athens

 

A Miracle has apparently happened!!!!!

 

Site CH[censored] at Routes 31 and 176 in Crystal Lake, IL, has gone live with Band 25 LTE only 14 months after the NV hardware was installed!  This morning, I clocked data speeds up to 34.4 Mbps down and 10.4 Mbps up, with pings between 53 and 85 ms.

Screenshot_1013-09-22-09-05-48.jpg Screenshot_2013-09-22-08-51-23.jpg

 

Why is this important? Because several sites in the far Chicago exurbs (Crystal Lake, Dekalb, others) have been stalled for months, for no visible reason. The upgraded Network vision hardware was visibly installed (new antennas, RRUs) in the summer of 2012, and in a number of cases, 800 SMR for voice and text was activated in the late spring and early summer of this year, and that has been a good thing.  But LTE has been completely missing.

 

3 NV-upgraded sites remain without LTE in Crystal Lake and Cary, and now one can only hope that they get their LTE soonest.

 

Now what will I rant about?  Hmmm.  Well, I was actually chasing Band 41 on a co-located Clear site when I found the new Band 25. No Band 41 evident.  And I have been chasing an elusive Band 41 site in Algonquin, IL, for weeks.  I KNOW where it is, and I get Band 41 signal from it on my Zing only in really odd places, but never near the site itself (so I can't get good speed numbers).  And, oh, yeah, where's that pesky new Band 26?  I guess I'm not out of topics yet.

 

But I am so irrationally happy over today's discovery, I am almost tempted to forgive Sprint for all of its past indiscretions.  Almost. ( )

 

 

Yesterday stopped at the big Starbucks with the drive-thru on US 14 in Crystal Lake.

While inside the car I witnessed nothing but 3G on my Moto X with 273 ms ping times and download speeds... when the network would stay connected...of a pathetic 80 kb/sec.

Hopefully that has all changed.

Thanks

Do you have any suggestions for how I might be able to finagle a future swap date for a tri-band Android device?

Since I would never consider a Phablet like the LG G2, the Galaxy 4 mini sounds tempting...though I'm really used to Moto's superior battery charge life.

Again explain to me, in lay terms, why the dual-band I-Phone 5s wouldn't be advantageous for pulling data on 800mHz.

As I said Sprint has told us we have 60 days No Risk cancellation here in Chicago

Will the Galaxy 4S Mini be here within that time frame ( I have 55 days remaining).

Is the HTC One Mini headed Sprint's way in Tri-Band, or the Moto X?

(FYI again the 3G signal is so weak inside my house this morning that the Moto X can't sync my Yahoo Email.)

Most reps just push the most popular phones available and the only phones available that are high end and recent are the HTC One and SGS4. Tribands have yet to come out so a salesman can't really push potential subscribers towards phones that may come out in a month or two.

 

- Sprint 3G in Chicago has a spectrum issue (or lack of) that pulls down Sprint cellular performance. Last check, Sprint has only 20 mhz of PCS spectrum available to deploy until the USCC Network can go completely dark so Sprint can fire up additional 1x and EVDO 3g carriers.

 

In the meantime, Sprint is the carrier with the 2nd highest subs in the region (behind ATT) and with LTE and NV active for a year meaning lots of sites are now easing in to 50-70% LTE usage (this is where the advertised average 5-12 mbps speeds come into play). So Sprint can do nothing now other than encourage offloading to TD-LTE which has huge 20mhz carriers and LTE 800 which offers another 5mhz layer of capacity until the PCS spectrum from USCC is fully available for use. 

Sounds like I should get the I-Phone 5S and switch my plan to the $65/ mo Unlimited Plan with early upgrade in a year.

When they will have a more suitable selection of dual or tri-band handsets. Hopefully a Moto X so configured.

In general how do the Sprint I-phones compare to the Motos in terms of signal reception and voice clarity?

Your best bet is definitely to get a dual band device like the iPhone5 or tri band like the g2 or some of the other phones coming out this fall.  It really is the right thing to this close to these new devices coming out.

Is this normal here in Chicago?  If so why are they still pushing the 1900mHz single band devices? My sister got an HTC One in June. All she has been able to get at her house out in Barrington is mostly 3G.

And why is Sprint 3G so slow? Is the network capacity at its limit? With the USCC speeds were typically twice the Sprint speeds.

Recently came to Sprint from USCC. Got the 1900 mHZ LTE Moto X. Out on the street in front of my house signal was all LTE,

Speedtest showed 57 ms latency and 4mb/sec downloads.

Walked inoto the house: 1st floor, which is double masonary construction: 1 bar 3G signal,

120 ms latency, download speeds <300 kb/sec.

Now I walk upstairs where the construction is frame and voila: 4G signal just like outside the house

Will the launch of 800 mHz here in Chicago is there any chance the 1900 mHz signal will improve to allow 4G to penetrate the walls of the masonary part of the home?

Or am I better off swapping to a dual band device like the I-Phone 5S to catch the 800 mHz signal when it goes live?

Thanks to all in advance.

Here's the Chicago thread where local Chicago folks may help answer your questions.

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1084-network-visionlte-chicago-market/

 

In summary - no company can guarantee in door coverage as you can see just by how two different building materials can offer such drastic differences in receptions. What can help you though is LTE 800 which has much better propagation characteristics compared to PCS and may provide you with some coverage inside depending on just how badly that masonry affects RF.

 

But yes, LTE 800 would help out substantially as you get EVDO 3G (albeit barely) which should translate to at least half decent LTE 800 coverage at the same spot from the same tower. 

Thanks LiloTimz

Just ported from USCC to Sprint My Way Plan here in Chicago earlier this week.

Selected the Moto X at corporate store.

Gave them my house street address where the claimed the data service was 4G LTE.

Out on the street in front of my house signal was LTE,

Speedtest showed 57 ms latency and 4mb/sec downloads.

Walked inoto the house: 1st floor, which is double masonary construction: 1 bar 3G signal,

120 ms latency, download speeds <300 kb/sec.

Now I walk upstairs where the construction is frame and voila: 4G signal just like outside the house

Now I know that the Moto X is 1900 mHz LTE only.

Will the launch of 800 mHz here in Chicago is there any chance the 1900 mHz signal will improve to allow 4G to penetrate the walls of the masonary part of the home?

Or am I better off swapping to a dual band device like the I-Phone 5S to catch the 800 mHz signal when it goes live?

Thanks to all in advance.