Network Vision/LTE - Missouri Market (includes St. Louis)

[S4GRU]

Every market has been different. Some start on the outskirts and work their way in. Some are like a shotgun approach and it's random all over the market. Others are somewhat concentrated in the urban areas with some sporadic rural sites.

 

The deployment order within a market is not determined by areas that Sprint thinks is the most worthy, but rather the sites that can get backhaul ready first.

 

Robert

[Dkoellerwx]

If it's anything like the Kansas market, it'll pop up all over the place, outskirts, dense popluation areas, and the middle of no where! But not have really great coverage in any one spot for several months.

 

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off topic...

Hey I moved out of the digital range! Haha...

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[doomstang]

Always nice to hear STL mentioned. I'm eagerly looking forward to the first of the year then so things can (hopefully) get moving. I live in the Fenton area and although there are WiMax towers in the area...my house is a dead zone for it.

Reading this thread actually just made me remember part of a dream I had last night (and forgot about)....out of nowhere I saw a 4G icon appear on my Evo LTE and couldn't believe it. I kept trying to open the Speed Test app but it just wouldn't load Lol. I don't remember the rest of the dream but I knew I was stoked when I saw the icon though

[bkrodgers]

Ugh. I've known this was almost certainly true, but it's still sad to see more evidence it's true.

 

St. Louis is a great example of why one more flagship WiMax phone, also with LTE, would have made a whole lot of sense for Sprint. No, WiMax isn't solid here, but it's pretty good in a lot of places, and beats the 3G network. Lots of Evo owners are coming up on upgrades and contract expirations. It seems like there are enough places with 4G that are on the tail end of the NV rollout that you could have justified the added cost of getting Samsung to do a WiMax + LTE SGSIII. I wonder if Sprint's simply planned for the subscriber losses in later markets.

Edited August 29, 2012 by bkrodgers

[S4GRU]

Ugh. I've known this was almost certainly true' date=' but it's still sad to see more evidence it's true.

 

St. Louis is a great example of why one more flagship WiMax phone, also with LTE, would have made a whole lot of sense for Sprint. No, WiMax isn't solid here, but it's pretty good in a lot of places, and beats the 3G network. Lots of Evo owners are coming up on upgrades and contract expirations. It seems like there are enough places with 4G that are on the tail end of the NV rollout that you could have justified the added cost of getting Samsung to do a WiMax + LTE SGSIII. I wonder if Sprint's simply planned for the subscriber losses in later markets.[/quote']

 

People won't leave if they see active deployment occurring. I have a friend in Corpus Christi who is on his second Verizon LTE device and still doesn't have Verizon LTE service almost two years later. But he sees the deployment is still going on.

 

Have you considered picking up a cheap WiMax hotspot for those times when you need data and you are not in a place with decent 3G service? Could help tie you over.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[bkrodgers]

People won't leave if they see active deployment occurring. I have a friend in Corpus Christi who is on his second Verizon LTE device and still doesn't have Verizon LTE service almost two years later. But he sees the deployment is still going on.

 

Have you considered picking up a cheap WiMax hotspot for those times when you need data and you are not in a place with decent 3G service? Could help tie you over.

 

I don't think most people would know there's active deployment occurring -- if it even is. It isn't here. I understand it can't happen everywhere all at once, and that they can't do anything to turn back the clock on the time they let their network investments lapse when it needed it most. I do understand your point about your friend on VZW, but he has a much better 3G network to fall back on. Similarly, many people bought the Evo with a future promise for 4G (which in many areas went unfulfilled) because Sprint's 3G network at the time was much better than it is today.

 

The 4G hotspot is something I've considered. The only reason that might make sense for me though is because I'm on SERO-P. Otherwise, the cost of the hotspot plus a smartphone would mean I could get a data bucket on another carrier that was easily large enough to meet my needs, and not have to carry around two devices. And if I were on a normal plan, I'd have no incentive to stay and wait it out -- I'd jump ship for two years, and if Sprint delivers, come back. My *only* incentive to even think about staying with Sprint is because the rate plan I'm on is so good, and I can't get it back if I leave. I have a hard time understanding how anyone here who doesn't have that incentive (i.e., they pay normal rates) could justify signing a new contract with Sprint if they want a new device and care about having a quality network.

 

I'm not trying to complain about the state of things here...like I said, I understand Sprint can't do any more than they're doing to fix things. I just don't understand how Sprint expects to keep customers in areas like STL. There's enough WiMax coverage to get by here, but we can't have a current device and access to a solid, fast network without leaving Sprint. A WiMax/LTE SGSIII and/or Evo would have solved that problem.

[newalker91]

Most consumers don't actively make use of their data connection in the way that someone so proactively following LTE would. Over here on the IL side the major cities (Belleville/Fairview) do not have WiMax to fall back on. We're strictly 3G. People still buy the 4G devices for higher build quality. In lower income areas such as this, network speed/quality isn't always on the top of their list. It's price of plans + unlimited so they don't have to dedicate time to tracking their use. The way the mobile industry is going, the transition away from contract to prepaid is inevitable. Unfortunately, this will probably take a hit down the road on the quality of the hardware. Good news is, situations like this won't happen. Jump around to the best of the best when you want, expediting the competitiveness of a company as they can't hold them under their power for two years.

[dedub]

Checked my ma's gnex and noticed the below today, this was in the arnold mo area

 

Edited October 7, 2012 by dedub

[Feech]

Hey what does your mobile network say?

[dedub]

Hey what does your mobile network say?

 

connected?

[Dkoellerwx]

Seems the Missouri market has been updated. Seeing eHRPD now in Springfield, MO too.

[stlDMS]

I live in Saint louis and recently we (me, co-workers and friends) have had alot of connection issues and I have seen alot of trucks at Sprint towers, About 2 months ago the City Fire Department put out a RFP (request for proposal) to replace their dispaching system as well as computers in the trucks, etc. We were there to put in the bid for IT, ToughBooks and phones (we are reseller or Panasonic) and there were representitves for all the carriers there. Sprint of couse made the unlimited data push. What im getting at is I had heard they were leaning towards Sprint and the respresitive did make the promise to move the areas deployemnt up in schedule if they won the bid for data. So either its that, we are getting lucky and goning to be early or takes a long time to deploy!

[doomstang]

I've been seeing eHRPD the last couple days as well.

[drochebs]

How do I look to see if my iPhone 5 is connected to eHRPD? I'm in St. Louis and when I look at the speed test results using Ookla it only says cellular for the network.

Edited October 12, 2012 by drochebs

[EliBohnert]

I live in Saint louis and recently we (me, co-workers and friends) have had alot of connection issues and I have seen alot of trucks at Sprint towers, About 2 months ago the City Fire Department put out a RFP (request for proposal) to replace their dispaching system as well as computers in the trucks, etc. We were there to put in the bid for IT, ToughBooks and phones (we are reseller or Panasonic) and there were representitves for all the carriers there. Sprint of couse made the unlimited data push. What im getting at is I had heard they were leaning towards Sprint and the respresitive did make the promise to move the areas deployemnt up in schedule if they won the bid for data. So either its that, we are getting lucky and goning to be early or takes a long time to deploy!

My dad works for the fire dept in Webster Groves and in the chief car they have a Sprint smart phone for the maps and such.

Edited October 12, 2012 by EliBohnert

[S4GRU]

How do I look to see if my iPhone 5 is connected to eHRPD? I'm in St. Louis and when I look at the speed test results using Ookla it only says cellular for the network.

 

Hopefully someone with iPhone knowledge will come along and give you some guidance. I have no idea.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

[S4GRU]

On another note, it looks like we have confirmation of a 3rd Round market starting. In Sprint's Press Release this morning, they mentioned work is about to begin in the Joplin area. This is the first confirmation of work beginning in the Missouri market.

 

It probably means that work will start in many other areas within the market as well at the same time. It's just likely that Joplin will have a prelaunch amount of service first.

 

So keep your eyes to the skies in St. Louis, Springfield, Columbia, Jefferson City, Cape Girardeau and Rolla too!

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-328-sprint-marketing-updates-4g-lte-city-list-where-work-is-under-way-and-adds-20-more/

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

[doomstang]

On another note, it looks like we have confirmation of a 3rd Round market starting. In Sprint's Press Release this morning, they mentioned work is about to begin in the Joplin area. This is the first confirmation of work beginning in the Missouri market.

 

It probably means that work will start in many other areas within the market as well at the same time. It's just likely that Joplin will have a prelaunch amount of service first.

 

So keep your eyes to the skies in St. Louis, Springfield, Columbia, Jefferson City, Cape Girardeau and Rolla too!

 

http://s4gru.com/ind...d-adds-20-more/

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

 

Awesome news for us here in STL....hopefully work is right around the corner for us.

[Dkoellerwx]

Since I am very close to Joplin, I may make it a road trip in the coming weeks to see if I see any changes. I'll also be watching out here in Springfield! It would be very cool if work was underway before the end of the year. It was a bit of a disappointment to have to move away from LTE in Kansas last month.

[onebelow0]

I have seen eHRPD in University City and Arnold the last few days but not today for some reason.

[S4GRU]

I have seen eHRPD in University City and Arnold the last few days but not today for some reason.

 

This seems to be common that eHRPD comes and goes in areas prior to launch.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

[doomstang]

I have seen eHRPD in University City and Arnold the last few days but not today for some reason.

 

It's been active in the Fenton and Creve Coeur areas the last few days....just checked here in Fenton again and it's still active at the moment.

[Dkoellerwx]

Still seeing it in Springfield. Haven't lost it as far as I know, though granted I don't check all that often haha.

[DaQue]

EHRPD show up many places and it has nothing to do with NV?

[Dkoellerwx]

EHRPD show up many places and it has nothing to do with NV?

 

It's part of NV, but it is just software, to it can be uploaded to all sites in a market, weeks, or even months ahead of when the physical NV work starts. It is a bit of progress, but doesn't really mean much at this point.