shawneyboy123

Any word on Beckley? Ntelos better get it together if they wanna launch some markets by 2014. Been kinda quiet around here. But 3g is a lot faster than normal the last week or so.

Nothing new here. Data speeds have actually taken a hit here at school. Fingers crossed it's in a testing phase and they launch LTE soon after.

 

 

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Got a few shots of that site I saw work being done on. Looks like a Sprint/nTelos site to me but not sure if it is/what is there.

 

 

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I know if you type *3001#12345#* and call it takes you to a field test app and it shows you this stuff. But that's about as far as I can get.

 

 

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I just learned about it from this cool website myself when I joined. But from what I gather ehrpd is what hands ev-do (3g) to LTE and vice versa seamlessly. I downloaded signal check on my EVO LTE and noticed it connected to it almost every time I toggled airplane mode. There is also a thread on here with screenshots of ntelos ehrpd.

Ah, alright. I have no way of knowing about that here since I don't really have access to an android phone to check for it.

 

 

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Ive connected to ehrpd alot without working data in my neck of ntelos woods via signal check. My wife got the new network coming text but I havent had the 1x issue. Hopefully its a good sign.

Care to explain ehrpd to me? I never learned that term...

 

 

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So I noticed at this site I'm almost positive is a nTelos site there was work being done on it. On my way back home when I passed it I noticed my phone wasn't connecting to 3G, it flashed 3G and then stayed on full bars of 1x. I was directly below the tower and the truck wasn't up there anymore but it was weird. It flashed to 3G a few times but stayed on 1x for the most part like what my phone did in Charlotte when it would transfer to LTE. Any idea about what's happening? My phone seems to do that a lot recently, switching to

1x like it's trying to grab LTE but can't.

 

 

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You can fix this yourself simply and easily. Just log in to sprint.com, open the drop down menu labelled "manage this device", and select "activate a new SIM card". Boom done.

Will this charge me like it does when you activate a phone? Or is it free of charge. Just don't want a $36 charge out of the blue for nothing really.

 

 

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S

Any updates on the Beckley area? Have they turned on LTE yet?

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No updates, not even a slight LTE symbol popping up for even a second. Pretty sure I see the equipment on the tower but it isn't on yet. Hopefully we hear something thing tomorrow at nTelos' conference.

 

 

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Means I was wrong when I thought they were 800. They're not, they're for PCS LTE, so there you go!

Woo! That's more important to me at the moment than 800 at the time being.

 

 

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Those certainly look like Alcatel-Lucent RRUs. They look more like the 800 RRU, but I suppose in a different market, they could have a different purpose. You'll just have to let us know what happens in the next couple of weeks!

Will do! Not seeing any difference in my signal strength. Only difference thus far is 3G speed.

 

 

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Older style ALU PCS RRU's. see my ALU identification thread.

 

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Older style.... Meaning...?

 

 

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I live in Beckley and i can confirm a ton of upgrades done to the towers here. 3G speeds went from .3-1.00 down and .0-.15 up, to 1.60-2.6 down and .5-.9 up. A friend of mine said to expect LTE lighting up any day now.

It all depends on whatever agreements Sprint and nTelos have with each other. We have had reports that Sprint had recently reached 4G agreements with 3 other carriers (there is a thread somewhere around here about it). However we don't know what carriers those are. My 3 guess (for those carriers) are C-Spire, USCC, and nTelos,

Ah alright, so say it was reached with nTelos. Given their LTE bands, can my iPhone 5 connect to any of them? I would really love to pick up something like a G2 or something else tri band, but I don't think I could live without things like iMessage.

 

 

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I've been looking through the forum and trying to learn about all the different bands and stuff. And I was just wondering, say nTelos did activate their LTE network. Would I even be able to connect to it? I know they're in a roaming agreement but I mean when it comes to the bands that nTelos uses and the ones sprint uses, I googled them and from what I saw, they are different. Sorry if this is kind of a nobody question...

 

 

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Where in Beckley is this tower?

 

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122 Whitestick Rd

 

It's one of the largest in the area to my knowledge.

 

 

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I can't say the antenna panels look familiar, but the RRU they are hoisting up in the last picture sure looks like an Alcatel-Lucent 800 RRU!

 

You may have gotten the first proof that nTelos has started with NV upgrades!

Well yay point for me!!! A friend of mine who works at nTelos said to expect LTE activations to start between tomorrow (10/25) and the 1st of November. I think I'll take a second trip to that tower this weekend once they have what is hopefully the 800mhz RRU's installed! Maybe more goodies will be revealed as well!

 

 

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These were the photos I could get today, got front and back of what look to be new panels, and to my surprise there was actually a crew working on the tower. I hope I got something, any tips let me know so I can get better photos for you guys.

 

 

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Got some shots today, I'll upload them as soon as I'm home. Got to one tower and upon taking pictures I noticed the workers actually up on the tower. And after some waiting they began to hoist up what looked like more radios. Looks like the AL radios installed but I'm not certain. Hopefully the promise of LTE tomorrow is true!

 

 

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There is one lone native Sprint site down in Beckley, never been able to figure out why it's there, but perhaps this tower is being upgraded since all the rest of the native Sprint towers in WV are currently being deployed (up near Parkersburg off of I-77). If you become a sponsor you'll have access to the map that would show you exactly where that tower is located.

On sprint coverage map there are a lot of weird cut off points going from sprint coverage to nTelos land coverage. Just like angular lines, and parts where just the outside edge of a coverage area is under actual sprint coverage. It's very strange. I'll donate tomorrow and put up some shots to further help.

 

 

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Sprint threatened to overbuild if they didn't come to a new agreement, but they did make that agreement so as far as we know, no overbuild is going to occure. nTelos will be doing an LTE upgrade, but we just don't have any insight into the timeline.

 

 

Since we don't have tower locations for the nTelos network, best thing you can do to help us out is track down places where you have very strong signals, and see if you can get shots of towers/cell sites nearby. We may be able to identify if there are any NV-type upgrades going on.

Will do, I already know of a few towers. Probably tomorrow/this weekend I will get some shots!

 

 

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I'm in the same boat only I'm in Morgantown. nTelos does not provide much information but I have heard that nTelos first LTE test markets will be Beckley/Bluefield along with Waynesboro VA. So maybe this isn't a Sprint overbuild and an actual nTelos upgrade.

 

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Honestly, as long as I can get an LTE signal and actually use my phone, I don't care where it's coming from. Just give it to me ASAP!

 

 

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Yeah there's been some speculation that Sprint is just building their own network out in Ntelos areas and dropping them as a "native roaming" partner... they are the last remaining company with this sort of deal, and it sounds like they are on their way out... So either Ntelos is moving along with LTE all quietly, or Sprint really is "building a new network" in your area lol

I thought about that, if it was nTelos quietly deploying LTE and upgrading all the surrounding towers, why would I get a message from Sprint themselves? I saw someone on one of Sprint's own forums say that a Sprint representative told them that they are supposed to launch LTE on the 25th of this month. Also stating it would change our "Sprint coverage - Signal strength varies" status to actual "Sprint service" on their coverage map.

 

 

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Since you are in nTelo's area, the best thing I can suggest is to start watching the towers in your area. Watch for activity, take photos and notes, and share them in this thread.  Look at the various equipment spotting threads. Even if you aren't sure exactly what you are seeing, there are people on this forum who are really good at it.

I'll get right on it! Thanks!

So I got a message from Sprint today, telling me about how they're building my city a whole new network. I would assume that means NV is taking place? Service has been down almost every other day and my speeds are improving when it is up (went from .40 down to about 1.6- 2.3 down here recently. No improved upload speeds though, still around .15), I was just wondering if anybody had more information for me, like how long it may take, and when I should start to see LTE pop up.

I'm located in Beckley, WV. Didn't see any WV thread so I just posted here to see where it got me...