lordsutch

Hacked some more on it. Found a problem (the getSectorId() call on HTC actually takes a single integer parameter, which is set to 1 by the field test apk - no idea what other values do yet, although I suspect the physical cell ID is available with a different value). It also now creates a logfile on your SD card/emulated SD directory called "ltecells.csv". And there's a notification icon but it doesn't do much yet.

APK is here: https://www.dropbox....omeActivity.apk

Again, it should also work on devices running Android 4.1 and later that support the official APIs (reportedly some Samsung devices work: Galaxy Nexus and S3), and it probably works on HTC's LTE devices on other carriers too, since I can't imagine HTC would have come up with a different API for those, although only tested on the Evo 4G LTE thus far.

While we're sharing code, here's what I hacked together from the SignalStrengthDetector source on GitHub. It's not great but it should at least allow you to see if your phone (running 4.1 or later) fills in the CellInfo and CellIdentity classes or not.

 

https://github.com/l...rength-Detector

 

Here's the APK (no guarantees, only tested on Nexus 4 and Evo LTE, may do strange things on other devices, don't email me your output, yadda yadda): https://www.dropbox....omeActivity.apk

I've been working today on adding some rudimentary support for the hidden LTE APIs on the Evo 4G LTE (and probably other HTC LTE phones on other providers). The top 3 lines in the app should now continuously report the location, signal strength, and LTE cell ID (if available). For phones that populate the official Android API, you should get both the Hex cell ID and the integer physical cell ID (0-503); HTC only exposes the Hex cell ID as far as I can tell, so that's all that I can report.

The APK above is updated, and the source is now on Github.

Unfortunately I'm not in an LTE area so I haven't had a chance to test the code, but it should work. (I do plan to try it out tomorrow.)

What isn't done yet is any logging. I probably need to learn more about background tasks before I can get anything like that to work.

After poking around in the FieldTrial.apk source, I think I've figured out how to get the hex Serving cell ID on the HTC Evo 4G LTE, and probably other LTE phones by HTC:

Object mHTCManager;
Method method;
String sectorID;

mHTCManager = getSystemService("htctelephony");
if(mHTCManager) {
 // Workaround fact we don't have a usable HTCTelephonyManager declaration
 method = mHTCManager.getMethod("getSectorID", null);
 sectorID = method.invoke();
}

Untested as of yet but I think it should work (modulo my lack of Java-foo).

Other potentially interesting methods available seem to include:

(some sort of object) requestGetLTERFBandInfo()

(some sort of object) requestGetLTETxRxInfo()

int getLastLTEErrorCode()

I am a bit afraid that the flagship phones by Samsung, HTC, LG and Motorola for 2013 might miss the necessary testing for the FCC needed to include those bands in the SGS4, HTC M7, LG Optimus G2 and the Motorola X phones. I surely hope I am wrong and that we do get to see tri band Sprint LTE phones this year for the flagship phones. I see no excuse for Sprint not to include 800/1900/2500 MHz LTE support this year for their phones. Having just the 1900 MHz G block for LTE support is just too limited going into 2013 especially with Sprint using Clearwire LTE in the near future and Sprint refarming 800 MHz spectrum for LTE starting 2H 2013.

They do the FCC testing in isolated facilities, not on public networks, so the LTE 800 FIT has no bearing on when capable phones can be brought to market. After all, Sprint has been selling phones with ESMR CDMA capability for nearly two years, even though no public network had ESMR CDMA live until recently.

I think most new devices from Q2/Q3 forward will probably have LTE and CDMA capability on ESMR and 1900, since those can easily be achieved with standard antennas calibrated for the PCS A-F and cellular bands. 2500/2600 may be less common and I think their inclusion depends on how much pressure Softbank puts on OEMs and how much deployment there is in band classes 7 & 41 around the world; it wouldn't surprise me if 2500/2600 only showed up in tablets, data-only devices (dongles and hotspots), and Note-size devices at first.

Very cool, bought the Pro version and so far (2.09) everything seems to be great - I'll have to try it out in an LTE area this week (south of Atlanta between I-75 & I-85 needs a lot more Sensorly mapping anyway).

After a bit more poking around in the code Google has thrown over the wall, here's what I can say about the getAllCellInfo() API in Android 4.2 (specifically in the *ServiceStateTracker classes of the Telephony API):

- It just returns null on GSM phones, with or without LTE (not implemented at all, so base ServiceStateTracker does it).

- It just returns null on CDMA-only phones (subclass returns null).

- It works on an CDMA+LTE phone, but only returns LTE data.

So if you're a brave soul running a Sprint LTE phone with a 4.2 ROM (either official or a mod) it may work. But I wouldn't hold your breath on any other devices.

If it doesn't show anything at all, the getAllCellInfo() call is returning null on your phone. I'd be surprised if it showed anything on a phone with JB 4.1, since the API was hidden and not expected to work, but it also doesn't do anything on the Nexus 4 (even though it is the launch 4.2 phone).

While we're sharing code, here's what I hacked together from the SignalStrengthDetector source on GitHub. It's not great but it should at least allow you to see if your phone (running 4.1 or later) fills in the CellInfo and CellIdentity classes or not.

https://github.com/lordsutch/Signal-Strength-Detector

Here's the APK (no guarantees, only tested on Nexus 4 and Evo LTE, may do strange things on other devices, don't email me your output, yadda yadda): https://www.dropbox.com/s/nhd729pckawlndm/HomeActivity.apk

Looked at it and indeed the "hidden" 4.1 api was released in 4.2 but every call to getAllCellInfo() returns null on my GSM Nexus 4.

Same here. I've been playing with it this afternoon and it always returns null on my Nexus 4 running 4.2 (whether getAllCellInfo() or through listening to the LISTEN_CELL_INFO events).

It also returns null on my Evo LTE running 4.1.1, although at least it doesn't throw any exceptions or blow up otherwise. Didn't bother testing on my Nexus 7 since it doesn't have a cellular radio

I think folks are wanting something that shows the info available with the CellInfo and CellIdentity classes, like the physical cell ID. Poking around the code base at android.googlesource.com, it looks like the API is actually in the code base in 4.1 (API level 16) even though it's not documented until 4.2 (API level 17). So maybe it actually works on 4.1 devices too. I may play around a bit this week and see if I can get some code using the API to work on my Evo LTE and Nexus 4.

The good news is that API level 17 (Android 4.2) does include the necessary information for LTE, CDMA, and GSM/UMTS. The bad news is that very few devices are at API level 17 yet (I guess the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4S on Sprint are the only two).

You could try Navit - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.navitproject.navit

That is an overreaction. Most TV markets do not need greater than 6-7 OTA channels. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and PBS affiliates, maybe an independent or two. Although, really, outside of the major affiliates, most OTA is cheap crap not worthy of a 6 MHz swath of spectrum.

The other thing is that with intelligent spectrum use (e.g. more digital subchannels), most markets could actually have a lot more OTA channels than today. The UK has dozens of free-to-air channels in a similar amount of spectrum to what we have today. But most basic cable channels prefer getting rights fees from DBS and big cable to being available OTA for free (the same way that Disney makes more money from having the BCS games on ESPN instead of ABC, even though they'd get better ratings on ABC). And besides the religious broadcasters most OTA stations want to broadcast in HD even though most antenna-only households are SD.

Let's face it, AT&T (at least legacy Cingular, e.g. PacBell/Southwestern Bell/Southern Bell) and VZW have gotten where they are because of (a.) successful marketing and (b.) the inherent advantages of being on 800 in their core markets due to being the legacy landline provider in most of them. AT&T has also ridden the wave of its long period of iPhone exclusivity, and inertia has kept AT&T customers there despite iPhones now being available pretty much on every carrier.

Overcoming that means Sprint needs a better network, which it will have with NV + ESMR, and then following up with effective marketing; the latter has never really been Sprint's strong suit. But it can't be that hard; after all, AT&T's current marketing campaigns are (a.) we cover lots of cities and towns with something we call 4G but isn't LTE and (b.) we mock Verizon's "focus group" ad claim to have a better network than us with a creepy dude sitting with bunch of kids who apparently suffer from severe ADHD, and this seems to sell phones anyway. So, really, all Sprint needs to do is riff on the Domino's campaign (Dan Hesse in desaturated color in Central Park: "I'm sorry, our network used to suck and our CS was indifferent. We listened. Come back and try us!") and they should be fine.

The way I understand it is the panels are calibrated for a particular wavelength or set of wavelengths, but don't really care much about what sort of signals go through the panels, so LTE and CDMA can be transmitted from the same panels on the same frequencies. Since LTE is on PCS G and CDMA is on PCS A-F, the wavelengths are similar enough that the ideal antenna for each isn't very different. The ideal antennas for ESMR, on the other hand, would be much longer usually (my understanding is that the ideal antenna is supposed to be 1/2 to 5/8 of the wavelength, and 800 MHz waves are longer than 1900 MHz waves, since wavelength is inversely proportional to frequency).

The SouthernLINC thing may also explain why 800 is planned on only about 80% of sites; if about 1/8 of Sprint towers are in SouthernLINC land or thereabouts, then 90%+ of sites will get 800 outside of SouthernLINC land. It doesn't explain yet why Robert's site is No 800, unless there's another ESMR incumbent in northern NM that Sprint is also avoiding (I don't think Robert is close enough to the border for Mexico to be an issue, unless Sprint is just not deploying 800 at all anywhere in markets with ESMR issues - Canada, Mexico, or Southeast bandplan).

Edit: It looks like the Mexico border bandplan held up rebanding in all of New Mexico, http://www.fcc.gov/document/new-800-mhz-band-plan-us-mexico-sharing-zone, so Sprint may have designed NV without 800 in NM rather than waiting for 800 to be settled.

My understanding is Clearwire (and maybe others) leased the EBS spectrum from the universities, since they weren't usually using it for anything; the original idea as I understand it was for extension services and remote teleconferencing, but the 2.5GHz band really doesn't have the range to be useful as anything more than a campus-area network with omindirectional antennas (you could use it for microwave relays, but my guess is these days fixed sites are much better served by landline connections).

I'm starting to wonder if what we're seeing in FL, GA, and MS is due to Sprint not planning to immediately deploy on 800 SMR in SouthernLINC areas (Hattiesburg is definitely in SouthernLINC's footprint, as is Georgia and most of the Panhandle Sprint market, which is where we're seeing accepted NV sites without new panels or tower RRUs); if that's the case, would they need to install new panels for LTE on 1900?

I guess the acid test is whether or not NV panels are being used in the Atlanta/Athens market where 4G is live. I haven't seen any photos from the market and I didn't start looking closely at towers until recently.

Have you guys seen the 4G marker on Sensorly? S/W of the Villages? Just noticed it myself.

Drove around the area a bit today and only got fringe coverage. I don't think it's the tower in Oxford marked "in progress"; I think it's a tower somewhere in the Villages behind the gates, since I picked it up on US 441-27 (near the Sprint store) as well as in other spots on 466.

I also picked up LTE on part of 429 west of Disney World, and a bit more on Western Way in the RCID proper. Didn't realize how much Winter Garden had grown from ~20 years ago when there was basically nothing between US 27 & I-4 south of the Turnpike except WDW itself.

Looks like some more LTE is live east of Mount Dora/north of Apopka on SR 46 on the Sensorly maps.

Looking at the sponsor maps, 800 coverage may be redundant at this site if the surrounding sites get 800 as well. That said that doesn't explain why there's no LTE.

I'm visiting my dad about 10-15 miles away from the site this weekend, and plan to drive down that way when I head to Orlando next week, so I should be able to do some mapping and get some pictures.

BTW the best thing about the Villages unless you're a senior citizen is that usually the Best Buy there in Lady Lake is about the last to sell off things that are on clearance.

I'd advise not sharing for two reasons:

• If your neighbor is talking to Chris Hansen over the Internet, you'll be his first stop rather than your neighbor's house.
  
• You're giving any passerby the potential ability to crack into any computer or device on your network at their leisure.
  

So, while I'd happily give out my WiFi network access to a family member or close friend visiting the humble abode, I personally wouldn't run anything except WPA2 with a non-default BSSID, a strong, random key (I use http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.html with at least 7 words) and with WPS PIN setup disabled.

Well i basically want to run sensorly and this app at the same time while driving to and from work. So the check box kicks it into airplane mode no matter what after 30. I was hoping it would check if it was still in 4g and if was just start counting down again. If not in 4g then cycle airplane mode.

Yes, that change would make the app more useful, particularly since occasionally my EVO has a momentary blip of what I like to call "phantom LTE" (maybe it's due to blocked sites down here in 3G land, maybe the phone is just confused).

A couple of other things I'd like to see:

- A one-touch way to get out of the coordinates screen and go back to the main one; "back" when you've come in from the notification pulldown takes you out of the app, not back to the main screen.

- The connection monitor on the main screen working whether or not the scan loop is on (e.g. show the network type all the time, not just what it was the last time the app was scanning).

Other than that, it works nice in 4G areas... was able to map a lot more in Sensorly in NW Georgia on Wednesday (Rome seems to have fairly decent coverage already, for example). Thanks for the app!

Verizon wouldn't be the first carrier to refarm their network just to cater to iPhone users. I guess the question is where the cost/benefit sweet spot is: shrinking 700 cells to benefit all phones, or overlaying 1900 for just a few devices and also having the PR hit (and risk of offending Tim Cook) of offering lower speeds to your iPhone customers than WP/Android.

I know I'll sound like a complete noob when I ask this but is Sprint's plan to have LTE coverage basically everywhere (like 3G)? Or just in the major cities.

Yes, Sprint plans to have LTE virtually everywhere they currently provide native service. The only exceptions might be Sprint's dwindling number of wholesale partners and affiliates; some are aggressively deploying LTE (like Shentel along the I-81 corridor), while some are only in preliminary stages.

But in Florida, Sprint owns the whole network, and LTE will be available virtually everywhere CDMA is now. (I say virtually since signal propagation and usability may be a bit different for LTE at the fringes of towers' ranges.)