pyroscott

Yea I saw that on 60 Minutes, but it was a Chinese tech company who Cisco was suing over some major copyright infringements they stole (even manuals were copied word for word, even with mistakes and typos etc.) and there was a lot of worries over their company and their Chinese CEO being controlled by the communist government. I forgot their name though. Sprint was slated to join up with them to build out the 4G network here because they'd be capable of some super fast speeds because of their tech but the US Govt asked Sprint to not do the deal because the Chinese government also controls a lot of their business practices etc.However, this Japanese company is completely different and I'm glad for this Softbank Mobile deal and also the Clearwire deal... looking good for Sprint's future which is why I'm most likely switching over from AT&T soon :]

It was two tech companies, Huawei and ZTE. Sprint had initially considered the two companies when collecting bids for the Network Vision equipment and install. The Secretary of Commerce asked Sprint to exclude them on concerns that the Chinese Government may use the companies for spying on the US. Softbank is a customer of those two companies. The concern is that Softbank may tell Sprint to use equipment from Huawei and ZTE since they are cheaper than the competition. Softbank has less inclination to respond to US security concerns than a US owned company.

Well that sounds good. Is there any evidence that any of this, or any thing else included on the phone will take advantage of network vision? (aside from the obvious inclusion of lte) By that i mean perhaps better reception due to the antennas, or possibly better 3g speeds? Thanks again.

Here are the first wave of NV benefits:

3G speeds will be improved on PCS - iPhone 5 will benefit from this

Voice will be deployed on SMR - iPhone 5 will benefit from this

LTE will be deployed on PCS - iPhone will benefit from this

RRUs will be on the cell site directly behind the antennas reducing signal loss by up to 30% - all Sprint phones (including the iPhone 5) will benefit from this

There are no phones currently in mass production that will benefit from LTE on SMR or LTE VIA Clearwire 2600MHz hotspot, so the iPhone 5 isn't losing anything on the competition there.

I would say that the iPhone 5 will benefit from NV...

Edit: you beat me to the punch...

Also, to add to this, I do not have ready access to see how many customers Sprint has on postpaid contracts in these markets. They could very well have a lower percentage of customers in some of the large metro areas that were "snubbed" and have a higher percentage in Baltimore, San Antonio, Kansas City, Austin and Central Jersey.

Being as there is no 4G in Detroit and Phoenix, those cities could have fallen on the list of priority as they have been bleeding customers for several years in those markets. It is still somewhat of a priority, but not critical. All these decisions are based on making money. They can't afford to train enough workers to upgrade the entire network at once, so they have to start somewhere. With the exception of central Jersey and possibly San Antonio, I really don't see any flaws in their choices for the first round.

I don't understand why there is so much strife about Minneapolis not being on this list. It is a WiMax market, and the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area is the 16th largest metro area in the US. Here is a breakdown of the first round markets and where they rank on the US largest metro areas:

New York City - 1

Los Angeles - 2

Chicago - 3

Dallas/Ft. Worth - 4

Houston - 5

Washington, D.C. - 7

Atlanta/Athens - 9

Boston - 10

San Francisco - 11

Baltimore - 20

San Antonio - 24

Kansas City - 29 (Sprint’s home market)

Austin – 34 (Barely any work done besides the FIT test)

Central Jersey - ?

9 of the top 11 largest metro areas in the US, their home market, a test market, and 3 other markets... Seems like a logical starting point to me.

If anyone should have a beef with this schedule, and (partially) consider their market snubbed, it should be Philadelphia – 6th largest metro, Miami – 8th, Detroit - 13th (and no WiMax) and Phoenix – 14th (also no WiMax)

Why should Sprint upgrade Minneapolis before those other markets? Because YOU live there? Come on...

Samsung JUST started Minnesota, and it is a massive market. There are no sites complete, not because it is behind, but because it is a second round market.

A very large percentage of these cities are part of the 1st round markets, which is why these "less important" cities are "getting LTE before big city _____"

Lancaster, SC? Really? The city with barely over 10,000 people?

They are trying to keep pace with Verizon in the PR "announce every podunk town that you upgrade like it is a separate market" game.

Robert,Thanks for the reply. I spoke to someone in the executive office at sprint about my concerns about generally bad coverage in my town. We are a resort area. The summer population goes up about ten fold. They told me they could not comment on specific unannounced roll outs, but did say the tower in my area was getting a T1 backhaul that will go live in the next week, does the fact that they are putting in a T1 have anything to do with LTE specifically, or do you think this is just to address capacity issues?Thanks

It is just network maintenance. Doesn't have any bearing on Network Vision. You should see improvements until NV upgrades show up though...

Does anyone know if Mabank is in the Athens Texas market? We are about 15 miles away.

It is possible, but I would expect Athens to be completed first and Mabank to be after

Any updates on Austin LTE lainch?

As far as I know, work still has not started in Austin.

Any updates on when Sprint will being to flip the LTE switch in the DC market(i live in PG Co)? i have notice a different like to the tower across from my apartment complex.

English please.

Kidding aside, the details per market are kept here http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/212-network-visionlte-deployment-running-list/ and Robert has DC's expected launch date as October.

so robert no 4g anymore only 3g and 4g lte when is this goin to finish

Just to clarify, 4G WiMax is still going to be broadcasting, it just will not be expanding.

They do not mean LTE. The network vision updates (LTE) are not being tracked on that website. Data speed upgrade probably means that they are adding more backhaul capacity to the 3G on that tower.

Is there any info or western MN or the Dakota markets? I live near Alexandria and the service is so hit and miss. According to Sprints site, there are 5 towers around me that are supposed to have a data upgrades in the next 6 months.

Those are the band-aid improvements that should improve the service temporarily, until network vision comes to the market in 2013 or at the latest early 2014.

Oh bummer...

Hopefully they amend their strategy and allow sites to go live when they are completed.

So they lost 75% of their Nextel subscribers... Everything else sounds good. The bird nesting excuse for further delaying much needed back hauling does not add up to me. The back haul goes all the way up to the tower antennas and not just at the base station? Are the birds nesting on the gates to the cell tower?

They lost 75% over the last 4.5 years, they kept 60% this last quarter.

The towers held up by birds are not necessarily the same as those held up by hackhaul...

"several hundred more sites have birds nesting on them and Sprint won't be able to turn them on until the birds leave, according to the conference call." Tell me you just testing us to see if we are reading. Its probably the Verizon guys putting bird food on the Sprint towers. I'm sure if you send a couple of Megawatts up the cables they would leave. Oops ..... Well they are gone .... fire that baby up!!!

LOL, I was amazed that it would be that big of a problem when they mentioned it.... Several hundred??? was my thought. So I figured it could use a mention in the article.

So far, sites have been blocked until market launch. There is some time yet for MN and they might change the strategy...

Unfortunately, they did not go in depth about the Photon Q 4G LTE in the conference call. I would expect to see details coming out soon though since Mr. Hesse let the cat out of the bag.

I wonder what Sprint attributes the lower customer support needs of iPhone users to?

Could be partially due to them not offering insurance on the iPhone, so applecare takes care of a lot of the device-related customer support.

so what now

Have you read this article? LTE is coming. As said above, LTE and 3G enhancements are Network Vision and will upgrade the whole network.

i dont get it

WiMax is not expanding

I got good LTE signal at home. A few times when I come home, I dont get LTE signal until I toggle the airplane mode on and off.Why is that? Is there some more tweak that Sprint have to do on the tower and maybe a update on the phone?

I would say that it has something to do with the battery saving settings on the phone. If you are in a 3G only area, you are probably not going to want your phone to be constantly searching for 4G and using battery needlessly. Then when you toggle airplane mode, it resets the power saving data, and the phone does its normal routine of looking for 4G first, then 3G, then 1x, then roaming. I would think that when your area fills up with more LTE towers, it will improve the connection time when it does have to switch to 3G for a little bit.

There are many members who have stated that they leave CDMA/LTE toggle on outside LTE areas and don't notice bad battery drain.

Despite the risk of offending (or ranting as it's seemingly always refered to), I'm going say a few things.I've monitored this site for months as my contract with another provider is ending soon and I'm very excited about leaving their clenches. I've learned a TON from this site and have recently donated to support it.However, the last couple of communications have startled me.. while excessive negative commentary and whining isn't productive, it's starting to feel a bit suppressed. I'm also feeling a sense that this site is for Sprint loyalists only and that those currently on other networks need not apply.True, I haven't posted a lot (and did "rant" unneccesarily on an occation) and I have primarily "consumed" a wealth of info from this site. I've learned when ATT and VZW aren't telling the truth. I even regonized when one of Sprint's own employees weren't telling me the truth.I really hope that all constructive negative critisim isn't frowned upon (or ignored). There is a great deal to learn from your detractors.

Constructive negative criticism is perfectly fine. The key word is constructive. Understand that this site is not affiliated with Sprint in any way, and even if there might be Sprint employees among our members, they are not going to "fix" any problems that people bring up here. If someone is having issues that we might be able to figure out in the community here, great, bring them up. But we have no influence over anything that Sprint does. If someone just wants everyone here to know how much hatred they have because Sprint (insert rant here), we have no time for it and I will delete it. It isn't so much censorship, or wanting to wear rose colored glasses, but that we all know the shortcomings of Sprint's legacy network and this site is "Sprint 4G Rollout Updates" not "Sprint Network", so our focus is on Network Vision and things related to that.

Also, as far as this site being for "Sprint Loyalists", I am not a Sprint customer, yet I am a contributing author and moderator on this site.

so the above pin drops are what towers you think will be lit up by January. And does show all towers that are available?

Those are the anticipated towers that should be active at market launch in Jan. There are more sites though. Those are about 40% of the towers in the market.

because i dont have no 4g signal in cataño areaand it was schedule for june

Did you read this article? http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-167-sprint-intentionally-blocking-new-lte-devices-from-accessing-live-lte-sites/

I was thinking of dropping Roadrunner, and giving Sprint the extra $30 per month after LTE speeds are at my apartment, but with these speeds and UNLIMITED, I'll have to wait and see what the LTE speed is when it gets here.As a comparison, when the EVO 4G LTE is using Wifi at my apartment (Roadrunner is my ISP) the speedtest is below:Test Date: Jul 22, 2012 7:20:58 amConnection Type: WifiServer: Fort Worth, TXDownload: 28520 kbpsUpload: 1240 kbpsPing: 42 msIP addresses removedLatitude: 30.36651Longitude: -97.70127A detailed image for this result can be found here:http://www.speedtest...d/216247661.png

Tethering is not unlimited.