JWMaloney

Aside from Sprint having the fastest download speeds and slowest upload speeds, there wasn't a significant variance across the providers' overall performance. The mean overall score was 97.275 with a standard deviation of ~1.19. That's hardly objective evidence that anyone is right or wrong to praise or criticize either provider. Even with T-Mobile having the lowest median download speed at 9.8 Mbps, they were definitely still fast enough to pass the subjective "good enough" test regardless of their median upload speed. They have also been blanketing the entirety of East Texas with band 12 LTE, including Houston, so I can hardly see why someone should be criticized for pointing that out: I can also corroborate that in Houston specifically, band 41 is mostly an outside-only network. This is undoubtedly due to a significant portion of it being Clearwire equipment as opposed to Nokia 8T8R. There are, however, some indoor band 41 nodes in hotels and such which help to improve the situation. But regardless of all of that, if we strictly want to be objective here and ignore anecdotal experiences, let's refer back to the RootMetrics results. All four major providers cover the Houston area very well, and there is no significant variance in their overall performance. So objectively, it would not be a stretch to infer that given mostly uniform overall coverage, a 700 MHz LTE carrier would be more accessible than a 2600 MHz LTE carrier. So can we please get back to talking about networks instead of people's character?

Sprint totally deserved that one.

There's no reason they can't make the third carrier downlink-only.

That sounds familiar. I've been unable to get Sensorly working on the Verizon Moto E because it seems to pick up everything but the PLMN.

It's a Moto E issue. There are quite a few of us using it to map Verizon, and we've been having lots of issues in SignalCheck, CellMapper, and Sensorly. Sometimes toggling location off/on fixes it. It looks like sometimes it gets stuck in a state where information is only returned during handover. I believe it may also be one of the devices where the first record returned by the 4.2 Cell ID API isn't necessarily the connected cell. EDIT: The author of CellMapper is using the GSM variant of the Moto E and hasn't been able to duplicate the issue. He suspects it is isolated to the CDMA variant.

This is also the reason that Legere is so vocal about VoLTE being disabled during RootMetrics testing. It wouldn't make such a huge difference if they were simply overlaying L700 where they already had E1900.

Sprint's (S) CEO Marcelo Claure on Q3 2015 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

I've mentioned this before, but if you live in a U-Verse area, there is a $20/month (actual cost -- not a promotion) TV plan that you can get to become eligible for the new unlimited plans; and then with combined billing for both, you get a $10/month service credit. At that cost, it's worth it to just throw the receiver in the closet and forget about it.

The FCC fined some companies a while back for playing a ringing sound when the line wasn't actually ringing on the other end. Maybe it's just the network on either side erring on the side of caution.

Is this new? Last time I tried to do this, two different corporate stores refused to sell me a device (even at full MSRP) without in-store activation and the associated fee.

J is for Jump Run, a nearby street. MetroPCS was at the bottom, but T-Mobile was already on this site.

NOLA has had 3 LTE GMOs in stealth monopoles upgraded to full builds within the last week. Also had a few band 41 installations where capacity was needed the most. East Texas has also seen a few 3G GMO to full build conversions.

Proof (click for full-size): The reason you're only seeing one tall antenna on the site pictured previously is that Verizon has re-farmed all of its PCS spectrum in my area for LTE (leaving CDMA in cellular 850 only). They are running a total of 90 MHz LTE on tri-band sites (10x10 band 13, 20x20 band 4, 15x15 band 2). All of their sites here are at least dual-band, but they have already managed to convert about 50% to tri-band, six-sector within the last 2-3 months.

They are converting to six-sector sites using new CCI antennas. Connector diagram (click for full-size): AT&T and Sprint are also using these antennas, although I have yet to see them on macro sites for either. Verizon six-sector before/after (top rack): AT&T COW: AT&T COW with normal Sprint B25/B26 COW (click for full-size): Sprint "COW" -- this is a temporary antenna installation on an old Nextel site which will feed directly off a COW parked at the bottom of the tower (click for full-size):

Verizon 850 A block, 1x only. EDIT: SID 1189, allegedly in the MVNO PRL as well.

Nexus 6P as well.

What's the consensus on good devices for band 30 tracking?

The $190 does include the U-Verse TV package. It's $180 for the wireless plan, $20 for the TV package, and a $10 combined billing credit. DirecTV subscribers also qualify, essentially making it a national offer.

Actually, you can match that now with four lines on AT&T. You can get a $19.99/mo U-Verse TV package to qualify for the new "unlimited" (de-prioritized over 22 GB) wireless plans (which is then discounted by $10/month for combined billing) and then throw the receiver in the closet and forget about it. Four lines will cost $180/mo ($60 plan + $40 each for lines 1-3 + $0 for line 4), bringing the total before taxes and fees to $189.99/mo, or about $48/line. The only info I can find today on the Everything Data 1500 plan shows it as $110 for the first line + $19.99 each for lines 2-4 + $10 for Premium Data on each line, totaling $209.97/mo (or about $52/line). You would be paying slightly more than you would with AT&T, and you wouldn't have unlimited minutes, but you would still have nights/weekends starting at 7PM (in addition to Any Mobile, Anytime), and you would still be eligible for device subsidies. For sake of completeness: Everything Plus Family 1600 is $109.99 for lines 1-2 + $14.99 each for lines 3-4 + $10 each for Premium Data on each line, totaling $179.97/mo (or about $45/line) and still including device subsidies. Framily with maximum discount is $25 each line + $20 each line for unlimited data, totaling $180/mo (or $45/line) with no subsidies. Everything Plus Framily with maximum discount is $25 each line + $15 each line for unlimited data, totaling $160/mo (or $40/line) with no subsidies.

Found a recent screenshot from before the map update, so I did a more direct before-after comparison. Aside from those squared-edge artifacts, the updated map is spot-on. Also, I've posted this before in the Town Hall thread, but if anyone's interested in getting a full-page view of the Sprint coverage map, here's how to do it: Open the map. Switch to the Data tab. Zoom in a bit. Switch to LTE Plus if you want to see that. Paste the following JavaScript into your address bar and press Enter: javascript:$.getScript('http://jwmaloney.name/s4gru/maximize-sprint-impact.js',null);The map will now take up the whole browser window. Do note that Chrome likes to hold your hand by cutting the "javascript:" URI scheme off automatically when you paste into the address bar, so you may have to manually type that part out. You can also create a bookmarklet to take the same action by pasting the same code into a bookmark button and clicking it when appropriate.

AT&T pays for a lot of DAS installations.

I put together this cost comparison for anyone interested: The cheapest U-Verse TV package in my area is $19.99/mo ($9.99/mo after $10 combined billing credit). I'm considering just signing up for that and then throwing the receiver in the closet.

At least you still have the Best/Fair granularity for LTE Plus. They completely removed it for NOLA/BR (everything is solid yellow whereas before it was mostly light yellow).

I checked the following places, and they were all Cellcom. If you want me to check a different place, let me know. Wausaukee Houghton Ironwood Eagle River