S4GRU

My whole point of this thread is that I really miss unlimited when using my Verizon hotspot. I never thought unlimited was that big of a deal. It is so nice not to have to think about data usage and metering myself. I will adapt if one day I have to. But I am glad to have unlimited now. Data caps are a pain. Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

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bright bulb Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

And when you consider WiFi is a free unlicensed public shared resource, that is a very bad deal for the American people. Robert

Actually, there is no Roanoke market. The area along the I-81 Corridor from just north of Bristol, VA all the way up into Pennsylvania is controlled by a Sprint affiliate called Shentel. This includes Blacksburg, Roanoke, Charlottesville, Staunton, Harrisonburg, etc. In that area, your phone will run on Shentel as native service everywhere you get a Shentel signal. Shentel has pretty good coverage. When you are off Shentel, you may roam on USCC (for 1x and possibly 3G). Shentel is rolling out Network Vision and LTE with Alcatel Lucent. They are already under way. They will have approximately 40% of their sites live by the end of the year. They will finish the other 60% in 2013. Sprint LTE devices will run on Shentel's LTE service as native. Shentel's sites are going to be mostly fiber backhaul. They should run very well. It will probably be better in the Shentel areas than in Sprint areas. Robert

Mount Hood

Use the quote button underneath your comment. It will then place the quote in the text box at the bottom of the page. Then you can type your response below their quote in the text box. Robert

Nope. I do not work for Sprint. The data we use is not public, though. It has come directly from RF Engineers who work in the Sprint Network Vision program. We used -100dBm RSSI as our threshold for our coverage maps. This seemed to be pretty accurate in AJ's review of our map in real world conditions while driving around St. Joe yesterday. This is always a good reminder. Thanks for posting the link for everyone to refer back to. Alex...welcome to S4GRU. And thanks for all your work at CloudRF.com! Robert

I don't think the FCC should tell them they cannot operate a 2G network that does have users on it. But maybe the FCC could say that if you have available spectrum that could be better utilized, you cannot bid on new spectrum. Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

seeing red Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

Now that looks like some NV backhaul! Hopefully this site will appear on our NV Sites Complete map soon. Does the signal seem slightly stronger too? Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

What in the heck is the 'win what you love sweepstakes'??? Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

We are discussing the same issue in the Houston thread. I think its all the MW sites are having some issues. Its probably reverting to T1 backhaul while they are working through the problem. It probably won't be like this for long. Keep us posted as to what you see. Thanks. Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

I have a theory...and it is only a theory... I am wondering if they are having an issue with the new backhaul, and they are temporarily hooking it up to T1, and then the speeds are returning a few days later after whatever the NV backhaul issue is resolved. I have no idea. Just a theory. Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

I have seen this happen in a few instances in pre launch markets. It seems to only happen for a few days and things get back to normal. I'm not sure what specifically is causing it, but they are still doing a lot to the network and you are in active deployment area, of course. Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

Yeah, it has nothing to do with CDMA. Its a device feature. It needs to have enough antenna diversity to allow 1x voice and 3G data separately. Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

Creme fresh (Yes I know it is technically Creme Fraiche, but it would have killed the thread.)

I agree about usage. However, I am grateful to have unlimited as long as I can. If I have no choice but to deal with caps, then so be it. But I'm looking forward to unlimited LTE for the time being. Boy howdy! Robert

It's hard to quantify, but I will do my best: A LTE signal should be slightly stronger than a legacy 3G signal from the same exact tower. A LTE signal should be very similar to the NV 3G signal from the same exact tower. Here are some caveats. When I say the signal is similar, that is the measured strength in signal in dBm RSSI, not in "bars." LTE is not as usable with a weak signal as 3G EVDO. So even though you may be in a spot with -100dBm LTE and -100dBm EVDO, the LTE will be almost unusable, especially your upload data. Whereas the EVDO will be OK. So the LTE would probably be zero bars at -100dBm, but your EVDO would be at one or two bars at -100dBm. Also, this can vary from device to device. If you had a device that has a stronger LTE radio than EVDO radio (or vice versa), then there could be some variability. It's not a clear cut definite thing, as you can see. Hopefully this info helps. Robert

shaved ice

by Robert Herron Sprint 4G Rollout Updates Friday, August 3, 2012 - 4:25 PM MDT There has been a lot of discussion around our forums, and certainly in many other places, how Sprint's LTE coverage maps of launched markets have been pretty overly optimistic. To say it nicely. Today I decided to create some LTE coverage maps for St. Joseph, Missouri for our members usage, and for grins, I pulled up the Sprint LTE coverage map for the same area. The difference is pretty noticeable. In our map, we used data that we have from Sprint about each of the live sites, including tower height and downtilt. So we can enter in as accurate information as possible. We use the coverage creators that are provided from our friends at CloudRF.com. You can see the differences below. S4GRU St. Joseph LTE Coverage Map. In the map above, you can see the LTE coverages for Sprint from the live sites in the area. This was produced by S4GRU using CloudRF.com. Green denotes Sprint 4G LTE Coverage area. Sprint St. Joseph LTE Coverage Map. In this map you can see the LTE coverage as reported from coverage.sprint.com over the same area. Orange denotes Sprint 4G LTE Coverage area. We recognize that this is far from a scientific analysis. The data used to create our map is accurate, however we are dependent on the modeling used by the coverage generator at CloudRF. We feel that CloudRF though has been very accurate in previous analyses we have conducted including our own field verification tests. So we feel pretty confident in our results posted here. It appears that Sprint has indeed posted very flattering LTE coverage in its maps so far. At least in regards to St. Joe. However, this was already supported by dozens of comments by our members as well. For the time being, I would not consider using Sprint's LTE coverage maps for very defined coverage of a specific neighborhood or street, but rather just to know if they have some live sites in a general area. EDIT 6:30 PM MDT: S4GRU Writer, A.J. Shepherd, was in St. Joe this evening and reported a new live site that was not on our maps. We have added it and changed the coverages to reflect this recent addition. FURTHER READING FOR S4GRU SPONSORS: We have an interactive version of our St. Joseph coverage map in our Sponsor section, and have a discussion thread posted there.

Some do. My GS3 has SVDO (Simultaneous Voice) with 3G EVDO. Robert

The maps above showed the sites complete at the time of the article (yellow), and the sites that were scheduled to be live at launch (green). So these maps do not show coverage in the future. Alvarado will indeed get 4G LTE coverage. Sites are still being deployed, even though the launch has occurred. The market will not be 100% complete until late Fall or early Winter. 4G LTE coverage will be over all the 3G coverage areas by the time the market is complete. Robert