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


brendan4t

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Are you also from the area?

 

Verizon has so many oDAS nodes all over Jamaica Plain, Brookline, Chestnut Hill, Newton, West Roxbury, etc

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Used to be a long time ago. Moved away and considering moving back. I was talking to a sprint store rep about your results above. He wasn't surprised :) . I had really hoped sprint would have improved over the years, though doesn't like much has changed in Boston.

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Used to be a long time ago. Moved away and considering moving back. I was talking to a sprint store rep about your results above. He wasn't surprised :) . I had really hoped sprint would have improved over the years, though doesn't like much has changed in Boston.

You need to make your own assessment​.

 

His results in the Sprint store are perfectly fine and 100 vs 20 means very little on a mobile device. Could simply be more Sprint customers in that specific area.

 

At the end of the day, it really depends on places you visit.

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Exactly what you said! My experience in Boston is not bad at all. You can check my post history in this thread and see exactly that. Sprint may not be the fastest and I know there are areas where they perform poorly but for where I travel (Chestnut Hill, Fenway, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and Boston Common) Sprint is reliable and consistently good.

 

It also doesn't help that I still haven't connected to 3xCA in Boston, nor have I encountered the second Band 25 carrier very often.

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His results in the Sprint store are perfectly fine and 100 vs 20 means very little on a mobile device. 

At the end of the day, it really depends on places you visit.

I had an (on purpose) 1 day layover in Boston with my family a few weeks ago and hit all of the touristy areas I could. Harvard, Aquarium, Faneuil and the Sprint phones worked great. 

I honestly didn't even think about my service because it worked everywhere I went.

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 Where I travel (Chestnut Hill, Fenway, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and Boston Common) Sprint is reliable and consistently good.

 

Hmm... you should tell that to my Lyft driver the other day when I got picked up in Chestnut Hill. His Sprint LTE connection was dead, so we had to drive down the block before his app would start the ride.

 

Beacon Hill? I work at MGH and that's simply incorrect. Around the hospital, Sprint is overloaded. Data almost never works. Inside the hospital campus? Nope, only AT&T/Verizon are on the DAS network. Keep in mind, Mass General Hospital is routinely considered a top 3 hospital in the US.

 

A few of my colleagues live on Beacon Hill and if you're not on Charles Street, signal is weak with Sprint. They are the only carrier not on the Extenet oDAS system.

 

Another major trouble spot is DTX. Again, during peak times, Sprint is crawling and nothing has been done to alleviate the issue. This has been going on for years. I even tested it last week and no improvements.

 

Even in the city and its neighboring suburbs, their biggest problem is density, density, and density. Sure, Sprint might work great on Beacon Street or Newbury, but what happens on the side streets? Signal weakens quickly. Even T-Mobile is slowly adding their equipment to the hundreds of Crown Castle/Extenet/American Tower oDAS nodes. Why doesn't Sprint do the same?

 

IMO the issue with Sprint is that they simply don't care about New England. Boston is a major biomedical hub and Sprint service is only adequate, not great, like Kansas or Chicago.

 

T-Mobile simply destroys Sprint on every metric around Boston (network reliability, call quality, data speeds, and data performance) 

Edited by WiseGuy321
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Hmm... you should tell that to my Lyft driver the other day when I got picked up in Chestnut Hill. His Sprint LTE connection was dead, so we had to drive down the block before his app would start the ride.

 

Beacon Hill? I work at MGH and that's simply incorrect. Around the hospital, Sprint is overloaded. Data almost never works. Inside the hospital campus? Nope, only AT&T/Verizon are on the DAS network. Keep in mind, Mass General Hospital is routinely considered a top 3 hospital in the US.

 

A few of my colleagues live on Beacon Hill and if you're not on Charles Street, signal is weak with Sprint. They are the only carrier not on the Extenet oDAS system.

 

Another major trouble spot is DTX. Again, during peak times, Sprint is crawling and nothing has been done to alleviate the issue. This has been going on for years. I even tested it last week and no improvements.

 

Even in the city and its neighboring suburbs, their biggest problem is density, density, and density. Sure, Sprint might work great on Beacon Street or Newbury, but what happens on the side streets? Signal weakens quickly. Even T-Mobile is slowly adding their equipment to the hundreds of Crown Castle/Extenet/American Tower oDAS nodes. Why doesn't Sprint do the same?

 

IMO the issue with Sprint is that they simply don't care about New England. Boston is a major biomedical hub and Sprint service is only adequate, not great, like Kansas or Chicago.

 

T-Mobile simply destroys Sprint on every metric around Boston (network reliability, call quality, data speeds, and data performance)

Let's just say your experience does not come to anything i have experience with Sprint. I have been in Kansas and Chicago, definitely had great service there. Definitely dont know what you talking about, Willis! Last yime i was in Boston, speeds were usable, except in brick buildings. Anyways, keep on ranting... Edited by Hmight
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I have been in Kansas and Chicago, definitely had great service there. Definitely dont know what you talking about, Willis! 

 

Huh? You're repeating exactly what I said. Sprint has great service in Chicago and Kansas. Boston? Nope.

 

 

 Anyways, keep on ranting...

 

 

I actually live here. You don't. Just because you don't like what I have to say doesn't mean I'm ranting...

 

We're done here.

Edited by WiseGuy321
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Ranting = telling you what I experience on a regular basis? That's ironic.

 

I actually live here. You don't.

 

We're done here.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a sprint line in Boston with a family member. Like I said, keep on ranting...

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Hmm... you should tell that to my Lyft driver the other day when I got picked up in Chestnut Hill. His Sprint LTE connection was dead, so we had to drive down the block before his app would start the ride.

 

Beacon Hill? I work at MGH and that's simply incorrect. Around the hospital, Sprint is overloaded. Data almost never works. Inside the hospital campus? Nope, only AT&T/Verizon are on the DAS network. Keep in mind, Mass General Hospital is routinely considered a top 3 hospital in the US.

 

A few of my colleagues live on Beacon Hill and if you're not on Charles Street, signal is weak with Sprint. They are the only carrier not on the Extenet oDAS system.

 

Another major trouble spot is DTX. Again, during peak times, Sprint is crawling and nothing has been done to alleviate the issue. This has been going on for years. I even tested it last week and no improvements.

 

Even in the city and its neighboring suburbs, their biggest problem is density, density, and density. Sure, Sprint might work great on Beacon Street or Newbury, but what happens on the side streets? Signal weakens quickly. Even T-Mobile is slowly adding their equipment to the hundreds of Crown Castle/Extenet/American Tower oDAS nodes. Why doesn't Sprint do the same?

 

IMO the issue with Sprint is that they simply don't care about New England. Boston is a major biomedical hub and Sprint service is only adequate, not great, like Kansas or Chicago.

 

T-Mobile simply destroys Sprint on every metric around Boston (network reliability, call quality, data speeds, and data performance)

Sounds like your experience has been bad. I can't say the same for myself.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

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  • 1 month later...
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11 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

So a lot of those have the potential to be Sprint small cells.

Most of them aren't (yet)

Sprint is on the Extenet oDAS nodes down Boylston + Newbury, but the rest of them are typically Verizon and T-Mobile.

All the Extent nodes in Brookline are Verizon-only. You can tell by looking on the side. They have Verizon stickers on them.

The North End Extenet nodes are Verizon too. Extenet + Verizon met with the residents a few months ago to propose their plans.

The majority of Crown Castle nodes in Dorchester/Mattapan are from MetroPCS, so T-Mobile.

Edited by WiseGuy321
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  • 2 weeks later...

The Configuration 2 update happened on Boston. Where I used to get 30Mbps down and 12Mbps up, I'm now getting 50 Mbps down and uploads are 6-7Mbps.

I'll gladly trade the few megabits per second in upload for an extra 20Mbps on the download. That combined with the 2xCA Band 25 is giving me the experience we should've had all along on LTE. I'm rarely experiencing speeds slower than 15-20Mbps. Even on Band 26 I'm getting speeds in the high teens on Boston College's campus.

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  • 4 months later...

Connected to what appeared in SignalCheck Pro as a mini-macro in Chestnut Hill right by the Sprint store. The signal was strongest while inside the Sprint store at -68dBm but I was unable to find it. I wasn't sure if it was a small cell on a pole or a mini-macro on a building in the area. It was broadcasting 2 Band 41 carriers and speeds hovered around 25-30Mbps down and 7-8Mbps up with a 60ms ping.

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9 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

Connected to what appeared in SignalCheck Pro as a mini-macro in Chestnut Hill right by the Sprint store. The signal was strongest while inside the Sprint store at -68dBm but I was unable to find it. I wasn't sure if it was a small cell on a pole or a mini-macro on a building in the area. It was broadcasting 2 Band 41 carriers and speeds hovered around 25-30Mbps down and 7-8Mbps up with a 60ms ping.

Small cell on the roof? We've seen a number of those pop up in other markets.

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