CriticalityEvent

If my dsl performed better than my sprint 4g I would likely use it.

 

If I did not have 4g, and was stuck with sprint 3g, then I would likely choose my dsl or whatever was available that provided the better service.

 

Same for any free wifi spots. In the majority of cases of my particular use, I use whatever performs the best at that particular location and time.

 

I don't feel guilty one bit for utilizing my 4g service instead of latching on to any random or personal wifi spot.

 

Not to mention, you have no idea what kind of security a public wifi spot may or may not have, or what kind of user tracking they keep on your access.

 

Using a public wifi hotspot without a vpn is like, well I think you can figure it out.

To the point that AJ made earlier, you do not need more than a couple Mbps when you’re on your phone. A relative of mine wanted to upgrade her TV/internet/phone after using the same service for nearly a decade. The AT&T rep on the phone pulled up her account and immediately laughed at the fact that my relative was using their 768Kbps connection. The slowest they currently offer is 3Mbps. It was going to be cheaper for her to upgrade to the faster connection.

Then there’s the subject of battery life. Is it easier for your phone to communicate with a tower that’s potentially thousands of feet away, or a router 30 feet away?

On the subject of security, I cannot claim to know much. I am always wary of going with my instincts or intuition on subjects such as these as there are too many variables.

No one should be using the LTE network if they are concerned about data security. Seriously. Neither are secure networks and both are shared resources.

 

Robert

I really do not like disagreeing with people whose arguments I’ve sided with thus far (especially when they’re the freaking ADMIN), but from what little I do know, wouldn’t the cellular connection offer a higher degree of security than a public Wi-Fi? When I use public Wi-Fi, I usually disable syncing and try to use https:// logins.

I'm on the side of "I pay for it, I should be able to use it" side. Especially since I've paid for LTE (well LTE phone and 4g data) since April and have yet to see it! (joking therehaha) Anyway, this was why I left ATT. First it was "you have to buy this data plan with your iphone 3g." So reluctantly, I forked over the money for unlimited data. Next, it was "if you upgrade to the Atrix 4G, you will retain your unlimited data and have 4g speed." So since I was lured in to buy unlimited a while back, I felt entitled to use it unlimited. Never tured on wifi. Then the caps came after I used 2 GB of data. So pissed off, I continually downloaded / uploaded a 1GB file until sprint launched the Galaxy Nexus. Ending the month with 10GB of data used while "capped". Slowing the speeds really helped there, huh.

I’m confused… are you saying that you retaliated against a capped plan by deliberately burning up data?

Personally I understand bandwidth is a limited resource, but when I was forced to get unlimited, I think it's fair to say that it's not my problem they can't handle the capacity. I'll probably have wifi on when LTE launches here, but I'll only connect at MY HOME. I'm not going to connect a personal device to work's wifi or remember when I'm at mcdonalds/starbucks/jiffy lube or whatever.

 

A side note... you guys do realize in the contract you signed, Sprint still reserves the right to "pull an ATT", as I like to call throttling. So maybe that'll change your mind about using it as an ISP at least.

I feel like you just went the other way at the end there. First, you’re saying that it’s not your responsibility to attempt to use something other than a cellular network (even if it is just a tap of a button on a power control widget), then you advise against using Sprint as your phone’s sole internet connection.

I work in telecom, I understand to a great degree the differences in costs of shared resources.

 

If wimax/lte ever got the point where it performs like sprints current 3g service, then all of you may have a point.

 

The reality is that currently, the wimax, and ostensibly LTE, have sufficient resources to not require the use of wifi offload, now or for the immediate near term future, especially in areas where load is not over concentrated (such as stadiums/concert venue's/etc).

 

I pay for sprint service to provide data for my phone. If I use some other service to provide data for my phone, should I continue to be billed by sprint?

 

It is the principle of the matter, if you pay for a service you should be able to use said service within the terms of your contract, and the contract provider should be providing the services within the contract. Without guilt or ridicule from the moral high ground. No more, no less.

How are things in the land of How-it-should-be-is-the-way-it-is? It’s been a while since my last trip.

Let’s take this to the extreme and see what would happen if everyone adopts your mentality. Everyone thinks that, since they pay for Sprint’s service, they shouldn’t need to use their own Wi-Fi (despite the fact that they also pay for it…whatever) out of principle. It’s a good thing that people never ride bikes for transportation when they’re paying for car insurance.

In the case where they’re within range of a shared public spot, like Starbucks, they still think that, out of principle, they shouldn’t take advantage of a FREE service being offered to them because they’re paying for something already. You would be wise not to accept a ride from a friend if you have your own vehicle; automakers need to learn to meet the demand of consumers to such a degree that nobody would ever need to share a ride.

Wifi is just as much a shared resource as cellular (visit any coffee shop with wifi at peak time), and you're simply splitting the load from one shared resource to another on the pre-tense that it is selfish to utilize a service that you pay for, for it's intended purpose.

You seem to understand that they are all shared resources, but you’re not appreciating the degree to which each one is shared or how sharing affects their capacities.

I am not advocating abusive/over-use, I am talking about normal use. I understand that everyone's use affects everyone else's use, particularly within the same tower/area.

 

@dmchssc its not the wifi sprectrum that is necessarily the limit, it is the bandwidth and utilization of the shared wifi hotspot dsl/t1/cable connection. If you are on your own personal wifi you don't have to share, but you still paying one way or another.

Yes, if you are paying regardless of whether you are on your own Wi-Fi or cellular connection, but do you think that cost between the two is the same? I’m not referring to the amount that you’re paying for each service; I’m referring to the cost to the infrastructures in terms of load and availability.

Also note, personally I am on wimax 99% of the time, so my own use is not putting any undue stress on sprints or clearwires available network.

 

Anyway, we may have to agree to disagree.

I’m confused by this statement. WiMAX is licensed by Sprint through Clearwire. There are both Sprint and Clearwire customers using that service, so wouldn’t you be putting undue stress on BOTH providers if you had a Wi-Fi connection available?

When you say "Servers in both Chicago and Arlington Heights" Does that mean that you are getting signals in the City of Chicago?

I think that he's referring to test servers for the Speed Test app. You can choose the server closest to you for (theoretically) better results. The closest servers to him are probably in Arlington Heights, Chicago and Vernon Hills.

No, no, not this. Every time you keep your smartphone on EV-DO or LTE at home while you have Wi-Fi, the Baby Jesus cries.

 

While that may be a humorous exaggeration, it contains more than a kernel of truth. Folks, some of you just do not get it. You have to offload. Or you have no justification to complain about slow speeds. Sprint cannot offer unlimited data and competitive speeds unless most subs use relatively little data and/or offload to Wi-Fi. That is part of the deal.

 

So, if you have Wi-Fi at home and are not offloading, you better have a really good reason why. Otherwise, I would like to punch you. And "LTE is faster than my home broadband connection is not a 'really good reason why.'" You do not need greater than 1-2 Mbps on your smartphone for any legitimate purpose, bar none. If you want Sprint to maintain unlimited data, then offloading is your responsibility.

 

That may be tough, but sometimes you people need some tough love to set you straight...

 

AJ

This, that, and the other thing. Unfortunately, those are relatively legitimate excuses compared to some of the others that I've read.

Just out of curiosity, why wouldn't you use your wireless at your house?

 

Just out of principle...I feel I shouldn't have to...that's part of what I pay Sprint for.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

To which I responded:

What about power consumption/battery life?

 

…

 

When I have a choked data connection, I'm wondering how many people there are in my area that could just as easily be on a Wi-Fi network that I'm either not in range of or don't have the password to. Once the novelty of having an LTE connection wears off (also after a day or two), I'll be on Wi-Fi wherever I can again.

 

After finding a test tower last month, I performed about 20-25 speed tests. On LTE, that came out to over 600MB. In less than an hour. That put things into perspective for me.

Does anyone remember how old Verizon phones showed two separate bars for "1X" and "EV"? Not knowing what know now, I thought I was getting better EV-DO reception on my Sprint phone because it just showed the one bar. Now Santa is dead.

Does anyone have any input on G-MoN?

https://play.google....nue.gmon2&hl=en

It looks a little unpolished compared to Sensorly or NetMonitor, but it looks like it might collect some information relevant to what we’re looking for. I’m having trouble with importing a valid .CLF file (not sure what the “comments” are that they say to remove). I used a .CLF file found on the developer’s website- http://nobbi.com/download.html. Here is another resource for the app- www.wardriving-forum.de/wiki/G-MoN.

I posted this over in another thread: http://s4gru.com/ind.../5119-abepilot/

 

One thing I would like to add is that when I was driving back south from Barrington through Palatine. The signal automatically locked onto 4G again. I pulled into a parking lot and it took about 30 seconds for the 3G to disappear and 4G to appear.

Great, now it looks like I'm stalking your profile. haha... You mean this thread?

http://s4gru.com/ind...ble-on-sept-21/

Hmm... I have been known to be a little impatient, maybe I just need to give it some time. I'll give that a shot, thanks!

I was just out getting lunch and picked up a 4G signal. I knew I was heading away from the tower, so I was watching my RSRP signal strength in the Settings->About->Network menu (I know, not the most accurate place to look), but once RSRP hit -115dBm, that's when it switched back down to 3G. The transition didn't look smooth, though; the 4G icon disappeared and it took an appreciable length of time for the 3G icon to appear.

Ok, this is getting slightly annoying. The only way I can get my phone to detect a 4G signal is not by cycling between CDMA only and LTE/CDMA, nor by cycling through airplane mode, but by completely restarting. Is anyone else having this issue? I basically have to know when I’m in a 4G area.

Meanwhile, I added new data to Sensorly. If you’re on 94/294, you’ll get 4G between Lake Cook and Dundee (maybe even further south). On Lake Cook, you should get 4G from 94 to Welland. The gap between 94 and Saunders was me having to reboot to get the signal that I’m willing to bet was there.

As we're starting to see all of these impressive speed results can some people let us know if call quality has been getting better? For people who are on the updated towers and getting LTE, have dropped calls become a thing of the past? As of mid-last week there was still clicking on the receiving end of all my wife's phone calls (not too far a distance from this Hiro's last post).

The call quality seems to have improved; as of at least a few days ago, the clicking is gone, but I feel like it's been weeks since I completely dropped a call.

...

People often think they have a good LTE signal strength because their phone shows 4G in the signal strength indicator with lots of "bars". However, the bars in the signal strength indicator in Sprint LTE devices always show the 1x voice signal strength, and not the LTE. Even when it shows the 4G icon. The only way to determine your LTE signal strength is in the Debug menu, under LTE Engineering. Robert

I can't tell you how many times a week I see you post this. I almost think that you should make it (or a link to it) part of your signature.

It's only been 3 days holy crap

 

 

I'm at my uncle house get LTE every where in here. Off lewis behind bp Sent From EVO LTE

My hat goes off to your ability to communicate solely on texts! Seriously, I wish my friends would do that with me. I hope you at least give HD voice a shot when it comes out. :-P

I think i was on that first and then i was at the tower directly behind Cubby Bear. Its in their parking lot adn i was waiting for a pickup so i went underneath the tower and had -69dBm in LTE engineering. if you look at my path going north along the river path it has a small gap where it went 3g but i didnt notice because it was a flawless transition until i looked at it for a second and saw the 3g icon. It picked up the LTE again no problem and that when i got my highest speed of 30/mps down

Glad to hear that the handoff is seamless! I might be in that area later tonight, so I’ll check it out and report back my findings too, if any. Thanks!

Not sure I appreciate the perceived snideness of this post, but I take your point. I don't know what tower I'm on.

I apologize for my perceived tone. I was attempting to humorously make light of the fact that the people on this forum want a level of information with greater detail than you were willing to provide. Saying that you’ve found signal on the west side of a highway along a road that is miles long is an extremely broad statement, given the nature of this thread. However, it’s better than nothing, so thank you for corroborating the claims made by other people.

If you download NetMonitor, it should give you the tower that you’re connected to, however, it might not be the tower that’s transmitting LTE. It might not be the right way of going about it, but I look at the BSID on NetMonitor, then compare that to the “LTE available file” in the ##DATA# menu.

how could I find out which tower im connected to?

 

Sent From EVO LTE

See above. To get to the menu, go to your dial pad and type in ##3282#, then select View Mode->LTE record->LTE available file. Record the BSIDs and compare them to nearby towers that show up in NetMonitor.

I think that you can find your LTE signal strength by going to Settings->About->Network. You’ll see values for RSRQ and RSRP when you’re connected to LTE.

EDIT: Crap, Robert beat me to it.

I live off McAree and sunset so I get LTE in my bedroom 5Mbps-12Mbps and also get it once in a while in the living room around 2.5-3Mbps. When I use netmonitor it says im connected to the Robert Mcclory bike path tower in beach park. Have no clue if its accurate or not though.

 

Sent From EVO LTE

Also I connected to LTE right by the mall on grand right next to the shell gas station but soon as you actually drive by the mall it disappears :/ oh and there is brief LTE on greenbay and yorkhousen. soon as you past the 711 or w.e gas station that is you will get lte.

 

Sent From EVO LTE

Over lunch, I headed over to Quiznos near Grand and Green Bay hoping to get signal, but I got nothing the entire time. After firing up Sensorly and NetMonitor, I drove down to Washington and McAree and parked in the lot of the building on the northwest corner. Cycling between CDMA only and LTE/CDMA did nothing; it took a full reboot of the phone before I saw 4G. >:-/

Once I did that, I held on to the LTE signal until just past Skokie Highway as I headed west on Washington (if you go to Sensorly’s website, you’ll see the line that I created). With signal strengths of -79 (RSRP) and -7 (RSRQ), I was pulling down about 20Mbps.

Here is what my “LTE available file” is now showing:

0. SID:4384 NID:121 BSID:22706 (Gurnee – Depot/Skokie Highway)

1. SID:4384 NID:121 BSID:22435 (Park City – Belvidere/Skokie Highway)

2. SID:4384 NID:121 BSID:22547 (Waukegan – Washington/McAree)

3. SID:4384 NID:121 BSID:22593 (Gurnee – Washington/Tri-State Parkway)

4. SID:4384 NID:2 BSID:5474 (Matteson - Lincoln/Cicero)

5. SID:4384 NID:2 BSID:5474 (Matteson - Lincoln/Cicero)

6. SID:4384 NID:2 BSID:6786

7. SID:4384 NID:2 BSID:6786

I’m currently connected to 22593, but not getting any LTE signal (even after rebooting again).

i had to go into airplane mode to get it to connect the first time but after that it worked prefect. IF you want to see where i was ( the tower i could give you only guarantee 1x) go to sensorly.com and see their map. it was updated wiht my data. it went as far south as deerfield rd and up to lincolnshire where cubby bear north is. i has average of 15/mbps down and 12/mbps up with peaks over 30/mbps down. i would upload the pics but forum runner doesnt seem to ever work for me.

Just as I was about to post this, the thread refreshed and I saw your post. I thought it was funny how we kind of did the same thing at the same time with Sensorly. Your data runs from Aptakisic down to Dundee? I’m guessing that’s all from the tower at Lake Cook and Milwaukee.

West of the tri-state. Don't want to narrow it down too much as then you'll know where I work...

You’ll be able to maintain your occupational anonymity as long as you don’t say, “Takeda Parkway and Lake Cook Road.”

You could just say that it’s the tower between Saunders and Portwine just off of Lake Cook. That narrows it down to about 5 large companies within a 1-mile radius with roughly 20,000 employees total. I think you’ll be ok, Bruce Wayne.

+1 I'm like a kid in a candy store cant wait for more towers to get LTE. So far I only get it in my room. And just got back from driving around using sensorly so other users can see where 4G is active. Btw this is the speedtest in my room

 

Sent From EVO LTE

i have confirmed LTE in waukegan IL it's a similar speed compared to wimax but seems to be a bit more consistent and wayyy better indoor reception. just got a signal this morning for the first time.

tried to do a speedtest on my laptop via wifi tehter but the download speed said 910 kbps upload said 2.9 Mb/s so i know somethings up with that. on the device(GS3) it stated 6.6 Mb/s down and 3.2 Mb/s up 22 ms ping. pretty damn decent if you have been stuck on 3g for months. i'm super happy now that i can power my new win8 touchscreen laptop to LTE on the go in tablet mode and make the new iPad LTE users look like idiots as I send full studio sessions to my homies while on a train ride to chicago. the battery life while on 4g is the real BIG deal. after four hours of tethering im still on 87%. with txts/calls coming in the whole time. that fat bill i pay sprint may be worth it after all. and verizon can kick sprints ass speedwise but since they have capped data they can kiss my ass instead.

Can you tell me which towers you guys are connecting to? According to the maps, there are only two towers that have 4G- the one near Green Bay and Buckley at the training center and the one at Washington and Keller/McAree.

I saw blips of 4G while I was heading north on 94 towards Grand. I only started seeing these brief connections once I was approaching/past Buckley. I’m currently on the west side of 94 right across from Gurnee Mills and only picking up 3G.

Just out of principle...I feel I shouldn't have to...that's part of what I pay Sprint for.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

What about power consumption/battery life?

I would use LTE in my home when it first shows up just for grins and putting it through the ringer for a few weeks. But to stay on there indefinitely is certainly wasteful. All wireless networks are a shared resource.

 

Robert

This. When I have a choked data connection, I'm wondering how many people there are in my area that could just as easily be on a Wi-Fi network that I'm either not in range of or don't have the password to. Once the novelty of having an LTE connection wears off (also after a day or two), I'll be on Wi-Fi wherever I can again.

After finding a test tower last month, I performed about 20-25 speed tests. On LTE, that came out to over 600MB. In less than an hour. That put things into perspective for me.

 

 

Two days straight and the signal seems to be holding. BTW...this is indoors. I hope it's not a test. Nice to not have to use Wi-Fi when I'm at home.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Just out of curiosity, why wouldn't you use your wireless at your house?

Yes.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

As far as a ratio of information-to-words is concerned, this ranks up there with some of your most informative posts, but this is, by a wide margin, the most curt post that I’ve seen you make (minus the signature). You freaking rock.

…I don't have access to the maps, but it seems to me, and maybe I'm wrong, but the LTE launch that was initially expected late summer / early fall looks to be more like the end of the year? I hope it's sooner, but if they are doing the city last as they are working outside to inside then that's a lot of towers still needing service work in Chicago proper.

…

I believe the plan was to have the Chicago market (which really extends out to Rockford) go live late this month with a completion date of December:

http://s4gru.com/ind...chedule-update/

There are some more recent posts that seem to indicate that the market might not go live until October with an estimated completion of January, so it was really just pushed back a month.

So for all my Chicago buddies on this site, how is the coverage and speeds on 3G in your personal experience? I'm porting my cousin over from T-Mobile to Sprint, but am concerned how the network is currently.

 

I checked the maps and he has a NV site a block from his apartment, but what about the rest of the city proper?

Do you know what neighborhood your friend lives in? The loop area can be pretty damn good for Sprint, but some of the northern neighborhoods (Uptown, Edgewater, some parts of Lincoln Park, etc…) can really drag.

… He'll see a significant decrease in speed moving from Tmobile to Sprint right now.

This. T-Mo is fantastic in Chicago. My friends who are on it consistently get 2-3Mbps on speed tests (even at Cubs games), with spikes up to 6 or 7. They like to taunt me with their results. :-(

I've been getting eHRPD again in Gurnee, Arlington Heights, and Chicago over the last couple of days.

I got some strange results today. I work near Gail Borden library in Elgin. I was getting great speeds this morning. 1.9D 07U with a 100ms ping. I was ecstatic after seeing Sprint press release today thinking that they hooked up the new backhaul. Then, around lunch time the speeds and ping deteriorated to the norm of what I’ve been getting the last 5-6 months of 0.2D 0.4U with a 280ms ping or worse. Now I’m about to leave and the speeds are spotty, sometimes good. Sometimes bad. Sometimes in between. I really do know what to make of this. I don’t know if I need to blame my phone for being crappy. I haven't upgraded my OG Epic and I’m waiting on the iPhone 5 announcement to make a decision. Or is it they are testing the towers near me to see what load they can handle?!? Or is the area overloaded and additional backhaul is needed?!?

 

I have no idea and want to know if anyone has any insight on the matter??

This would actually happen to me as well. I would get to work around 9:30, have great speed and no connection issues, then by 11, it was all gone. You could almost set your watch to it. I chalked it up to working near Six Flags in Gurnee. Of course, I work between the tower that is closest to the park and the park itself, so I’m sure there’s quite a load being placed on it.

What would be awesome is if there was an app that allowed you to manually choose which tower you would like to connect to. Yes, more often than not, the phone can choose the best tower, but sometimes… yeah… no…

Please report if you are getting ehrpd connection in the Chicago market. It was available at every north Chicagoland site i visited since early July and has since vanished!!!!

I was getting it in Gurnee for a while, then it recently stopped, but I'm still getting it in Arlington Heights.

the MVNO that is Sprint.

Um what does that mean.

MVNO – Mobile Virtual Network Operator (e.g. Firefly Mobile, NET10, Straight Talk, etc…). Basically, they use a major carrier’s network to offer (typically) cheaper plans because they don’t have to invest the money to maintain infrastructure.

Of course, this makes his statement somewhat confusing as Sprint is not an MVNO; it’s its own network operator through which MVNOs operate. I’m guessing it was some kind of jab at their service, or lack thereof from his perspective.

Robert the sheer amount of information I learn from you is amazing.

 

So with LTE and EVDO-A being on 1900 I can expect the same amount of bars at all locations I'm currently having trouble with, correct?

I'm just wondering what kind of threshold there will be for 1900 that will allow the phone switch to 800, for example, is it going to try to hang on for dear life to 1900? The 1900 signal can fluctuate quite a bit for me at home, anywhere from -85ish to -100.

My personal experience with my evo lte is you need to loose pretty much all the pcs signal before it switches to the SMR band. Once my phone acquired the SMR band it held onto it for a while even when I moved into an area that I could get pcs. Eventually it switched back.

 

Sent from my EVO LTE

Check this thread out!

http://s4gru.com/ind...at-signal-edge/

/shameless self-promotion

Network Vision calls for Sprint to first deploy LTE over the 1.9GHz spectrum it holds, followed by the 2.5GHz spectrum at some point and the 800MHz spectrum later, Chu said. The 1.9GHz channel offers wide geographical coverage, which means Sprint won't need to add more cell sites or towers as additional subscribers buy and use LTE smartphones and other devices, Chu said.

Is this how it's going to happen? For some reason, I thought it was going to start with 1900MHz, followed by 800, then 2500...