NGeorge

On 7/23/2017 at 10:56 PM, RAvirani said:

Overall, I’ve been very impressed with my experience with TELUS thus far and slightly let down by ROGERS. I hope to see Sprint follow in TELUS’s footsteps as far as network management goes - with a little more 1900 LTE on air, I think Sprint can build a network that works similarly to TELUS’s. Stretch 800 and 1900 to their max, drop the Qrxlevmin values on all bands and be a little more aggressive about shifting users to mid/highband spectrum and I think Sprint could do some pretty great things, just like TELUS has .

2

Just an update -- in the last 6 - 8 months, Sprint has added Bell, Telus, ICE and Sasktel as roaming partners in Canada (it's on their partners page as well). I go to BC every few months, and while it still defaults to Rogers as primary, I was able to connect to both Bell and Telus; the speeds were slightly slower than Rogers. I noticed that it tends to prefer Bell to Telus when I've been in areas where Rogers has weak coverage... that said, with all 4 networks, you should have coverage pretty much everywhere up there.

N

This is a very long thread so I apologize if this has been covered earlier earlier in the discussion -- but has this been happening to anyone else?

WiFi Calling has been practically useless to me on both my iPhone 6 and HTC One M9. The iPhone 6 is on my work phone and account and the HTC is my personal line -- so the accounts are completely different, so it has to be a network level thing...

Basically a good 70% of the time I will try to place a call over WiFi and the phone will say "dialing" then "call failed" almost immediately... try again... same thing... try again... same thing... try again... third time's the charm and it works great. It doesn't seem to matter which WiFi network I do this on, it is VERY hit or miss if I can place calls. I've tried this on multiple networks in many places. It's worse than flakey at best, and downright unusable at worst.

Even worse is when I try to receive a call when WiFi is active -- half the time I will answer the call and it will immediately say "call failed".

I've tried all sorts of resetting and provisioning... checked that my firewalls are off... went circles with tech support. I'm about to throw my hands up and throw my hands against the wall. My parents are also having similar issues since their Airave crapped out and Sprint refused to send them a new one saying "we don't offer those anymore, but we do have WiFi calling which is what we are replacing Airaves with" -- both have iPhone 6S's.

So has anyone else had these types of problems -- and more importantly, have you found a solution?

N

Got a Thanksgiving gift from Sprint -- got Band 41 today in Olympia -- looks like it's on the downtown site and the Tumwater site on the hill... Decent speeds too 51/13

Eh I agree with the OP... they are popping up all over the place, and I've yet to connect to one successfully. I did get to a Comcast login page once, and when I entered my info it just directed me to a blank screen and I still didn't have any access. I have to keep telling my phone to forget them as well.

Does anyone have any idea how Comcast is doing this? Are they actually going out and installing base stations on their cable poles the way Earthlink tried to do with their Feather service a few years back, or are they merely broadcasting a public signal from a business account's router? If it is the later, it makes me a little uncomfortable -- especially since I've heard rumors about them trying this, and even wanting to do it with residential routers... it also seems to me that the service would really suck (which it seems to be) if they aren't setting it up with proper external antennas....

N

Both Seattle and Portland were Lucent legacy infrastructure markets, but was there ever any affiliate market territory along I-5 between the two?  If so, that could have been Motorola or Nortel legacy infrastructure, hence the lack of interconnection.

 

Even if there was no affiliate infrastructure issue, I seem to recall a Lucent limitation from 10-15 ago.  If I remember it correctly, Lucent, unlike Nortel, could not hand off between two MSCs in different markets.

 

Regardless, both Seattle and Portland are now Samsung infrastructure markets, and the sites in the affected SID boundary area have all received at least their 3G upgrades.

 

AJ

No, Ubiquitel was the only affiliate in Washington and they were over on the Spokane side -- not sure what equipment they used. It actually was a corporate market, then Ubiquitel took it over in 2000.

Probably that Lucent limitation you mentioned because it ALWAYS happened in that area like clockwork. I know that Qwest back in the day was all Ericsson from back when they experimented with CDMA on their own the first time -- I vaguely remember all sorts of complaints about the gear--that it was very compact and that was about all that was good about it. Sprint did a complete rip and replace when they added those sites into it's network, but Qwest dropped in this same spot... not sure who Verizon uses, but they have the issue too; they took over Qwest's licenses while Sprint got the towers so they could have an unbroken network between Seattle and Portland, so Verizon has to deal with an A-E switch there as well... The GSM carriers don't have an issue.

Nat

Sprint finally fixed a major SID boundary issue that's plagued me since I've owned a cell phone (1998) -- the line between the Seattle and a Portland markets, which they had also set on a CMA license boundary... Back when I had US West/Qwest Wireless, it was where they changed from the A block in Seattle to the E block for Portland -- and the call would drop. Then I got Sprint, and although they have the B block on both sides, the call would drop because of the SID change. Verizon inherited the licenses from Qwest so they could offer native service when Sprint bought the rest in 2004, and sure enough -- when Verizon flips from A-E, the call drops as well -- almost at the exact point just north of the Toutle river bridge, just before you get to the overpass (if your heading North)...

So imagine my surprise when I drove though there and it didn't drop... same thing happened again on the way back... I actually held a call for almost a half hour. So they've either moved the boundary from right across the freeway, or they've figure out how to get the call to stay even while changing SIDs. This all happened once NV was cut over -- so that was an extra little benefit

Everyone has a theory on the Montana FIT -- but I just have a feeling they are located on Sprint's towers that they acquired from Qwest in 2004... If you remember, Qwest provided native service in Montana, then Sprint did for a few years after they got ahold of them until the Alltel thing happened -- and even after the Alltel thing happened it also appeared to me, since I was in Billings and Butte and while my Blackberry happily camped on Alltel's 850 1x and EV-DO as native, my Epic 4G camped on native Sprint, using the Spokane SID for 1x at PCS, while Alltel's EV-DO for data -- but only in the old Qwest areas; everywhere else it picked up Alltel for both... so up until around 2011 Sprint still had CDMA on these towers... apparently when AT&T pulled the plug, they also pulled their native 1x service off the Qwest towers...

Here are two examples that are under the Sprint name:

This one is active:

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistration.jsp?regKey=2612078

...one that was dismantled:

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistration.jsp?regKey=2612652

I did this search two years ago and came up with a lot more that had been renewed in 2010 (16 sites IIRC which was about the number of sites Qwest had in Montana) and under the Sprint name at that but can't seem to find them now. I have a feeling they leased them out to CCR or someone else -- since if they would have dismantled them they would have shown up.. so the only way to track them down would be to look at all the towers and find the ones originally built by US West Wireless... that will be labor intensive.

I have to say I helped a couple of offices migrate from T lines to FTTP and this is totally true. In my case I had to enact my backup plan because WindStream literally pushed the date like 4 times. I ended up going with Comcast Metro Ethernet and boy were they a TON easier/cheaper to deal with.

I went through this same thing at my office but with Metro Ethernet... absolute worst telecom experience of my life. I wish it upon noone.

We were using 4 bonded T1's w/ a MPLS link to another office with T's as well. It was supposed to be a 20 meg line, and 4.5 months later I ended up with 10 megs (after multiple visits, 'line conditioning', plus a couple visits where techs showed up with no clue what they were doing) -- coming up on nearly a year and it's still at 10.

My CLEC XO Networks says Centurylink can't deliver enough clean pairs to provide me the 20 megs that they swear are available; Centurylink says that XO's equipment can't support the additional pairs, but if it could, they'd totally install them -- THEN XO calls and says "we'll just bring fiber to the premises" -- no build charge -- HELL YES I say... CenturyLink says their still waiting on the orders -- but it'd be a 70 grand job if I ordered from them... Meanwhile I constantly have 1-2 of my 8 pairs inoperable and our service is more like 7-8 megs (Comcast can't build to our location for less than 100 grand as no cable even comes up this far let alone FTTP -- but at least the guy who came out and inspected was honest and upfront).

I wish I would have just added a couple more T1's and sat happy with 9 megs. The T1's were rock solid. So if the cell companies are dealing with ANYTHING like this with thousands and thousands of sites, I can only imagine the PURE HELL and feel a little more sympathetic about the delays....

Back on topic -- MTPCS used the 10 mhz. F block in central and eastern Montana. Not a large amount of spectrum, and nothing contiguous with Sprint. That said, it is contiguous with AT&T, who has the lower C block in these locations -- and it makes perfect sense. Especially if Sprint reclaims the 10 mhz. lease they had to AT&T in the middle of their B block...

Love the HD voice... I know plenty of people on Sprint so have been getting it more and more. Surprised a couple people too who hadn't heard it yet

We were one of the original test areas so I've enjoyed it for quite a while... started when both were on LTE, then moved to people in the same region. Now the only time I don't seem to get it is if I'm calling through the Airave or roaming (or if the other person is).

thats what happens when service rocks, it gets quiet

 

sprint plans to eventually deploy LTE to all towers. however most towers outside of the metro areas and along the interstates in iowa, are GMO towers, we know of no current plans to convert GMO towers to full builds which needs to happen before they get LTE.

I thought GMO sites were getting LTE on Band 25 -- but needed to be converted to full build (with new antennas) for Band 26 and 41? It was my understanding that "most" GMO sites could get the Band 25 LTE, unless they were ancient antennas from the very first round of sites back in the '90s (which very well could be the case in Iowa being a lot of it was an affiliate market, and 1x at that)?

N

I am a new Sprint customer as of today.  I purchased a 64Gig iPhone 6 and the iPhone for life program, unlimited everything.  I actually live in Waukee, Ia.  Suburb of Des Moines.  I had Verizon for three years with great coverage and good speeds pretty much everywhere.  Recently, last 4 months, I have noticed reduced speeds on Verizon and occasional call issues, though not terrible by any means.  But at home I was only getting 1-1.5Mbps download.   I was intrigued by the unlimited data with Sprint, as I was going over my allotted 4 Gigs regularly.  Well I took the plunge today and so far I'm HAPPY.  At home I connect to Band 26 here in Waukee with -98Db and got download speeds of 5mbps and upload of about the same.  Voice quality is super and I love the iPhone 6.  I haven't traveled around town too much yet, and will report back when I have, but VERY happy with Sprint and the unlimited data and 60$ a month cheaper bill is a no brainer.  Looking forward to Spark someday, but I have been throughly testing the download speeds with movies and music and I am impressed.  I have better speed in my house than I have for 4 months with Verizon.  

 

This site helped persuade me to switch, thank you.

 

Trout

I spend a lot of time in that area, and have friends in Waukee as well as Clive, and bounce around the state quite a bit when I go there a number of times a year. I used to curse Sprint when I'd head to Iowa... it really, truly, was one of their horrible markets (I think it was originally an affiliate area). That said, in the last year, they've done AWESOME... lots of Band Class 10 as well as Band 26 LTE -- it's basically made what was a bit too widely spaced PCS network into a fairly dense SMR network with PCS available whenever you can get it to keep the SMR from completely choking up... and it's on LOTS of sites. In other words, what they are doing in Iowa is what I'm looking forward to across the entire network.

That said, if you plan on lots of driving, nothing beats USCC and Verizon in Iowa... nothing -- but I'd say the SMR now puts them on par with AT&T which is PCS-only for voice and does fairly good. If you don't stray too far into the corn you'll be happy -- but if you do, you'll have roaming on both USCC and Verizon. Luckily your Sprint phone won't flip between native and roaming nearly as often as it would before.

The only way Sprint can improve in Iowa is if they ever snap up USCC when they get the chance -- and I hope they do

N

Highly doubtful. Microwave backhaul links are the information superhighways of the sky. There are tens of thousands of them nationwide, as they are licensed point to point, and frequencies are reused enormously. So, mapping microwave links would be a ridiculously large and fruitless task.

 

AJ

A lot of the microwave backhaul has moved up to the 60-80 ghz. range where they can have many hundreds of mhz. wide channels... if you have dead perfect line of sight it's pretty nice -- the radios are able to automatically adapt the bandwidth to deal with rain, snow, fog and pretty much anything that will interfere with signals that high.

Yeah there's been some speculation that Sprint is just building their own network out in Ntelos areas and dropping them as a "native roaming" partner... they are the last remaining company with this sort of deal, and it sounds like they are on their way out... So either Ntelos is moving along with LTE all quietly, or Sprint really is "building a new network" in your area lol

I just stumbled across this thread...

I agree, a Canadian expansion would be a LOT to take on right now, and I don't think they should be distracted with anything they are doing domestically -- but that said, there is one (possibly two) possibilities that could make some sense without buying any additional spectrum -- particularly #1...

#1 Public Mobile -- Public Mobile is a low cost provider in Toronto and Montreal and seems to be doing OK compared to Mobilicity. It's also licensed in the PCS G block (they have the 10 mhz. license) and is using 1x CDMA currently--they also already have a low-cost roaming agreement with Sprint, providing .20/min roaming in the US (which is insanely cheap up there). Even without LTE they could buy the network, source phones from Sprint (giving them a much better selection) and a presence on both sides of the border. If they did a 1.5-3 mhz. LTE network, it would provide something comparable to the HSDPA providers up there -- again, not going for a national presence--but covering Toronto and Montreal is a start and could provide "USA Included" up there and "Canada Included" plans down here -- and it's already in CDMA, and in a block that isn't foreign to Sprint. Keep their Canadian division as a value play for Toronto/Montreal, get it self-sustaining, and only down the road add Vancouver, Alberta etc. into the mix (I believe Public owns the G block in the eastern half of Canada--there's a small holding company with the G block in the west)

#2 Mike -- the IDEN provider in Canada... I don't know what the re-banding situation is up there, but if Sprint could somehow buy Mike from Telus and basically do what they have done in the US, they could get a large (compared to Public Mobile) network they could convert to CDMA -- launch 3x3 or 5x5 LTE and 1x on it, share phones, have roaming between the countries -- with the additional benefit of harmonizing 800 on both sides of the border -- and getting rid of the SMR exclusion zone in the process...

In either scenario, I'd see Sprint being a value player in Canada -- I wouldn't expect them to really build out the network to a huge extent... they could pull this off with the 10 mhz. G block and or SMR (I'm assuming Mike has the same 14 mhz. like Nextel here -- possibly more) if they could provide city wide coverage in the 5 largest cities in Canada, with highway coverage to the border (and reasonable roaming rates inside Canada), that's really all they need -- especially if they had free roaming between the USA & Canada (on both sides) either included or for a small add-on fee, the service would be VERY compelling.

Nat

I have been told by CenturyLink that their contractors are very behind on running fibre to their old ADSL1 DSLAMs.

I see seen several new DSLAMs that have been installed but not active yet.

 

This could be the same issue if Sprint is using CL for their data connection, Comcast doesn't go out of the urban areas, and a lot of areas can't use microwave due to the topology.

So if CenturyLink hasn't even ran the fiber to their DSLAMS, how has Verizon, ATT and T-Mobile been able to get fiber? Are they using a different backhaul provider? I know Comcast has fiber across their network -- seems like poor planning on Sprint's part if they knew CL was going to be so far behind... go with someone who isn't... If it's an issue with Comcast not hitting the more rural sites, go with CL there--but at least get the fiber where they can. It would also seem that Sprint should be able to connect to whatever provider is getting fiber to the others since they are co-located on many of the same sites...

Heard rumors of a similar situation around here involving a 14 story apartment building with 4 carriers on top (Sprint, Verizon, T-Mo, AT&T -- USCC has their own thing on top a 3 story bank a few blocks away)... I was wondering why American Tower threw up a fairly tall (~225 feet or so) tower about 6 months ago about 2 blocks away that is still sitting empty -- it is even prepped with 4 rack spaces and nothing on them... Funny thing is that Sprint also lit the LTE up from the apartments not too long ago. Haven't really heard a time line, but heard demolition / major renovation from 3 people now -- that does explain the new tower -- I don't think American Tower would just throw up a tower with 4 empty racks for no reason.

N

Does anyone know how many sites Clear has by itself?

Seems to me that by acquiring Clearwire, they are getting themselves into a bit of a Nextel situation, taking on additional sites that they don't really need, increasing their costs.

I'm assuming that any 2.5 LTE (and possibly WiMax for backwards compatibility) will be deployed on existing Sprint sites to reduce expenses from multiple leases etc... coupled with the fact that most Clear sites are situated MUCH lower on the tower than the Sprint sites, it seems like would only make sense... Use only the Clear sites that are sitting in Sprint dead zones, and upgrade the other sites directly onto Sprint sites (I seem to remember seeing a slide about this when NV was first proposed, but it never happened--they changed the story to doing it with LightSquared, then never seemed to mention it again... I believe a few of the LightSquared sites were even completed)... of course they didn't do this with Nextel, so we'll see if they do it this time... the only difference being is that it will be a lot easier this time since all the new NV gear can take on LTE at 2.5, and even WiMax with the software defined radios...

I also think that these types of coverage blotches (especially the little purple dots that pop up) are due to Sensorly's "passive" data collection option that they try to get you to activate when you install the app. Best I can tell is that it randomly pops on and surveys what the phone sees and then pops off... you end up with purple dots on the LTE map--which generally means if I go near it with a full trip map turned on, I've just found a new tower. It doesn't really do much good for showing the breadth of coverage, but it does seem to do a good job of letting you know where previously undiscovered LTE is sitting for a wider area.

N

Yeah just as noted... it's all crowdsourced... when I am actively mapping I try to hit a few side streets, but for the most part just assume that if a main route shows extremely strong coverage, it'll be that way in a near circle around the tower.

I was in the Bahamas and just got back... I got in the bidding around the 165 mark... missed the end of the auction since I wasn't paying the GSM rate for roaming on the ship and we went to an island with no CDMA (even with CDMA data roaming from BaTelCo I still blew through damn near 200 bucks roaming over a week)...

When will Sprint learn to cater to us dorks who like to sit at the front of the ship (where CDMA roaming signals from shore make it out quite far) and drink and surf forums and chat--and pay dearly for it? lol lol (yeah I should have found a cheap SIM but didn't think that far in advance and BaTelCo seemed to be a pain in the ass to deal with anyway) - - maybe 50 bucks for 200 megs for a week lol

Sorry Robert!

I think the perception can change--but it will take some huge work... Possibly 'the first 150 meg LTE network--and unlimited data' a couple years before anyone else.

Well put.  Your post, in its entirety, is a great thumbnail sketch of the history of what I still like to refer to as Sprint PCS.  I lived through all of those times as a sub for the past 13 years and can certainly corroborate your observations.

Yep... 13 year Sprint customer here too. I was emancipated at 16... guess who was the only carrier to give me service without a 1k deposit back then? lol

Actually I *did* drop a 1k deposit on AT&T between leaving USWest/Qwest (who did move me off my parent's bill onto my own account deposit free--but then I took a job at a place where I roamed on Sprint and Qwest didn't offer free roaming) and going to Sprint... AT&T had no service at my new job, even though their map said they did--so I left within my 14 days and went to Sprint since I knew they had coverage... even back then I remember I paid a 1k deposit to try AT&T because I had my own Sprint issue: They were sold mostly at Radio Shack... and even then (and definitely now) I equated anything sold at Radio Shack as "junk forced upon you by poor saps who will try ANYTHING to get you to buy a service plan on a $20 router" lol I ended up buying Sprint at The Good Guys, and was quite pleased that I could keep the grand I had to give to AT&T (I remember it took them 2 months to cut me that deposit check back after only 10 days of service lol).

Initially it was fun figuring out their quirks and getting discounts and deals (and I even got SERO on my existing account)... I still have a number of perks that moved through with SERO (and a few stuck with SERO Premium) in the P2K to Ensemble conversion, but if I had to dedicate that much time to messing around to save a few bucks today, I wouldn't... so where I'm at now is I told myself 6 months ago after really seriously pondering AT&T, I'd give Sprint one more contract term to blow me away with NV because I still have a great plan (not even "blow me away" so much as have decent OK service that doesn't make me think it's worth less than $50 a month)... otherwise it's back off to try AT&T again 13 years later (er 15 by then) with their killer fast LTE lol

Nat

Yeah that's basically it in a nutshell... Not to mention that pre Nextel merger Sprint had the reputation of being the 'ghettofabulous' carrier as they had the lowest credit requirements of all the postpaid carriers (unless you were basically an illegal alien you could qualify for service with no deposit--and even if you were, the deposit topped out at around 2-300 bucks)... they also had some annoying 'payday loan crowd' type practices like trying to force you through an automated system at all costs (she even had a name, Claire) and if you absolutely had to speak to a rep, it was like 3 bucks if they didn't deem your reason for speaking to them 'worthy'... So you had a mix of people who could qualify anywhere but loved the cool technology, plus those that probably should have been on prepaid--yet absolutely loved the 'bling' factor of said technology...

Once the Nextel merger happened, Sprint took over the Nextel credit requirements (probably the most stringent in the industry) - - which was a good thing, but by that point were letting their network stagnate to where people if faced with a 1000 deposit at Sprint or 500 at Verizon would take Verizon... back when Nextel was the thing to have, people with even just 'medium' credit would fork over a huge deposit just to have PTT.

Then the data issues began and it just snowballed...

I seem to run into 3 kinds of Sprint haters...

1. Eww Sprint is the ghetto carrier... drug dealers use Sprint.

2. Damn their data is slooowwwww. How can you put up with that?... or they were promised WiMax that never showed up.

3. I had Nextel... it was awesome. Then Sprint bought them and it went to hell. F Sprint.

It also didn't help that they decided to 'purge' a number of customers who called in to CS too often about stupid things, or people that asked for too many freebies/gamed the system around 2008. It was probably a good thing, but it was handled poorly, put a public relations PITA on their hands, and people still remember it--it was only like 10,000 customers--but I hate to say it, ghetto folk who feel slighted are some of the most vocal folk there are.

Once Sprint gets NV up and running WELL they need to launch one hell of a cool marketing campaign that fires on all cylinders and reaches across all media, both traditional, social, and even guerilla.

N

Well at least the IDENites in the South can go to SouthernLinc to get their fix--and even still have nationwide PTT thanks to T-Mobile and the dual sim XT626 rocking Android Gingerbread... and ya just KNOW that phone will get a badass update soon with all the pent up demand from all the Nextel users flowing into SouthernLinc! /jk

Bah I hate Ebay! lol

check webstore.com - - they are really the only 'alternative' to ebay auctions now... no buying/selling fees, and should be a bit more lax. Since its mainly for the members here, we don't really need the 'exposure' of eBay, but having a legit online auction engine would be good.

UBid and Amazon used to offer online auction engines for individuals/small biz, but it looks like they discontinued them, so Webstore.com is it!

Nat