Network Vision/LTE - Shentel Market (Shenandoah Valley/Hagerstown/Harrisburg)

[maxx880]

Anyone see any Band 41 deployed in Shentel areas yet? Curious if they will be launching it in York, PA anytime soon

[Boosted20V]

Anyone see any Band 41 deployed in Shentel areas yet? Curious if they will be launching it in York, PA anytime soon

Nothing yet in Harrisburg.

[Galaxyguy]

I've spotted 2 small cell locations near me. One in Toms Brook and the other in Woodstock, VA. It appears they are B25 only. Each site has two cells, each with their own GCI. I'm in an ALU market (Shentel) so I assume that's what they are but I'm not sure.

 

I posted the above in another thread but was wondering if anyone else has seen any small cells in other parts of the Shentel market.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[bakedc4]

I've spotted 2 small cell locations near me. One in Toms Brook and the other in Woodstock, VA. It appears they are B25 only. Each site has two cells, each with their own GCI. I'm in an ALU market (Shentel) so I assume that's what they are but I'm not sure.

 

I posted the above in another thread but was wondering if anyone else has seen any small cells in other parts of the Shentel market.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

 

There is one in the Apple Blossom Mall in the Sprint (Touchtel) store. It's only a single sector but carries through half the mall. if you walk outside beside the store you instantly switch back to a macro site. I've only connected to B25 in it. Averaged about 7 down 5 up on it witch means they finally upgraded the internet there. Back when I worked there in 2010 we only had dsl.

[Galaxyguy]

That explains why service in that side of the mall is pretty decent.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[Galaxyguy]

I just recently got a 2nd smart phone (work). They are both Sprint tri-band phones (Note 4 & S4T). I noticed about 10 minutes ago that my Note was on B26 and my S4T was on B25. I ran speed tests back to back and B25 was right around 6.5mbps up and down and B26 was at around 7.2 up and down. It appears Shentel has done pretty well with load balancing, at least on the tower closest to me. I've also been noticing a lot more changing of bands as I travel around where I live. It's nice to see the network really work as it's intended.

 

There hasn't been much "talk" in here lately which is probably a good sign. I hope Shentel keeps up the good work (at least on their wireless side of things).

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[A2CKilla]

I just recently got a 2nd smart phone (work). They are both Sprint tri-band phones (Note 4 & S4T). I noticed about 10 minutes ago that my Note was on B26 and my S4T was on B25. I ran speed tests back to back and B25 was right around 6.5mbps up and down and B26 was at around 7.2 up and down. It appears Shentel has done pretty well with load balancing, at least on the tower closest to me. I've also been noticing a lot more changing of bands as I travel around where I live. It's nice to see the network really work as it's intended.

 

There hasn't been much "talk" in here lately which is probably a good sign. I hope Shentel keeps up the good work (at least on their wireless side of things).

 

Sent from my Note 4.

I think everyone is just waiting for b41 at this point. I've checked the root metrics for most of the area and.....well....it's not pretty

[Galaxyguy]

Yeah, data is slowing but still very usable around here (Shenandoah Co, VA). B41 will definitely help with the congestion. I think Shentel was hoping they wouldn't have to put B41 panels everywhere but it seems like they may need to in the end. I'm sure they'll concentrate on the cities first but the towns are starting to slow down too so hopefully after they get the cities done, they will then start installing it in the towns.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[lou99/maximus1987]

Yeah, data is slowing but still very usable around here (Shenandoah Co, VA). B41 will definitely help with the congestion. I think Shentel was hoping they wouldn't have to put B41 panels everywhere but it seems like they may need to in the end. I'm sure they'll concentrate on the cities first but the towns are starting to slow down too so hopefully after they get the cities done, they will then start installing it in the towns.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

What speeds are you seeing

[Galaxyguy]

Pretty consistently around 6-8 up and down during peak times. Usable, but much slower than it had been. I was consistently getting 14-23 down as of about 4-6 months ago.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[A2CKilla]

Pretty consistently around 6-8 up and down during peak times. Usable, but much slower than it had been. I was consistently getting 14-23 down as of about 4-6 months ago.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

I can agree, when lte first launched I was seeing up to 30Mbps, then it went down to below the teens, when b26 launched, back up to the high twenties, now sometimes I get 8 at best as well, sometimes lower, it's really saddening

[Galaxyguy]

I can agree, when lte first launched I was seeing up to 30Mbps, then it went down to below the teens, when b26 launched, back up to the high twenties, now sometimes I get 8 at best as well, sometimes lower, it's really saddening

I'm confident Shentel will make significant improvements this year. I'm just hoping they don't just "call it a day" when they get B41 up and running in the cities. I guess time will tell. I would guess Harrisburg will probably see B41 first since it's the largest city in the market. It also has Clear wimax service but I don't know if that equipment can be used as dual mode or not. I remember reading that some equipment can do dual mode and others can't. I'm not sure which kind Harrisburg has installed.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[A2CKilla]

I'm confident Shentel will make significant improvements this year. I'm just hoping they don't just "call it a day" when they get B41 up and running in the cities. I guess time will tell. I would guess Harrisburg will probably see B41 first since it's the largest city in the market. It also has Clear wimax service but I don't know if that equipment can be used as dual mode or not. I remember reading that some equipment can do dual mode and others can't. I'm not sure which kind Harrisburg has installed.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

York actually has a lot of clear service, wimax (4g) launched there very earlier when the evo 4g launched, I was hoping they would work their first compared to everywhere else

[leozno1]

What speeds are you seeing

 

I'm hard pressed getting over 2.5-3mbps in a lot of York, PA. At my home I've consistently been getting 1.5-2 mbps for months now.

 

Doesn't bother me too much since I have 125 mbps Comcast Blast internet at home so WiFi will always get the nod, but it's a bit annoying when I'm out and about.

 

Instagram takes really long to load videos, and I'm always afraid to even attempt to show my friends a Youtube video in case it stops to buffer every 10 seconds.

[lou99/maximus1987]

I'm hard pressed getting over 2.5-3mbps in a lot of York, PA. At my home I've consistently been getting 1.5-2 mbps for months now.

 

Doesn't bother me too much since I have 125 mbps Comcast Blast internet at home so WiFi will always get the nod, but it's a bit annoying when I'm out and about.

 

Instagram takes really long to load videos, and I'm always afraid to even attempt to show my friends a Youtube video in case it stops to buffer every 10 seconds.

Is there a second b25 carrier?

[rmorrisonva]

Pretty consistently around 6-8 up and down during peak times. Usable, but much slower than it had been. I was consistently getting 14-23 down as of about 4-6 months ago.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

 

Without B41  being deployed 6-8MBit/s on-peak is pretty damned good, and PERFECTLY usable for just about anything you (should) be using your phone for. I don;t see what the issue is here, I have no complaints when it comes to My service in the Shentel are (Western/Northern Virginia).

 

Considering the sector maximum for anything non-B41 is about 37Mbit/s, 14-25Mbit/s is an unrealistically high performance expectation unless nobody else is using data in the sector. Frankly, it's good to see things slow down a bit as it shows there is a decent Sprint user base in the area (in other words they aren't likely to neglect you, although Shentel tends to be extremely responsive anyways).

 

I think folks in this thread are starting to get their expectations out of whack.

[Galaxyguy]

Without B41 being deployed 6-8MBit/s on-peak is pretty damned good, and PERFECTLY usable for just about anything you (should) be using your phone for. I don;t see what the issue is here, I have no complaints when it comes to My service in the Shentel are (Western/Northern Virginia).

 

Considering the sector maximum for anything non-B41 is about 37Mbit/s, 14-25Mbit/s is an unrealistically high performance expectation unless nobody else is using data in the sector. Frankly, it's good to see things slow down a bit as it shows there is a decent Sprint user base in the area (in other words they aren't likely to neglect you, although Shentel tends to be extremely responsive anyways).

 

I think folks in this thread are starting to get their expectations out of whack.

Like I said, it's definitely usable. I'm just hoping they (Shentel) ends up deploying B41 in more than just the cities in their footprint. Speeds are only going to continue to slow everywhere as Sprint upgrades users to LTE phones. I'm sure most postpaid users are now on LTE, but more and more prepaid users are upgrading to LTE phones every day.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[DCC233]

Like I said, it's definitely usable. I'm just hoping they (Shentel) ends up deploying B41 in more than just the cities in their footprint. Speeds are only going to continue to slow everywhere as Sprint upgrades users to LTE phones. I'm sure most postpaid users are now on LTE, but more and more prepaid users are upgrading to LTE phones every day.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

 

We will just have to wait and see what info they release during their Q4/2014 Annual Report earnings call which should happen towards the end of February.  They had solid user growth 14,146 (5.2%) to 287,867 for the year end 2014 for postpaid and in the prepaid world they added 8,115 customers since last year for a (5.9%) increase to 145,162.  So if you consider that they now have 22,261 more customers in their footprint it would explain the slow down in network performance.  You would hope that as users upgraded their phones to support B25 and B26 the congestion would alleviate itself a little, but it is becoming apparent that they will probably need to deploy B41 more rapidly than they originally planned and in more areas.  During their Q3 call they indicated B41 would hit only the major metro areas in their footprint where they saw the need, so it will be interesting to see what they indicate during the call and what questions the analyst ask them about their B41 deployment.

 

The one thing to keep in mind in the positive realm is that Shentel deployed Network Vision in their footprint very quickly and I wouldn't be surprised if they did so with B41.  Sprint revenue is their primary source and I can't imagine them risking customer growth.  I mean look at their growth rate compared to Sprint as a whole and even AT&T, Verizon, and possibly T-mobile.  They are generating great results because their network deployment has been very good these past few years, and I have no reason to believe they would drop the ball when it comes to B41.  Just my $0.02

[Galaxyguy]

Hopefully someone will post a summary of the call like last quarter. That was very informative.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[Boosted20V]

There was an investors conference SHEN participated in earlier this year where they discussed B41. I want to say they have ~150 sites they plan to deploy it on and will begin ~May of this year. They stated all sites which were getting the upgrades would have new backhaul provisioned by the end of January, so that should all be in place by now.

[A2CKilla]

There was an investors conference SHEN participated in earlier this year where they discussed B41. I want to say they have ~150 sites they plan to deploy it on and will begin ~May of this year. They stated all sites which were getting the upgrades would have new backhaul provisioned by the end of January, so that should all be in place by now.

I really hope this happens, and with shentels speed, b41 should be up and running before the end of this year!!! Come oooonnnnnn Shentel!!!!!!

[Galaxyguy]

Does anyone know how many total sites Shentel operates?

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[Boosted20V]

A little over 500.

[Galaxyguy]

OK, so if they get 150 this year, that's a great start.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[rmorrisonva]

Shentel gave me my first taste of what fully-deployed (or close) NV 1.0 would be like way before my native DC market was anywhere close to completion (and in some parts it's still not).

 

I am confident Shentel won't let all of their hard work go down the tubes as traffic increases.

 

I <3 Shentel (and H8 nTelos for that matter)!