pacmanfan

Sprint sure is dragging their feet on 5.1! I'm still on KXA21.12-L1.28.

Back in early July I posted about coverage getting worse this summer, in spite of 1x800... Well, for the first time ever I'm now getting 1x800 at home. It started about a week ago. Not sure if foliage dropping is allowing 1x800 from a different tower now, or if they re-tuned its coverage in my area... I am psyched to see 1x800 at -100dbm indoors!!

I understand not wanting to jump to Verizon. I wouldn't want to either. 

 

Have you considered US Cellular? It looks like they have a tower in Hartville, and they have pretty good service along 60 and in Springfield. The prices aren't as good as Sprint, but at least they're not Verizon.

Both Verizon and USC have reasonable prepaid options. USC's LTE coverage is only good in several states, and I do a fair amount of traveling. I've still got a Verizon vendetta after they overcharged me $28.xx on my first bill after Alltel. If Sprint's new build doesn't improve my area, I really think I'll have to drop the grudge and go back

Thanks for the input!

Unfortunately, the sites along 60 are two sector sites (at least the last time I was looking at them). If you live in Hartville, I would imagine they would not prove much coverage at all. The new antennas are much more directional than the old antennas, meaning they direct the signal almost straight down the highway. 

 

Do you know when the Hwy 60 towers were sectorized? I've lived at Hartville for 3 years now, I was closer to Hwy 60 before that. All I remember seeing in the past 3 years are sectors.

Unless Sprint begins to add sites along 5 (they might), or you spend most of your time in Springfield, I would probably recommend exploring other options. If you have a WiFi calling device on your account, you might also look into getting a Sprint Connect router to enhance your WiFi calling experience at home, that way you don't have to worry about the 1x signal.

 

Yeah, I'm closely watching the new sites! Not holding my breath though. I live on a high point, and used to be able to hit 3 different Hwy 60 towers from my porch, all of them about 20-25 miles away. Service at home is mostly acceptable now, even though it's common to have to go outdoors in the summer. My wife's phone is on Republic Wireless, so the built-in Wifi calling gets used a lot. What's odd is the Hwy 5 coverage gets worse every few months, it seems... It's been gradually degrading for 2 years now.

 

Additionally, Hartville appears to be officially list as a roaming area. How did you manage to get service?

 

When I signed up, I lived in an address right on the edge of the service area map, then moved farther out after a few years. We cancelled service after moving... $85/line/mo is just too rich for poor coverage. I can't bring myself to go back to big red yet, so I've been trying to limp along on Sprint MVNOs, hoping Sprint coverage will get better here...but it's going the wrong way. There's always some hope of it improving--first 1x800 was on the horizon, then 1x800 optimization, and now new sites....

I have never been to this part of Missouri but I think you answered your question when you stated that it is full summer foliage.  I hate to say it, you might be in a wrong spot for coverage.

It's worse this year than ever before, though, and we have 1x800 now...

Did anyone else see fringe coverage degrade after NV sites started showing complete on 800mhz? I'd been holding out hope that 800mhz tuning would improve things, but it got worse instead of better. I live about 20 miles off the Hwy 60 corridor, and regularly drive Hwy 5 between Mansfield and Hartville.

First low areas where 1900mhz used to work started dropping out (maybe 2 years ago), then when they first turned 800mhz on the coverage improved...but I couldn't hold a call for more than 30 seconds on 800mhz! They finally fixed that about 6 months ago, but now that we're in full summer foliage, 800mhz isn't even covering the low areas as well as 1900mhz used to. Did my area just get hosed when they optimized coverage up and down the highway?

Any ideas why I'm not seeing a 1x800 signal worse than -104 in my market? It's as if that's the cutoff level. I have usable LTE down to -115 to -120 all the time....

The 1x location is often offset from the actual cell site into the serving cell. And if you're not seeing a performance improvement on 1x800, it probably isn't fully optimized yet.

That makes sense. The address range shown is about 1-2 miles from where the actual sites are. Thanks!

1x800 deployment has been funny here. My Moto X has been latching onto it quite frequently, but the coverage seems identical to 1x1900... Calls drop in the same locations while driving as they did on 1900.

Signalcheck never shows my 1x800 signal going below -104db. If it's bouncing around from -100 to -104 when i'm on the fringe, it's working fine... but if it sits at -104 too long it seems as if it doesn't have a usable data link, and just hasn't figured that out yet. Eventually it will drop back to 1900 until it scans for 800 again.

Also, Signalcheck is showing 800mhz service from two different towers in my area, both with different addresses than the towers I knew about with LTE. I haven't zeroed in on them yet to see if they actually turned up new towers for 800mhz, or if Signalcheck just has the addresses wrong...

I'm starting to see 1x800 south of I-44. On the 12th my phone kept bouncing on/off a site somewhere along US60, and on the 13th it bounced on/off a site along I-44 somewhere east of Marshfield.

I saw a lot of 1x800 in Des Moines a couple weeks ago... Wish they would hurry up here in the Ozarks!

It really doesn't seem like lowering the scan time changed anything

Do you happen to know what the "BSR timer" and "BSR Max Timer" that are also in that menu are for?

From the reading I was doing, I think it has to do with the amount of time outgoing data is cached for resending, until it fails as a timeout? Not sure.

Some also forget about the LTE available file that helps cut down the scanning.

What is this LTE available file you speak of? On my engineering screen I have LTE-Available, but when I go into it it just says "Reading"

According to this post, the Galaxy S4 has input validation on the field, with a 5 minute minimum. Once I get my MSL, I will certainly try and set it lower, though

Just curious...was the default LTE frequency scan timer set to 300 seconds?

Mine says "Next LTE Scan(min)" = 5

Which menu did you find the scan time setting and what dialer code did you use?  I assume you are using the Moto X phone?

##3282#, then LTE. Yes, Moto X.

Battery life, I presume. I found the scan time setting in engineering, and I'm in the process of getting my MSL so I can try to set it lower. Hopefully I can report back how battery life is impacted.

My new Moto X is the first LTE device I've used regularly, and I have noticed a pattern that seems odd, coming from 1X/EVDO devices. When driving through a fringe area that is mostly covered by LTE, my phone spends most of its time on 3G, or even roaming. Many mornings on my commute, I first get into LTE about 10 miles from my destination. My phone often, but not always, picks up the LTE as soon as I get into coverage. After a couple miles, I drop through a valley where my phone falls back onto shaky 3G signal, but 30 seconds later I'm back into good LTE coverage. Even though I remain in good LTE coverage for most of the remaining 7 miles or so, some days my phone stays on 3G the rest of the trip, but sometime it will pick up LTE again at a seemingly point.

This whole charade begins again on my evening commute--it may pick up LTE as soon as I get into coverage, or maybe a few miles down the road, or maybe after I've driven 10 miles and I'm about to exit LTE area... Or maybe it will even stay on 3G roaming the whole drive, not even switching to native 3G!

This is in sharp contrast to my older phones, which were typically very fast (10-15 seconds) to pick up EVDO when present. Why is LTE so different? Do all LTE phone behave this way, or do I have a lemon? Is this a function of radio behavior, and might it be patched in the future?

Anyone out there have an Airave with their Moto X?  Any luck?  If I'm in the wrong thread, please let me know.  Thanks!

Not yet, but if 800mhz voice performance isn't good enough when they unroll it, I will be getting an Airave.

What information do you need to get going?

I see there is a "3 digit site IDs needed" map.......not in this thread. I was wanting to contribute to it, since some of those sites are near me.

Edit: For some reason I was thinking all that info was contributed in this thread.

I see some of my local towers on the "3-digit SCIDS needed" map. How should I go about contributing them? Just like stlman314 did above?

Bringing this question back around... I have time to run by a local site tonight and grab any needed info.

It definitely holds onto LTE better than the Galaxy Nexus! Still thinking voice and EVDO performance is nearly identical to my OG Evo, though.

Alright, time to revise this statement. While it holds onto LTE better, it doesn't like to switch back if it loses it. It also holds onto 3G roaming for a long time. On my morning drive I disabled roaming to force it to scan, and it connected to LTE and held it several miles. Once it faded momentarily and went back to 3G, it stayed on 3G for 5 miles--the same 5 miles that I have good LTE signal when driving the other direction.

So, my Moto X only seems to scan when it loses the cell it's connected to.

The HTC will only give you the HEX. It won't give you the 3 Digit SCIDs. If you have a Samsung or a LG those would give them to you or even a iPhone that is LTE capable you can get them.

I should have updated my profile sooner, as I'm using a Moto X now. The LTE engineering screen has a field for SCID, but I haven't looked at it while actually connected to 4G yet, so it's blank...

I see some of my local towers on the "3-digit SCIDS needed" map. How should I go about contributing them? Just like stlman314 did above?