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Sprint LTE Coverage Map - Dallas/Ft.Worth Market


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Have you noticed that when compared to other phones the LG Viper has lower signal readings? I was playing with both the LG Viper and the Galaxy Nexus side by side and both had vastly different readings.

 

Nope did not check that.

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See this post on the sprint forums few days ago?

 

http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/88795?tstart=0

SprintLTE.png

...Got lucky and have LTE service at my work location (Fort Worth, near I-30 and Bryant Irvin Rd)



Have WiMax at the same location, but it is not usable because the connection would always drop inside the building. LTE is staying connected with 2 to 3 signal bars. The speeds shown here are the lower of the few test I have run, download speeds have been as high as 7Mbps...

 

The SS shows a ping of 43ms!! :o

 

But later he posted that was short lived and he lost it after about a day of use and is now back to very slow 3G speeds....

 

 

Guess he got lucky and caught the tower when it was doing some field trial work temporarily on the new equipment and then after testing stuff got flipped back to the older hardware?.....

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I am smack Dab is North Richland Hills. Trying to make out this map seems as if im am in the right place. Unfortuanlly haven't seen a LTE signal to save my life.

 

Not all sites that are active can be connected to at the moment. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-167-sprint-intentionally-blocking-new-lte-devices-from-accessing-live-lte-sites/

 

Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

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I live in one of those pesky WiMax holes in Lewisville; Denton County did not get much love when Clearwire announced they were complete. There were several sites that were "future coverage" near here from Clear until early last year. Sadly, the only WiMax tower I can get service from (http://g.co/maps/2kr6u) is 1.3mi (2.1km) and that means unless I am in the right spot in the house there is no 4G.

 

With the Motorola CPEi25150 (Sprint 4G Desktop Modem) and the Clear Series 'M' modem's I can get an RSSI of -72 to -80 and CINR of 11-17 depending on the day, weather, mood of the trees, and if the City of Lewisville is performing their monthly tornado sirens (I kid not, on the 2nd of every month they test the reception on my WiMax devices dips to a RSSI of <-80 and 6-10 for CINR for the 5-10 minutes they test).

 

While I am holding my breath in the hopes that Sprint might one day have a "desktop modem" for the LTE network; I am going to hold onto this 4G Unlimited Plan for as long as I can. Its only $30 a month and I can use it to host a small Minecraft server for friends and a fun little server for personal use/backup storage.

 

I have an HTC Thunderbolt with Verizon right now (I picked it up on Launch day in March of last year); 4G LTE is nice, but unless you set your device right you can eat through a battery in under 4 hours. I dropped AT&T for Verizon for getting LTE and haven;t looked back. (I even gave up a 19% discount for working for AT&T, I was that pumped) I am going to pick up one of these fancy new EVOs and see how it runs around here. If it goes well perhaps I can switch my Verizon line to Sprint and save some $. The difference in price is staggering ($79.99 vs $104.99) taxes and all that jazz its nearly a $30 difference.

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I'm in Corinth, Tx, just across Lake Lewisville from bluepoint951.

Sprint coverage is OK at best, 4G (WiMax) only along the Interstate.

 

However, we got a new iPad and we signed up for the Verizon 4G LTE.

 

Sitting on our back porch, we saw speeds in excess of 10Mb down and 4Mb up.

 

Sprint would be crazy to ignore the Denton Area. It's exploding in population, traffic, and economy. The Lewisville, Flower Mound, Lake Cities area is ground zero for some of the highest population growth.

 

Frankly, if it weren't for Sprint's unlimited data plans, we'd would switch to VZW. If their LTE coverage is as good as their WiMax, we probably will switch.

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I'm in Corinth, Tx, just across Lake Lewisville from bluepoint951.

Sprint coverage is OK at best, 4G (WiMax) only along the Interstate.

 

However, we got a new iPad and we signed up for the Verizon 4G LTE.

 

Sitting on our back porch, we saw speeds in excess of 10Mb down and 4Mb up.

 

Sprint would be crazy to ignore the Denton Area. It's exploding in population, traffic, and economy. The Lewisville, Flower Mound, Lake Cities area is ground zero for some of the highest population growth.

 

Frankly, if it weren't for Sprint's unlimited data plans, we'd would switch to VZW. If their LTE coverage is as good as their WiMax, we probably will switch.

 

They aren't ignoring Denton, or the northern burbs. Network Vision contractors are deploying on towers as backhaul comes available to them. The backhaul is not ready in Lewisville/Denton areas yet. But they will start coming online in June and run all through the summer. We keep a thread for S4GRU Sponsors where we update completed sites every week.

 

Robert

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Ah. On Teasley Lane, down the road from my house, a massive tower was erected. VZW is on that tower. I suspect they'll mount on that. I REALLY hope they do because I live close to it.

 

Thanks for the update, Robert.

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Ah. On Teasley Lane, down the road from my house, a massive tower was erected. VZW is on that tower. I suspect they'll mount on that. I REALLY hope they do because I live close to it.

 

Thanks for the update, Robert.

 

Sprint already has two sites off Teasley Lane. They will upgrade these sites to Network Vision and add LTE at that time. The big tower near the NW corner of Teasley and Ranchman is supposed to come online with LTE in Mid-June. The other one is a monopole tower on the south side of Guyer High School. It is scheduled to come online with LTE in Mid-August.

 

Then there is another one off the I-35E Frontage near Tingley behind the Hooters scheduled for Mid August as well.

 

Robert

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Still no love around here, 1 bar and dropped calls. I've mapped out my living room, which parts I am guaranteed to have a dropped call in and which parts might succeed. Also you can't break the 100kbps barrier during the day anymore. I just managed to hit 300kbps at midnight and that's spectacular.

 

 

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Not to Be cynical but I live in Little Elm but not the conventional Little Elm. I live north of Lakewood Village on that peninsula but still technically in Little Elm. Long story short after moving here I cant even make a call from my house even though it says strong signal for talk and text. I am doubful I will ever see LTE at my house but Ironically it says Wimax on street but barely on the boarder of in house by sprints map but Clearwire says in house neither here nor there but I still have yet to find a LTE signal anywhere in DFW, and I have been all over the place. Acording to a different post It says this month you should have it just west of DFW airport. I will believe it when I see it. Kinda think I should have got a SGSII instead of the GN

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Not to Be cynical but I live in Little Elm but not the conventional Little Elm. I live north of Lakewood Village on that peninsula but still technically in Little Elm. Long story short after moving here I cant even make a call from my house even though it says strong signal for talk and text. I am doubful I will ever see LTE at my house but Ironically it says Wimax on street but barely on the boarder of in house by sprints map but Clearwire says in house neither here nor there but I still have yet to find a LTE signal anywhere in DFW, and I have been all over the place. Acording to a different post It says this month you should have it just west of DFW airport. I will believe it when I see it. Kinda think I should have got a SGSII instead of the GN

 

In DFW (and most markets), deployment is tower by tower, not neighborhood by neighborhood. Which post says the area west of DFW Airport will be deployed?

 

Robert

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Robert, I live in Collin County just east of Mckinney/Fairview near Lavon Lake. Wimax ends about 200 yards from my property. 3G has "improved" in the last few months to 600kbps-2mbps. ATT & Verizon have a tower on County Road 324 nearby. Any good Sprint LTE news for a hopeful long time Sprint customer?

Thanks

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http://s4gru.com/ind...-schedule-maps/

It shows a tower in Euless (west of the airport) on the list and one in The Colony, I do realize that its not neighborhood by Neighborhood I was just saying If I cant even make a call now I will be surprised if I ever see LTE or even 3G in my house. Just saying. Heck Even Tom Bean has one listed, Really Tom Been but no Little Elm. Come on who lives in Tom Bean Do they even have High speed internet? Kinda wish I could interact with those maps though.

Edited by Nazrac
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Also cant really tell but Looks like Bohnam is getting a tower. Cant tell With Sherman (thats where I moved from thank God) but there is a tower just due east of sherman. I guess If I would have moved even further poe dunc I could use LTE but since I moved closer to the metro I cant, go figure. I am going to my rental house in sherman Saturday I will drive through Van Alstyne I will check on my way through at 75+MPH just dont tell the police That. :)

Edited by Nazrac
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http://s4gru.com/ind...-schedule-maps/

It shows a tower in Euless (west of the airport) on the list and one in The Colony, I do realize that its not neighborhood by Neighborhood I was just saying If I cant even make a call now I will be surprised if I ever see LTE or even 3G in my house. Just saying. Heck Even Tom Bean has one listed, Really Tom Been but no Little Elm. Come on who lives in Tom Bean Do they even have High speed internet? Kinda wish I could interact with those maps though.

Also cant really tell but Looks like Bohnam is getting a tower. Cant tell With Sherman (thats where I moved from thank God) but there is a tower just due east of sherman. I guess If I would have moved even further poe dunc I could use LTE but since I moved closer to the metro I cant, go figure. I am going to my rental house in sherman Saturday I will drive through Van Alstyne I will check on my way through at 75+MPH just dont tell the police That. :)

 

Since Sprint LTE will initially be deployed on 1900MHz spectrum, the coverage will be nearly identical to 3G. So if you don't get a 3G signal now, you probably won't get a LTE signal either. That being said, Sprint Network Vision signals go approximately 20% farther than their legacy signals do now. So if you are currently right on the edge of service, you may get a slight improvement in signal. Maybe one bar more in your signal strength indicator.

 

If you do currently get a poor 3G signal (like one bar), LTE may not be too bad for you. You won't get 30Mbps speeds with one bar LTE service, but you may get 3 to 4Mbps, and that would likely be a much better improvement than what you have now.

 

S4GRU Sponsors do have the ability to pan around and zoom in on those maps (and many others too). S4GRU is a not for profit site and we count on the donations from our members to pay our expenses and keep us online.

 

Robert

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http://s4gru.com/ind...-schedule-maps/

It shows a tower in Euless (west of the airport) on the list and one in The Colony, I do realize that its not neighborhood by Neighborhood I was just saying If I cant even make a call now I will be surprised if I ever see LTE or even 3G in my house. Just saying. Heck Even Tom Bean has one listed, Really Tom Been but no Little Elm. Come on who lives in Tom Bean Do they even have High speed internet? Kinda wish I could interact with those maps though.

 

One thing you have to remember is that that map is just for the towers that are to be completed this month. This is of course a tentative map and can be subject to delays. Give them some time and they will get to the towers in your area.

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Robert, I live in Collin County just east of Mckinney/Fairview near Lavon Lake. Wimax ends about 200 yards from my property. 3G has "improved" in the last few months to 600kbps-2mbps. ATT & Verizon have a tower on County Road 324 nearby. Any good Sprint LTE news for a hopeful long time Sprint customer?

Thanks

 

Most of the sites between McKinney/Fairview and the Lake are in July/August. However, the one near McKinney Airport is scheduled for late June. And the one in Central McKinney is in September.

 

Robert

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The backhaul is not ready in Lewisville/Denton areas yet. But they will start coming online in June and run all through the summer.

Robert

 

What I find as slightly funny and slightly un-nerving about this. Looking at where towers are on now versus where they are not, I kinda figured why the Northern Burbs have not gotten love yet..

 

Nearly all of Tarrant and Dallas counties have AT&T as the ILEC (local telephone company.) AT&T started their "Lightspeed" aka UVerse build back in 2005/06; UVerse officially launched in 2007 and Dallas was one of the first areas. AT&T has been running Fiber to the Node for their VDSL equipment known as VRADs since then; also, with AT&T's expanding their back haul to most of their sites for HSPA+ and LTE launches in the last year and a half, the number of FTTC(ellsite) seems inline with what we see.

 

For the eastern and northern parts of Collin County the same is true, AT&T is the ILEC, however, UVerse stops in Little Elm, Aubury, Frisco, and McKinney; of those, Little Elm and Aubruy see pockets of UVerse but not as dense at the more southern burbs. I would take a stab at saying the tower on/near SH/Toll 121 in The Colony is getting backhaul from the AT&T CO on FM 423/Main St [CLLI: FRSCTXCO Frisco-The Colony] while the lone tower over in Flower Mound is serviced also by an AT&T CO in Roanoke [CLLI: RONKTXWO FTWO-Roanoke]. At one time I had a CO map of the area showing where the AT&T, GTE/Verizon, and other ILECs where from the surrounding areas.

 

In contrast, for the northern parts of Tarrant that skate Grapevine Lake, NW parts of Dallas Co., and most of the populated parts of Denton County. Verizon is the ILEC; the FiOS build started in 2004 in Keller and slowly made its way across northern Tarrant counties, Carrollton, Lewisville, Grapevine east into parts of Plano, but not past 75 and nothing north of 121 in Collin county (that goes back to AT&T turf) a small part of western Flower Mound is AT&T, but the rest as well as most everything north to Denton is Verizon.

 

There is a small pocket of Embarq/Centurylink along I-35E around Lake Lewisville; shout out to my telcom buddies in this small bastion of communications equipment. ;-) [No hard feelings; I promise not to wave my FiOS at your in spite.] There are some other Embarq areas in the western/northern part of Denton Co.

 

From what my IT friend who works with both of the Tier 1 companies here in the Metroplex says, AT&T isn't so difficult to get Fiber/Metro-Ethernet to your DMARC; however, they are "proud" of their service and bill astrono.... err accordingly. Where as, Verizon offers a hands down more "bang-for-your-buck" connection for FTTx but getting the equipment installed to the DMARC is a bureaucratic nightmare. Apparently, when VZ ended thier primary build here 2-2.5 years ago, most of the install staff went with them; therefore, getting locations wired can take longer when trying to get things connected en-mass (since there are fewer available installers for this equipment/service.)

 

Keep in mind, aside from installing conduits or "pre-fielding" work to the location, the actual installation and connection from the ILEC to the DEMARC has to be done by the ILEC Techs, they are Union/ Bargained-For positions. While I am neither for or against these men/women (I've worked for AT&T in the past) with the trends in wireline telcom in the last 5 years, their numbers are drastically reduced from when the primary build was going on.

 

Or, I could be totally wrong on all this and its just random conjecture to appease my desire to see this so-called LTE that Sprint speaks of *rollseyes* :D I also am a little anxious about getting the new EVO; sadly, its probably sitting in Customs somewhere in California or Kentucky thanks to our somewhat antiquated IP laws.

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Sprint awards backhaul contracts based on regions within a market. Since the regions cover several ILECs in most cases, Sprint ends up using a backhaul vendor that is third party to the ILECs and arranges several types of backhaul, depending on the availability at each site within their contract area.

 

The successful backhaul bidder in an area will most likely need to mix fiber, AAV and microwave over many site locations in order to get enhanced backhaul at each that meets the minimum backhaul requirements outlined in the contract.

 

So if "Bidder A" wins the contract for the Northern part of the DFW market, they may have to provide the backhaul for every site between Carrollton and Sherman. In most cases, an ILEC wont bid on a backhaul region like that. Unless they already service most of that area. If an ILEC does bid, then they are agreeing to act as a third party to secure service of other backhaul vendors within their contract in the areas outside their service area. Or they may set up microwave links to serve the out of service areas. There are many options to skin the cat.

 

However, there are many regions where the successful bidder is not an ILEC. Some are third party companies who just arrange and manage backhaul over their region and do not provide any direct backhaul service themselves. Also, many of the backhaul contract winners are cable companies.

 

Its all very interesting and very complex.

 

Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

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FYI: you are incorrect about FIOS in Plano. All of Plano has FIOS, as does Allen. Verizon is doing overbuilds here in Collin County at least, so there are areas in Allen, McKinney, and Plano where you have a choice of AT&T or Verizon. It really sucks that the new Verizon CEO is only concerned about pumping the stock price... As a result they've stopped investing in new FIOS deployments. Of course that was always how AT&T wanted to work - which is why Dallas, their home turf, still has nothing but DSL. In the few fiber UVerse areas you still have bandwidth caps so I guess it doesn't matter. Im just waiting for the new Verizon CEO to implement caps on FIOS, even though it's an all fiber network with a massive backbone that can't possibly suffer congestion.

 

Major, major fiber runs all along US 75 and PGBT so at least in backhaul terms that can't explain why things are moving so slowly up here. In fact AT&T has somewhat reasonable prices on gigabit MAN setups, plus I believe Sprint and Verizon both have fiber running this path too. It must be what Robert said - contracted out to a third party who is taking their time.

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FYI: you are incorrect about FIOS in Plano. All of Plano has FIOS, as does Allen. Verizon is doing overbuilds here in Collin County at least, so there are areas in Allen, McKinney, and Plano where you have a choice of AT&T or Verizon.

 

 

I knew of the overbuilds in Watauga, Euless, parts of Colleyville, and a few neighborhoods in Frisco back when Verison started overbuilds in '07. There are parts of Plano off and east of 75 that are serviced out of the AT&T CO ALLNTXSA; as well as parts of Plano near the DNT and 121 being serviced by the AT&T CO FRSCTXES; hence the deduction made based on previous and now dated information. I have a friend in Watauga who is on the border of where Charter and Time Warner met. At her house, she can choose: AT&T UVerse, Verizon FiOS, Time Warner Cable, or Charter Communications. She has an iNID, ONT, and two cable DMARCs on the side of the house.Talk about real choices.

 

Anyways, I can imagine with the ever expanding suburbs, its not a surprise that Verizon is green-fielding FiOS. Right before I left AT&T last year, I had read of a new 500 home subdivision where both AT&T and Verizon where green-fielding FTTP. (One thing to note, even until today, AT&T's FTTP customers are limited to the 25/2 UVerse profile due to the network structure; they weren't slated to fix this for another 18-24 months from what I'd read in early '11)

 

Most of the endless thought process I shared as you can see was at 4:00a in a delirious state trying to pass a sleepless night, wondering where my new HTC toy.... err phone would be here.

 

 

 

Sprint awards backhaul contracts based on regions within a market. Since the regions cover several ILECs in most cases, Sprint ends up using a backhaul vendor that is third party to the ILECs and arranges several types of backhaul, depending on the availability at each site within their contract area.

 

The successful backhaul bidder in an area will most likely need to mix fiber, AAV and microwave over many site locations in order to get enhanced backhaul at each that meets the minimum backhaul requirements outlined in the contract.

 

So if "Bidder A" wins the contract for the Northern part of the DFW market, they may have to provide the backhaul for every site between Carrollton and Sherman. In most cases, an ILEC wont bid on a backhaul region like that. Unless they already service most of that area. If an ILEC does bid, then they are agreeing to act as a third party to secure service of other backhaul vendors within their contract in the areas outside their service area.

 

Taking some experience and corroborating it with the information on how the back-haul contracts are set; I still think one of the points I raised of the ease/price/complexities/staffing between the major ILECs here might be playing somewhat of a role. Given the plethora of fiber solutions and hot competition in the FTTx wholesale field here, for the dense areas in the 4 major counties here will see an FTTx or AAV solution, the bottle neck being either the ILEC or MSO that runs the last mile. In some of the more obscure parts of Arlington, Burlenson, even in some parts of the areas near Garland/Mesquite/Seagoville, you will see the occasional XO, Time Warner, or Towerstream connection to some sites (not necessarily Sprint).

 

What ever the case may be, when it is up and running, at least in our market, I can imagine we will be seeing awesome speeds. A little more than a year since I got my HTC THunderbolt with VZW and still gt good speeds up and down:

 

 

7212928746_f28b800f40_o.png

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The backhaul in the DFW market sounds like it will be quite stellar for Sprint LTE.

 

Robert

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