kelmelzer

Not sure if I missed the post that mentioned this, but I got B41 (2.5Ghz) Sprint in two different places over weekend.  One off Franklin St near Corning in Christiansburg and one in downtown Blacksburg.  With both, I got full signal and about 18-20mbps down and 6mbps up.  This is definitely new equipment since I would never get full signal with the old "4g" on my EVO 3D in those places if at all.

(I'm also with Project Fi if there are any of those out there...)

Getting solid LTE 800 in Blacksburg now on Project Fi.

How are the Project Fi folks (like me now) doing?  I got a quick lock on LTE 25 in Blacksburg (near Macado's) last night but then it jumped off.  I'm using the 6P.

Now to just get them some backhaul...

 

Sent from my Note 4.

Looks like they just got it!  4G as of 4/15 on the new maps.  That was quick.  I also see some B25 and B26 scheduled on the other maps in next 90-180 days (as of March).

Sweet! And now the final 1X tower is 3G.  Coming back to Sprint is looking even more promising here.

I saw that too. I probably wouldn't normally have noticed but I was at Hungry Mother State Park last fall and the service was pretty poor when I was in Marion, which is part of that 4 tower cluster. In the park itself, I roamed on US Cellular but it worked pretty decent for calls and texts. Hopefully they get those 4 up and running with LTE soon. Another interesting thing about those towers is that they are Ericsson and the rest of the southern VA market is ALU. Kinda weird how that happened.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

Yeah, Verizon is actually excellent there with LTE everywhere, and I'm on the dark (red) side at the moment until nTelos/Sprint can get their acts together in my area.  I don't even think I roamed on Verizon ever in that county with a Sprint phone.

Woot! As of 3/23, one more of the 4 towers in Smyth County is no longer 1X! This is the random "Southern Virginia" county separated from the rest of the region by the nTelos abyss and where I grew up.  It was miserable with Sprint there.  Only more 1 more 1X tower to go and then maybe some LTE?

I saw Lumos vehicles along Prices Fork Rd near where I live in Blacksburg all day Saturday doing something, so maybe that's our new backhaul?  Its speculation since they could be the company all wireless companies uses here for backhaul as I see them around here all of the time.

Not sure if anyone noticed this, but I stumbled upon this press release from September:

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/press/2014/alcatel-lucent-lte-technology-selected-ntelos-wireless-support-its-strategic-network-alliance-sprint

So...they are upgrading backhaul?  And it also looks like they're going to use all three bands.

It just takes a simple look at Sensorly to see your coverage, and in C'ville, I'm sure Verizon is fantastic as it is here in Blacksburg and rural SWVA where I'm getting XLTE (50/10 speeds).  AT&T even looks much improved from when I last had them in 2010.  My wife and I bought a house *in the town limits* (not boonies) of Blacksburg back in June, and the coverage was even worse that we constantly roamed on US Cellular (wow, yet another company that has better service here than Ntelos).  Sprint retentions let us out of our contracts with no ETF after we returned our phones, and it has been smooth sailing since then.  I never used a ton of data with Sprint as it was always around 300-400MB a month.  How could I with the pitiful coverage around here?  Even with the much faster Verizon, I'm still at about 800MB of my 1GB plan that I bought, and that was with a pretty data-heavy trip (for me) to Baltimore.  I wanted to stay with Sprint, but hopefully Ntelos will be out of the picture before I have to think about switching again.  I still vouch for them for my friend who is still uneasy about them up in Winchester (Shentel country) and for others who live in less ignored areas, and its mostly to do with his older non-triband phone.  And by the way, the Roanoke, VA TV market is a top 100 television market, so its not exactly a barren low-density area here as I'm sure that excuse has been used.

The 2Q14 earnings call/webcast is up on ir.ntelos.com.  Looks like there is a management shakeup with their CEO resigning.  Good riddance?

Just left Sprint store. Rep swore LTE by end of August for c'Ville. Said received an email.

Ugh, I'm counting down to calling Sprint retentions' bluff after they said "upgrades should be complete on the tower I used the most by July 1st".

I think I have more confirmation re: July, too.  We just bought a house in Blacksburg which is actually using the same tower that I primarily used before (on top of a hotel off 460), but signal is horrid there.  I can only get signal in the garage or outside if that.  Most of the time I am roaming or just have an 'x'.  This is still in town limits, too.  Several Verizon people who have come here get 2-3 bars in the depths of the house.

I called Sprint retentions expecting to be sent an Airrave, but they actually did not even bring that up.  They said I have been using this one tower primarily, and it is being "upgraded" as we speak and should be completed by July 1st.  They also put in a network monitoring ticket for my phone for 2-3 days and will let me know the results by today or tomorrow.  I think the only thing that could fix my issue is 800SMR, so hopefully that's included.  1900 isn't working too well in this neighborhood unless they somehow repointed those antennae.

Another note: I also was surprised they "found" me on the network since I've called before from home (about that no data with EHRPd thing), and they have had trouble even locating me here since these aren't Sprint towers.

Do we know where they have "launched" LTE yet for their current customers?  Is it still Beckley, Bluefield, Waynesboro, Staunton or something like that?

I'm wondering if HD Voice will be implemented here as well since I see no mention of it in the powerpoints.  Robert, do you have any knowledge on this?

I wonder if during any of these negotiations this thread was ever checked out. If you google "sprint ntelos lte", this thread (and site) is definitely a big chunk of the search results.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk

You all should be loving this part. It means that Sprint has been threatening ntelos with over building them for a while. If they don't finish rolling out to sprints expectations then you can all expect Shentel to come rolling in. That should be a huge motivator to ntelos to deploy quickly and efficiently.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

Yeah, but I have a feeling "quickly and efficiently" as laid out in that contract means by May 2017...

So..... After reading bits and pieces.... Do we have access to LTE now..? Or when will we have access?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I think he said only 10% of their current LTE rollout is reusable at this time.  I wonder if that just means they've only rolled out 10% of LTE in their entire network though.  Can someone in Waynesboro, Beckley, or wherever else they've rolled out LTE initially test it out?

nTelos is dumping their tasty dividend in July, but their stock is up about 20% already this morning...

http://ir.ntelos.com/doc.aspx?IID=4110676&DID=28189920

There is a transcript of the call in case you didn't want to hear Hyde & Co. puffing out their chests for 45 minutes.

The "ready no later than 2017" is pretty much a downer though. I hope it's more like this summer than three years from now.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sprint-and-ntelos-extend-strategic-network-alliance-through-2022-2014-05-22?reflink=MW_news_stmp

 

Bout time now launch it ntelos!

Wow.  There is a conference call and presentation up this morning on ir.ntelos.com too.

My wife's LG Optimus G did the same thing off in on one day here in Roanoke VA last week where eHRPD showed under phone's status. Had to temporarily set it to 3g only vs "LTE (Recommended)" to get data to work (showed Roaming also).

I thought it was a fluke at the time. Didn't have Signal Check on her phone either, but I put it on my N5 afterwards and will keep an eye out as well.

 

Sent from my "Up All Night Sleep All Day" Nexus 5!

This has happened since last August on my HTC One.  And yes, I just checked again, and it is still happening now.  I've had it on CDMA Only since it started.  My wife's Note 2 does not have this problem though when LTE is turned on or it at least knows how to fall back from failing eHRPD to CDMA better than my HTC.

Please see this thread:

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4445-ntelos-ehrpd/&do=findComment&comment=185224

Minor stuff so far. 

 

1. Postpaids up. Total subs at 464,000.

2. ARPU up. Will start new metric called ARPA (Avg. revenue per account)

3. Initial LTE buildout will go on through 2014. Reach 50% of pops by end of year.

4. Agreed to expanded market trial with DISH. Initial testing will finish at end of Q1. Will begin limited marketing of service in Q2.

5. Launched first 4 LTE markets over Christmas.

6. Launched new family plans.

7. Won't provide additional "color" on relationship with Sprint. They have a good relationship and hope to continue providing service to Sprint for years to come. Asked that no question about future of relationship be asked during Q&A. 

 

That last part is interesting. Means negotiations are still ongoing. 

Thanks for doing this.  I had been doing it lately, but I've been a bit too slammed at work this week that I barely noticed (and maybe getting too cynical too about nTelos/Sprint).  I'm listening now to the webcast for humor.

Edit: I think I came in mid-point during the start of Q&A, but there are some very interesting questions being asked.