msponsler

I saw some shentel techs working on the one tower in mechanicaburg near the route 11 exit of 581. I did get lte there as well.

I saw some shentel techs working on the one tower in mechanicaburg near the route 11 exit of 581. I did get lte there as well.

I saw some shentel techs working on the one tower in mechanicaburg near the route 11 exit of 581. I did get lte there as well.

More LTE is lighting up around Harrisburg today. Specifically the outlaying towns of mechanicaburg and camp hill

I'm picking up 4G LTE in Mechanicsburg, on the Navy Base. Speeds were 6up, 1.5 down. I've got sensorly running, I'll try to pick up some more.

If your building is reinforced concrete, chances are you may never have good cell reception. The steel bars in the reinforced concrete act like a Faraday cage. Once the 800MHz CDMA2000 1x Advanced goes live, that would probably be your best shot at good cell reception. The 1900MHz LTE isn't going to go through walls very well. The good news is that you *should* start seeing MUCH better 3G speeds in your area between now and then. I was told that Shentel is focusing on towers that litter the I-81 corridor. I'm not sure from what "where" to "where" but the I-81 corridor in their coverage area. You *should* start seeing better reception. I work in Mechanicsburg, in a big concrete building. I used to get 100 ~ 150kbps on 3G at my desk. I did a speed test earlier today and I got 593kbps down, 252kbps up. Tower 310 04168, Evdo rev.A. -93 dBm -93 dbm is a pretty bad connection IMO. Netmonitor is a wonderful app! I can get 2100kbps ~ 2600kbps down when I (believe) I'm connected to the tower I've posted pictures of above. I haven't had the time to verify and get better tower pics yet. Yes, LTE and CDMA are independent of each other. They use different radios in your phone and on the tower. If you had powerful 4G WiMax signal in your office, you will probably have good sprint LTE service once it goes live. WiMax is a 2500MHz signal. WiMax has horrible penetration. The smaller the frequency (the wave length), the longer the distance and the more stuff it can pass through (like 800Mhz). The higher the frequency, the shorter the distance and the less stuff it can pass through. Higher frequencies have a higher theoretical bandwidth. Lower frequencies can over come this by having a wider band -- like have 804MHz to 824MHz is a larger band than 804MHz to 814MHz. The band is the number of frequencies (think radio station) that you are occupying to send and receive. Verizion and AT&T's LTE operates in the 700MHz band. And Verizion has a much wider band to operate their LTE in than Sprint does. So theoretically, Verizon should *always* have a faster LTE speed with better penetration -- if the world lived in a clean, ideal world. The backbone connecting the towers the the internet is just as critical as the frequency and band. As well as the physical barriers the signal needs to pass through. Sprint moving the radios to the TOP of the tower *ideally* will over come the advantage of verizon operating in the 700MHz band. You get roughly a 31% signal loss from the antenna at the top of the tower to the radio at the bottom of the tower. You always had better reception from your old "roof mounted TV antenna" when you plugged a shorter coax cable into it and moved your TV as close to the antenna as possible. Signal degradation occurs because of the natural resistance in the coax line between radio and antenna. That's why a fibre cable backbone is ideal. No electrical resistance in light. You just have to make sure you focus the little blinkly lights correctly :-) LTE can support simultaneous data / voice and text. LTE is basically an evolution of GSM technology. But yes, you will still be able to roam on 3G if your signal bites the big one once the NV upgrade is completed in your area. Given your good WiMax reception, you should get decent 3G / LTE signal in your office. Don't quote me on that later if you don't! It depends on what and how much is between you and the tower. Depending where you are at in harrisburg, your signal may have to go through MANY buildings to get to you.. It depends where the tower is located at. In other news.. I talked to someone who works for Sprint over the weekend. I reiterated my information to them about shentel. He said it was an optimistic time line :-( But he confirmed the upgrade IS under way, and a few towers around Harrisburg will start to see LTE sooner rather than later. But he wouldn't commit to any dates. But the towers will go NV live sporadically and we can expect many pockets in LTE coverage until they are completely done. When asked when a total harrisburg area (east and west shore) deployment may be completed, I was told by end of the year. I was able to map out the towers around the Harrisburg beltway -- highways 81 / 581 / 83. I'll try to post that and sites that I've been able to get the best 3G speeds on, which should point to the earliest NV upgrades. I have not mapped any towers in down town harrisburg yet. So far, to me at least, it seems that the best speeds / connections have been along 581 from Mechanicsburg to the 83 Split, across the bridge, and to 322.

Those two tower configurations litter the area. This is the only spot that had them both side by side. I've got a buddy who is into photography stuff. He's got some crazy zoom lenses. I going to try to get some better zoomed shots of these so we can get a better identification of them. Hopefully I can get it done this weekend...probably not, but I'd like to. I doubt I'll have the time.

I've attached images of the towers. I'm not sure which one and which pieces are sprint. I'm rather certain I was getting connection from them. In the same spot just yesterday I was getting between 3kbps ~ 45kbps down, 100kbps ~ 175kbps up and ~350ms ping. I've attached a screenshot of a speed test taken this evening. Sadly, it says EvdoA. I was in the Mechanicsburg / Camp Hill area. These towers are located directly behind this building: https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&cid=7043713327827853757&q=Hampden+Fire+Station&iwloc=A&gl=US&hl=en

Shentel is currently (as we speak) installing the Network Vision equipment on their towers in the Harrisburg PA area. This includes all the fun LTE stuff. Shentel is planning to turn on LTE in the next 2-3 weeks. With mid July being the worst case target date. They will not / cannot turn on their LTE network until sprint gives them the go ahead and they turn up their LTE network. If you are in the Harrisburg area right now, you should noticed better 3G reception in most areas, but horrible (read: 5 - 50kbps) download speed. Because a lot of new equipment is being installed and some towers are down. I do not work for shentel, but I know a few people. Please note that everything appears to be on schedule, but some delays might incur.