DCblackhole

Hopefully good news for us long suffering downtowners. This is the roof of 4th and plum1406065089346.jpg

I know there have been some upgrades downtown because I have been picking up some LTE signals on 9th outside of the library for about a month now. I had stopped using sensorly because I put a bunch of purple on band 41 from covington into downtown a while back on my G2, but the the LTE I'm picking up these days is definitely 1900 because I switched back to my Note 2.

1/2 of downtown has coverage according to Sensorly.

I'm pretty sure that was all mine from the weekend.  It is probably all band 41 LTE because I was playing around with the hidden menu settings of my G2.  There was an option called "UE Usage" that you can toggle between Voice Centric and Data Centric.  I switched it to Data Centric and I was able to hold LTE from exit 2 on 75S all the way to the Taco Bell in Covington, then across the bridge into downtown until I parked on 9th St.  

It was nice to be connected to LTE, but I found out that it won't let phone calls or texts through.  I could make calls and send texts, but incoming was not happening.  I guess it is because of the CFSB issues.

5689#*980# go down menu and select IOT then System Selection and last Network Mode., choose LTE by it self This only works on the g2 Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 Thanks for the info.  I was playing around with some of the setting was able to pull over 40 megs down on band 41 in Westwood/Cheviot.

This was my g2 forced on band 41 on colerain ave passing Galbraith rd

uploadfromtaptalk1391867510135.jpg

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

How are you "forcing" band 41?  I can't get mine to switch from 3G.

My car is fine. It is something about the G2 that doesn't want to reconnect. It does the same thing with my Bluetooth headphones.

 

I have the same problem whenever I cycle airplane mode or reboot my G2. It will not automatically reconnect to my headphones or the car even though it was connected prior to the cycle.

Anyone else get static with their music via Bluetooth in their vehicles? I switch to FM radio, no static as higher volumes. Bluetooth (Pandora high quality and using Power amp with .flac quality songs) still introduce static sounds at higher volumes. Anyone else with this issue?

 

Sent from my LG-G2

I haven't had any static issues via bluetooth in the car.  I use Slacker Radio most of the time, but have used Pandora on occasion with no problem.  

Just wondering if you have your phone plugged into a car charger when streaming?  If so, it may be engine noise opposed to static.  

The article say you have 14 days to lock in your roster ?????  you cant add people later on???

 

Of course, those prices are dependent on all members sticking with the plan, and Sprint has framed the program in such away that customers become active recruiters for Sprint’s network. From the moment one customer signs up for a Framily plan he or she has 14 days to recruit members before the plan roster is locked in. A $5-$30 a month discount is a big enticement to bug your friends and family members to join, and the end result is Sprint could attract a lot more customer. It’s rather ingenious really.

That part of the article doesn't make sense to me either.... If there is no contract then is seems like you should be able to add and subtract people at your leisure.  Maybe it must be done within the first 2 weeks of the billing cycle for the discount to take effect that month.

I am hoping Sprint has worked out deals with manufacturers to limit the SKUs they produce.  I think these plans will only help increase subscriber numbers in the future if devices have all of the radios baked in to jump between CDMA and GSM carriers like the Nexus 5.

I used GPS today and had no problems.  I will admit that data tends to drop often though lately.  (Data drops, not signal.)  I was at a friend's house last night and it said 1xRTT but no 3G/1X icon, just signal bars.  Could send texts and calls, but no loading web pages.  A profile update fixed it but it's been happening quite often on my device.  Might be related to me making modifications on my device, though.

I have had the same issues with data dropping.  The GPS has been giving me problems since I started using the G2.  At first I thought it was the building, but one day I switched back and forth between the G2 and my Note 2, and the Samsung would pick up and hold a location with no problems while the G2 would struggle.

I think a merger between the 2 is almost inevitable.  That is the only way either of them will be able to truly compete with VZW and AT&T.  I think the combination of technologies and frequencies will be a hurdle though.  I think the best possibliity for them to get the merger approved will be if they disband all of the prepaid brands into its own company.... kinda like when the government broke up Ma Bell back in the day.

I'm willing to help out but I will warn you guys now that I won't have very much time to commit to it. I work 65-70 hours per week. I live on the west side of Cincinnati and work downtown and in Covington so anything you need in those areas I will try to squeeze in the time to provide the info for you

I just saw a unicorn on 4th St. in Covington

I can't reproduce it, but it is strange because my 3G signal keeps dropping out and then I will randomly get a connection to band 41 with no bars at all. I was able to get a speed test in on sensorly before it reverted back to 3G. It was about 11Mbps down.

Can anyone tell me the precise locations of the towers that would service downtown?  Would like to be able to keep an eye on them for activity, as Wimax has vanished over the past few days and speedtest can't even complete one test over 3G.  I suppose it could be my GS2 in its death throes, but if not, I'm really starting to question my sanity of waiting for LTE.

 

Anyone know anything about downtown?

I feel your pain.  I work downtown and I haven't been able to locate the towers either.  And there are so many buildings of all sizes, there is no telling if they are actually visible from street level.  If I can make some free time soon, I will try to do a little scavenger hunt for the towers.

Maybe I shouldn't put this here, not sure. But those workers said that Verizon is upgrading 800 towers in Ohio. Wonder what they are doing to their service?

Here it is, I knew I read something about it.  Some of the guys here were talking about it in one of the main forums too.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/15/verizons-lte-aws-rollout-begins/

Maybe I shouldn't put this here, not sure. But those workers said that Verizon is upgrading 800 towers in Ohio. Wonder what they are doing to their service's?

I would think they are probably adding lte on the AWS spectrum... I thought there were articles about them starting to test it out in NYC or somewhere like that a few months. I will try to find it later and link it for you as an fyi

Anybody out there with a g2 care to weigh in on how it's working? Trying to understand how these "legacy/incumbent" problems affect Cincinnati.

 

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My G2 is scheduled for delivery sometime today... hopefully it gets here before I have to leave for work.  I will try to keep you guys updated with what I find.  But I don't have any 4G towers near my house or either of my jobs.  So I won't be able to do any excursions into 4G territory until Friday or Saturday.

I pre ordered my G2 from Best Buy online and it gave me the option of keeping my existing plan or moving to the my way plans and I chose my existing plan with no problems.

I did the same thing, but I have a feeling we will have some trouble getting the phone activated whenever it arrives.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the One and S4 both having deep discounts.  Especially when you consider the types of deals that were available on the S3 last year.  Those devices are becoming long in the tooth and will be getting close to refresh time.

Best Buy charged me as soon as I placed my order on Friday.

Did they fully charge you or just put a hold for the amount of the order? The transaction still shows as Pending on my Chase credit card, for example.

The authorization will fall off until they actually ship the item.  Best Buy put an auth through on my card when I pre-ordered the xbox one for the full amount, but it dropped off after a few days.

Sidenote: I'm a little surprised with the interest...or lack there of.... in the Nati market. *scratches head* There is a good amount of ground work taking place in the Columbus market by S4GRU members spotting out new cabinets, verifying LTE, verifying 1x800 and so forth. I follow the Cincinnati thread because I am down there a lot and am just as interested in 4G here as I am with Columbus. For the sponsors that are interested in seeing the groundwork that Columbus members are doing, look at this thread... http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4742-columbus-market-mapspreadsheet/

I honestly didn't know a community like this existed until I stumbled upon this site a few months ago.  Its funny because when I first started looking at the maps of local towers I was surprised to see the locations of some of them.  There is one at the end of my block that I have walked or driven by AT LEAST 1000x and have never looked up.

And this site has made me feel like a complete dummy.  I now notice towers all over the place that I was completely oblivious to before.  There is one in particular that I remember looking at about a year ago and saying to myself "what the hell is that?" and then shrugging it off as an unsolved mystery.

But I plan on becoming more involved and sharing more information when I come across it.

Sprint definitely has dead zones through out the city.  I know there is one on Queen City Ave that has been pretty consistent for the past DECADE (and I am not exaggerating).  Right at the intersection of Queen City and Sunset there is an ancient Sprint burial ground... Only a few calls have ever made it out alive LOL

i hope you guys are putting down purple when you do your driving lol now we just need a few people in northern ky to start driving around looking for new and exciting purple 

My goal was to find some new signals, but unfortunately I wasn't able to add any color to the maps.  I think our market may be upgrade dormant for a little while.  Hopefully the new tri band devices will give us some more speed sooner rather than later.

Get great speeds if I'm driving up and down the Highway. .but haven't seen any sign of 4g on the west side of CincinnatiSent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk now Free

I did so random driving around yesterday and it seems that all LTE dies West of Hamilton Ave. I live on the west side so I drove down spring Grove to blue rock and lost LTE once I got Knowlton corner in Northside.

My local best buy says they have them in stock but they cannot sell/activate because of release date. Why Sprint, why!?!

I think a lot of retailers may end up sitting on them for a couple weeks.  I'm not sure how the supply chain works, but its possible that Best Buy has a higher priority receiving product from LG than Sprint does.  I know when I used to work in electronics retail, we would get some Sony products before the Sony Style store that used to be in Cincinnati.  A lot of it has to do with the amount of product a particular retailer will move.  I wouldn't be surprised if your Best Buy has them already due to their relationship with LG and them being an authorized dealer for pretty much every product line LG offers.  Where Sprint only carries the mobile product line.

WiFi is included.  There's 100% chance of that.  Don't worry about it.  

 

Also - Bestbuy taking pre-orders for upgrades on Sprint LG G2 for only $99.

 

I'll likely order mine after I get off from work.

 

Lazy Link.

 

EDIT: Looks like no Quadbeat earphones. Ah well, not a biggie.

Thanks for sharing this deal... I had checked earlier in the day and the Sprint variant wasn't online yet.

Best Buy also had a promotion where you would get a $50 gift card if you upgraded a phone before December 31 that you had to sign up for several months ago, in-store or online. So you may have signed up and forgotten you did it. Not sure if that stacks with any other gift card promos.

 

Alas my upgrade isn't due until January 1 and you can't do early upgrades/One Up through BB yet.

I remember signing up for this offer, but I can't find any info in my email archives.  If my memory serves me correctly, they used to send me reminders about it every few weeks.  I'm thinking that they may have been text messages, do you recall how the promo worked.  I thought you didn't have to do anything besides activate a new phone under your current phone number and they would send you a gift card a few weeks later (after return/exchange period expires).

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Sweet. Thanks everyone for the heads up about Best Buy. Just bought 2 G2s and only spent $133 plus got a $50 gift card (not sure if I get 2 since it says one per customer). I had a Best Buy gift card with $75 that I never thought I'd use since everything there is so overpriced but it came in handy today. I can't wait to join all of y'all in some LTE goodness very soon.

I'm in a similar situation.  I only ordered one because idk if the gf will actually like the phone.  We were both long time Blackberry users, and I had to pry it out of her hand last night because I picked up a used Note 2 on craigslist for her.

My total came up to $5.33 after I redeemed some RewardZone points that have been accruing on my Best Buy mastercard.  I usually just let them build up and use them to buy Christmas gifts for others and the new Call of Duty for myself every year.  I was surprised that they let me pay for a contract phone with reward points, especially since there is a gift card offer attached to it.  I remember spending like 30 mins at the register last year on black friday because the system wouldn't let me redeem rewards on a free gift card package.

If BB doesn't cancel my order, and they honor the $50 gift card upgrade offer on top of the current $50 gift card offer, I will end up getting the G2 at net zero cost to me.  Effectively swapping RewardZone points/certificate for Best Buy gift cards for the same amount....  This almost makes me feel like one of those 'Extreme Coupon' ladies