techwrench

Thanks for the reply and sorry for the delayed response. Wound up getting ill during the conversation. The reason I posted is because it is creating problems constantly. I use Sprint wireless to download files and deal with some networked applications all day long. File downloads in a good spot may average 1.6 mb/sec. but in some areas it will be 12kb/sec. We constantly run data quality tests for certain applications before executing them. These tests measure ping times, jitter, a reasonable 150 kb/sec minimum speed and packet loss to determine the reliability for our networked applications. The connections are rated on a point system from 0 (best) to 500 (worst). A 275 minimum is required to have a reasonable chance of success. As a reference 3G 80% is about a 250 to 260 score. Wimax scores out at 210 - 230 60% or above. To give you a reference to hard wire the local ISPs typically score 80 to 100 with the new comcast business class coming in at 24 (best I have ever seen) and certified gold T-1 coming in at 38. When 4GLTE started here the score was an amazing 98 with 100 percent signal!! I expected some degradation as more people started using the service but I never thought I would see a 398!! To make matters worse the tech support people are now unable to help as most towers are under construction which means when you call with an issue they don't check into it. I run into routers that need resetting and that sort of stuff about once a month which Sprint normally fixes with a phone call. They won't even take a look now!! This includes 3G and Wimax!! I would be happy to live on 3G and Wimax until the construction is finished but the construction is causing issues on these as well. On Friday I heard that in an area meeting (sometime prior) on Network vision Ericsson has agreed to 120 more teams in our to get the problems resolved which gives me great hope. I can't wait for them to get it ironed out. When they do I will definitely let you know!! Quite frankly until recently Sprint was the best carrier for our needs and we hope they work it out soon!! I have even offered to help them several times as our vehicles travel live so we sell all the issues wherever we travel but no takers!!

Thanks for pointing out that my membership had expired. I didn't relaize it!! I'll get that resolved now. As for knowing what is going on. If you check back you will see I did a review on the Tri-band modem almost a year ago. I office right by one of the first towers on that was done on the North side of Houston in the Woodlands. I also cover 750 miles a week using the tri-band and my phones inside of Houston. It was fantastic at first as you will see in my initial reports made on here but it has steadily dropped to where in most areas a speed test with 100% signal will only get about 1.8 down 3.2 up. I can get 5.4 down with Wimax most of the time. The tower by my office has continously had problems and 75% of the phones in Houston had service issues three times in the last month!! I am still a customer but unless something happens fast it won't be for long. I just did a speed test test for you in Bellaire, Texas which is in downtown Houston. 2.54MB down 5.4MB up with 100% signal (-71dBm)and if you look at the test trace you can see speeds all over the map from 0.2mb to 14mb. I am praying it gets better soon!

Here in Houston, Texas the wait has not been worth it. We still don't have any consistent high speeds because the sytem is being oversold faster than they can build it and it crashes constantly. In addition we are now having constant voice issues as they scramble to deal with the data issues. I spend over 40% of my time on Wimax as it is faster than the the 4GLTE in most areas. I think network vision needs a seeing eye dog!! For the first time in 14 years I am having to move my business phones from Sprint to be able to do business!!

Sprint has started allowing reviews but they have to be approved before posting. Minw made it through with no issues!

Robert, I have a suggestion for Sprint that would help them resolve issues a lot faster than their current method. In the automotive industry, which is very similar to the wireless industry in implementation, a lot of engineering is done "on the fly" so that sales help fund development. A lot of time the engineers are not given enough testing time to find these issues before hand or the issues just don't show up until used in the "real" world. The leaders in automotive technology realize this is an issue and have figured out a way to combat this at a minimal cost. They identify entities that have the ability to get them lots of feedback quickly....people and businesses that are going to use this equipment more intensively than the average consumer!! These people get equipment early on with lots of perks to entice them to perform the additional tasks necessary to provide the feedback that the manufacturers need. These perks are equipment at no or low costs, updates free or before everyone else and direct access to advanced support levels allowing the engineers to work directly with the field. I think that Sprint (and most wireless carriers) could benefit from this type of relationship. What I am seeing right now is that they need a quick way to find issues so they can be resolved quickly without hurting their reputation in the consumers eyes. Which is going to be better for them - having a working agreement with someone who uses a phone 5,000 + minutes a month or listening and trying to decipher 400 support calls from people who use the phone 200 minutes a month. Which way makes the Company look bad in the consumers eyes? Which one is more likely to generate negative comments? A good example would be my Tri-band modem. I have given them several tips and work arounds to help with some of the issues. I have the 5th unit sold to consumers and first cradle ever sold. I use the unit nonstop 10 hours a day in the worst environment for electronics in the nation. High temps and high humidity!! Just having acces to my GPS and signal strengths would allow them to find issues in half the time since I drive as much as 1,000 miles a week mainly in the LTE areas ni the Houston area. When i call support and lose time on an issue the first things i hear out of the support personnel's mouth are solutions or workarounds that I provided them in prior phone conversations with little or no new solutions. I bet right now they could find 10 people just like me in every area that are willing to work with Sprint to improve equipment and services. I think network vision could be greatly improved with a little Support Vision!!

I have a little bit different take on the situation here in Houston as I use the coverage over most of Houston with the Tri-band modem. The service is almost everywhere I go. I was on LTE yesterday afternoon in Cut and Shoot, Texas!! First I don't think that they have all the elements adjusted correctly on the towers. I am seeing gaps between the antennas on the same towers. Second Erricson seems to scrambling madly with issues which I suspect is due to the unusually heavy rain we have had for the last week plus tweaking the towers coverage footprint. I have caught them yanking LTE in and out of service on several towers. I suspect they are trying to get the elements aligned right to fix the coverage gaps.

North Houston is now live with 4G LTE. They were having problems caused by the flooding from the last week of rain according to my sources. My home tower is at 57 ms ping with 31mb down and 18mb up on testing in the best signal area. .

While the insurance is only $8.00 they are charging all the the taxes and so forth on the total bill. Removing insurance from 1 phone reduced the monthlybill by around $9.50 if I remember correctly.If you have multiple lines that are insured it may make more sense to self insure. I put around $57.00 a month in my pocket now cutting the insurance off 6 phone lines which means I have the money to buy outright a phone about every 6 months ($100.00 deductible plus $342 in savings). The added advantage to that is you get your phone immediately. Just wait to the time you break your phone in the middle of nowhere and they want you to FAX an affidavit before they will even start the replacement on the phone, They don't accept e-mail!!!! Then they always seem to lose the affidavit so you have to do it again!! After waiting 2 weeks for a phone I decided they aren't worth it. I put the deductible in the bank with the insurance savings and just buy a phone when I need or want a different one. This also has the added benefit of allowing you service with no contract!!! If you buy a phone outright you can go month to month which will alow you to change your services at will with no buyout!!

I can tell you from using data all around the Houston area that the service is already starting to improve. I can see in former problem areas where both speeds and stability have increased. I would wait a bit longer to see if the improvements fix your issues. One of the areas where I work a lot the 4G WiMax has come up this week from 2MB down to 6.5 MB down from the upgrades with a more even flow of data. And I can see the guys still on the tower working!!

As close as I can figure the cradle boosts the signal strength in marginal areas about 7 to 10 percent. I tried it in an area that shows a 10% signal and with the cradle it shows 20%. It really helps the transmit because without at 10% it misses data occasionally but with the cradle it is a good usable signal. The cradle was $54.00.

Sorry my good camera was in the van with the broke transmission. I am a automotive diagnostic consultant that helps repair shops with diagnostic issues and reprogramming vehicle computers. All of the reprogramming for cars is internet based.

I thought it was out of whack when I was testing as well but I was able to do two speed tests that were very close. It is possible that I was so close to the tower that it was inaccurate. I was sitting on a hill in the middle of the highest strength LTE I could find. It was line of sight with no obstructions and my rangefinder showed 482 feet to the element. I was amazed by the ping times as well on this test test as all other areas I tested were 55ms or higher. This test had a ping of 37 ms. The other test showed a 20.7 upload speed. All other tests I performed in other areas with 100% were in the 12 - 19 mb range on upload.

Stay tuned for my review which should be in Roberts hand by the end of day. He should have it up shortly. It will answer your questions in detail I hope. I'l also continue sending updates as I learn more about it. It is getting put through the wringer here so the results should be interesting.

Being one of the first Tri-Band Modem users in the Area, I attempted to post a review on Sprint's Website. There is 1 review up already so I figured it should be possible. When I attempt to write a review it says I am not logged in even though I am. The funny thing is I can post a review for any of my 5 other devices with no problem. I know that with the original Hotspot Sprint was making sure the rating was good even though the device had tons of issues. Is Sprint trying to do the same thing again?

THis tower was being blocked yesterday at3:00 PM when I went through the area. I have not found a single active 4GLTE signal in North Houston recently.