JPSmith

They still need to upgrade the tower on I-57 just north of US 136.    The in-town Rantoul tower is done.

Something just got lit up in SW Champaign.... I'm seeing 8-18 mbps at my house in Cherry Hills for the first time.

28 Mbps down / 9 Mbps up while waiting today at Carle Sports Medicine at Lincoln/Anthony Drive.     

I think they just lit the tower at Mattis and Curtis.    I am seeing LTE at my house in Cherry Hills for the first time this morning.   Only 3-5 Mbps so far. 

LTE has been active for short periods, a few hours up to a couple of days, on numerous upgraded towers that don't yet have upgraded backhaul.   Presumably this is done for testing purposes.   I've seen it all over central Illinois since last fall.   LTE for one day, then gone.   LTE showing up for a few hours or days does not mean the new backhaul is installed.   

I frequently get over 1 mbps late evening and early morning on the 3G tower near my home.       

The tower next to I-57 (West of parland) is now 4G.  Provides great signal along interstate and extreme North West champaign.   West of mattis and North of green including all of parkland college.    Also far north prospect (by the Carmike) and West of there (along 57).  I have mapped some results on Sensorly. 

What kind of speeds did you see?

Just got back for a 10P showing of X-Men at the Carmike theater in Northern Champaign (off of Prospect). My younger brother and I both had LTE in the theater and parking lot at least. It wasn't in that area as of about three weeks ago. Did some speed tests in the theater. The theater doesn't have the greatest reception inside. Got 1.51 down/0.81 up with 83 ms latency at 10:06P.

You can get those speeds on 3G from any tower with upgraded equipment if the backhaul is not saturated.   If your device was indicating LTE with those speeds, it would suggest no upgraded backhaul yet. 

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They have LTE in Rantoul,

No they don't.   My office is in Rantoul and I drive through the town daily.   There have been some flashes of LTE, a few hours here and there, as the new tower equipment is tested, but it is not live as of today.     I suspect the same is true of the other places you mention.     

LTE popping up in Urbana, IL around Windsor and Philo Road!

 

 

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Don't get your hopes up, it is likely just testing as we have been seeing all over Champaign County for months now.   Unfortunately, no signs of upgraded backhaul, which is needed before 4G goes live for real.

There is no way to know definitively.  However, if CenturyLink is the local ILEC and there are Sprint 3G Network Vision sites complete in the city with no LTE at all, there is a good chance that CenturyLink is the local backhaul provider for Sprint.  And if it's Windstream, then that makes sense too.  As Windstream is also way behind in their backhaul commitments to Sprint.

 

Robert

Wouldn't Sprint's contracts with the backhaul providers include failure to perform clauses that would allow them to engage alternate providers at some point?   If such clauses exist, why would Sprint put up with such lengthy delays from the contracted providers?   Are there not viable alternative backhaul providers in these markets, or are there other considerations that make switching providers impractical? 

Well I had LTE at parkland college in champaign last night, and today, good ole 3G

 

 

 

Yeah, C-U is in LTE testing mode so you will catch glimpses of it from time to time.    But it won't be full-time until the new backhaul is installed.

 

 

Champaign Urbana does not have any LTE site active as far as I can tell. I am all over the twin cities regularly and only get 3G. Usually at very low speeds like .04 down and .3 up. The only place I find LTE is outside of town, it truly is quite maddening at times. Hurry up and wait in CU while every podunk town around you enjoys lighting fast Internet. Sometimes Sprint makes me so angry.

My experience has been that 3G in C-U is on average much improved over a year ago.   I am usually seeing 0.3 - 1.0 Mbps downloads, somewhat slower on campus where saturation is highest but rarely below 0.1 down.   What I'm seeing is consistent with NV tower upgrades being complete and now just waiting for the backhaul so LTE can be activated.    Here's hoping that happens soon.   

Where in champaign-Urbana have you seen flashes of 4G?

 

 

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Mostly along I-57 between Olympian Drive and Curtis Rd.   

I've seen only sporadic flashes of 4G in Champaign-Urbana but 3G speeds seem to have improved, at least overnight when demand is low.  My guess is that NV equipment has been installed on many/most of the towers and testing is going on.   The big unknown is how long it will take for the upgraded backhaul to arrive.  

Rantoul still seems to be in LTE testing mode;  I see it off and on around I-57 and US136.

How did you get GDR3 on it?

Sign up for the Windows Phone Apps Studio program (free for one device per Windows account).   

http://www.wpcentral.com/get-gdr3-today-windows-phone-preview-developers

Although technically a "preview release" it is for all intents and purposes the final GDR3.    It's working perfectly for me.  

I got an Ativ S Neo and am loving it so far.    Running GDR3 and waiting for LTE to go live in Central Illinois.

I picked up an Ativ S Neo over the weekend (nice device btw) and this morning I caught some LTE in my office, which is on U.S. 136 just west of I-57.   It was off and on, speeds 10-12 Mpbs. They must be testing.....

I finally broke down and replaced my blackberry 9900 with it, and am loving it. Great device, great battery life, screen is nice and bright, and Netflix works great!

 

I know there is a small gap when it comes to app selection, but from a pure work device, it's fine.

Thanks for the info.... time to update your avatar!      How's the LTE reception on the Ativ?  

I would guess that if the WP8 devices sold well enough for Sprint they would offer something Tri Band next year.

True... problem is Sprint really isn't promoting the WP8 devices to any significant extent so they likely won't sell well.   I understand few Sprint stores even have the Ativ S Neo in stock, and on the Sprint website it is displayed near the bottom of the smartphone page below two year old and pre-owned devices.    Hard to escape the impression they don't much care if it sells or not. 

Anybody else pick up or try out the Ativ S Neo and have an opinion on it?    I'm a big fan of Windows Phone, still rocking my old Arrive.   The Ativ S Neo seems solid on paper, the major disappointment for me being that it is 1900 LTE only.    Given the ridiculous wait for Sprint to release WP8 devices, goodness knows how long it will take them to offer a dual or triband WP device.

The was a 4g tower live near US 136 and Illinois 47 south of Gibson City. Full bars and everything. I'll post screen shots as soon as I figure out how.

Woohoo... getting closer to C-U 

Awesome! cant wait for lte to finally get here

Just don't count on seeing significant data speed improvements within 90 days, because upgraded backhaul may not be installed until months after the new equipment.

Good afternoon everyone, just thought I would let you all know that tmobile is getting LTE here in central Illinois before sprint my daughters phone was showing a lte signal today around my house and my sprint phone still nothing I maybe going to tmobile at least my 3g speeds are a little better now since they but the new NV equipment in im getting between 1mbps to 1.5 now  instead of 20kbps

That's great if you have good T-Mobile coverage...  but in Champaign/Urbana and many places along I-57 T-Mobile coverage is spotty to non-existent.    I got a prepaid T-Mobile sim a few years back to test voice coverage around town and couldn't tolerate all the gaps; they just don't seem to have enough towers around here.   

All kinds of problems this weekend with dropped calls and delayed texts at my home in SW Champaign, which usually has solid coverage......wonder if something NV-related is going on.....