chamb

EXACTLY. Great Comparison. Just take a snapshot of Shentel territory and compare it to Sprint's progress in the balance of the country. Shentel has a very high percentage of their sites upgraded with 4G and 800 mhz voice. They are in control totally and things get done correctly and on time. No excuses, they just do it. Shentel is more complete than the S4GRU maps are showing. So many sites are going active with 4g & 800 that it all does not get updated sometimes as quickly as it should. Apparently inspections & paperwork get delayed. The important thing is that the NV project has made Shentel look highly superior to anybody else and even more important is that the Central Pennsylvania, Western Md, and northern Virginia territory has service that is probably the best in the country right now. If this is a comparison of sharp management and local control against outsourcing, Shentel wins and it ain't even close. Yes, Shentel is using contractors to do most of the site work, but they are in control and do it right and on time.

Robert, Here is a good idea. I hear that the S4GRU business needs a tax break. Go buy a suite at the Wynn overlooking Las Vegas Blvd. A very expensive Suite. Give Premier Sponsors of S4GRU free usage of the suite. Of course, you have first picks on the dates you want. This would probably significantly increase your amount of Premier Sponsors and it is all a write-off for S4GRU. It is all a business expense since you need to meet all your Premium Sponsors for consultations.

Lancaster is not handled by Shentel. Be very very glad you live in territory that is in Shentel territory. You do not see complaints about Shentel's performance ANYWHERE. They are getting it done. Still more to do, but they are on it.

What I was saying is: YOUR EVDO will not be any different no matter if your phone is on 800 or 1900 for voice. Almost always, if you are on 800 voice, your cell site is also transmitting EVDO. The EVDO will be on 1900 just like it is if your phone is using 1900 for voice. If you are far away from the site, you may get 800 voice but be too far away to get 1900 EVDO.

If you are talking about data on the 800 CDMA 1x voice channel, then AJ answered you. CDMA1X 800 ≤ 153.9 kbps. However, almost all sites that have the new 800 will also have EVDO for Data and maybe LTE. It does not matter if your phone is using 1900 or 800, the EVDO will not be different.

It is good on almost all upgraded sites because if LTE is active, the faster backhaul is there. Generally, I can get almost 2 meg down at most sites on EVDO. Since LTE clients are off the EVDO, It will probably stay good. All my local sites are upgraded and are 3G, 800, and 4G capable. Working good, ---no,--- better than good, call it GREAT.

Yes, you have Shentel 800 mhz. Shentel has a whole bunch of 800 mhz active. They sure are leading the way for 800 deployment. It is everywhere and it works well. I think if you travel around a little you will find it almost every place as long as you do not venture out of Shentel territory, like East into Lancaster. Stick in York county and points North & West and you will have 800 meg.

This does not happen on my Galaxy S3. When I lose LTE, it completely drops off the signal check screen.

25015. Nothing special, just the normal correct one for a Galaxy S3.

Personal. The PRL in a Galaxy S3 and some other phones allow 800 to be scanned first.

Some phones do use 1900 first. Some use 800 first. My Galaxy S3 grabs 800 mhz first. When you have total 800 Mhz coverage, handoffs to 1900 just rarely happen. However, Yes, I hope they get the handoff issue working well. It is very hard for me to actually get in a position to test that now. If I do manage to get into a spot that will cause the loss of 800, there will be no 1900 there either.

I am in the Shentel Market and am really really covered with 800 mhz. I have so much 800 it is almost impossible to get in a situation that will switch me to 1900. A few weeks ago, the calls did drop going from 800 to 1900. Have not been in a position to test it lately, so I am not sure.

Funny. I am old and been in the business forever. It was "cycles" when I started in the business and then changed to hertz. Bet you are young enough to have never seen any megacycles.

Range of 800 meg -- I have very complete 800 meg coverage in my area. It is actually almost impossible to NOT be on 800 Meg. I can go much deeper into buildings than ever before on 1900. (using a Galaxy S3) In the past, you would enter a building and the signal level would drop to -105. Then the call would be gone. Now with 800 meg, I can enter buildings and walk through them much further than before. However, if I get in an extremely bad spot, like a basement, the call will drop when the level reaches about a -96. This surprises me. Why will a 1900 signal work to a -105 an the 800 signal drop at a -96??? Even with a dropped call at a -96, the service is much much better than with 1900. Is my phone not working right or is this about normal? I am not complaining as the service is so much better, but I am curious about this. My Ec/lo is about a -3.0 outside a building in most cases but when I get inside at the bad spots, it is normally about a -10 when the call is about to drop. I have never seen the 800 signal fall to the -105 level, I lose sync with the network every time at about a -96. Comments encouraged. Other peoples experiences with this appreciated.

I have had 800 service for about a month and have it on every site around me. Yes, it is as good as the others and probably better as Sprint has more cell sites than the others. Of course in each individual situation, it is going to depend on the locations of the cell sites compared to where you are located.

Looking at your 800 1X and EVDO signal level, I would suspect the 800 is coming from a site further away from you than your EVDO is. Hard to really prove that, but normally the 800 will be better than EVDO if it is all coming from the some site. If I am correct, you will see an upgrade at a closer site and see even better 800 signal level. Upgraded backhaul will give you LTE and possibly improved speeds on EVDO especially if they have not been good. It will not help your 800 1X until another site closer to you gets upgraded. Your 800 level is surely good enough to work well, but I suspect it is going to get better based on your EVDO level.

Yes, Shentel is not really Sprint. They sure are a big PLUS for Sprint however. I see from your address, you can easily get into Charles Town. If you look at the S4GRU maps, you will see just how well that is covered. You probably have been there and seen the coverage for yourself. The maps still do not show those sites as being 800 active but they sure are. If you thought the coverage in Charles Town was good a month ago, go back and see what you have with the 800 coverage. Things will improve in your area and probably soon. Nobody can define exactly what "soon" means however.

I am in the Shentel market area and it is almost totally covered by 800 now. I can assure you that the little gaps in coverage on some of the roads are gone. I have several spots that the calls would drop in the past. Now when I go through those spots, I see the signal level deteriorate some, but no calls drop at these spots. Of course, it is going to depend on how bad the gap was on 1900. 800 meg will not ever fix every problem for everybody, but it sure is a very big improvement. I wish everybody could see what happened here when Shentel lit up the 800. In case you look at the S4GRU maps for the Shentel area, remember that there is a delay in getting the maps updated. The coverage of 800 is much much more complete than the maps show at the moment.

dshultznet, Another site with 800 may improve your issue significantly because then your 800 signal may be strong enough to work well. I earlier asked a question that you did not answer. On the two phones that show 1x 800 using signal check, what is the receive level (the RSSI) on the Signal Check screen? Also, what is the Ec/lo on the same screen and the SID.

If a Galaxy S3 ever drops off the 800 network, it may find 1900. If it does, it will stay on the 1900 network until something forces a scan and then it will go back to 800 if it is available. If that one S3 ever makes a scan, it may find 800 and have the same trouble as the other two.

If a Galaxy 3 on PRL 25015 ever looses its connection to the 1900 network, it will scan and find the 800 network. So far, your one phone has not seen the need to scan because it has not lost 1900 the signal. Get ready, it eventually will. What is your receive level on the phones when you look at Signal check and see the 1x 800 network???

I do know some of the issues were on the East coast in Lucent territory. I have no proof if they all were or were not. Just hope they figure out what the issue really is and find a fix other than restricting the Notes via PRL.

Digiblur, All I know is that recently Note 2 users started complaining that their phones did not work. It was determined that these phones would work on 1900 but not 800. Voice calls and texting will not work on 800. When 800 started going active in more places, more complaints started to pour in. Nobody has offered any info as to why some of the Notes fail to work on 800, but to stop the complaints, they pulled the 800 access out of the PRL for the Note2. That is not the solution we would want over the long term, but it stopped the total failure of calls and text on the Notes. I ASSUME this was happening enough that it was becoming quite an issue. At least you can make calls and do some texting with the 800 removed. If the 800 was not removed, you would be walking around with a paperweight in your hand.

Somebody made the decision to just keep the Note II's off 800 until the cause of the issue is found and fixed. Actually, the Note II users never really had 800 until a few days ago, and they are not now worse off than they were a week ago. But Yes, I would not be happy if I had a Note that did not work on 800. I do not know how many complaints they had, but it apparently was enough to cause them to do something quickly.

SOME Note II phones do not work on 800 meg, so Sprint took 800 access out of the PRL temporarily. I do not have any knowledge if this is happening all over the place or not. It COULD be one of the three vendors may have an issue or maybe just a few Note II's fail to work on 800. It is my understanding that SOME "Notes" do not work at all on voice or text while they are on 800.