mmark27

Looks like more acceptances today for Milwaukee, its creeping in from the burbs very slowly.....however, nothing has changed downtown proper. I thought for sure it would be better by the time I head there on Dec 7th. There's still a few days left to make things happen! We're going to be near the Oriental Theater area, then down on Water street, both don't look real great for LTE coverage yet....

The rumor that I've heard many times and many places is by the end of this year or December. We don't know how it'll happen, either. Perhaps Sprint will just flip the switch from home base and it'll go live everywhere that has 1x800SMR and appropriate backhaul in place? Or perhaps it'll need tower by tower approval like 1900LTE and such has. Someone please correct me if this is wrong. I've kept tabs on these things loosely from many different threads and can't afford a premiere sponsorship level.

Band 41 is only what they're calling "Spark" at the moment (2600LTE). It'll be the whole tri-band lingo once its all launched.

Not broadcasting anywhere yet.

I'm getting LTE from what has to be the Prairie St. tower in Madisons southwest side. Pretty strong signal inside my friends house here. Too strong to be any other. This is new. Anything going on downtown Madison? Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

Don't do it! Wait for Triband S4 model. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

Yeah, there are only 5 towers left with 0 upgrades on them in the whole Madison area and they're all on the isthmus. I'm going to check out the two that had no equipment previously today in about an hour and try to get some shots. I know things are still going on around here as we just had a tower accepted 2 reports ago after that huge flurry. So, no its not done, its going to get way, way better man. On my drive in, I had some weird data flipping going on, so perhaps that change is imminent.Update: went by those 2 towers downtown that didn't have equipment visible before and they still don't appear to have any. The signal downtown Madison is all 1xRTT with triangulated tower addresses.

Well, it could be a long time, but in Madison, which are the same crews (install, testers, etc.) in the Milwaukee area, we had 1x800 overnight, then it went all day. Then that following night we had LTE overnight sporadically.....then 24 hours later it was on and stayed on. Then they came back 2 weeks later and took all the legacy gear down.

Strike that, one tower went from yellow to green, the tower in McFarland by the Madison Curling Club. I updated my gif for towers, but will wait until the others change too. The towers are creeping in on the Milwaukee area for sure!

ha ha, I was just thinking that. Madison hasn't changed at all.

How about here in S4GRU, can you make a secondary password even though you logged in with twitter? There must be some way around this.

I think that you can? I have log-ins for both Tapatalk and S4GRU. I know that Tapatalk gives you the option at the start to log in with your other credentials and then I think that filters through to the forums you click on as well. I use the Tapatalk Pro as its worth the couple bucks.

Check out my signature for using Imgur https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.imgur.mobile&hl=en . I think its the easiest, using the "direct link". Tapatalk app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quoord.tapatalkpro.activity&hl=en for this forum lets you add photos directly in, but you're limited by this site on the amount of MBs you can upload. So, Imgur helps to avoid that. So eitherway, you'll want to use the Tapatalk App as its light years easier than the mobile web version.

But it's giving the exact address?? that's an improvement, you'll see the 800 soon. In Madison, I saw that the exact addresses started showing up for towers with 1xRTT, then they flipped to 1x800, then LTE within a couple days. That's great for Milwaukee! Gotta get downtown lit up by Dec 7th! Since the crew took down the legacy equipment on my tower in Fitchburg 2 days ago, I'm getting better LTE (dBm-wise) from much further out, it appears. I held LTE inside super target almost to the back of the store, which was not the case a few days ago and I'm able to connect to my tower from across the beltline on Seminole Hwy and keep a -90-95 dBm signal all the way in. Previous trips it would be at -120 in that area, flipping in and out. Really hope the rest of these towers here go live soon so it fills in gaps in the city.

The crew was the clean up crew. All of the legacy equipment is now removed, the network vision antennas look so lonely up there. So if you see a Penske box truck around any tower in Madison, they're the clean up crew. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

That's the highest ringtone volume I've ever seen on 4G

Oh MY SO MUCH GREEN!!!!!! If you're not a sponsor, you're missing the pretty colors.

Have you detected any Band 26 LTE in Madison? That's the 800LTE band. Curious since you have the ability to see it if live. There's a penske box truck back at my tower this am. Clean up crew? 2600 crew? Or different carrier work? One of the Madison crews were using a penske box truck for Sprint work. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

No idea! My only guess would be they're waiting for the 5 downtown most towers to all go at once. The only 5 remaining. 3/5 have NV equipment as of a couple weeks ago. Actually, you're a sponsor so could you look up the addresses of the two towers downtown nearest the Capitol and go see of they have NV equipment on them? Follow the links in my signatures for the sites and pictures of what to look for. One is off Henry, big apt building. The other is a small apartment building with the legacy equipment visible last I checked 3 weeks ago before these acceptances started to happen. Just off East Wash behind that new huge apt building. Really wish Sprint would relocate towers to some higher positions. Wasn't sure if you could go over to them quick since you're more in that area than I am. I can't make it during day light any more. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

Most likely you're connected to that other tower 6 miles away with 800. The PRL is prioritizing 1x800 over 1xRTT. Sounds like your closer tower is not broadcasting 800 but you've got better or enough signal for your phone to latch onto that 800SMR signal. My tower did that for two days until it was broadcasting 800SMR. Does your closer tower have NV equipment on it? It might light up soon with 800. If it does, get ready to party.....with LTE. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

Blanked again over the weekend for acceptance reports. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

Also my question was, will there be an increase in strength after the market matures. Or is it "as is" once it's on. Not talking speeds here, but signal strength. Actually, your article, while very informative, didn't answer much of my question. Why in the case of a very strong signal for LTE do I not get anything just inside a building? I mean despite the variance in strengths, penetration and fragility, 1900 should still give me something you'd think. Oh well, hopefully 800LTE fixes some of this eventually. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

The Wall doesn't seem to display all articles, without several clicks, that's the weakest part of these forums, IMO. There's no "main page" that opens first or at top level with articles. My apologies for missing that article, thanks for the link. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

I've read through the last 4-5 pages, and don't see this addressed. I have 3 things/questions/comments: #1. It appears that the 4.3 update for the S4 does not show equivalent signal bars to LTE strength, IF one can believe the Signal Check depiction of bar strength, which I'm pretty sure is close to how OS determines the signal. #2. I notice that if I have strong LTE outside (-80-85dBm) and go into a building, I'll lose the LTE and pick up eHRPD quite strongly (-55dBm). Since I have a S4, I'll only get the band 25 1900LTE and the eHRPD broadcasting is also off the 1900 band. Are the radios just that much stronger for the 3G than the LTE? Will this eventually give me 1900LTE inside the building equivalent to the 3G that I'm seeing? #3. I also see that if I drive around the city with the LTE Engineering mode on, it'll report that I'm always connected to LTE just very low at -117dBm. At this point, the phone/signalcheck report that I'm getting 3G because that signal is stronger and it bumps to that for data connectivity. SO, will 1900LTE be equivalent to eHRPD 1900 as far as signal and connection? Or are the LTE radios just weaker? Will they be "turning up" the strength of signal on towers as a market matures? Or it is what it is and the LTE will not be any better on 1900 than it is when they first turn on the tower? Perhaps I assumed that I'd at least be getting LTE where I had 3G before, inside or out. Feel free to link me to an article that discusses this, I couldn't really find one that discussed this explicitly.

Good, cause Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk