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

[Mustang46L]

I added the chunk on 581/15 going to the Capital City mall Saturday night. Also, had 4G on Front St/Market St. bridge in Harrisburg.

 

Were you able to hold 4G at the mall or were you simply passing by? The mall would be a great place to have service, especially with the holidays quickly approaching.

[Boosted20V]

Were you able to hold 4G at the mall or were you simply passing by? The mall would be a great place to have service, especially with the holidays quickly approaching.

 

Negative, 3G speeds were ~2mb/s, though.

[msponsler]

I'm picking up 4G LTE in Mechanicsburg, on the Navy Base. Speeds were 6up, 1.5 down. I've got sensorly running, I'll try to pick up some more.

 

[msponsler]

I saw some shentel techs working on the one tower in mechanicaburg near the route 11 exit of 581. I did get lte there as well.

[msponsler]

I saw some shentel techs working on the one tower in mechanicaburg near the route 11 exit of 581. I did get lte there as well.

[anthonyrinaldi]

Drove from Ruckersville to I-81 at Harrisonburg. Grabbed a constant 4G signal in Elkton. I don't know why Sensorly didn't post the whole thing. I also saw it in Harrisonburg for a few seconds. I'll post screenshots after I get back to BBurg.

[anthonyrinaldi]

 

 

 

And here is the speed after I had just dropped the LTE signal:

 

[dc wuff]

I was in Front Royal this past Sunday and got 4G while waiting in line to go on Skyline Drive: 16,828kpbs down and 8933kpbs up. Then, when I dropped back to 3G, I got 2174kbps down and 862kbps up on EvdoA. Very impressed!

[drhenning]

I was driving up and down I-81 this past weekend from NC-PA. I wish I had seen this thread earlier and I could have been looking for 4G..

[Boosted20V]

Update concerning the suburbs of Harrisburg to follow....

 

First, Shentel site just off of RT39, directly across from Lake Wildwood on Industrial Rd:

 

Just upgraded, antennas installed:

 

http://imageshack.us...imag0241an.jpg/

 

http://imageshack.us.../imag0242u.jpg/

 

Second, tower just across from State Police HQ on Elmterton Ave:

 

Just upgraded, still has lines attached to raise the antennas and the boxes from the antennas were laying on the outskirts of the site:

 

http://imageshack.us...imag0245tc.jpg/

 

Third, Shentel site located on Crooked Hill Road, directly next to I81 near the post office. This has been upgraded for a few weeks:

 

http://imageshack.us...imag0247ad.jpg/

 

Lastly, Shentel site on Commerce Drive, just behind the I81/Progress Ave exit. PPL was moving high tension lines on this pole. I find it hard to believe with all the otehr activity in neighboring sites, this isn't due to Shentel upgrades. No other high tension poles were being touched:

 

http://imageshack.us.../imag0239y.jpg/

 

 

Overall I have a few thoughts... #1 I'm surpirsed at their site density. These sites are all located relatively near to each other. #2, they will be launching this area with from what I can see, most sites upgraded, definitely a higher percentage than Sprint's initial markets and lastly, Shentel is making very good time considering they only appeared to start towards the end of August with a true roll out.

[leozno1]

Update concerning the suburbs of Harrisburg to follow....

 

First, Shentel site just off of RT39, directly across from Lake Wildwood on Industrial Rd:

 

Just upgraded, antennas installed:

 

http://imageshack.us...imag0241an.jpg/

 

http://imageshack.us.../imag0242u.jpg/

 

Second, tower just across from State Police HQ on Elmterton Ave:

 

Just upgraded, still has lines attached to raise the antennas and the boxes from the antennas were laying on the outskirts of the site:

 

http://imageshack.us...imag0245tc.jpg/

 

Third, Shentel site located on Crooked Hill Road, directly next to I81 near the post office. This has been upgraded for a few weeks:

 

http://imageshack.us...imag0247ad.jpg/

 

Lastly, Shentel site on Commerce Drive, just behind the I81/Progress Ave exit. PPL was moving high tension lines on this pole. I find it hard to believe with all the otehr activity in neighboring sites, this isn't due to Shentel upgrades. No other high tension poles were being touched:

 

http://imageshack.us.../imag0239y.jpg/

 

 

Overall I have a few thoughts... #1 I'm surpirsed at their site density. These sites are all located relatively near to each other. #2, they will be launching this area with from what I can see, most sites upgraded, definitely a higher percentage than Sprint's initial markets and lastly, Shentel is making very good time considering they only appeared to start towards the end of August with a true roll out.

 

Great updates, and just looking at your pictures reminds me of how much the gloomy gray sky sucked today. On a bright note things looking good in Harrisburg so far. Hopefully they progress this well in York soon. I've been keeping an eye open but haven't seen anything yet aside from the Water tower across the street from Chipotle.

[liner81]

More work in the York area. Water tower on the west side of 83, exit 24 at Emigsville, has just had NV panels installed (I believe). Interesting site though, only has what appears to be one sector towards the NNE, along 83 northbound. I did not see any other radio units on the tower.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 26, 2012 by liner81

[Boosted20V]

More work in the York area. Water tower on the west side of 83, exit 24 at Emigsville, has just had NV panels installed (I believe). Interesting site though, only has what appears to be one sector towards the NNE, along 83 northbound. I did not see any other radio units on the tower.

 

 

 

 

 

Great pics. I would say either they aren't done, or due to the changes in equipment and signal strength, there was no need for the other sector of the tower any longer. Also, just as with many sites up here in Harrisburg, there is the large 800mhz capable panel on the right, and a smaller panel which looks like it is sized for 1900mhz only on the left. I haven't seen this configuration outside of Shentel markets.

[Mustang46L]

eHRPD on 3rd Street in Harrisburg.

[Boosted20V]

eHRPD on 3rd Street in Harrisburg.

 

First eHRPD sighting in a Shentel area! About time! Shentel has had their new core completed for quite some time. I was wondering why they didn't implement eHRPD sooner seeing as LTE signals have been live.

 

 

EDIT - Just restarted my EVO, getting eHRPD as well in Susquehanna Township.

[Boosted20V]

Got a chance to drive past the Shentel location at the corner of 22 and Devonshire Rd. near Best Buy. Nothing is up yet but all the new antennas are sitting in boxes next to the tower. No lines are strung up yet for mounting either, must have just gotten delivered.

[Mustang46L]

Whoever is currently mapping York in Sensorly.. thank you! I'm excited to do some mapping this weekend! I'm tired of relying on my wife's Nexus S 4G for WiMax in York.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Mustang46L

[KHoff]

I've been connecting to eHRPD for the past week in Hancock, MD and just west of Hancock along I-68. I'm not sure if this is Shentel territory, but I would guess it is.

[PythonFanPA]

There's a new small Sensorly map LTE blip along I-81 between Strasburg & Woodstock VA.

[KHoff]

I've been connecting to eHRPD for the past week in Hancock, MD and just west of Hancock along I-68. I'm not sure if this is Shentel territory, but I would guess it is.

 

To add to my post above, I drove from Hagerstown, MD to Hancock, MD and can confirm that I was connected to eHRPD the entire way. I would imagine that this area will have LTE in the future.

[Mustang46L]

So I know that Shentel isn't officially "rolling out" LTE yet, but being that the first place that we saw Shentel LTE in Pennsylvania was in downtown Harrisburg I'm hoping that they speed up the rollout in Harrisburg. It is crazy the amount of coverage they have launched in Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill and York yet I still can't get LTE in downtown Harrisburg at my work (near the market) or the YMCA.

 

I'm really hoping this doesn't start to feel like WiMax all over again where I know that there was a rollout, I just don't go anywhere that it actually exists.

[S4GRU]

So I know that Shentel isn't officially "rolling out" LTE yet' date=' but being that the first place that we saw Shentel LTE in Pennsylvania was in downtown Harrisburg I'm hoping that they speed up the rollout in Harrisburg. It is crazy the amount of coverage they have launched in Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill and York yet I still can't get LTE in downtown Harrisburg at my work (near the market) or the YMCA.

 

I'm really hoping this doesn't start to feel like WiMax all over again where I know that there was a rollout, I just don't go anywhere that it actually exists.[/quote']

 

This is one of the issues of allowing customers to use early completed sites. People get frustrated that coverage isn't where they want it. I'm glad that they are allowing early connections to completed sites.

 

Shentel is not anywhere near launchable service in Harrisburg. But you get to enjoy where it is complete at least.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II using Forum Runner

[marioc21]

Speaking of ShenTel, they had their most recent earnings call last Friday. Not much new information, but there was this little gem:

 

http://seekingalpha....ipt?part=single

 

We still anticipate that we will be able to complete Network Vision projects by year-end 2013 for the original budget projection of 115 million. We had planned to launch LTE at the end of the third quarter, but delays from our vendor related to logistics execution and material shortages has pushed our timeline back several months. We now plan to launch LTE just prior to Thanksgiving on sites that carry approximately 37% of our current 3G data usage and cover approximately 45% of our 2.1 million covered POPS.

By year-end the sites where LTE will be in service will carry approximately 50% of our current 3G data usage, and will cover just over 50% of our covered POPS. The service will be available to our customers along Interstate 81, from (inaudible) north through Winchester, Virginia, Martinsburg, West Virginia and Hagerstown, Maryland. We also have significant coverage in the Greater Harrisburg, Liquorville, and Hershey, Pennsylvania areas.

In addition, other major benefits of Network Vision are the additional 3G and backhaul capacity that is also available at these LTE sites.

I will now turn it back to Adele.

 

So Thanksgiving is the new target time for ShenTel LTE. Enjoy.

 

Here's a big from the Q&A concering number of cell sites:

 

Ric Prentiss - Raymond James

Right, okay. That's great. And then a couple of questions, it's still early in Vision, but could you update us on the number of cell sites you plan to do each year, and also Sprint has mentioned they expect to see some roaming expense savings kind of on the home on home concept. Are you guys expecting to see any roaming benefit as you roll out Vision?

Christopher E. French

 

(inaudible) first question, we anticipate that we will have close to 200 sites done by year-end of the 510 that we have, so about 40% of our sites will be finished by year-end. On the roaming, if that really doesn't impact us because roaming is part of the net service fee. So when our customers are roaming that actually is the cost that's picked up by Sprint. So I guess our building of Network Vision will benefit Sprint in that there will be less roaming by our customers within our footprint, but it will have no financial impact on us.

 

One last bit. Didn't know this was done earlier this year but ShenTel extended it's affiliate agreement with Sprint through 2024.

 

While we have no additional information on the transaction, other than what has been shared in the public domain, we do know that our affiliate agreement survives any change of control with Sprint. As you know, earlier this year the initial term of our agreement was extended to 2024. Given our great relationship with Sprint, we expect many years of continued partnership between our companies.

[Mustang46L]

This is one of the issues of allowing customers to use early completed sites. People get frustrated that coverage isn't where they want it. I'm glad that they are allowing early connections to completed sites.

 

Shentel is not anywhere near launchable service in Harrisburg. But you get to enjoy where it is complete at least.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II using Forum Runner

 

Believe me, I understand they are nowhere near done.. Just anxious!

[Boosted20V]

Got to take pics of another tower which has been upgraded for some time near intersection of I83 and Union Deposit Road in Lower Paxton:

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img525/7299/imag0259ro.jpg