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mmark27

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Posts posted by mmark27

  1. Still no LTE from Middleton, Tokay or State Street towers in Madison.  I really would like to know what's going on. Just when we thought we were soooo close to getting some coverage here.  Clearly the backhaul wasn't in place or something.  All the other hardware is all there.  At least the Rimrock tower is active, but doesn't really broadcast very far.

  2. 151 and 30?   sure you dont mean 90\94- 30 intersection?   (thats terrible that you can say "very dense tower with lots of equipment on it." and I actually have an idea of what tower you are talking about! lol)

     

    Ill head to that one after work and see whats up...grab a few pics if i can

     

    Whoops, 51 and 30, not 151.  I think its more likely this one than the other you're talking about, although maybe that one has equipment on it too, its closer to the others that have been upgraded already.

    • Like 1
  3. Im pretty sure its going to be the one west of 90.  I wont be heading down that way until next week probably...i can take a look then, but it might be live by then, who knows!

     

    I'm fairly certain the tower at hwy 151 and hwy 30 intersection has new antennas + RRUs on it, so quite possibly it could be that tower. I haven't been back over there in about a week, and I don't have any pictures.  It's a very dense tower with lots of equipment on it.

     

    Like they've seen in other areas around the country, the LTE could go active and then go back off quite quickly....or it may only accept so many connections to the LTE at one time during testing.  If you see a blip, that's a very good sign and map that sucka with SignalMap!   It is also true though that these LTE signals can travel quite some distance.....if you look at the Madison maps, before the Rimrock tower was turned on, there was signal on the beltline that could only really be attributed to the McFarland Tower that was active (tower IDs I grabbed confirmed this).  Now there are a few more around that are working sporadically.

  4. Not sure what your talking about? No lte being broadcasting in Middleton. Just rant lte discovery mode and still showing up as ehrpd.

    Have you tried rebooting or doing airplane mode on and off? I've been having problems with LTE discovery mode working on my S4 lately for whatever reason. But if I toggle airplane mode myself then I'll grab it. I'll be out in Middleton in 30 mins and I'll check too. It's possible they turned it back off also.

     

    Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4

     

     

  5. So I wanted to take a bike ride today. Figured I'd go take pictures of the 3 closest towers to me in Madison. I've never done this before, so I'm not great at spotting new equipment. Any help would be appreciated.

     

    Album here: http://imgur.com/a/jrHoT

     

    The first 3 pictures are from an apartment building just south of campus on Park St (this was hard to find at first). Looks like old equipment. I imagine the cabinets are on the roof, because I couldn't find them.

     

    The next 8 pictures are from the Fish Hatch/Beltline tower. There were so many things up there, I couldn't tell what anything was. I couldn't tell if those cabinets (3rd and 4th pictures) were old, and I couldn't get any closer/other angles.

     

    The last 3 are 2 different angles of the McKee Rd tower. 

     

    There's nothing in those photos that is Network Vision work yet.  Perhaps the cabinet looks a little new at the Beltline tower, but I'm not very good at spotting those, others may be.  However, there are no new NV antennas on any of those towers.  I keep an eye on these towers as they are sort of on my way home from work.  Good pics though! 

     

    The last tower you visited is the one across the street from my house, I watch it like a hawk! :)

     

    Here's what the middleton tower looks like. you are looking for the antennas in the middle with those big boxes coming off them (the RRUs).  Each tower will be set up slightly differently with the RRUs placed behind the antenna as space allows....like the Rimrock Rd. tower is set up.  There are better pictures in this thread by they get buried pretty quickly. 

     

    20130717_202710.jpg

  6. LTE is up and running in Middleton....but nothing on the west side of Madison, downtown, or eastside. Some LTE on the beltline is great because in the afternoon, the signal was horrible. Now, if Sprint can get the other areas up and running, that would be great!

    I'll be out in Middleton tonight and will map some on Sensorly. Come on Tokay, light up!!

     

    That Rimrock tower is inhibited to the West by a big hill, so until the Fish Hatchery tower (no work on it yet) or the Tokay tower (ready for service) goes live it'll be pretty limited to the west.

     

    Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4

     

  7. Yeah, the speeds in Madison have been horrible all week.  There were lots of times where I could not make a phone call or send a text.  Hopefully the LTE will be fired up soon, because with football season starting real soon, it would be nice to be able to use my phone at a badger game (besides as a paperweight)

     

    Ha, use your phone downtown at all during a Badger Saturday!!! yeah right!!!  I used to live by the Big Ten and it was impossible to use a phone that entire day.  It doesn't help that there aren't many towers there at all really.

     

    So, I work right next to Camp Randall and I'm uncertain about the status of that tower, on Old University on one of those apt buildings.  I can't get a good look at the panels.  The other one is over near Brittingham park, unsure of that status, and then one on an apt building off normal University Ave down near Park...again, no idea of that status as I can't see the antennas.

     

    I do like your constant posts to Sprint's twitter accounts!!!  I'll do my best to ramp up that pressure with ya.

  8. According to the new map update there is a tower along the beltline in Madison accepted as of yesterday (I hope this is vague enough for the public forums), and another one in progress. Has anyone been out to test those yet? I would, but I'm still on a WiMax device until LTE is more prevalent. 

     

    Whether or not they're broadcasting yet, it's exciting to see work actually being done within the city limits!

     

    Ha, I called that tower the other day.  It's on the Rimrock exit, there are antenna there, clearly it has everything else.  I spotted those RRUs from a long way away.  It is NOT broadcasting, as I just drove past it.  The Tokay tower is still not accepted, but Robert has at least marked it in progress, I'll assume based off my pictures (YES!). 

     

    That's one on State, one in middleton, one on the beltline and the tokay tower that are poised (2 of 4 accepted).  This doesn't make any sense to why these aren't active!!!!!  The guy at the Tokay tower said that the backhaul for that tower (at least) was active and ready, however it clearly didn't pass inspection if Robert hasn't received accepted status yet.....

     

    I'm back from vacation and unless I waste too much time playing with my new Chromecast that should be delivered around noon, I'll check out a few more towers on Madison's Eastside as I have a birthday party to attend on the dirty east side.  Then one in Oregon, so I'll at least have LTE. Ah kids.....

  9. So is August 1sth the projected date for LTE going live in Madison proper?

    This is what the Tech told me at the Tokay Tower, but I'm not holding my breath on "going live" (as in officially announced) or a ton of towers lighting up. I know of three that I've personally seen new equipment on that weren't broadcasting as of last week. There certainly could be more.

     

    I'll be home Saturday from Michigan and I'll make the rounds.

     

    Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

     

     

  10. So the site on the building at goerkes corners along i94, I mentioned about seeing white boxes next to one of the panels. Well, I did verify on my way home from work last night, there was one white box on either side of a panel, then a few hours later, when I drove back out that direction for my volleyball game, they were painted brown to blend in.

     

    So I'm assuming those 2 boxes were RRU's, and the fact that there is two of them, one on either side of a panel... would that indicate that both LTE and 1x800 are being installed at that site?

     

     

    On another note, I drove by another Sprint site that's on top of a building on 21st and Pierce in Milwaukee, it looks like a NV panel with an RRU behind it to me....

    pierce.jpg

     

    And I know we're supposed to be careful about posting too much info in a non-sponsor forum, but I don't want to use the Milwaukee/Minnesota/ Dakotas forum cuz there's too many people talking about different areas. I feel like we could have our own little topic just for the greater Milwaukee area, like separate from Madison even :)

     

    That's NV equipment fer sure. 

     

    I think as long as we keep the tower locations vague (cross streets) and then keep tower IDs out of the non-sponsor section, we adhere to the guidelines fine. I do agree about those Minnesota punks cloggin' up the threads! ha. 

    • Like 1
  11. Driving to the grocery store today I decided to check the progress on the Middleton tower. Parking accross the street from the tower, I run lte discovery mode and interesting enough, I notice the signal has reverted back to rev-a. I'd assume it would have to do with the other tower's in the area being upgraded?

     

    Aug 1, keep your eyes on it. I bet it goes live then. 

     

    Also, someone in Madison want to put another set of eyes on the tower at Rimrock Rd off the Beltline. I think the top or second to top rack has NV equipment on it, as you can see RRUs (I think). Didn't have time to stop and was cruising by on the belt-line (as a passenger).  After seeing that Middleton tower in person, I think I can really spot them from afar now. I could have been wrong though.

     

    The tower behind Super Walmart off South Towne Dr. has NO work on it. In fact, there are huge, I mean huge, tractor tires leaned up against the fence all the way around.

  12. So I have more good news, unfortunately no pictures though to accompany given the distance and only having my GS4 on me, the pictures did not come out great.  Since the tech at Tokay said he'd been a "few rooftops" in Madison but didn't divulge addresses, I went hunting at lunch on State Street.

     

    The tower on State Street in Madison that's on a roof top of the apartment building (nearer the bottom of state) has new NV panels and RRUs on it.  It's hard to tell because they have been painted brown and therefore do not look brand new like the other ones we've been seeing around town.  Therefore they are hard to take pictures of because they blend in.  This must all be very fresh work as last week these antennas did not exist.  I have no idea about the back haul, cabinets, etc. as I was not on the roof.

     

    I'm starting to believe the idea of a "cluster" of towers going live in Madison at once.  That's 3 towers now that are poised to get lit up soon (in theory).  I'm going to visit the other roof top areas to see what's up there this week.  Who knows how many are ready since not all of them are accessible/visible.  Next week, I'm in Michigan all week, so I'll hopefully come back to some speedy LTE.

  13. True, but we haven't received any notifications of 800 LTE activations. They're supposed to start in the Chicago, Indianapolis, South Bend, Fort Wayne markets first.

    It's like War of the Worlds, they planted the devices for LTE 800 years ago and suddenly they'll become active.

     

    Yeah, I'm kidding obviously.

     

    Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

     

     

  14. First Post.

     

    I live/work in Burlington.  While the local towers are still just doing 3G, the CDMA 800 mhz (1x800) that's been working since late June has improved voice service significantly for me.

     

    I was never able to use my phone at work (I work in the basement of a large concrete building) as it would show "No Service" 95% of the time.  Since the upgrade, I can use both voice and mms without any problem at my desk (I still use wifi for data).

     

    Hopefully LTE gets turned on in the city of Burlington soon, but so far so good.

     

    Here's in the basement at work:

     

     

     

    And at home (1.84 Miles from tower, heavily wooded near my house):

     

     

     

    That's great to see and hear!  I need SMR800 here at my work as well.  I get a bar, maybe 2 at max.  Tears up my battery life.  Of course, the LTE speeds will help too. 

  15. I think that the regulatory process needs to move quicker for towers as people need cell coverage, however, I think this makes it a little too easy.  Recently, we fought and won to make sure that ATC power lines didn't run right next to our neighborhood (as they now run down the center of the Beltline) and believe me I didn't want those towers humming that close to my house.  So I am sympathetic to the need for hearings and appropriate procedures for structures.  It seems like there are always Target or Walmart Parking lots around that would be better suited for towers than people's backyards.  I don't mind the "visual pollution" as long as I can get data/signal everywhere I go.  It's part of life.    

     

    As you said, you don't want it to get political, but the current Governor doesn't really care for his citizens if it slows down financial interests of businesses. This also takes a revenue stream away from local municipalities...but it does make everyone compete harder for those leases instead of the municipality monopolizing it. There are positives and negatives for sure.

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