ingenium

$7.5 billion for three months sure is alot of money. Although considering the reports here on S4GRU of new site upgrades being spotted, even some new sites coming online, etc., it does seem that Sprint is really moving fast with network improvements.

 

Oh, and that is just from what I've read in the Chicago Market threads in the Network and Premier sections. I haven't read the other market threads. Although, if someone here would like to gather the information pertaining to how many of these developments in every market listed here on S4GRU in those months, even in the months since then too, we could get at least a general idea of the network improvements Sprint has made, at the very least.

In the SF market we've found 1 new B25 site that's presumably full build since it has 3 sectors (via SCP only, haven't found the exact physical location yet but have it narrowed down to a few blocks). We've also found a cluster of B41 small cells in an area where Clearwire had deployed WiMax small cells. Again, these have only been seen in SCP, no one has physically located them yet. They each only have 1 sector.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

True yes but only a second 10 MHz carrier no CA (Huawei IBW = 30 MHz). Recall Huawei equipment are circa 2008-2009 era design. Nor was Huawei ever listed in any of our source documentations regarding D1 B41 test subjects whereas Samsung was listed for B41 D1 CA testing.

 

Only Samsung dual mode RRUs can as those support up to 80 MHz IBW and up to 4 B41 LTE carriers.

Ahh. That's a shame. I was looking forward to a capacity boost from another carrier on Clear sites.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

No second clear band 41 will exist in Huawei markets.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

Even once wimax is shut down? I thought the Huawei equipment could support multiple B41 carriers once they stop broadcasting WiMax?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

I was at the Airport in Oakland yesterday and yes B26 has been rolled out pretty strong but within Terminal 1 you have B25 running. Speeds on B25 are about 10MB down and outside, B26 is running about 15MB. As soon you get to the BART station you have B41 at speeds of 30+MB.

Yeah B25 and B26 speeds here have improved lately. They've been tweaking the load balancing, especially within the last week. I've noticed I rarely idle on B26 anymore, and actually hang onto a weak (-112) B41 signal much more frequently. Frustratingly, the weak B41 is pretty much unusable (0.2 Mbit and times out a lot), but when it eventually kicks over to B25, or when I get a better B41 signal, it's great.

 

30 down on B41 is really good, I rarely see above 20 anymore even with 2 carriers on the site.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

Here is the thread where the EARFCN's are being tracked/logged >>>>> http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/5454-network-vision-and-spark-earfcn-logging-thread/

 

In our market (Eastern NE/Western IA) which is Samsung the GCI for 2nd carrier are those with suffix 03, 04, 05 and I "think" anything ending with an "A" is also 2nd carrier as we have a four sector site with one of those. I also caught a "A" site last time I was Houston.

In San Francisco (Samsung market) we have a mix of 03, 04, 05 and 09, 0A, 0B for the second B41 carrier. EARFCN is 40254. We won't have any Clear second carrier until after the WiMax shutdown, so those GCI endings are still TBD.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

Few options for cables if anyone is looking:

3.3 ft (1 meter)

$12.99 from Google https://store.google.com/product/usb_type_c_to_usb_standard_a_plug_cable

$9.99 from Monoprice http://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=103&cp_id=10303&cs_id=1030319&p_id=13009&seq=1&format=2

 

6 ft

$19.99 from Belkin http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F2CU032/

 

Adapter:

$8.99 from Monoprice http://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=103&cp_id=10330&cs_id=1033001&p_id=13507&seq=1&format=2

 

Anyways, big fan of Monoprice here. I will probably pick up a spare 3.3ft one and maybe an adapter. I don't trust random Amazon sellers to provide quality cables.

Anyone have any idea why these cables are so expensive compared to even the premium monoprice micro USB cables?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

I took BART from Oakland to SF via Trans-Bay tunnel and I noticed a very strong 3G signal but no LTE love from Sprint. T-Mobile was all the way LTE, although their speeds were not great at times.

That part of the BART DAS hasn't been upgraded yet unfortunately. The part south of the Glen Park station has been upgraded for a while though (B25 only). I'm not sure what the hold up is.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

It works on Fi, so it must support Sprint.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

I was checking Permit Applications for Berkeley, CA at the following link for those who are interested:

 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Planning_and_Development/Land_Use_Division/Current_Zoning_Applications_Log.aspx

 

The Regent St. location is very well situated on the Ashby/College Av. corridor. The application is dated 3/30/15:

 

"Sprint is upgrading its wireless network to LTE service throughout the City of Berkeley.  The new antenna and equipment configuration will provide improved phone and data service for existing Sprint customers.  Currently Sprint is the only carrier on the rooftop.

1.   Statements Related to Needs Sprint is upgrading its wireless network to LTE service throughout the City of Berkeley.  Currently,

there is no 2500MHz LTE service in this area of Berkeley.  The proposed antenna and equipment modification will provide new 2500MHz LTE service to the area of Berkeley surrounding 2999 Regent

Street. The service coverage area is approximately a 0.3 mile radius extending north to Stuart Street, south to Alcatraz Avenue, west to Telegraph Avenue, and east to College Avenue. "

 

This is good news, but the .3 mile radius highlights the level of densification needed to achieve continuous consistent coverage. Anyone know if this site is activated yet?

 

Just drove past that site the other day and there aren't B41 antennas yet. 

 

I also figured I'd share some things from the Premier thread which I believe are OK to post here (mods please let me know otherwise):

 

The first is that there appears to be a new site in Noe Valley, but we haven't been able to narrow down the location of site yet. The strongest signals from it are labeled "B" on this map of signals that don't match up to known sites. My guess is it's somewhere near Douglass Playground. If anyone is in that area and wants to try to track it down, I would happily accept Signal Check Pro logs and add them to the map. Or even better if you can find the site and get pictures.

 

The second is that mc_gusto found that SF publishes a map of all wireless sites within the city. https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1jgD0NwaO_dLNhIkjaANj_2fzV9WFwLDGgb8uM57x#map:id=3 It hasn't been updated since April, so it doesn't help yet to identify the site mentioned above. But it's still a very useful resource and can be used to compare Sprint site locations with other carriers, amongst other things.

How is the IMS involved in eCSFB?

I'm not certain it actually is. I can't find anything that confirms it, so I may be mistaken. My understanding though was that eCSFB and IMS were coupled together (maybe IMS sends the initial message to switch to CDMA?). The closest I could find was the last page of this thread http://www.s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/5001-Breaking-Band:-Tri-band-LTE-/-eCSFB-issues-thread

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

Sprint doesn't have IMSs. There is no voice over LTE...

They actually do have IMS, it's used for SMS over LTE, and I believe it also plays a role in eCSFB.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

Anyone have a link to explain what using b41 for backhaul would look like? I tried searching the forums and generally on the web but couldn't find anything that made sense to me.

I'm guessing it would be similar to what Clearwire's plans were for WiMAX http://www.senzafiliconsulting.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=poRsDqBRr0I%3D&tabid=104&mid=466&forcedownload=true

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

Nexus 6

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

I think it's more likely a local IMS server went down. I wonder if voice and text would have worked if in 3G only mode.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

See here:

 

 

It'll be interesting to see how they do this.

I believe Clearwire was doing this (or planned to do it) for Wimax, but it could have been restricted to their small cells.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

 

 

A side effect of it is that, if Sprint / Ericsson ever decides to do so, they can set each antenna / radio set to one technology apiece so one antenna + radio runs LTE and one antenna + radio runs CDMA. Thus you can have up to 4 LTE carriers on PCS and dozen or so on CDMA. This also enables Sprint the capability to deploy 4x2 MIMO for PCS LTE as they don't need to split the PCS radio into 2T2R for LTE and 2T2R for CDMA.

So they have 2 antennas and are still running at least one in dual mode? Or are you referring to if they decide to add a second antenna to all sites for this? I would assume all high capacity sites have one antenna that's just LTE (and 4x2 MIMO) and another that's just CDMA?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

Most of us on S4GRU actually would and do. 1x is a 3G technology, which is set by the technological standards and not a speed cap.

 

 I get that it is technically 3G according to the standards body, but OP was just being pedantic.

 

EV-DO is "3G speed" and everyone here knows what is meant when someone says 3G vs 1x, especially in the context of roaming. Like it or not, 2G, 3G, and 4G have come to be associated with a certain level of speed and capacity, using each as a practical rather than technical definition. In the minds of most reasonable people, when they hear 2G they think 1x, EDGE, or GPRS; 3G they think EVDO, UMTS, or HSPA; 4G they think LTE. Especially in the context of roaming, the practical definition is implied, everyone knows what is meant by it.

 

It annoys me to no end in fact that after the initial software release for the Nexus 6 they changed 1x to show as 3G next to the signal bars instead of actually showing 1x, because for all *practical* purposes 1x is not 3G (or what most would consider 3G speed).

 

Anyway.... anyone have any luck figuring out how to manually write a PRL to the Nexus 6 yet? 

sorry but 1x is technically 3g.

 

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk

Please don't start this again. No one in their right mind would actually consider 1x to be 3G, despite what it technically may be. It has a max theoretical speed of 144 kbit, slightly faster than dialup. EDGE is considered 2G and is the same speed or faster.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

I was checking Permit Applications for Berkeley, CA at the following link for those who are interested:

 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/Planning_and_Development/Land_Use_Division/Current_Zoning_Applications_Log.aspx

 

The Regent St. location is very well situated on the Ashby/College Av. corridor. The application is dated 3/30/15:

 

"Sprint is upgrading its wireless network to LTE service throughout the City of Berkeley.  The new antenna and equipment configuration will provide improved phone and data service for existing Sprint customers.  Currently Sprint is the only carrier on the rooftop.

1.   Statements Related to Needs Sprint is upgrading its wireless network to LTE service throughout the City of Berkeley.  Currently,

there is no 2500MHz LTE service in this area of Berkeley.  The proposed antenna and equipment modification will provide new 2500MHz LTE service to the area of Berkeley surrounding 2999 Regent

Street. The service coverage area is approximately a 0.3 mile radius extending north to Stuart Street, south to Alcatraz Avenue, west to Telegraph Avenue, and east to College Avenue. "

 

This is good news, but the .3 mile radius highlights the level of densification needed to achieve continuous consistent coverage. Anyone know if this site is activated yet?

 

That site is still B25/B26 last I checked (about a month ago). There are a few B41 sites in Berkeley, but most have limited range. For example, the one near Berkeley Bowl East doesn't even reach past the intersection of Ashby and Adeline (ie, 5 blocks). And it's mounted pretty high up, above the surrounding structures. So 0.3 miles sounds about right.

Simple question.. How is it possible for me to surf the web on 107dbm of 1900LTE? That isn't even sufficient for a voice call. Yet I am getting some good web speeds? Screenshot_2015-09-04-19-44-00.png

Screenshot_2015-09-04-19-42-34.png

 

Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk

Subtract (technically add) about 15-20 dbm to get the equivalent CDMA signal strength. So that's like a -92 or -87 CDMA signal, which is very usable.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

 

 

No. Those are high capacity adds. All the second set of antennas and radios do is add additional CDMA carriers.. Originals run CDMA+LTE. Limitation of dual mode operation limits the first radio to 2 LTE carriers + up to 6 CDMA carriers. If you need more CDMA carriers you need to add another radio and a RF combiner or another antenna and radio.

What about sites that have 2 B25 carriers and a B26 carrier. Did they need a second antenna?

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

Very interesting. I did not know they deployed in such a fashion in these areas. I think it's safe to say these sites will not be converted into macro sites. Now, it's certainly possible Sprint could replace them with new Samsung B41 small cells. That would be the smart thing to do, assuming the backhaul is adequate. Does anyone work or live near these areas so we can keep an eye on them?

 

I managed to get ahold of a Clear WiMax USB stick. My quick testing with one site seems to indicate that the BSID is offset from the LTE GCI by 0x18800 (ignoring the last 2 digits). Side note, they apparently have thinned down to 10 Mhz carriers, with the sector I just connected to having a center frequency of 2673500 (equivalent to the second half of the TDD LTE carrier with EARFCN 41374). If they're still using different frequencies per sector, then they're using the last 30Mhz of Sprint's spectrum holdings. 

 

I'll be in that area in 2 weeks, I'll drive around and see if I pick up anything on my phone or on Clear. I'm curious how the WiMax BSID and center frequency will change between sectors and if groups of them indeed appear as a single site (ie, the same first 6 digits).

They are definitely small cells.

 

http://www.senzafiliconsulting.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=poRsDqBRr0I%3D&tabid=104&mid=466&forcedownload=true

Awesome find! So they're "pico cells" with fiber backhaul. That's why in some areas they're on every pole down the street (much more than the typical 3 sectors). Several are probably being lumped together as a "site".

 

I hope Sprint can do B41 small cells the same way. It seems like it could be a quick rollout if so.

 

Edit: Found one with what I think is an RRU https://goo.gl/maps/YlKJJ. It looks like it's "shoebox sized" like mentioned in the PDF. There's a panel on every pole down the street for several blocks.

I don't think those are small cells. Do you know for sure that those are WiMax? If so, it may be just the way they deployed the sectors since I don't see any monopole structures or anything else for them to mount the antennas. They don't look that different from regular Clear antennas. 

 

It's possible they're not, I don't have a WiMax device to test with. They're at every location that's a green dot on the map. I'm not sure where else they could put the panels at these locations since there aren't any other structures. I assumed they didn't convert them to LTE because they were different from the other Clear sites somehow and couldn't support it. 

 

Actually, looking around other areas that have green dots, some have panels on almost every pole. Could it be a DAS style setup? 

 

What's weird is that Clear deployed so densely in these mostly residential parts of SF, but sparsely in areas like downtown. I suppose it was built out as part of their home broadband plans? The density of the sites in these areas also leads me to suspect that they aren't normal builds.

It appears these are the other sectors for the example site in the post above https://goo.gl/maps/ZjX3X and https://goo.gl/maps/UtQTn

 

I don't see an RRU or any cabinets anywhere. Here's a different site showing the panel head on https://goo.gl/maps/8lH2f. I'm not sure how they actually tie into backhaul. That's why I assumed these were small cells, since they're different from regular Clearwire sites. I wonder how difficult it will be for Sprint to convert them to B41 after the wimax shutdown.