Network Vision/LTE - Utah Market (Salt Lake City/Ogden/Provo/St. George/Cedar City)

[jgoff1]

Not sure what the deal is, but i live in Lehi and ever since Sprint lit up the 4G tower here my voice quality has been TERRIBLE. I drop calls daily! How is it that they fix one thing and break another? Is anyone else experiencing poor voice quality?

That has been one of my big complaints as well.

 

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[CG4BYU]

Sprint Care (@sprintcare) tweeted at 2:31 PM on Mon, Dec 30, 2013:

@CG4BYU I'm sorry about the expectation you were given. We are subject to a regulatory process. This can take some time. -WTD

(https://twitter.com/sprintcare/status/417769933892620288)

 

It's now regulatory that 3 towers serving all of one city are being delayed even further. ????

[AcctDeleted_jerthorne]

Does Sprint need to have 4G all over Utah before they officially announce that 4G is available? 

 

I kind of assumed that the 4G was going to be done installed by the end of this month. I agree with CG4BYU in that it is still taking some time. 

[lilotimz]

Does Sprint need to have 4G all over Utah before they officially announce that 4G is available?

 

I kind of assumed that the 4G was going to be done installed by the end of this month. I agree with CG4BYU in that it is still taking some time.

40-50% of pop must be covered (not sites done) in addition to enhanced circuit switch fallback issue being fixed.

 

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[Speedman]

So are they done turning on LTE in Utah County? Any estimates when more towers will go live ?

[dmplus]

So are they done turning on LTE in Utah County? Any estimates when more towers will go live ?

The initial LTE lighting in Utah county is done.  Again, this does not mean that other towers wont come online.  Now that is done so the next market should be Saint George.

 

[TheSupervisor]

i imagine the rest will pop up as backhaul is complete. at least 3g and 800 is complete in utah county. weber and davis counties are still legacy and its miserable ( i work in ogden). backhaul is still the killer and im not sure that is 100% sprints fault. for example, iprovo just got bought out by google fiber and probably is causing issues. utopia is a joke and from what i have heard they are possibly changing ownership as well.

[illest_ios]

CSFB may also be another hold up besides fiber.

 

 

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[rgcrockett]

CSFB may also be another hold up besides fiber.

 

 

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I'm not sure why CSFB itself would be a hold-up. Flipping on CSFB is as simple as a software upgrade, from what I understand. It usually happens only a few days after LTE goes live on a 3G NV tower.

 

What I don't understand is the acceptance hold-up. Why can't Samsung send out a team as soon as they are alerted that the hardware is up and the backhaul is installed? Is there some efficiency gain they are relying on in not sending them out until a certain critical mass of towers are ready?

[floorguy]

I'm not sure why CSFB itself would be a hold-up. Flipping on CSFB is as simple as a software upgrade, from what I understand. It usually happens only a few days after LTE goes live on a 3G NV tower.

 

What I don't understand is the acceptance hold-up. Why can't Samsung send out a team as soon as they are alerted that the hardware is up and the backhaul is installed? Is there some efficiency gain they are relying on in not sending them out until a certain critical mass of towers are ready?

 

From what I gathered the acceptance teams, is just that a team....the one in Utah was like 20 guys....

 

and I thought I read some where that the back haul isnt necessary for a 3g acceptance...just hardware....

 

soooo i dunno why they left the northern end undone???? 

[CG4BYU]

To have pockets of ticked off people it seems

[dmplus]

From what I gathered the acceptance teams, is just that a team....the one in Utah was like 20 guys....

 

and I thought I read some where that the back haul isnt necessary for a 3g acceptance...just hardware....

 

soooo i dunno why they left the northern end undone???? 

Like I said, Sprints official scapegoat for Davis/Weber lag is Centurylink

[floorguy]

why the need to be ALL on centurylinks fiber???  they suck anyway, not to mention, the amount of "fiber carriers" in Utah is pretty big....

 

which leads me to a question, not about sprint, but over all ISPs....

 

why cant they get it to the houses a bit faster, and put a crunch on comcast or century???

[TheSupervisor]

I would kill for 3g/800 at work. I have line of sight to 2 sites from the building im working on and still only get about .3mbps on the roof. If you watch the daily updates we are still getting about 2-3 sites with some kind of acceptance every day with cdma800 being most of them. At least everywhere else the speeds and talk are very usable. My dad unhooked his airave because he could actually get service in his house in springville.

 

I have tried for 2 months to get century link to run fiber to our building. 40 potential contracts and all they have to do is spend half a day pulling fiber from the box on the street to our coms room but it's too hard. There is already a conduit but I don't think they care for some reason.

[CG4BYU]

Why not run on Comcast's backbone? Is there an advantage to Century?

[TheSupervisor]

Comcast is just as stupid and trying to get through to the right people is near impossible. Took me 2 weeks to get to the right person and even he never returns phone calls. After what I have been through with ISPs its no wonder it takes so long to get anything done. Granted, I am nowhere near as big as Sprint but you would think the threat of giving away thousands of dollars/month in fiber contracts to someone else would light a fire. :/

[CG4BYU]

Very true. I just know Comcast is in the area where the Ogden towers are, I look at one tower and my job uses them and we aren't some ma and pa business. Where as Century is still using old copper wires around here.

[lvanders]

Wow I haven't checked this for a bit.  So yes backhaul is an issue for Davis/Weber counties.  You also have to realize though that not all the sites have new hardware on them yet.  A good amount do but if you look at how they are doing acceptances, they want every tower in the area to be a least 3g accepted.  There are 2-3 towers near me that don't have NV hardware up.  I know of at least 2-3 other sites in ogden/layton that don't either.  So add that to not getting backhaul to most of the towers and yes it would be a waste to come accept towers and here is why...1. With the legacy equipment and the new NV equipment you will have the CSFB issues because the legacy equipment does not support CSFB.  So yes CSFB is an issue but if the hardware is up and sites accepted that is not the hold up but because some sites still only have legacy equipment yes thats part of the hold up.  2. Backhaul is obviously another thing holding things up.  They could (if all the hardware was done) come through and accept the 3g side of things but then would have to come back for a bunch of LTE.  It is more efficient to get as much 3g/4g accepted as possible and they are hitting the areas where that is in place.  Obviously there are still a lot more LTE sites that have to go live in all areas and are just waiting on backhaul and they will have to go back and accept those once completed but this is the most effective way to do it now. Not to mention when the sites get accepted samsung will get paid which is a strong motivator to get as much done as soon as possible.  

So with all that said is CSFB the real issue?  Not really...but in a round about way kinda.  Getting hardware up is an issue.  They want all sites to be able to at least be 3g accepted from what I've seen. Backhaul is a big issue and I don't know why sprint is only going with centurylink in Weber/Davis counties.  Maybe they offered them a good price or made some good promises?  So there is your reasons as to why we are not seeing things happening up here.  Why are we the redheaded step child that doesn't have all the hardware up and a good amount of backhaul in?  I have no idea.  Maybe the install and acceptance teams are scared of the ogden gangs and wanted to live through Christmas and New Years?  I have no idea.  The fact is that we are and we can only wait...and wait...and wait...and wait...and wait...and wait some more.  Though the last several times in salt lake last month my LTE speeds were horrible.  I see just as good of speeds here in Ogden on the legacy equipment.  (.2-.8 mbps were my LTE speeds in SLC and yes I had a good signal and I tested several times each time in SLC).  That was disappointing to see so now I'm not as excited.  I am now just looking forward to the 800 voice frequency.

[CG4BYU]

I was at my in laws in Magna and had 4G...sort of.. 800 was nice for phone calls though, LTE was so spotty there the speed was horrible. But that's their house, they live in a dead zone.

 

Ogden gangs? The towers aren't even close to "bad" areas. I did see Century working on something for 2 weeks in early December on 24th street so maybe they are "preparing" either way the wait is getting nuts

[TheSupervisor]

From what i remember Syringa was doing some of the backhaul at least in Weber County. I would have to go back and look. For example the site at 20th and Harrison in ogden has asphalt patches leading froma Syringa box all the way to the tower even tho its on comcast property. But last time I checked it still had legacy eqip minus a base cab. There may still be some issues with getting ahold of property owners etc. that are holding up hardware upgrades on these sites.

[CG4BYU]

It does, took a picture a couple of weeks ago and had it confirmed it hasn't changed

[lvanders]

Ogden gangs? The towers aren't even close to "bad" areas.

Hahaha, trust me I know!!  I was just throwing out ridiculous reasons at the end.  Even if towers are in sketchy areas that wouldn't prevent them from upgrading the tower!!  Come on son!!!

[lvanders]

From what i remember Syringa was doing some of the backhaul at least in Weber County. I would have to go back and look. For example the site at 20th and Harrison in ogden has asphalt patches leading froma Syringa box all the way to the tower even tho its on comcast property. But last time I checked it still had legacy eqip minus a base cab. There may still be some issues with getting ahold of property owners etc. that are holding up hardware upgrades on these sites.

Yeah I put centurylink in my earlier post because thats what everyone keeps saying is in Weber/Davis counties.  I know I saw syringa working by some towers and I thought I even saw comcast doing something by a sprint tower.  I don't think its just centurylink in davis/weber.  Though if all 3 of them are doing backhaul its taking forever and they are dragging their feet.

[CG4BYU]

Hahaha, trust me I know!! I was just throwing out ridiculous reasons at the end. Even if towers are in sketchy areas that wouldn't prevent them from upgrading the tower!! Come on son!!!

Son..who you calling son...son! ???? Sorry, emotion icons are floorguys and from what I've heard I don't want to step on his toes. Haha.

 

I'm just ready to see fast speeds even on 3G again like I had back in the day.

[dmplus]

I was at my in laws in Magna and had 4G...sort of.. 800 was nice for phone calls though, LTE was so spotty there the speed was horrible. But that's their house, they live in a dead zone.

 

Ogden gangs? The towers aren't even close to "bad" areas. I did see Century working on something for 2 weeks in early December on 24th street so maybe they are "preparing" either way the wait is getting nuts

Just out of curiosity, where in magna are they located? (I don't need an exact address)