ingenium

Thank you guys for your responses.
I was able to get one of my friends to lend me one of his old Androids for the day, so I'm trying to see if I can get to 2000 points in the next few hours.  I've noticed one bug though: my username appears to be null, even after logging out and logging back in as well as force quitting the app.  Is this a bug anyone else has experienced?  I would hate to get 2000 points but for them to never be uploaded to my account...

I remember this happening to me before, but I don't remember what I did to fix it unfortunately... Maybe try clearing data for the app?

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Every MB I've been connected to I have only seen 1-8 Mbps.

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The one at my parents gets over 30 Mbps, using a very weak 5x5 B25 carrier for relay. It just depends on how loaded the macro is. My home MB is often in the 10-15 Mbps range, but the macro is heavily congested.

I've seen speed tests from magic boxes over 60 Mbps.

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That SIM is how I track AT&T in my area.  It's worked great, and it's helpful to have the 200MB of data through it now and then.

- Trip

Yup, I have one as a spare SIM in case I'm in an area without Sprint service (or stuck on 1x roaming) for an extended period of time. I also use one in my car instead of paying AT&T for service (integrated Google maps, built in hotspot, etc). I have friends maxed out, so an extra 500MB/month on it (700MB total). There's a group of us on here with FreedomPop that can help you max out your friends if you want.

It's just annoying they make you re-activate it on their website once a month if you don't have any phone calls on it. No cost at least.

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I use a Moto E2 via FreedomPop and cellmapper on it..  It does band locking (B25/26/41) without the need for root.  You just need the MSL which FreedomPop provides when you order the phone.    I think for the hydro, while I believe B26 and 41 can be toggled, the only recourse for B25 is disabling the band scan for B25.  That'll initially work until the network decides to plop you on B25.  I also use a Kyocera hydro for the same purpose [emoji3]

Yeah I don't think you can disable b25 without root. The free version of NSG will let you disable it, but it forces a phone reboot every time you enable or disable a band.

Rooting the Hydro Icon is also a PITA. The only way is Kingroot, which injects ads and blocks replacement with something like SuperSU. I still managed to do it, but it's non trivial...you need to keep a root adb shell open and delete all the root files and kill the root daemon (but your session keeps root until it exits). This allows you to manually install SuperSU. It took me a few tries to find all the Kingroot files. If you miss one it removes SuperSU and reinstalls Kingroot. Very much malware behavior. So if the Moto E2 has an easier root, go that route instead.

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Can you get access to an Android phone for an hour to drive around? If you change the logging interval to every second from the default of every 5 seconds, you'll get 2000 data points really quickly.

 

It might be worth getting a phone on FreedomPop if you want to continue using CellMapper. You can get a cheap Android phone for $20 and there's no monthly cost of service if you disable all the auto top ups and downgrade to the free plan. 1GB/month free with friends maxed out, throttled to 1 Mbps. So it's perfect for a logging device. One of their Motorola devices and the Kyocera Hydro Icon both support band locking too, which helps with hunting.

 

Getting the phone through them puts you on Sprint service. If you order just the SIM (they often have deals for $1 or $0.01 for the SIM) then you're on AT&T. AT&T's free tier maxes out at 700 MB/month

 

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I have looked at changing the firmware, but really don't have any idea what I'm doing so have not tried so far. Considering just getting a different router altogether. Have noticed some minor issues with devices disconnecting in the last couple weeks.

I don't think it's that difficult to change it on Sprint routers (T-Mobile makes theirs very hard to reflash). If you go that route I suggest looking at the Merlin firmware. It's stock Asus with a bunch of enhancements and addictions. Pretty stable.

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I even have the Sprint router with the original Sprint firmware still intact. So I'm at a loss as to why it's happening. Happens on WiFi at my work too.

The Sprint router may be causing problems with it. They do some QoS and rate limiting (I want to say 8 KB/sec or so) on the ipsec tunnels that are used. It sets a dedicated, allocated speed which cannot be exceeded, rather than just prioritizing the connection. It basically breaks an Airave.

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I'm in a Samsung market and 25+25 is all over now.

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Which market?

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I like CellMapper because it shows the most detail. With enough data you can see the coverage of each sector very nicely in the cloverleaf pattern. It also gives clues for where new sites might be located.

I'm finding it useful to visualize small cell coverage areas.

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Altice is hitting 400mbps/40mbps in most areas for residential service, not sure if thats the max for business use as well but its 100% better than LTE relay
 
Is it safe to assume that all the former Clear Small Cells in NYC are currently being run off fiber or a wired connection. Was there such a thing as WiMax relay or the equipment for it back then? I would think LTE relay small cells are the ones that were added later on it allowed them to get them running quicker, not having to wait for fiber to be ran. 

Yes, all the converted wimax sites should be fiber or Ethernet fed. The relay sites are likely new builds.

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Just got blocked for the first time. Using the most recent version of Tapatalk free (with VIP from the pay version).

My home IP has been blocked for about 32 hours now. I thought it expired after 24 hours?

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Something that I've noticed is that small cells that (I think) are being fed by LTE relay are only broadcasting 1 carrier of Band 41. So far both small cell sites that I have found in Brooklyn that are broadcasting 1 carrier have been extremely slow compared to ones that are boradcasting two carriers.

Yes, relay small cells are limited to broadcasting a single carrier. Only fiber / non-relay small cells broadcast 2 carriers. It's the same in SF, though I haven't seen any relay fed ones there yet.

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If the device supports B25/26 aggregation at launch, does this mean Sprint's network also will?

Depends. Most Samsung markets (ie all except Chicago) still don't have B25 2xCA. My guess is it will be at least a year before 25/26 CA and 41/25 CA is enabled.

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Very happy with mine, at first it was hard to get my Pixel to use it for calls instead of the very weak 1x800 macro signal, but they must have tweaked something because it's great now. The B41 is great and it's also a WiFi router if you choose to use it.

-Mike

My Pixel is back on 1x800 :-( I temporarily disabled BC10 to kick it to the Airave, but 2 days later it was back on 1x800. For almost the first 2 months it worked great and stayed on the Airave. I might have to just keep 1x800 disabled and reboot and enable it just when I'm in low signal areas. Sucks that that even has to be done... Inherent problem to constant SRLTE devices I guess

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Screen Off Widget???
I would like a shortcut on my phone to be able to tap and shut the screen off (not lock it). Is this an option with stock Android? I hate having to press the physical off button 100x per day just to get the screen to go off to put the phone in my pocket or save battery.

You can do it with Tasker. Make a new task that runs system lock (display->system lock). You can then add a shortcut to that task with some launchers (Nova being one of them). I'm not sure if the stock launcher allows Tasker shortcuts.

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It seems that, at least in Pittsburgh, the Airave uses its own CDMA channels, different from the macro. Pittsburgh has C+G block B25, and then another contiguous 10x10 before it (for a total of 20x20 contiguous). The macro has 3 CDMA carriers in the first 5 MHz of this, then there's 5 MHz unused, and then 10x10 LTE (confirmed with spectrum analyzer).

 

The Airave broadcasts its evdo carrier in this unused 5 MHz (channel 975), but its 1x1900 is overlapping the B25 carrier and extends into the unused 5 MHz block (channel 1100). It's partially in the LTE guard band. LTE is 1985 MHz - 1995 MHz, and the 1x carrier is centered at 1985 MHz. Odd that they wouldn't shift the 1x carrier to be somewhere else in the unused 5 MHz block. I wonder if this is just an oversight, the result of legacy channel assignments, or a sign that Sprint is going to attempt to put 1x in LTE guard bands in the future like T-Mobile does with GSM?

 

When Sprint eventually adds another 5x5 or extends the 10x10 to 15x15, they'll have to make the Airave share CDMA channels with the macro I assume. Or else try to put it in guard bands.

 

I wonder if the Airave has its own CDMA channels in markets without unused spectrum.

 

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Does the Pixel 2 support Calling+ and/or WiFi Calling on Sprint?

No. It's supposedly being worked on, but nothing is even in testing yet from what I've heard. So it won't be anytime soon...

 

Sprint claims they can't add custom software on Google devices, yet Google has a complete framework for doing this very thing that they deployed a few years ago and have continued to expand with each Android revision. Verizon, T-Mobile, and other carriers seem to have no problem getting their custom software on it for VoLTE and wifi calling. Sprint also has Sprint DM for hands free activation on Pixel devices, so I think that excuse is BS.

 

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Small cells in Seattle broadcast on 40072 and 40270. The thing is, I’ve also encountered macros that broadcast on those frequencies...so I definitely need to investigate a little more. 

Yeah there are 2 sets of 2 contiguous carriers below the 3 contiguous macro carriers. So some could be fiber fed small cells (otherwise they'd be limited to 1 carrier), or they're starting deployment of 4th and 5th carriers on macros.

 

We need someone with SCP and earfcn logging to see what shows up.

 

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Haha it was definitely a “wow” face. I guess it comes across differently. I guess I should have used “[emoji47]” [emoji12]

Anyways, I snapped a couple pics of that 3G only tower that had been bothering me.

 

It might be complicated by the fact that the wires go through a hole in the brick exterior. Perhaps that has something to do with the holdup. But at the very least they should be able to give it GMO LTE.

 

It's also possible they can't get to the radios easily inside (it looks like the top is an addition. The bricks look to be a different color).

 

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When VoLTE is 100% implemented on Sprint some day, will LTE call handoffs to and from the macro network work with the Airave? 
From what I understand, handoffs do not work in all scenarios over 1x CDMA on the Airave currently. 

1x hands off from an Airave to the macro network, but not the other way around. VoLTE will handoff in both directions. Calling+ does this now.

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I did that briefly, but having two SSIDs was kind of clunky and pointless in a house of non-tech people. The Sprint firmware does band switching on its own which is very nice. I never understood having two SSIDs for 2.4 and 5Ghz... (Coming from an Apple Airport Extreme user)

You can just set them the same and let devices decide which to use. I do that for my guest network.

The reason it's often done is that many devices will pick 2.4 GHz over 5 GHz, or when they get out of 5 GHz range they don't switch back when they come back in range. It's the only way to force 5 GHz to be used. For my personal network I invert the network name, so for example I have "SSID" for 5 GHz And "SSID-2.4" for 2.4 GHz.

Better APs like Ubiquiti can try to make clients use 5 GHz (basically disconnect them and hope they reconnect to 5 GHz), but the band selection is completely under the control of the client device.

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That’s awesome, what’s the range of those magic boxes? Is it just the couple of houses near you, or is it more of a larger radius? 

In my experience, it might make it into your neighbor's yard, but likely not indoors (at least not very well). I guess it also depends on how close they are and how strong the macro is. A stronger macro, even congested B26, is preferred when the MB signal gets weak (
For houses, it's basically one per household for proper coverage, but you can easily cover a couple units in an apartment building. Sprint is giving them out pretty freely right now.

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Is there a daily limit for the high speed pass?

Open World doesn't have high speed passes. It's full speed everywhere I believe, but it's pay per MB (or KB). Many Central and South American countries give you 1GB for free though before you start getting charged.

I'm unsure if there is a limit for the new/current roaming option.

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And if you have a full version of Network Signal Guru and the appropriate and rooted device, you may be able to shut down all CDMA and LTE bands except for 800 MHz.  That would be CDMA Band Class 10 and LTE Band 26.
Robert

I currently have the full version (the developer sent me a 6 month license for free out of the blue, not sure why, maybe because I submitted several bug reports?), but band locking and such doesn't work on newer devices. The option just isn't there. For example, my Pixel 2 XL only got ads removed and the ability to record with the full version, but that's it. My Kyocera Hydro Icon logging device on the other hand has always had band locking with the free version.

So for NSG, older devices are better usually.

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And if you stave ISPs of new sources of revenue what happens to investment? The first thing sprint cut in the late 00s as revenue tanked was capex. Yeah, let have ISPs cut their capes and have plenty of content we can access during peak times. 

I swear you're a troll, because I'm honestly in disbelief if you actually believe what you say.

ISPs get more revenue by charging for faster service! Not based on what the service is used for. That's how the backbone providers work, and that's how the industry has always been priced, that's how data centers work. That's how Comcast, Verizon, etc pay for their own bandwidth at transit points to peers.

ISP "packages" would be akin to the electric company wanting to charge me one price for electricity that goes to my Samsung TV, but a different price that goes to my Vizio TV or to my computer, despite them all using the same quantity of electricity. Thank God I can easily switch electric companies! . The entire concept is absurd, and in a properly functioning market it would be a complete non issue, since no ISP would be stupid enough to even attempt it.

Except, we are not in a perfect, competitive market. We're in a monopolistic market, one that's government granted in many areas. A government granted monopoly comes in exchange for proper regulation. That's the only way the system works.

I fail to see the regulatory burden that you claim net neutrality would impost on "startup ISPs". It's actually more work to maintain fast and slow lanes! Use QoS on a per customer and on a general, indiscriminate bandwidth level, based on the bandwidth they purchase. Just sell bandwidth at a certain price, and if you're not making money, then raise the price. Don't charge me one price for using 100GB for Netflix, someone else a different price for 100GB of YouTube, and another person a different price for backing up 100GB of files. Build capacity to handle the bandwidth that you sell to people. Plain and simple.

And I'm not even going to get into all the money the ISPs took from the government to fund broadband expansion, which they then just pocketed and never fulfilled.

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