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

[dmchssc]

To be completely honest, Roxbury isn't a terrible part of town. People with lighter skin might feel out of place, but you really have to get deep into Dorchester or Mattapan (named from an Indian phrase meaning "evil lives here") for things to get unsafe.

 

And to throw in something relevant to LTE, I'm getting band 26 for the first time in downtown Boston, near the state house. I also caught band 26 a couple days ago in a basement classroom at Northeastern.

[WiWavelength]

To be completely honest, Roxbury isn't a terrible part of town. People with lighter skin might feel out of place, but you really have to get deep into Dorchester or Mattapan (named from an Indian phrase meaning "evil lives here") for things to get unsafe.

 

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/92/92ibestway.phtml

 

 

Stanley Sperrow: Ok, Tony, the game's still going here. Newport, Rhode Island to Roxbury, Mass.

 

(Katie buzzes in)

 

Katie McGregor: What do ya wanna go there for?

 

Stanley Sperrow: That's right. There's no reason to go to Roxbury!

 

Tony Vallencourt: Hey, you can go to Roxbury if you bring your nunchucks, pal. I'll tell you that much.

 

Stanley Sperrow: A whole lotta crack up there. Ok, homestretch.

 

Tony Vallencourt: Those maniacs'll slice ya and dice ya, pally.

 

AJ

[irev210]

I'm picking up Band 41 in the Forever 21 by the Prudential Center. It's running at 31 Mbps on a -105dbm signal.

 

 

Very good to hear.  I will head to the Pru today and check it out.

 

In other news - my previous issues have seemed to disappear.  I now just idle on Band 26.  

 

No more band 25, then switch to band 26, then back to band 25, then to 3G and park on 3G.  At work i've just been sitting on band 26.

 

It's flat out amazing.

 

 

edit:  so more testing now shows that when signal drops below a threshold, instead of dropping to 3G it drops to band 26.  Very neato.

[moysauce]

Received band 41 at -96dbm in Davis square with my new LG g3. Got 25 mbps down then switched back to band 25. :/

[S4GRU]

They are supposed to be firing up 70 Band 41 sites around Boston before the end of July. There likely will be a lot of on and offs during this period.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[moysauce]

They are supposed to be firing up 70 Band 41 sites around Boston before the end of July. There likely will be a lot of on and offs during this period.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

That is great news! Appreciate the update Robert!

[irev210]

Recently a source mentioned to me there will be 70 B41 sites live in the Boston area before the end of July. Party time!

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Party time!!!!

 

 

So interesting tidbit about this speedtest result-

 

Prior to Sprint converting this clearwire site to B41, Sprint basically had extremely marginal service in this area (voice only, 1 bar).  Now customers will have full coverage in a very busy area.

 

For whatever reason, when Clearwire was overlaying Boston they basically just co-located with Sprint on pretty much every site EXCEPT this one.  There is no Sprint site near by.   They decided to fill in this deadzone instead of ignoring it.  Because of this decision years ago, Sprint has awesome coverage in my neighborhood now

 

Another tidbit:

 

I just want to confirm that I was able to do a fairly seamless handoff between B25 and B41.  I was actually driving home yesterday when I did the test.  As I was going down the street and the B25 faded out during my speedtest, it switched to B41 and the speedtest just kept on going (and obviously started to go much faster).

 

Sprint needs to keep the ball rolling on this.  This is a game changer for them.

[moysauce]

Party time!!!!

 

 

So interesting tidbit about this speedtest result-

 

Prior to Sprint converting this clearwire site to B41, Sprint basically had extremely marginal service in this area (voice only, 1 bar). Now customers will have full coverage in a very busy area.

 

For whatever reason, when Clearwire was overlaying Boston they basically just co-located with Sprint on pretty much every site EXCEPT this one. There is no Sprint site near by. They decided to fill in this deadzone instead of ignoring it. Because of this decision years ago, Sprint has awesome coverage in my neighborhood now

 

Another tidbit:

 

I just want to confirm that I was able to do a fairly seamless handoff between B25 and B41. I was actually driving home yesterday when I did the test. As I was going down the street and the B25 faded out during my speedtest, it switched to B41 and the speedtest just kept on going (and obviously started to go much faster).

 

Sprint needs to keep the ball rolling on this. This is a game changer for them.

Where is this?

[moysauce]

Noticing a possible backhaul upgrade in Davis Square? - 101 dbm and getting this? AWESOME!

[irev210]

I've noticed a lot more B41 popping up.

 

Airport, pike, etc.

 

It doesn't seem to work much better than WiMAX (signal comes and goes very quickly) but anything to take off load from B25 is a plus.

 

I think they really need to get 8T8R setups going fast.

[Paynefanbro]

While I was at Boston College, I kept watching out for Band 41 because I knew there was a site in the Chestnut Hill area. Sure enough, on the last day my phone picked up a Band 41 signal but I lost it so quickly I wasn't able to run a speed test or anything like that.

 

P.S. I'll be joining this thread in the fall since I'm going to be at BC for the next 4 years!

[irev210]

While I was at Boston College, I kept watching out for Band 41 because I knew there was a site in the Chestnut Hill area. Sure enough, on the last day my phone picked up a Band 41 signal but I lost it so quickly I wasn't able to run a speed test or anything like that.

 

P.S. I'll be joining this thread in the fall since I'm going to be at BC for the next 4 years!

 

Congrats on the BC admission!

 

Let me know if you have any specific questions about the area.  I live fairly close to BC (but far away enough from you hooligans).

[WiWavelength]

P.S. I'll be joining this thread in the fall since I'm going to be at BC for the next 4 years!

 

Let me join in the applause.  Congratulations.  Boston College is highly selective in admissions, but we have already known for a while that you are a pretty sharp young man.

 

Chestnut Hill is a well heeled area, too.  I cannot speak to the Sprint coverage, though.  The last time I was there was almost exactly this time in 2010.  I still had an EV-DO flip phone then; it was shortly before I upgraded to a smartphone.

 

AJ

[Paynefanbro]

Let me join in the applause.  Congratulations.  Boston College is highly selective in admissions, but we have already known for a while that you are a pretty sharp young man.

 

Chestnut Hill is a well heeled area, too.  I cannot speak to the Sprint coverage, though.  The last time I was there was almost exactly this time in 2010.  I still had an EV-DO flip phone then; it was shortly before I upgraded to a smartphone.

 

AJ

 

Thanks, and coverage in the area is very good. 3G Is excellent, LTE on PCS is great outdoors and indoors. In some buildings, I go down to -107dbm which is still more than usable. If I found myself without a signal, such as in the basement of some buildings I simply switch to WiFi calling. 

 

By far the best moment was when I was sitting in a room with a -92dbm LTE signal and a girl from Chicago dropped a call and she walked out of the room saying "T-Mobile sucks."

[WiWavelength]

By far the best moment was when I was sitting in a room with a -92dbm LTE signal and a girl from Chicago dropped a call and she walked out of the room saying "T-Mobile sucks."

 

My favorite college related T-Mobile story is an old one -- it may actually be a VoiceStream story from before the Deutsche Telekom acquisition.  But it is a good one, and I think that I have told it before here at S4GRU.

 

A guy sent his son off to college in Springfield, MO, which has a metro area population of about 200,000.  The son called back to the dad on a landline because his cellphone would not work.  And it was not just that T-Mobile had no coverage in Springfield, the son's cellphone had no roaming service, not even emergency call service.  That was because there was zero GSM in Springfield until sometime around 2002-2003.  Major cities Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis were in the same boat until 2001-2002.  It was laughable how bad all combined GSM footprint was back then.  In so many places, a T-Mobile handset was a paperweight, a glorified pocket calculator.

 

AJ

[WillM]

Let me know if you have any specific questions about the area.  I live fairly close to BC (but far away enough from you hooligans).

 

Nothing worse than taking the B line from the city out to Allston/Brookline when schools are in session. Something like 3 stops alone at BU. Not a pleasant experience!!

 

I was there last week and Sprint seems to have some work to do down in the subway stations. I was roaming in most of the Green Line stations as well as South Station. I was a little surprised to see Verizon have coverage in between stations. Impressive unless it was just my phone being slow to update the signal. 

[moysauce]

Picked up some b41 in Boston common today. -96db and got 20 mb down 7 Mbps up.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[WiWavelength]

Nothing worse than taking the B line from the city out to Allston/Brookline when schools are in session. Something like 3 stops alone at BU. Not a pleasant experience!!

 

For a local resident, I can certainly appreciate that.  But the last time that I was in Boston in 2010, I had rented a car so that -- after a Red Sox game and a few days in the Back Bay -- my girlfriend and I could drive out for a night to a hotel reservation at the far end of Cape Cod.  The car rental location was right off the Green Line, and the frequent stations along BU made it easy to carry luggage for only a block, then hop a train to Logan for the flight home.

 

AJ

[irev210]

Nothing worse than taking the B line from the city out to Allston/Brookline when schools are in session. Something like 3 stops alone at BU. Not a pleasant experience!!

 

I was there last week and Sprint seems to have some work to do down in the subway stations. I was roaming in most of the Green Line stations as well as South Station. I was a little surprised to see Verizon have coverage in between stations. Impressive unless it was just my phone being slow to update the signal. 

 

Yeah, I avoid the B line.  C line is the way to go.  If you are on the B line, at packards corner, they have a nice B41 alive and well, though it is backhaul limited to around 35mbit or so.

 

Picked up some b41 in Boston common today. -96db and got 20 mb down 7 Mbps up.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Boston Common has always been pretty poorly covered by clearwire, which is odd.  They have odd cell spacing around the common.  Other carriers blast signals from roofs around the common where as sprint/clear sort of dance around it.  They have one site at the end of charles street that does the heavy lifting.  Poor spacing.

[moysauce]

Yeah, I avoid the B line. C line is the way to go. If you are on the B line, at packards corner, they have a nice B41 alive and well, though it is backhaul limited to around 35mbit or so.

 

 

Boston Common has always been pretty poorly covered by clearwire, which is odd. They have odd cell spacing around the common. Other carriers blast signals from roofs around the common where as sprint/clear sort of dance around it. They have one site at the end of charles street that does the heavy lifting. Poor spacing.

Great signal around the park Street area. Just not the b41 speeds I hoped for. Assuming due to high traffic area or backhaul not fully upgraded.

[irev210]

Great signal around the park Street area. Just not the b41 speeds I hoped for. Assuming due to high traffic area or backhaul not fully upgraded.

 

-96dB in open area vs. competitors isn't that great imho.  At packards corner, for example, you get -76dB all day long and it's not even a high traffic area like the common.

 

But yeah, backhaul isn't upgraded in a bunch of places.  Capacity is nice to have though.  With B26 fired up and B41 up and running now, B25 is probably getting a nice breather.

 

Most areas around here B25 is beyond cooked.

[WillM]

For a local resident, I can certainly appreciate that.  But the last time that I was in Boston in 2010, I had rented a car so that -- after a Red Sox game and a few days in the Back Bay -- my girlfriend and I could drive out for a night to a hotel reservation at the far end of Cape Cod.  The car rental location was right off the Green Line, and the frequent stations along BU made it easy to carry luggage for only a block, then hop a train to Logan for the flight home.

 

AJ

 

It wasn't really the frequent stops as much as it was the train being packed full of drunk students. Though there were a lot of cute girls which was a positive.

[cinnamngrl]

So any news about 4G?

[moysauce]

So any news about 4G?

Huh? Boston is live with 4g

[moysauce]

Got a weak b41 signal in front of Forrester Research in Cambridge. - 114dbm and almost getting 6mbps down and 1 mbps up.