Major coverage map update 2016/01/10

[JWMaloney]

Anybody notice this? Sprint seems to have made a significant change in the way they are calculating their map projections. The result is that a lot of coverage has disappeared from the map, but what remains is much more accurate.

 

I don't have access to the old map tiles, but I do have the ability to overlay the Project Fi tiles (which at this time have not yet been updated). The reduction in depicted coverage is pretty significant in some areas (many of which contained the elusive 12-mile-radius circular LTE cells). Take a look:

 

East Texas / Shreveport

 

 

 

Southwest Louisiana

 

 

 

Northeast Louisiana (Duck Dynasty territory) -- those ridiculous circles are gone!

 

 

 

Baton Rouge seems to have experienced the opposite (the exaggeration grew significantly). Note that I hid the LTE Plus layer in this one to make the difference more visible.

 

 

[red_dog007]

Look at North Florida and South GA. Looks like some new huge exaggeration there.

[Ascertion]

Sprint's map is exaggerated still in my area. Haha

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X

[caspar347]

Not sure if it was in this update or if it was a while ago (I haven't checked in months) but the map is far more accurate than it used to be in Charlotte in showing areas that are truly 100% 3G-only if you disable the spark layer. There are plenty of places that probably should be marked as 3G because you can only connect to LTE for a few seconds after airplane-cycling before dropping to 3G, but at least the new map is a decent indicator of absolute outdoor LTE dead zones.

[MarshieZ]

Holy-moly! Now with this map update, North Wisconsin is by far x100 more accurate in LTE and Enhanced LTE coverage.

 

... It kinda looks really bare now though. Fingers crossed for some small cells up here to fill in! 

[red_dog007]

Found two things.

 

Memphis has Enhanced LTE coverage.  There was not there before. 

 

NH has a blotch of Enhanced LTE only coverage. No LTE, no 3G.  Beginning of VTel LTE agreement kicking in?

 

 

Some areas that I have noticed, primarily WA so far, that has a lot of Sprint LTE or Enhanced LTE coverage not marked on the map or marked as roaming.

[lilotimz]

In my area it's less accurate sorta.

 

Before, it was just everything was blanketed as best. Now there's huge gaps where extremely good coverage definitely exists (such as around active 2.5 sites) but is not on the coverage map anymore as best coverage. 

 

Haha..

 

 

I guess it's more accurate in that it was way too optimistic before. Now it just doesn't exist

[Rawvega]

 

NH has a blotch of Enhanced LTE only coverage. No LTE, no 3G.  Beginning of VTel LTE agreement kicking in?

 

The VTel agreement is taking a while to kick in. Perhaps they're waiting for VoLTE. At any rate, I though that VTel was building out Vermont. Are they constructing in New Hampshire as well?

[swintec]

NH has a blotch of Enhanced LTE only coverage. No LTE, no 3G.  Beginning of VTel LTE agreement kicking in?

 

Wouldnt that be US cellular LTE roaming?

[JWMaloney]

In my area it's less accurate sorta.

 

Before, it was just everything was blanketed as best. Now there's huge gaps where extremely good coverage definitely exists (such as around active 2.5 sites) but is not on the coverage map anymore as best coverage. 

 

Haha..

 

 

I guess it's more accurate in that it was way too optimistic before. Now it just doesn't exist

At least you still have the Best/Fair granularity for LTE Plus. They completely removed it for NOLA/BR (everything is solid yellow whereas before it was mostly light yellow).

[EvanA]

Band 41 is still way too exaggerated in my area. The map claims that my house is fair coverage for Enhanced LTE but the reality is coverage is weak band 26 in the sector null.

[Ascertion]

Band 41 is still way too exaggerated in my area. The map claims that my house is fair coverage for Enhanced LTE but the reality is coverage is weak band 26 in the sector null.

Maybe they're projecting future coverage within the next 6 months.

[EvanA]

Maybe they're projecting future coverage within the next 6 months.

It's been like this for months so I doubt it.

[Dkoellerwx]

Wouldnt that be US cellular LTE roaming?

 

It's not an area that has USCC LTE roaming. Not sure what it is.

[swintec]

It's not an area that has USCC LTE roaming. Not sure what it is.

 

What USCC areas make the cut for roaming or not?  I thought if the appropriate band was present then roaming was available from them?  If not, is this why southern maine has no USCC roaming while the rest of the state does?

[Dkoellerwx]

What USCC areas make the cut for roaming or not?  I thought if the appropriate band was present then roaming was available from them?  If not, is this why southern maine has no USCC roaming while the rest of the state does?

 

Why it's not shown as available, I do not know. Either the correct bands are not available, or Sprint/USCC decided not to offer roaming in that area. 

[swintec]

Why it's not shown as available, I do not know. Either the correct bands are not available, or Sprint/USCC decided not to offer roaming in that area. 

 

I guess I dont understand why you said that specific area in NH does not have USCC roaming.  USCC has LTE there, why wouldnt it be?

[RAvirani]

I guess I dont understand why you said that specific area in NH does not have USCC roaming. USCC has LTE there, why wouldnt it be?

USCC has large areas of LTE in Oregon which do not show up as LTE roaming on sprints map so I think it probably all jut has to do with the agreement sprint has with USCC. Maybe they thought that it wouldn't be worth it to offer LTE roaming in certain areas or something.

[Dkoellerwx]

I guess I dont understand why you said that specific area in NH does not have USCC roaming.  USCC has LTE there, why wouldnt it be?

I'm just going off the coverage map, nothing more. That particular spot show Enhanced LTE, and nothing else. It does not make sense, and the map does not show USCC roaming. It likely would not show just once site like that if roaming were available.

[SeanK_]

Notice these black dots are appearing in Albuquerque with the latest update. Anyone know what these mean?

 

[Dkoellerwx]

Notice these black dots are appearing in Albuquerque with the latest update. Anyone know what these mean?

 

One of them appears to be "The Pit." They're landmarks or other buildings someone deemed important.

 

Sent from my LG G4

[bmoses]

Notice these black dots are appearing in Albuquerque with the latest update. Anyone know what these mean?

 

 

i looked at my area and have both dot and squares, they seem to line up and are labeled as local places. like shopping malls, sports complex, etc.

[S4GRU]

Notice these black dots are appearing in Albuquerque with the latest update. Anyone know what these mean?

 

 

If you zoom in, it becomes clear that they are labeled.  Lower left being "The Pit".  Lower right being "University Stadium" and the upper right being "Albuquerque Sports Stadium."

 

So Sprint is just labeling landmarks now to help people get their bearings.

[JWMaloney]

Found a recent screenshot from before the map update, so I did a more direct before-after comparison. Aside from those squared-edge artifacts, the updated map is spot-on.

 

 

Also, I've posted this before in the Town Hall thread, but if anyone's interested in getting a full-page view of the Sprint coverage map, here's how to do it:

• Open the map.
• Switch to the Data tab.
• Zoom in a bit.
• Switch to LTE Plus if you want to see that.
• Paste the following JavaScript into your address bar and press Enter:

javascript:$.getScript('http://jwmaloney.name/s4gru/maximize-sprint-impact.js',null);

The map will now take up the whole browser window. Do note that Chrome likes to hold your hand by cutting the "javascript:" URI scheme off automatically when you paste into the address bar, so you may have to manually type that part out.

 

You can also create a bookmarklet to take the same action by pasting the same code into a bookmark button and clicking it when appropriate.

[Ascertion]

You can also create a bookmarklet to take the same action by pasting the same code into a bookmark button and clicking it when appropriate.

 

After looking at this, Sprint's LTE coverage map have "shrunk" because it is covering significantly less now than originally projected.  I'll need to go into Wayback machine and compare new Jacksonville to prior Jacksonville map.