saywhatman

Update from me. I sent a text message from the default messaging on my phone and it sent about 15 messages to two different people.

You have to disable receiving text messages in hangouts (in the hangouts setting) and also use another app.  

How can I increase the scan time? What would be the best interval? And how can I get my MSL code without calling sprint or rooting my device?

 

Thanks!

Last question, what is the hierarchy of the lte and spark bands?

At this time, there is no reliable way to change the LTE scan timer on triband phones short of modifying the radio firmware itself.

The other information is available in the FAQ but in short:

Band 41 - High capacity and high frequency. Sprint has a lot of B41, and so will prioritize phones to camp on it as much as possible. It doesn't propagate as far as B25 (1900 MHz) and B26 (800 MHz). Sprint has as much as 160 MHz of B41 spectrum in many markets.

Band 25 is the bread and butter LTE band for Sprint that it deployed on its nationwide G-block PCS spectrum in a 5x5 configuration. This is now saturated and needs to be rescued by B41.

Band 26 is being rapidly deployed in Sprint's footprint. It is a lower band and thus propagates better. It will likely be a band of last resort, the network will only let you on it if you are out of range of the other two bands or perhaps if B25 is over capacity.

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Would adjusting the LTE timer from 30 to a lower setting help? I'm not talking some crazy low setting just maybe set it to 15 from 30. Honestly this really pisses me off that Sprint's network is doing this. The S5 is a flagship phone and them selling it in 2014 knowing it would be on 3g isn't right. So basically until the towers in my area are upgraded, I am stuck without auto switching networks? Let alone the entire state? I don't want to be a dick but come on.

Even when the network is completely upgraded, the network can't automatically switch you from 3G to LTE. There's no way to 'teach' 3G about the existence of LTE. The answer is denser LTE deployment and faster scan times.

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Or one of the other N5 compliant LTE bands, like B4, B5 and B17.  A Sprint SIM card would just need to receive an update to scan those bands too.  Currently the N5 does not scan those other bands with a Sprint SIM card in it.

 

Robert

Would this be a software update, like a profile update? Or does it have to be at the radio level? For the N5, will se see another situation like the Spark wait where we had to wait for google to release 4.4.3? 

This is still happening on my S5. Has there been a fix issued yet? This is getting old. LTE discovery is great for power cycling the radio. But this should not be happening, let alone in 2014. Anyone?

Unfortunately, this isn't really something to be 'fixed'. When the phone is on 3G it cannot 'see' the LTE network and thus must wait for the LTE scan timer to scan for and connect to LTE. There's no way to have the network tell the phone to hand-up to LTE (like eCSFB is a way for the network to tell the phone to hand-down to 1x). If you're in an active data session over 3G (streaming music, etc.), the phone waits even longer to scan for LTE. In the future, when LTE is more prevalent and deployed on B26 everywhere, perhaps scan timers can be much shorter, as if someone has lost LTE, it's probably not for very long .

I would recommend that the phone uses something like exponential backoff like on ethernet connections but for scan times. The first scan comes very quickly after you lose LTE (because in many cases it was just temporary, like in an elevator), and the scan times drop off to scanning very infrequently the longer you're without it. 

We marked Denver as launched in the NV Running List since it is shown on coverage maps.  Also, does it appear that the LTE coverage maps have become much more realistic??  Some look spot on, or over conservative.  Albuquerque is actually under showing coverage in several areas.

 

Robert

Eh, well San Francisco is still as overoptimistic as ever. Places like Noe Valley are deep orange when you can barely get 3G there. 

So I noticed something odd on Sprint's website a few days ago that still seems to be going on today as it pertains to the N5.  When looking up coverage specific to the N5, Sprint's coverage maps do not show any Spark markets, seeming to indicate that someone at Sprint thinks the N5 isn't a tri-band device when, clearly, it is.  But toggle the device selection to, say, the LG G3 and, VOILA! Spark markets appear on the coverage tool.

 

This hasn't always been the case and I just thought I'd share.  I wonder why the change?

This has always been the case. The N5 has never been shown tri-band coverage on Sprint's coverage maps. 

This isn't the correct forum for this, but most likely you are roaming with 1x and EV-DO on Verizon's network. 

What's the standard PCS band width for EVDO? 5 by 5 ?

EV-DO uses 1.25x1.25 Mhz channels, the same as 1x.  

What are the current border issues with the 800 MHz LTE? I am in San Diego and i am having a lot of trouble getting LTE in my house, but as soon as i step outside it can grab a signal. I heard 800 is way better at furthering coverage. I also thought i read something about there was a delay because of something with the Mexican border and they weren't approved for 800 MHz LTE?

 

I thought Sprint's 3G and LTE ran on the same frequency (1900) and that means everywhere i got sprint 3G i would also receive LTE, Sprint assured me that i was in a LTE area and i should be getting it in my house too. They have called a technician and i am waiting for that to pan out.

 

In the mean time it would be awesome if someone could further explain this to me.

 

Thanks!

San Diego is in the IBEZ, an international border area in which wide-band transmissions on Sprint's SMR spectrum are not allowed. Sprint and NII Holdings are working together with the Mexican and American governments to see what they can do about rebranding Mexican carriers and other local operations to allow Sprint to broadcast in that area. Similar negotiations are going on at the Canadian border as well.

As to your second point, Sprint's coverage maps and CS reps are very optimistic about LTE coverage. On 1900, there is no possible way that LTE will reach as far as EV-DO. LTE is fast because it uses a complex modulation scheme, which means that it can compress data more effectively over the airlink. This means that in order for LTE to work, you have to have a pretty good signal, becuase if a disruption occurs in that modulation, the data is useless. EV-DO has this problem as well, but it is more robust because the modulation is less complex and thus can better resist small signal defects. What this unfortunately means is that LTE will never reach as far as 1x or EV-DO on the same frequency. I encourage you to become a sponsor and check out the maps in your area of San Diego! You might see that a site nearby hasn't been upgraded yet and will soon provide you with LTE.

The good news is that at lower frequencies, signals will travel farther, and an LTE signal on 800 will travel about as far as a EV-DO signal on 1900, and have better building penetration to boot. When Sprint blankets its network in B26 for coverage and B41 for capacity, it will be awesome. In my opinion they need about 7,500-10,000 more sites to expand coverage and infill in major urban areas to do this.

People who are more knowledgeable than me, let me know if I left anything out!

Done!

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/jijrtgf0ogyamsa/2014-08-13%2005.22.31.png

 

Forgot to post this last night.

West Oakland close to 12th St

It's everywhere. And powerful too, I catch the same B26 tower at home in Mission Bay and at Macarthur BART.

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Welcome to S4GRU! I just came to point you to our FAQ ( http://www.s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1704-Frequently-Asked-Questions) which will also answer some of your questions. Please consider donating a few dollars towards keeping this site running and you'll get access to the awesome sponsor maps of every Sprint site in the country!

Sacramento is definitely not in the best place right now, but take it from someone in sf (the other most behind market on the west coast) things get much better.

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I knew there was a DAS in AT&T park! It's mapped on the network.sprint.com maps, but not on the sponsor maps. The signal from it goes out to neighboring King St. Whenever there's a game or a concert though it seems that the neighboring macro cells are hit hard anyway. 

But the app preloading songs should be useful in that regard. When I'm on Google Play Music, I can drop to legacy 3G and the song will keep playing because my device already loaded it.

Oh, trust me, I have upwards of 14gb of music cached, I'm no stranger to that and I love it

While I do agree but I as long as I can stream Spotify, hop on Vine, Instagram and surf the web with ease I'm fine. Now I do conduct speed tests here and there, I do question if the results are accurate only because I am able to stream Spotify on high quality with no problems on LTE and 3G and my speed tests that Ive done barely hit 3mbps in my area on LTE.

I think the key there is consistency. Theoretically I could do my 320kbps stream at a smooth 500kbps fine, but on 3G I might burst to 700kbps then down to 15, then up to 80, then 150, then 0.

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I certainly don't agree Sprint has to hit certain data speed in order not to upset customers. What they need is usable data which is 1M~2Mbps. Those who try to test data speed every day are not the group to make Sprint recover financially. Nothing against those speedtest fans but just try to say most customers don't do that instead of caring if they can open webpage/email/app in acceptable time.

I'd still prefer they meet their advertised speeds (5-8 down). My benchmark for a network is being able to stream music during my entire commute without stuttering, while I'm reading text based news at the same time, at 1-2 down, this tends not to work. If Sprint can do that and keep my framily plan at $25 + $20, I'll be happy. They can't do it in San Francisco, and they can almost do it in Oakland. When I go back to Chicago in the fall, I'm relatively certain I should be able to do it, but we'll see. 

3G is somewhat improved due to the equipment upgrades (especially in the signal department, the site at the tip of Market is an absolute boomer now), and somewhat in speed (probably due to non-integrated, but installed backhaul). But, there's still not enough capacity for great 3G speeds even on great backhaul if the airlink is saturated (Fidi at lunch).

Those sites fly late at night though. The high capacity site near my apartment regularly tears at 2-2.6mbps at night, but during the Beyonce concert, I could barely send a text, and facebook messages were touch and go at best.  

It shouldn't be super difficult, but you'll need some way of getting each LTE connection to Ethernet. After that, a load-balancing broadband router like a TL-R470T (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005SYQBN8/) is quite inexpensive compared to a Peplink.

Lots of LTE on my N5 downtown today. Unfortunately it seems that they only enabled eCSFB on the old sites, so things are actually worse. At least more people are on the dead LTE, so forcing 3G is semi-effective.

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Sounds ugly.  All this out of Sprint's control?  They can't just hire more subs to push harder?

It's certainly less than ideal. I've only ever gotten usable LTE from one site in SF, and only with no eCSFB. They're working on it, but it'll be (very optimistically) another month before anything tangible. 3G has gotten better though, but they're tweaking it a lot so it goes in and out with respect to speed. 

Link to thread?

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/5262-san-francisco-permits-and-map/

But in the future, all B26 information should go here: 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/6122-san-francisco-nv20-maps/

I'm also down to go to Alameda and hunt down some sites.

B26 information from Oakland in the Sponsor Section! 

It's not actually a formula. Once you have collected a good number of GCIs and matched them to their sites, a pattern should develop allowing you to predict (roughly) the remaining.

 

Sent from my LG G3

In Chicago for B41 Clear sites there is an actual formula to map GCIs to Site IDs (don't know if this is a unique to Chicagoland thing, or a unique to Clear thing, or both), it involves some simple hexadecimal math and a bit mask. tommym65 discovered it.