Network Vision/LTE - Boston Market (all of Massachusetts)

[S4GRU]

Anyone know what is going on with Sprint in downtown Boston (specifically Boston Common).

 

3G was out all day right in front of the state house - stuck on 1x only. Other areas around are fine, seems like the 3G at that one tower went out.

 

Not sure if it is network vision related, thunderstorm related (from last night), or something else. Usually 3G speeds are very good in this area.

 

 

I need a bit more than this to stream my radio in the morning:

 

 

Holy moly! "Martha, I think the well done run dry!!!"

 

Robert

[Cpeatridge]

This is what I experienced this right before my tower was upgraded. Call sprint, they are being very good with problems and reimbursing offset customers.

[B_Crawford]

Anyone know what is going on with Sprint in downtown Boston (specifically Boston Common).

 

3G was out all day right in front of the state house - stuck on 1x only. Other areas around are fine, seems like the 3G at that one tower went out.

 

Not sure if it is network vision related, thunderstorm related (from last night), or something else. Usually 3G speeds are very good in this area.

 

 

I need a bit more than this to stream my radio in the morning:

 

 

Same thing happening to me today. I am sitting at the corner of State St. and Congress St., and according to Netmonitor, I am bouncing between towers with BID 864 (Post Office Sq/Kilby St. and Milk St.) and 608 (Broad St. and Franklin St.), each with terrible 1X data rates.

 

It is hard for me to map the Netmonitor towers to sites on the Sponor maps since I only see one NV site in this area on the Sponsor map (BS54XC906, Broad St. and MIlk St., which I assume is BID 608). If this is the case, then tower with BID 864 does not even appear on the NV maps.

[boomerbubba]

It is hard for me to map the Netmonitor towers to sites on the Sponor maps since I only see one NV site in this area on the Sponsor map (BS54XC906, Broad St. and MIlk St., which I assume is BID 608). If this is the case, then tower with BID 864 does not even appear on the NV maps.

 

I have found that the lat/lon coordinates reported in Netmonitor can be very flaky. In my area, Netmonitor reports two towers at least a couple of miles apart with close BID numbers. And Netmonitor's log screen color-coded these sites Blue, which is supposed to mean that the towers themselves are squawking their coordinates. But I went looking for them yesterday (in a residential neighborhood) and could find no towers whatsoever near those coordinates. There is a big tower site roughly halfway between them on a north-south line, but offset a bit to the west, which does appear on the S4GRU maps.

[Geekslayer]

I live in Minnesota, and my 3G was out from 12:00pm-7:00pm CST. I called support about 1:00pm, and they thought the outage was only affecting new subs, but clearly it was more wide spread. I was hoping it was an backhaul upgrade that everyone is talking about, but I'm not too sure yet.

One thing that I've noticed, is I get better signal strength at work (1/2 mile from tower), but slower data speeds. At home, which is about 2 miles from the tower, I get a lower signal strength, but faster data speeds (200-500kbps download, and sometimes 300-600kbps upload). We're a small town, and I think they only have one tower. Could the 3G connection come from a different source/tower, than the voice?

[dcshobby]

I live in Minnesota, and my 3G was out from 12:00pm-7:00pm CST. I called support about 1:00pm, and they thought the outage was only affecting new subs, but clearly it was more wide spread. I was hoping it was an backhaul upgrade that everyone is talking about, but I'm not too sure yet.

One thing that I've noticed, is I get better signal strength at work (1/2 mile from tower), but slower data speeds. At home, which is about 2 miles from the tower, I get a lower signal strength, but faster data speeds (200-500kbps download, and sometimes 300-600kbps upload). We're a small town, and I think they only have one tower. Could the 3G connection come from a different source/tower, than the voice?

 

It's unlikely but possible. There are only a few towers left in Minnesota that don't have 3G EVDO on them so it is likely that your 3G is still coming from the same tower as voice is. What is your zip code?

[Geekslayer]

The zip code is 56093, Waseca. I just did tests this morning and I got 1300kbps download, and 263kbps upload at work. I did it 10 secs later from the same spot and got 360kbps download and 103kbps upload. So you're probably right. It's very inconsistant though. The tower is located on the south side of town on Hwy 13 (MS03NP137 I think).

[irev210]

Same thing happening to me today. I am sitting at the corner of State St. and Congress St., and according to Netmonitor, I am bouncing between towers with BID 864 (Post Office Sq/Kilby St. and Milk St.) and 608 (Broad St. and Franklin St.), each with terrible 1X data rates.

 

It is hard for me to map the Netmonitor towers to sites on the Sponor maps since I only see one NV site in this area on the Sponsor map (BS54XC906, Broad St. and MIlk St., which I assume is BID 608). If this is the case, then tower with BID 864 does not even appear on the NV maps.

 

Well, fingers crossed they are actually working on our towers.

[dcshobby]

The zip code is 56093, Waseca. I just did tests this morning and I got 1300kbps download, and 263kbps upload at work. I did it 10 secs later from the same spot and got 360kbps download and 103kbps upload. So you're probably right. It's very inconsistant though. The tower is located on the south side of town on Hwy 13 (MS03NP137 I think).

 

There's only one tower in Waseca and if you get 3G at all then your tower definitely has 3G on it with the 1X voice. According the Sprint network website, you are getting a data capacity add in the next 6 months which is just another EV carrier being added but not a T1 backhaul. So this may mean the backhaul is sufficient right now but there are too many users on the current EV carrier so they are adding a new one. The variability in speedtests can be apparent because you're not the only user on a tower and someone could have just started loading facebook or a youtube video so your speeds aren't half bad if you're able to pull over 1200 kbps at times.

[Geekslayer]

I was surprised that I got that 1200kbps too, I did the same test after work and it was only 80kbps. I was at a soccer game in Prior Lake tonight, and got around 150kbps, Mankato has horrible speeds too. I hope Sprint is commited in changing things around in southern Minnesota. I guess Verizon is very close to having LTE here.

[pyroscott]

I was surprised that I got that 1200kbps too' date=' I did the same test after work and it was only 80kbps. I was at a soccer game in Prior Lake tonight, and got around 150kbps, Mankato has horrible speeds too. I hope Sprint is commited in changing things around in southern Minnesota. I guess Verizon is very close to having LTE here.[/quote']

 

They are upgrading every last tower in the market.

 

Sent from my Jelly Bean Toro using Forum Runner

[hnic91]

I was reading the minutes of the Waltham city counsel meeting and sprint applied for 2 permits to work upgrade sites. I can see that one was approved. Glad its the one close to me. Hopefully this is another sign that NV and LTE are coming my way.

 

Here is the Special permit application

 

 

Sprint, 1 International Blvd, Mahwah, NJ 0745 and Pinnacle Towers, Inc. Sarasota, FL. hereby

petition the Waltham City Council for a special permit pursuant to Sections 3.512, 3.621, and

10.56 of the City of Waltham Zoning Ordinance, to modify, operate and upgrade a wireless

communication facility on the existing building located on the property located at 39

Sachem Street (Atlas Map R0033, Block 001, Parcel 0005), including replacing three (3)

wireless antenna with (6) wireless antennas mounted to the Lattice Tower and painted to match

same. The Petitioners also propose to replace two (2) ancillary cabinets with two (2) new cabinets locates on existing steel dunnage, install nine (9) RRH mounted to the wireless

antenna on the tower, install one (1) Fiber Distributions Box mounted to ice bridge supports.

Replace a small Global Positioning System (GPS) antenna, which is necessary for E911

compliance. The proposal is shown on the Plans submitted by the Petitioners, which are

incorporated herein by reference.

[mercado79]

I meant to post this last week and forgot. Took a trip to the Burlington Mall on Thursday and just before leaving to head back home, I remembered that there has been some LTE work done nearby. So, I put my new SGS3 into LTE mode and.... no LTE signal. However, a speedtest of the 3g signal was really good. around 1.6 down 0.9 up. Way better than I've come to expect over the last year. Yay NV! Can't wait until it arrives closer to home.

[B_Crawford]

Same thing happening to me today. I am sitting at the corner of State St. and Congress St., and according to Netmonitor, I am bouncing between towers with BID 864 (Post Office Sq/Kilby St. and Milk St.) and 608 (Broad St. and Franklin St.), each with terrible 1X data rates.

 

It is hard for me to map the Netmonitor towers to sites on the Sponor maps since I only see one NV site in this area on the Sponsor map (BS54XC906, Broad St. and MIlk St., which I assume is BID 608). If this is the case, then tower with BID 864 does not even appear on the NV maps.

 

This is happening to me again today on my EVO 4G LTE. I am being bounced around several towers in downtown Boston (near State and Congress), all of which are providing painfully slow data speeds (.12 down, .33 up). I hope this means they are working on the sites.

[irev210]

so I found this tower that is supposedly broadcasting 3G/4G, located downtown at Quincy Market.

 

Sadly, 3G speeds were only so-so (600-1300kbps) and 4G was not to be found. I checked LTE record and nothing was there and no eHRPD available, just EVDO Rev A.

 

This is also the first Sprint network vision antenna I have seen without the RRU under it. Maybe they mounted it on the roof? Or maybe no RRU for this location?

[irev210]

This is happening to me again today on my EVO 4G LTE. I am being bounced around several towers in downtown Boston (near State and Congress), all of which are providing painfully slow data speeds (.12 down, .33 up). I hope this means they are working on the sites.

 

Many parts of Boston have really slowed down as of late. Pretty much all of downtown seems to have become just about unusable. Not sure what's going on... but it's become so slow, I can no longer stream radio, at all, which is annoying.

 

Personally, I would rather be annoyed for a month or two while they upgrade, but I am sure there are countless sprint users that have no idea why their experience is so horrible. I am just glad LTE is on the way.

[B_Crawford]

so I found this tower that is supposedly broadcasting 3G/4G, located downtown at Quincy Market.

 

[pics removed]

 

Sadly, 3G speeds were only so-so (600-1300kbps) and 4G was not to be found. I checked LTE record and nothing was there and no eHRPD available, just EVDO Rev A.

 

This is also the first Sprint network vision antenna I have seen without the RRU under it. Maybe they mounted it on the roof? Or maybe no RRU for this location?

 

I walked over there yesterday as welll and stood right under the tower. I experienced similar so-so 3G speeds and 4G never connected.

[irev210]

I walked over there yesterday as welll and stood right under the tower. I experienced similar so-so 3G speeds and 4G never connected.

 

But if you walk up to cambridge street and hook onto Sprint's antennas above whole foods, you will hit 2mbit+ all day long. Even the antenna above the giant tea kettle at Government Center seems to perform really well.

 

I am guessing that the location at quincy market doesn't have new backhaul yet? Whatever is it, it was disappointing, heh.

 

 

Typical sprint speeds elsewhere in downtown Boston:

Took me about 8 tries before I could complete a speedtest. Speeds at this locations have been on a death spiral for a while.

[ahecht]

I meant to post this last week and forgot. Took a trip to the Burlington Mall on Thursday and just before leaving to head back home, I remembered that there has been some LTE work done nearby. So, I put my new SGS3 into LTE mode and.... no LTE signal. However, a speedtest of the 3g signal was really good. around 1.6 down 0.9 up. Way better than I've come to expect over the last year. Yay NV! Can't wait until it arrives closer to home.

 

Yup, the tower at the Burlington Mall is one of the better ones I've found. When I first activated my EVO LTE at the Sprint store there I was blown away with the speeds. However, the tower you're connecting to is BS13XC745, which is 3G only. The 4G tower is BS03XC011, which is on the other side of Lahey Clinic at the Marriott. Even when parked in the Marriott parking lot I haven't been able to connect to LTE, so you didn't miss much.

 

This is also the first Sprint network vision antenna I have seen without the RRU under it. Maybe they mounted it on the roof? Or maybe no RRU for this location?

 

I see two antennas in your pictures -- one white antenna mounted on the roof itself, and one brown one hanging over the side. Perhaps the one on the roof has an adjacent RUU.

[irev210]

I see two antennas in your pictures -- one white antenna mounted on the roof itself, and one brown one hanging over the side. Perhaps the one on the roof has an adjacent RUU.

 

Pretty sure it's not an antenna - just some sort of ventilation pipe.

 

Sorry for the horrible photos - just a quick grab.

[Den9696]

The speeds in Boston have been really bad lately. Just dying for 4g to light up on my phone. it does suck that right now i can barely use the internet if im in or around Boston. Def looking at it as a good sign that LTE work is getting done.

[ahecht]

Pretty sure it's not an antenna - just some sort of ventilation pipe.

 

Looking at Google Maps, the white things are definitely antennas. There are three of them, they're mounted on tripods (so they're not pipes), and they have black cables running to them:

 

[irev210]

Looking at Google Maps, the white things are definitely antennas. There are three of them, they're mounted on tripods (so they're not pipes), and they have black cables running to them:

 

 

Nice, good catch

 

I wonder if those are for another carrier. The pic I took was definitely sprint.

[Cpeatridge]

Yahoo! My mother just called me and asked why it keeps flashing 4g on her viper. She works in Lynn ma. Maybe it's testing or it coming live idk but confirmed LTE l! Also eHRPD in swampscott the other day.

[irev210]

Yahoo! My mother just called me and asked why it keeps flashing 4g on her viper. She works in Lynn ma. Maybe it's testing or it coming live idk but confirmed LTE l! Also eHRPD in swampscott the other day.

 

Appreciate the update!

 

Still EVDO RevA in downtown Boston