Joeynach

Thanks for the insight. I too have noticed that 3G in Chicago is really bad. I can't say for sure if the system is overloaded but its spotty at best, at least from a Data point of view. When my phone bumps into 3G for whatever reason (elevator, subway, basement, poor 4G coverage, etc) and the 3G kicks on data functions start to time out and fail pretty consistently. Things work OK on 4G WiMax in Chicago now, but coverage gets real spotty once you leave the city proper, its ever terrible at both airports. Im looking forward to the arrival of 4G LTE, from what I have been reading and hearing in the rumor mill, if I had to guess when LTE is really "here" in Chicago.....Id say sometime around the end of the year, November or December.

In looking at the detail map of Chicago Im wondering why no one else has pointed out all the active sites are located well outside of the city in the suburbs. None of the other detailed city views show this to be the case as they have received equal LTE site coverage both in the city and the surrounding suburbs. I live in Chicago (proper) so of course I would like to see the LTE On-Air from Sprint sites show up to cover all part of the city, not just a few isolated burbs. Im really curious as to why the first sites to receive On-Air status from Sprint seem to be Joliet, Aurora, Elgin, Oak Brook, and the far NW Burbs. All of these sites are 30-40 miles away from downtown, the NW burbs area has very low population density, and some like Joliet/Elgin aren't really even considered suburbs of Chicago (they are too far). The whole thing seems to strange to me.