with customer service trying to figure out the problem. Could send texts, too. But no data before or after the calls.

 

One thing I did not try was fiddling with the roaming guards. I'll give that a shot next time around if I still have problems. Thanks for the tip.

[Dkoellerwx]

I was on the phone a couple of times with customer service trying to figure out the problem. Could send texts, too. But no data before or after the calls.

 

One thing I did not try was fiddling with the roaming guards. I'll give that a shot next time around if I still have problems. Thanks for the tip.

 

I've noticed that domestic data roaming gets turned off after an automatic profile update, so even after I had turned roaming on for one trip, it was off the next time I was roaming. Not sure if that affects anything on your end, just an issue I've seen.

[lordsutch]

I had similar issues with my G5 in western North Carolina a couple of weeks ago in USCC country; futzing around with the roaming guard settings finally made it work. Probably a bug somewhere in Sprint's LTE roaming implementation (I assume they use the same basic code in every triband device).

 

Alas it'll be a while before I can see if a similar workaround works in CSpire territory, where I've had similar issues (I've never successfully connected to their LTE network in Fulton, Mississippi, despite it being advertised on Sprint's maps).

[red_dog007]

I successfully got extended network on Carolina West Wireless Sunday, pulled 1Mbps down on EVDO. Completely seemless. Just wish I knew if LTE was there.

It was pretty surprising because I hit it on Hwy 74 between I-24 and I-85. I did not hit it early last weekend when traveling through.

I just happened to look at the right time and pull in a speedtest.

It is interesting though because Sprint doesn't advertise their coverage that far down and neither does CWW. But I have had the same experience with Appalachian Wireless, not advertising coverage that does exist. 

Interesting. Looks like CWW leases PCS D from Sprint in just three counties. L000007757.

Looks like Sprint has 40MHz in Cleveland/Rutherford Counties. Wonder if that lease is why they don't have native coverage.

[ddaniels3968]

I just connected to US Cellular LTE on my note 7 from home. I never get Sprint LTE at home, of course it does show connected to sprint 1x at the same time

 

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[Paynefanbro]

I just connected to US Cellular LTE on my note 7 from home. I never get Sprint LTE at home, of course it does show connected to sprint 1x at the same time

 

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This is weird. Does your home get any native Sprint service? I recall U.S. Cellular saying that they've figured out how to have a carrier roam on their LTE network and fall back to native 2G for voice.

 

Perhaps that technology is being implemented and now Sprint phones can favor U.S. Cellular LTE over Sprint EVDO.

 

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[jeffcarp]

I got the same screen shot with US Cellular in northwest Iowa earlier this month as well. It showed 1X Sprint and LTE with USCC and I had about 10Mbps speeds.

 

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[Paynefanbro]

We already know these devices can't connect to 1x and LTE at the same time. That's just a glitch. My question is, were these native service areas or roaming only? That would go a long way to figuring this out.

[jeffcarp]

In my situation is was definitely roaming only.

 

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[ddaniels3968]

So where did the signal info come from. It had to connect to that signal at some point even if it wasn't connected to both at the same time

 

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[spike331]

In Sister Bay, WI which is native for Sprint (but an area where they struggle greatly) my SG7 showed US Cellular LTE and Sprint 1X in signal check pro.

[Trip]

We already know these devices can't connect to 1x and LTE at the same time. That's just a glitch. My question is, were these native service areas or roaming only? That would go a long way to figuring this out.

 

SRLTE?

 

- Trip

[RAvirani]

 

My phone as well seems to hold a USCC LTE connection even when Sprint 1x is available.

[Paynefanbro]

So my suspicion might be correct. USCC might be getting pushed as the default data provider in areas where only native 1x is available.

[Dkoellerwx]

We already know these devices can't connect to 1x and LTE at the same time. That's just a glitch. My question is, were these native service areas or roaming only? That would go a long way to figuring this out.

 

That's actually not completely accurate. Your device can *monitor* multiple networks. However, it just cannot transmit and receive on both 1x and LTE at the same time. Every time I have been roaming on LTE, I also have a 1x connection. The signal updates on each independently, but not at the same time. 

 

The interesting thing in this case, is seeing a *Sprint* 1x connection while roaming on USCC LTE. That supposedly should not be possible, because as long as you have a native Sprint connection, any Sprint connection, your device shouldn't be connecting to a roaming signal. At least, that's how it was. It's possible something has changed. When I have traveled to Colorado, when I come into range of Sprint 1x, I immediately lose the LTE roaming connection that I had.

[Dkoellerwx]

I just connected to US Cellular LTE on my note 7 from home. I never get Sprint LTE at home, of course it does show connected to sprint 1x at the same time

 

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I got the same screen shot with US Cellular in northwest Iowa earlier this month as well. It showed 1X Sprint and LTE with USCC and I had about 10Mbps speeds.

 

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This reminds me of the first time I roamed onto NexTech LTE in Kansas. I had a 1x connection along with NexTech LTE, however the 1x connection showed "Sprint." I believe this was in January? When I went through the area again in June, something had changed and the 1x connection correctly showed NexTech. I suspect something similar is going on here, for some reason your device, or possibly SCP, is misidentifying the 1x connection as Sprint when it really is USCC.

 

Unless something has changed to allow LTE roaming to occurring simultaneously with a native Sprint 1x signal. I feel like that's not very likely though.

[greenbastard]

That's actually not completely accurate. Your device can *monitor* multiple networks. However, it just cannot transmit and receive on both 1x and LTE at the same time. Every time I have been roaming on LTE, I also have a 1x connection. The signal updates on each independently, but not at the same time.

 

It's also the reason why Carrier Aggregation won't work while our phones are "sniffing" 1x while on LTE. CA capable phones can only receive from 2 different sources at a time, so CA is sacrificed while our phones are sniffing both 1x/LTE. While SRLTE is more dependable than eCSFB for receiving phone calls, it kills CA capability, which hurts user speeds.

 

So why have SRLTE at all? Every CCA/RRPP capable phone was designed that way since not every roaming partner has eCSFB. No SRLTE while roaming would mean no phone calls/texts. Non-CCA/RRPP phones didn't need SRLTE (and didn't have it) since they were never meant to roam other LTE networks.

[S4GRU]

On my Project Fi Nexus 6 I frequently park on Sprint 1x and connect to USCC LTE. I figured it was just a Fi thing since it is designed to work on both networks. But seeing how so many on Sprint are having the same issue, it must be by design.

 

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