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


Boosted20V

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Already being done in at least one market with G block being canablized for a 10 MHz carrier and setting up an adjacent 5 mhz carrier for 15 mhz (5+10) contigious C+G. 

 

I forgot about 15 being an option. We will have to see what happens.

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HOT DIGGITY DOG WITH AN ICE CREAM SUNDAE.     GREAT news.  Hope they take advantage of it.

Trip, Ntelos has cell sites as far north as Chambersburg. Do you know if they have the same spectrum that far north? What do they have in Martinsburg, Hagerstown, Chambersburg?

 

In those areas, E and F blocks (10x10), not adjacent to existing Sprint holdings.

 

- Trip

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In those areas, E and F blocks (10x10), not adjacent to existing Sprint holdings.

 

- Trip

I hope Sprint/Shentel figures out the best way to use this spectrum.  I sure would hate to see it be sold.

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  • 1 month later...

I found some interesting info from the presentation Shentel made at the Drexel Hamilton's Telecom, Media & Technology Conference on 9/10 (http://investor.shentel.com/eventdetail.cfm?EventID=164269).  Below is the info from one of the slides that seemed the most relevant to the forum.  I can't wait to see what they do with the deployment of 2.5 and rebuild of ntelos's "network".

 

  • November 2013 Sites: 527 (2nd Carrier Deployed = 0%) (3rd Carrier Deployed = 0%)
  • December 2014 Sites: 538 (2nd Carrier Deployed = 92%) (3rd Carrier Deployed = 22%)
  • June 2015 Sites: 546 (2nd Carrier Deployed = 94%) (3rd Carrier Deployed = 30%)
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Finally saw a crew working on a Shentel tower right outside of downtown Harrisburg at the intersection of I83/2nd St. Appeared to be hanging 2.5 antennas. About time!

I'm pretty sure we need some pictures of that...

 

Sent from my Note 4.

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Finally saw a crew working on a Shentel tower right outside of downtown Harrisburg at the intersection of I83/2nd St. Appeared to be hanging 2.5 antennas. About time!

 

 

I'm pretty sure we need some pictures of that...

 

Sent from my Note 4.

 

I'll second that.

 

Pictures! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looks like shentel is installing 2.5 panels right now on the mcsherrystown water tower in Hanover pa

 

Nice! I guess I should start keeping an eye out when I'm driving around.

 

I have noticed over the past few days that at my job in New Oxford, my LTE has gotten unusually slow (like 500+ ms ping on a speedtest) I'm not sure if this is any sort of sign of a tower that's being worked on. But since New Oxford isn't a highly populated town, I don't see Shentel installing B41 here so early since they will be focusing on their densest areas first.

 

I'm actually surprised that Hanover falls under that category, but I could just be underestimating the scope of Shentel's initial B41 rollout priority.

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It can be quite surprising to find out which sites are the heaviest usage. Sometimes smaller towns with one or two sites and a high share of Sprint customers per capita can be very high usage sites.

 

Using Tapatalk on BlackBerry Z30

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The tower that serves new Oxford has two 1900 carriers and one 800. It does seem to be slowest on the sector facing west. I know the Hanover water tower is very slow in the evening dispite having three carriers. Load balancing seems great and I average around 2.5mbps down on both 1900 carriers. The crane is still sitting at the mcsherrystown water tower behind turkeyhill so they must have more work to do. I'll try to post some images soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

2500 MHz 2 carrier aggregation in Harrisburg, York, and Hanover is about to become reality. You guys have noted the 2.5 tower top equipment, but Shentel is placing equipment on the ground now as well. Should only be a couple days away at this point. Probably next week.

 

GalaxyGuy, you need to do some speed tests on the second PCS carrier in Woodstock near the Spring House. There is something interesting going on at dlEARFCN 8133.

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2500 MHz 2 carrier aggregation in Harrisburg, York, and Hanover is about to become reality. You guys have noted the 2.5 tower top equipment, but Shentel is placing equipment on the ground now as well. Should only be a couple days away at this point. Probably next week.

 

GalaxyGuy, you need to do some speed tests on the second PCS carrier in Woodstock near the Spring House. There is something interesting going on at dlEARFCN 8133.

That's my "home" tower. I'm only a few blocks away. I did a speed test early this morning and got about 20 mbps down. What have you noticed?

 

Sent from my Note 4

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The normal second PCS dlEARFCN for Shentel in the BAWA MTA is 8158. This tower is broadcasting 8133. Also based on the speeds on that carrier, it cannot be 5x5 anymore.

I haven't played around with the engineering screen in a long time. I guess I could see if I can figure it out.

 

Sent from my Note 4

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The normal second PCS dlEARFCN for Shentel in the BAWA MTA is 8158. This tower is broadcasting 8133. Also based on the speeds on that carrier, it cannot be 5x5 anymore.

My engineering screen says "BW:10MHz"

 

Does that mean 10 total or 10x10?

 

Sent from my Note 4

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That's pretty cool. Is this the first known tower to have 10x10 in the Shentel metropolitan area?

 

Sent from my Note 4

 

Between this one and the one behind Lowes, yes.

 

Expect more, especially in Winchester.

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