chamb

This article may help explain why Dish is trying to obtain Clearwire

http://www.fiercecable.com/story/how-comcast-charter-and-time-warner-cable-will-use-tv-everywhere-steal-dire/2013-03-06

For all of those in the Shentel and nTelos coverage areas tomorrow (2/28) both companies will be releasing their 4th quarter earnings results and probably along with it some info about their 4G build-outs. If anyone wants to tag team the calls and update this thread with any notable news that would be helpful. I'll try and join the Shentel call, but I make no promises. The links are as follows:

 

nTelos webcast: (http://services.chor...ntls130228.html) 11:00 am EST

 

Shentel webcast: (http://investor.shentel.com/) 10:00 am EST

Correction -- Shentel will release earnings on Feb 28 but the conference call is on Friday March 1 at 10 am Eastern.

So I come to work today and notice I have full signal everywhere. Our property is pretty big. So I run some speed test and come back with pretty good results. Someone tell me there was someone here installing some IT equipment yesterday. I check the server room and there is a sprint ubeeairwalk installed. I am kind of confused thought as the sprint tower is 1000 ft behind us. Anyone know why this would be installed and are these things good.

Here are some speed test connect to it on 3g. I know I'm connected to it as my app gives me some odd cell id. First three are connected to the ubee.

http://www.ubeeairwalk.com/ This explains it.

Looks like a little blip of LTE has appeared on Sensorly in Big Pool, MD (just west of Clear Spring and North of Ft. Frederick). I wonder if Hancock, MD will be getting LTE soon.

KHoff ---That is more than a little "Blip" of LTE west of Clear Spring. Any "blip" of LTE that large is a completed NV cell site.

Looks like somebody with Sensorly running on their phone traveled I-70 and picked it up.

Do you happen to have Sensorly on your phone ?? if not, can we talk you into installing it and starting it as you travel through the area. I assure you, Shentel has not forgotten your area and more activity is coming from them.

We do not have enough Sensorly users especially in "low population" areas to cover the territory properly. When Shentel does upgrade another site around Clear Spring or Hancock, we need somebody to plot it on Sensorly. We need somebody to have Sensorly running and drive over Route 40 as well as I-70, plus some of the side roads. There has to be more LTE available around "Clear Spring" right now than is showing on Sensorly.

Do not be surprised to see LTE around Hancock soon. Shentel is working hard on a bunch of local cell sites.

Just curious, has anyone picked up LTE on 68 between I-81 and 632? (by the Jellystone campground). I was wondering since I'm heading up there for vacation in June and it seems that stretch was ether not covered or not Sensorly'd (hey made up a new word).

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Gd224 - The Sensorly mapping you see in that area was almost totally done by me and only me. I simply did not run over that section of road. I would be about 90% sure that LTE would be there and work fine. You are close enough to a NV cell site at the I-81 Exit. The mapping you see was not done completely as I do not get through that area very often. I know for a fact the LTE is more complete than it looks on Sensorly simply because nobody had the time to map the area totally.

If you happen to get into rough territory with hills and valleys along with big trees at Jellystone, maybe you might have an issue.

Unless you are blocked from receiving the signal coming from the exit at I-81, you will be ok. It has been many many years since I was in Jellystone and I do not remember how open it is toward I-81. Nobody even thought about Cell phone coverage when I was there. It was before anybody even thought about having a cell phone.

Good news gentlemen (and ladies) I was driving down George Street a couple minutes ago and at the intersection of South George Street and King Street in York and I looked at my phone and saw the 4G icon was on. I launched Sensorly but for some reason it absolutely refuses to map my trip. I tried turning on and off the gps, closing and reopening the app and nothing. But I managed to hold a connection all the way down to George street and Cottage place where it dropped back down to 3G.

Sensorly. When it worked weeks ago, it was something very useful to us. For some reason, I have been having issues with it lately. I sure do know how to use it. I see it take many hours or even a day for some points to upload to the maps. Then you might see some of the maps update, but when you zoom in on an address, some zoom levels show one thing and other zoom levels show something else. Sometimes it does straighten out, but sometimes it does not.

Also, on a PC, if you drag a map to look at a nearby neighborhood, sometimes the new portion of the map does not update unless you reload the page. Even then, it is not dependable.

And on a cell phone, when you are driving around and trying to look at the map, it only works sometimes. When you go far enough and the map moves to show new territory, the map may not update at all or only partially, And it is mostly a delayed update.

This all makes me sad. Sensorly WAS a VERY good tool, but something has happened to it.

I feel you - even trying to stream Pandora is a struggle on 2G most of the time!

 

I certainly woke up to much more information than I expected, thanks everyone! It looks like this will iron itself out over the next couple of years. The areas around the highways in Northern PA certainly are very rural, with low population density. It baffled me that most of the turnpike was not upgraded to 3G though, I always thought major highways got priority.

It probably was quite a chore to get even one T-1 to the cell sites for Voice. The turnpike goes through some very rural territory.

Getting anything more than a T-1 for backhaul can be next to impossible. I would suspect that even today, there will be some major issues getting a fast connection to many of the cell sites. They may be able to get a fast connection to one cell site somewhere and microwave a back haul link from this one site to several other nearby sites. But even that is not always an option.

I agree 100% that 800 MHz in these areas would be a godsend. All I know, however, is that many low pop density, rural sites aren't getting upgraded antennas initially which can broadcast 800mhz. Many are GMO initially with just new cabinets and RRUs at the base.

If Sprint is SMART (and we do not know if they are or not), they will take the time and spend the money to finally fix the area the right way. If there is any area that needs the top mounted antennas and RRU's to be pushing out some 800 Meg, this is the area.

Yes, it probably is going to be a difficult one to fix, but it needs to be done.

Incorrect. That IS corporate Sprint. Luckily, this will be converted to at least GMO 3G by the completion of NV. It appears Sprint never saw it as cost effective to upgrade these areas to 3G. It's a PITA for me as I travel all over PA for my job.

I would certainly think that this area would be upgraded and make good use the new 800 SMR band. If they do that, you will have much better voice coverage initially along with some 4G and then later, even better 4G when they can fully use 800 SMR for that.

When you are dealing with extremely rural area and low population density, quite often you have a backhaul problem. You may find little or no fiber optics in the area. Even if you try to use short haul microwave to feed some of the cell sites, you still may not have a good source of backhaul close enough to the cell sites. One thing for sure, if Sprint does upgrade the area like they are doing other places, the coverage will improve and probably quite significantly.

Ah, got ya. I'm patiently waiting to see when it gets enabled in Shentel territories as they're quite far along in their build-out.

I have the proper PRL on my phone for 800 SMR and am in Shentel territory, but no signs of it being active yet anywhere I travel. I have seen the phone search for it in a no signal area.(watching the search in DEBUG)

It is quite a milestone! The Party is at AJ's! I'll bring the chicken.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

Is the "chicken" you are bringing one that your grabbed by the neck off the New Mexico desert or is it KFC?

I stayed connected to SMR 800 for about 15 miles past the last shown-live-with-SMR site on the maps here, along the route I took. If no other sites were live at the time then that's about how far out I was able to stay connected. I seem to recall my signal strength slowly dropping on SMR 800 as I went further east from Kouts, IN where that site was (hope I'm allowed to say that) until it got to about -101 DB or so and then connected to the nearest 1900-only site.

I have some experience with 850 meg. It all depends on the obstructions between the cell site and you. In open territory, 8 miles is quite common and I have seen a rare occasion of about 15 miles, but that is the exception. At 15 miles, you do not have any reliability or guarantee of being able to hold the call. Don't walk or drive behind anything or the call will be gone.

If you do have natural or man made obstructions, you can have issues at 3 miles. I have seen issues at less than 3 miles. Your home or business is behind a hill, the building is constructed of block, brick or stone with tinted windows, or partly underground.

Each situation is different and while 800 meg will probably help most everyone, it will not solve every problem.

It is going to be a big plus for Sprint users that now have questionable service.

If a firm or carrier wanted to tap into my decade of independent spectrum analysis experience, I certainly would take the call, listen to the offer. And if I were to accept a position, I would have this message for Craig Moffett:

 

 

 

 

AJ

Funny but also very true A.J. Yes, very very true but many people do not think like we do.

http://www.ydr.com/rss/ci_22410231?source=rss

Cranes in York mean Sprint phone network upgrades, possible interruptions

Sprint is replacing old equipment on the smokestack off Philadelphia Street in the city.

By TIM STONESIFER

Daily Record/Sunday News

Updated: 01/19/2013 06:09:12 PM EST

York, PA -

For better phone service around York, Steve Hagen said, you just need a couple of cranes, some safety belts, and few guys willing to set up shop in a basket suspended 160 feet over the city.

"It's not so bad," he said, angling his head back for a better view. Then, chuckling: "You just wouldn't want to fall."

The work along West Philadelphia Street -- at the former Met-Ed steam plant -- is part of a push by Sprint to upgrade its network, according to Tom Whitaker, vice president of operations for Virginia-based Shentel. Those upgrades include replacing old copper cable with fiber optics, he said.

"The signal is stronger, more powerful and will provide better coverage," said Whitaker.

Shentel is in the process of merging the Sprint and Nextel networks in much of the mid-Atlantic, Whitaker said, "smashing them together" at more than 500 locations to create one, stronger phone network. That work is about halfway complete, he said, and is taking place at both standard cell towers and other sites, like the smokestack in York, where antennas are placed. The upgrade will mean 3G service is replaced with 4G, he said.

"We're basically putting up brand new equipment," he said.

Dave Keech, a broker with Rock Real Estate, said the building and smokestack belong to York-based Space Leasing Inc. The former steam company building is about 28,000 square feet, he said, and houses several businesses. Crews are currently working to put in a CrossFit gym, expected soon, he said.

"They're moving in equipment now," he said.

Whitaker asked for patience, as crews work. There could be some minor network disruptions, he said.

"They're impossible to avoid," he said. "But when we're done, you'll have a much better performing network."

For Hagen and his crew, there are other rewards. He smiled at the group's workspace, suspended dizzyingly above.

"When you're up there like that... the view," he said, shaking his head. "It's pretty nice."

@timstonesifer; 771-2032

I don't know if this is the best forum to post my question, and I'd be happy to ask it where it should be if someone directs me to where that would be...

 

Anyways, I live in a fair to poor signal area (most 1x bars I get is about 3. Usually I get less than 1). The tower that I think I get my service from isn't in a very rural area, and I have a feeling that it will be upgraded to lte when it comes to my town (even though I can get up to 1 Mbps from a certain room upstairs right now with 3G). When lte comes, do you think my signal strength will improve at all, or if I take my phone to the parts of my house with three bars, will I get faster speeds possibly above 5mbps?

 

Thanks everyone,

 

Joe

Joe,

It is impossible to give you an answer and be totally positive it is correct. But I do have some experience with this. Generally a NV site will give you slightly better CDMA 1X and CDMA 3G data. It you now get 1 meg on 3G, I would guess you will get several times that speed on 4G LTE. When they kill Nextel and start using those frequencies for CDMA voice(this Spring), you should really get a boost on Voice. Later, they will also use Nextel frequencies for LTE and you will get another boost.(toward Year end)

Of course, you need the newer phones to get the maximum benefit. It will get better in several steps.

Sorry, but that makes no sense. The RX dBm is measured at the antenna's input to "the radio," before "the radio's" circuitry amplifies anything. The only factors affecting measured RX signal strength are the actual strength of the signal in the particular environment, and the efficiency of the antenna.

 

BTW, I just tried to replicate this experiment on my GS3, and my results do not confirm your original claim.

• Changed the phone's settings to CDMA only and rebooted.
  
• Placed the phone flat and stationary on a desk.
  
• Opened the 1x Engineering Protocol screen and noted the BSID I was connected to.
  
• Opened the 1x Engineering RF screen and recorded the RSSI signal strength: -95 dBm.
  
• Opened the Google Maps app and browsed to download fresh data for map tiles.
  
• Rechecked the two engineering screens. The source BSID was the same, and so was the signal strength: -95 dBm
  

Like I said earlier, much harder to see on Data type connections probably because of little spurts of data moving because of e-mail checks,etc. If you check e-mail on a regular schedule, the phone never really gets much of a chance to go into any type of sleep or low power.

Try looking at the receive level and simply call your number. You should see the receive level jump sometimes even before the phone rings and you should see the amount of bars at the top jump up too.

i have no idea if Samsung is doing this to give the appearance of a better connection of it the receive level is actually getting better. This all does not make sense to me. Could it be the Lucent Base station doing this??

I am not switching base stations in any manner where I am at. Only one cell site is near me. The PN never changes during this process and it stays on 1900 since 800 is not active yet.

Be careful and make sure your phone is reporting the worst receive level. After I see this receive level jump on a 1X call, the level quite often will stay at the higher level for quite some time before it eventually falls back to the worse level.

Do these observations refer to CDMA data connections, to LTE connections or both?

CDMA 1X for sure. It is much easier to see it there. If you are setting in DEBUG, 1X engineering screen, I see about a 98. When a call comes in, it will jump to about a 92 and the CDMA 1X bars at the top of the screen go from 2 to 3 or even 4 bars.

Does this every time. When the call is dropped, the -92 level will remain for quite awhile sometimes, maybe 15 minutes.

Then it will eventually go back to the old -98 level. Seeing this in the DATA area, either 3 or 4G is harder to do and prove.

Which cell site are you connected too... it's not in Las Vegas is it ? ;0)

No, I am in Pennsylvania and connected to a Lucent NV site. I can not explain what is happening, but it does it every time.

For those who are whining that they are getting poor reception from it its because the Radio is under powered when not using data and when idle thats battery conservation at work

 

Once you start using data it revs up the Radio power

just like the processor when its not in use it drops to a lower clock speed when its inuse it revs up to the clockspeed that its made to go.

 

you can see this go to about phone then look at the signal dbm

then download something from the Play store over cellular then head back to the signal dbm

you will see a change in signal strength.

Correct. And the difference is dramatic. My Galaxy S3 will idle with a 98 receive level. This allows it to stay connected and be ready for an incoming call. As soon as the phone detects any incoming activity (Or any outgoing activity), it suddenly shows the receive level going 5-7 db higher. Happens every time. I have seen this for several months and at first did not believe what I saw. Not sure how it does this, but it works well. It may differ if you are much closer to the cell site than I am.

I suspect it must talk to the cell site and agree on power levels or something. I do not understand how it is done.

I have a second Galaxy S3 and it does the same thing. I am connected to a upgraded NV Cell site.

Sensorly is showing some very HOT LTE to the NW of Dulles airport on Old Ox Rd. Looks like some new LTE there.

Ahh chamb, I should have known! Awesome job man. I can tell that a lot of time and gas has been invested in mapping all that haha. What kind of speeds are you seeing on 3G down there?

I know the area well and travel through quite often. Just take strange routes each time and eventually I get most of the roads.

The 3G works very good once Shentel gets hold of a site and works on it. When they add the fiber or microwave backhaul which is REQUIRED for LTE, the 3G is fixed. Of course, I still have territory that has not been upgraded yet, and the 3g there is still slow. Two different situations entirely. Can be 500 k or so if it has not been upgraded and 2 meg or so it has been upgraded.

The LTE is really really good when they get it done. I have quite a few adjacent sites that are complete. Amazing how a cell phone will work with a 27 meg download speed.

LTE has been turned on in Dillsburg, PA just saw it on Sensorly.

 

BTW whoever is mapping LTE just east of Chambersburg, PA deserves a reward.

They're doing an awesome job!

That would be me. Doing quite a bit to the south of Chambersburg ooo even including Hagerstown, Md

The LTE here is very very good thanks to Shentel and they ain't done yet.

To be clear, Dish's S-band converted to AWS-4 spectrum has not been shifted up 5 MHz. The FCC considered that proposal but did not adopt it.

 

AJ

AJ,

This Spectrum could be hosted by Sprint or somebody else. If Sprint were to be the host, is there any way that this might eliminate some of the issues with the Spectrum? Here is what I am thinking about it -- With any data service, usually you need much more download capability than you need for upload. Is there some way that Sprint could set something up that used the Dish frequencies to mostly transmit to cell phones/tablets while not using much of the bandwidth for receiving from Cell phones???

Video distribution comes to my mind.

If Sprint had TOTAL control of the Spectrum, & they were willing to possibly get a waiver from the FCC to do something unique with the spectrum, could they make better usage of it than anybody else??

What? Nobody like this? Wendy's...Sensorly...plotting a quick path to the bathroom. That is comedy gold. What are all of you, Wendy's fans? Fine, go enjoy your Frostys.

 

 

AJ

Yeh AJ, I thought it was real good. You not only know your RF & cell phones, your jokes and comments are quite often very good too. This did make me grin.

Last night I did some mapping on I-83 S between Harrisburg and York, coming over Reeser's Summit I had LTE and held until I exited in North York, so it appears a tower near Etters is now online.

 

Again, I have to admit some shock that Etters, PA received LTE coverage before downtown York, PA.. especially because according to Sprint LTE is launched in York.

LTE is "launched" in York, it just is not totally "complete". So many things can complicate an upgrade at a particular site. Delays happen for many reasons. I am positive that Shentel is well aware that central and southern York in particular still needs some upgrades. It will come. Etters may have been a site that was comparatively easy to upgrade, so why not do it if York sites are being difficult. Ahh, and thanks for your Sensorly work on I-83.