S4GRU

After you like the new page, I will add you back as a Moderator. Robert

In late Spring/Early summer, work should be well under way in the Central Illinois market. Some Ground Mount sites may even start sooner than that. Robert

New Facebook Page Link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/S4GRU/156282624523388 ATTENTION S4GRU MEMBERS! Today I am taking down the Sprint 4G Rollout Updates Facebook page. We are creating a new page simply titled S4GRU, for our members. If you have "Liked" our previous Facebook page, you will need to follow the link and like the new page. The old page will stop accepting posts effective today. Our old FB page was titled, "Sprint 4G Rollout Updates" and it has been the source of mass confusion over in a place like Facebook. Most of our site posts are from people who do not participate in S4GRU and think we are an official Sprint page. It causes a lot of issues and requires a lot of work to keep up with. Not to mention the frequent trolls. I do not have the time to manage that page anymore, and I appreciate all the efforts Rickie and Codie did to try to keep that page up. The new site will not be promoted outside of S4GRU. It is a page for our members, and it exists to promote S4GRU.com, not Sprint nor their 4G aspirations. All are welcome to join, and we wil try to be more active on the page in the future in its new format as a social media outlet for the S4GRU site. As most of you know, S4GRU was born out of Facebook. So this was not an easy decision to make. But it will allow for a much better Facebook experience for our members and allow us to have a FB page that can be useful and no longer overrun with questions and childish comments. Thanks! Robert

It doesn't really address the other model. It possibly will have another press release, or will be offered later in the year. But I'm definitely not interested in the QWERTY model. Robert

Yeah, the site there is In Progress. It is neither complete, nor accepted yet. Good to see you around again. It's been awhile. Robert

Many assume that, because Sprint never had 4G WiMax in Dayton when it was deployed in Cincinnati. And that is because the 4G WiMax network was deployed and operated by Clearwire. And Clearwire has Dayton and Cincinnati in separate markets. In fact, Clearwire had an old 3G-like technology called Expedience that was deployed in the Dayton area. It is the reason why they never deployed WiMax in Dayton, because they already had a network there. And by the time Clearwire would have gotten around and converted that network to WiMax, they ran out of money and nearly went bankrupt. Sprint has had to bail them out several times just to stay afloat. Robert

I see "Emergency Calls Only" frequently on my Nexus 4 when off the T-Mobile network. Robert

The site is now showing up on Sensorly. http://sensorly.com/fullscreen/map/4G/US/USA/Sprint/lte_310sprint#q=bannister,north_carolina Robert

by Travis Griggs Sprint 4G Rollout Updates Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - 10:00 AM MST A PRL file is a Preferred Roaming List. In simple terms, it tells the device how to scan for various wireless cell systems, which ones are native, and which priority to use them in. If there isn't a native Sprint signal available, the PRL defines which roaming partners to scan for, which ones should be used, and in what order of preference to scan for them in. Contrary to belief and what some Sprint reps may tell say, a PRL is not a list of cell sites. You do not need a new PRL update to receive service from a new cell site. Nor will a PRL update result in faster Sprint EVDO (3G) speeds either. Of course there are a few exceptions to these rules with roaming agreements and/or Network Vision in the picture, but we will explain that later. PRL updates have nothing do with 4G WiMax coverage either. On some 4G LTE chipsets such as Qualcomm, the PRL determines if LTE is enabled for the geographic region you are in. So how does a PRL really work? Before I can start to explain the inner workings of a PRL, there are few terms for reference: A PRL is broken down into a three tier system: GEO - Geographic areas (regions), they are commonly referred to as a GEO. SID - System IDs assigned to the various carriers. NID - Network IDs are assigned by carriers to break a SID up. Common wireless bands found in US CDMA PRLs: PCS Band - 1900mhz PCS band in the US (A block, B block, etc) - Band Class 1 or 25 Cellular band - 850mhz cellular band in the US (A and B side) - Band Class 0 SMR band - 800mhz band used previously by Nextel. CDMA 1xA is in active deployment - Band Class 10 Other terms: Channel – assigned frequency within a band (200, 476, 350, etc) Negative (Neg) Network – SID/NID is prohibited (only 911 calls allowed) Preferred (Pref) Network – SID/NID is allowed for acquisition and usage Preferred Only PRL - only the SIDs specified in the PRL are allowed for acquisition When a device is powered up for the very first time, the phone will start at the top of the PRL and start searching through the list of SIDs for a native Sprint signal. This usually happens very quickly. Once your phone acquires a SID in your GEO, the devices will stay within the GEO for any additional searching for SIDs before it goes out looking in other GEOs again. This gives your phone a quicker response time of finding another SID when it needs to. If you have ever noticed it takes a little longer to find a signal when the flight attendant states you may now use your wireless devices, this is your phone searching the last known GEO, the devices then gives up and starts searching the other GEOs until it finds one to acquire. The SID/NID records within the GEO have their various priorities and channel/band scans assigned to them. A SID is the regional number assigned to wireless system. A NID is used by a cellular carrier to break up a large SID into smaller pieces for further localizing scans/rules. For instance a SID that has two large metro areas could have a NID of 51 for one area and 52 for the other area. The record would be listed as 4159/51 and 4159/52. If Sprint needs to apply different rules and/or acquisition channels to either NID it will put a record for each one. If no local rules are needed, the NID is listed as 65535 to encompass all NIDs within the one SID. In the PRL analysis reports, any NID of 65535 is suppressed as it is not needed. It may sound confusing at times but it is a simple three tiered system; GEO area, SID, then NID. In the PRL example above there are 5 SIDs assigned to Geo #4. The first two have a roaming indicator of 0, meaning a native Sprint signal. 22411 and 4159 have a priority of 1. These two SIDs do not necessarily have a preference in which either is used since they are the same priority but the device will scan for 22411 first. If 4159 is acquired, the device will not actively seek another network to use. During various sleep periods and/or timers the device could scan/acquire 22411 though. Once the device finds itself without a usable signal from 4159 or 22411, the scan will proceed into the next priority group. The next priority group of 2 has SID 4279 and a roaming indicator presented to the user. The device will acquire 4279 and notify the network carrier of its presence. The device will actively and aggressively continue to search for a non-roaming signal. Due to this continued scanning this may cause the radio chipset to not enter into the power saving sleep modes causing increased battery usage. As long as SID 4279 is available, the device will not search for SID 4160 with the priority of 3. 85 is a NEG network meaning your phone is not allowed to use this network for any reason other than 911 calls. What happens when Sprint installs a new cell site? I will say it again and again. You do not need a PRL update to use a new cell site, you do not need a PRL update to use a new cell site. Many Sprint reps will swear up and down that a PRL update is required to use new cell sites. This is incorrect! Many Airaves are activated and deactivated everyday but yet we don't see new PRL updates for these everyday. Using the example above, the phone is attached to Sprint 4159/51 using the same cell sites that were active on the previous day. Today the Sprint crews activated a new cell site to extend coverage a few more miles down the highway. Sprint will configure this cell site with the same licensed channels for the area and also configure it as a 4159/51 site. The devices in this area will use this new site without ever needing any type of PRL update. I've only scratched the surface of the various inner workings of the PRL file. Stay tuned for part 2 of this article. The next article will take a more in-depth look on EVDO records, MCC/MNC records for LTE, 800mhz SMR for Network Vision, and much more.

I'm considering picking this up when it comes to Sprint to play with and test. I don't know what the cash price is, but they should drop in price on EBay quickly. I think a lot of people who pick this thing up will not like it and resell it. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

Atlanta is still under deployment. Sprint is upgrading their entire network. Every switch, every site, every piece of equipment and hardware. It is a 2-1/2 year program, that will most likely end up being 3 years. It is the largest scale network project in one single under taking in American history. The scope is much, much larger than Verizon's LTE deployment but will be done in the same amount of time. For those of us who do this kind of work for a living, the amount of planning and work being completed within this time frame is mind blowing. When complete, Sprint will have the newest network from coast to coast on every site. LTE just about everywhere 3G is now, plus in a few places that never received 3G, like rural Nebraska, Indiana and Pennsylvania. In your area, you are nearing rock bottom. But soon it will start getting better and better every week as each site gets upgraded. It is darkest before the dawn. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

Tapatalk grabbed the wrong quote from the wrong forum. Please disregard. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

That speed tests begs to differ. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

That's not the issue he is experiencing. He either is not replicating exactly the same experience between the 10-15Mbps speeds and the new speeds (like being in a different room of his house), or the downtilt/sector pointing has been adjusted, or he is getting interference from a newly turned on site and further adjustments are necessary. This is not unusual during deployment. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

back pain Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

Thanks for the update, Ed. It will be nice to be able to visit Arizona again. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

You can't. It doesn't say. Speed upgrades just mean that backhaul has been upgraded. Backhaul can be upgraded on a legacy site and just may be additional T1 lines. Most LTE sites will show speed upgrades also, but not all speed upgrades are for LTE sites. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

There are RRU's present if you look closely. Looks like a Sprint AlcaLu set up to me. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

Adding markets? Still just 97 markets and Shentel. No markets being added. If you are referring to work in more markets, do not fret. The deployment is being done by local subcontractors. Work starting in Iowa, Washington or Mississippi has no impact to the Jacksonville market crews. Sprint also has always said they wouldn't be done until 2Q-2014. They say they will largely be done by the end of 2013. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

Chattanooga is in Sprint's Nashville market. Which is under deployment now. Chattanooga is in the second round of deployment over much larger cities. I don't think that's sad at all. Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

Sprint doesn't have to use Softbank funds to pay for Clearwire. It has borrowed billions to pay for Network Vision. It can use those funds. Additionally, the money from Softbank is a loan. It is legal. And that is not an issue. The DOJ has made no such claims that Sprint needs to finish old matters before new matters. That's absurd. Where did you get such an idea? Also, the DOJ cannot be worried about a foreign firm owning 70% of an American wireless carrier. T-Mobile is completely foreign controlled. Should the DOJ stop the purchase of MetroPCS, an American company, that will be 100% owned by a foreign company? There is no legal precedent to stop this except for national security concerns. I'm not sure where your hostility is coming from. This purchase is a win for everybody, except for possibly AT&T and Verizon. Robert

What? No one in San Diego want to use Sensorly? Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD