AcctDeleted_Merlin

That ping + that speed = Fiber 3G while picking up LTE. Sometimes the phones don't report the correct data type. I have played with that tower personally, it is fine. What you see happening here is the site switching you over to the 3G signal because of signal noise/clarity. These sites will switch over to 3G when they deem a steady clear 3G will suffice, if you started pulling more bandwidth it would probably bump back up to the 4G, but it may not be as stable as the CDMA-3G.

Indeed. These antennas are extremely directional and do not deviate from their path. A 1-2 degree misalignment can easily end up missing an entire neighborhood. Once a cluster goes live we send out several trucks to the area to map out the signal strength so it won't be Swiss cheese, but it certainly wont be optimized.

The latter. The holes will not be terribly frequent, but we wont know they exist until the legacy network is completely shut down.

ATT/Verizon/Tmo have all maxed out their switch/network capacity by retrofitting their networks. They will not be able to sustain any more increase in bandwidth. This is the joy of the Network Vision project. That fancy new backbone they put in is specifically designed to maintain the unlimited plans for the foreseeable future, it does not matter to sprint how much you use, you wont be able to ever stress it for 10-15 years.

Coverage is going to be a slightly more interesting question. As all these new antenna's have gone up the crews have not really been held accountable for their lackluster work. Some antennas are pointed incorrectly and this will cause gaps. As we begin to do the permanent maintenance hand-off from Samsung to Ericsson the Ericsson techs are going to be ripping them apart and making sure everything is correct. This takes about 2-3 hours per site, per tech. Look for roughly 6-10 sites to be walked through per day once they get rolling (in about 4-5 months). This puts full stable completion of the phase 1 NV at the end-ish of 2014.

Not that I know of.

Yes. No. Confirmed. GMO sites for now. The eventual plan is to convert them as well. Indeed.

Yes, you are fired for being clumsy, but more importantly because you failed to tie off or lash/spot the ladder properly.

Correct, they cannot block signals. It also looks like NexTech shares towers with verizon in some areas.

Unconfirmed, but I have heard that there are several long range verizon sites along I-70 and that for a long time Verizon has paid extra to the tower owners to maintain exclusive rights. Seeing as those towers need to be other forms of radio communication for them to be viable financially, it could be true. It could also be that there are about 47 people total that live out there and all the other carriers are okay with Verizon dominating the rural market.

wut?

Big oops, it's really fun trying to bring up a site and the MMBS cant talk to the RRUs. Even more fun when you switch to the backup fiber line to the RRU and that one is trashed as well. Most of the tower crews are out of state low-end crews, but I have run in to several crews that thoroughly know their shit and get it done right the first/only time.

The first two seem to be the harder instructions for them to follow. That and don't kink the damn hybrid cable, it has fiber in it.

I might say that, I might not. But it wouldn't be wrong. No, climbing towers is not in my job description, nor any ericsson, sprint, or samsung tech. We leave the climbing to the plebs. Their training is basically "don't die, don't hurt yourself, bolt goes here, cable goes here"

no these do not happen on weekends.

Lurking. Waiting. Even if the plan was for this weekend I wouldn't say anything, especially with people like the one below that don't know what they're talking about. EDIT: That was a little harsh, but I stand by it. Sprint never intentionally misinformed anyone, they got a bit hosed by Samsung, your local telephone provider, and funding issues. The network challenge of bringing up even one cluster in Denver is greater than lighting up all of the springs and if not handled correctly WILL take down both the legacy and NV network for most of the state. Every site in a cluster has to be 100% ready of it will make for a very long night and hellish morning.

Exactly why everyone is moving toward the 6 month upgrade plans.

Maybe? The only bit of information I know for sure regarding the 800 spectrum is that it is a change in the 1x800. I fix, deploy, troubleshoot, and help plan... Design and research aren't my field. I shouldn't even be here talking about anything...

Like I said, I'm not entirely sure how, but the source is solid. Several years away minimum, but the goal is to have all the other carriers chasing them into 5g and the network is built for that. Everyone else is running their LTE on retrofitted networks while NV is built to withstand the 5G and beyond systems. I realize this is mostly on the switch side, but it is the backbone of where everything is going.

It's the same spectrum as the 800LTE. The only reason you wont get the full LTE indoors is due to signal strength and noise. Remember, LTE is the new 1x, it will be here for a long time and they will build upon it as we move to 5g. Just because the theoretical max is 150kbps (per channel) doesn't mean you can't have more than one channel active. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but it's significant and already being tested.

:-] Do you really think they are going to leave that chunk of spectrum to voice alone? There is more to this story than anyone is allowed to tell, but it will take quite some time.

It is that bad. That garbage is bad enough to keep far too many tech's busy, which keeps us from fixing real problems. Based on the rollout I have seen after all the clusters are online (soon) it follows a few months later. But there are only so many samsung techs and a ton of Denver sites. Late summer maybe? I haven't payed attention to the rollout schedules on this site. 800LTE will not have the penetrating power of 1x800, however, 1x800 is going to carry the old 3g signal with surprising power.

No. I will not love it. It is a monumental pain in the ass that prevents Sprint from beating up on Verizon for overall network quality. Without that garbage Sprint would be crushing right now. I guess, true. But the 800LTE is going to be quite a while down the road for Denver and will be spotty as it comes online. 1x800 on the new equipment is going to be a game changer. Let me know when you get crystal clear calls inside elevators in the basement. Then you'll know what I mean, anywhere you can get that call you can also get about 2-3Mbps data... Everyone know that one friend with a basement or room that is dead to the world, once this is done you can proudly show off your data speeds while they can't even send a text.

- Most will be coming within a month, almost all within the next few months. - I don't dabble in CW, can't stand it. It is by far our most difficult equipment to work with and troubleshoot. - Clearwire sites will always only do 2500 (band 41, but I hate calling it that because we never use that internally). Future netvision sites may be upgraded to 2500 as well but will require new antennas and RRH units. (again, this may be the 5g option) - You need a tri-band to get 2500LTE, but you do not need tri-band to get the 800LTE and 1900LTE that is about to go active.

The band 41 is coming from a separate clearwire site. The the LTE should turn on some time in the next few months.