bmoses

Hey, I went to the "Network Vision/LTE Deployment Running List" on S4GRU.com's website. Under the Central Iowa section it says NV Sites Accepted = 2% LTE Sites Accepted = 1% whats the difference between NV and LTE sites ? Can someone please explain to me 

there are 2 sites up near spirit lake that have been 3G accepted, so they have the new NV equipment installed but 4G (LTE) hasn't been accepted yet. then there has been 1 tower in des moines that has been 4G accepted. so you have 3 towers with NV equipment installed that have had something accepted (thats the 2%) but only 1 tower with LTE accepted (and thats the 1%). read my sig for some info about what accepted means

Ok. I do not know very much about this subject. I just wanted to spread what I heard today. I read the news quite often, so I understand now that I have been reading about the announcments and not the cities going live in sync of each other.

no problem if they are far enough along in central iowa by October we will be one of the cities "announced". to people who aren't following the rollout or noticed their phone was already connected to 4G that will be big news. To the rest of us we will *hopefully* have been enjoying 4G for several months by then

there was 1 4G tower accepted in des moines last week. i checked it the day it showed up here accepted and it wasn't live yet. if it follows other markets it should be live and broadcasting by the end of this week.

they are up on the tower at MLK and hickman installing the new panels today looks like they took down 1 nextel panel in order to install the new NV panel.

also the tower by lower beaver and the interstate had new panels installed.

What does it mean for a tower to be accepted?

read my signature, that basically covers it. the short of it is accepted means sprint OKed the work and is paying the contractor for whatever part they accepted.

Are they replacing all of the antennas at the top ? Yesterday I saw them bringing one down off of the tower at MLK and Hickman. 

they are probably taking down the nextel panels to make room for the new NV panels. That tower is (was) a sprint/nextel co-location. it didn't look like there was any room left up there so i was guessing they would have to remove the nextel panels before they could install the new ones. they will leave the legacy sprint panels up for the time being because they will still be in use for awhile.

went last night and checked out the accepted tower. it wasn't live yet hopefully we follow NE and they go live a few days after being accepted. Good news was i found one other tower with panels installed already and another with fiber freshly run to it

FIRST LTE TOWER ACCEPTED IN THE DES MOINES AREA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! become a sponsor to find out where

sometime in the next few days i will make my way there and see if its live or not.

Excuse my ignorance but what does a guide wire do?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

its a wire that they run from the top of the tower to the bottom to help them "guide" the panel as they hoist it to the top so that it doesn't blow in the wind or run into the pole or anything like that. so if guide wires are up that means they are ready for panels to be installed up top.

i entered all my info exactly as i've always entered it when i buy stuff online..... did you guys put - in your phone number? thats the only thing i can think of.....

edit to clarify, i meant putting a dash - in the phone number, like 123-456-7890 or 1234567890. i had been doing it without the dash - just tried it again with the dash, also put my name exactly has it shows on my card, we will see what happens now.

well either they are cancelling all of them now or i'm doing something wrong. i had submitted another one this morning and it just got cancelled too.

Looks like the wire is down at the tower at MLK and Hickman, I wonder if they got the antennas up ?

just got back from that tower, the guide wires are still there, no panels up top yet. Also stopped by the one off lower beaver by the interstate and there are now guide wires there, someone was there working, looked like they had just got done putting them up.

Sweet!  I am pretty sure it isn't turned on, but I'll swing over to Euclid and 2nd after I get off work today to see if it's turned on!!!

when i was there around noon it looked like they had 2 of the 3 panels up. if i had to guess i would say we won't have a live LTE signal from it for at least another week. and thats if all the different parts are lined up and happen one right after the other. once the panels are installed they will need to be hooked up to the base cabinets, i'm sure there is probably some work to install things in the base cabinets as well. backhaul will need to be hooked up. then an inspector will need to come out and there will probably be a list of things that will need fixed, then once that list is fixed they can start testing it and then it will hopefully be live. so probably 2 week minimum

just got an email saying mine was cancelled

Unfortunately, we have been unable to contact you to let you know that we are unable to complete the processing of your new MiFi 500 LTE by Novatel Wireless. We have cancelled this device and any accessories that you ordered with it. We are also releasing any funds authorized on your credit card for this device

might as well jump on the bandwagon, not that i'll get TD-LTE around me anytime soon but free is free

thanks for the replies, that would be the first tmobile gear i've seen with RRU's, does that mean they have LTE on that tower?

any ideas on the panels on the "temp" tower?

Found a tower getting new panels installed!!!!!!! not sure if its the first one in the Des Moines area, but its the first one i've found.

this one is off of 2nd ave just south of Euclid. Also checked the one by MLK and Hickman, no panels up top yet but there were people there working.

It's not your device, or MeanBean... I just made myself a custom testing setup so I could watch what SignalCheck saw for an EVDO sector ID on my computer, and watch the engineering screen on my EVO LTE to see what that sector ID was on a 1-second refresh.. mine are not always the same either! It looks like the app only sees a new sector ID when the PN changes. But even then they don't always match. I have no idea why they don't match, since my code is pulling it out of the HTC routines. And I have no idea how to confirm which one is correct. Ugh!

 

EDIT: No consistency as to when the app sees an update compared to the engineering screen..

 

-Mike

thanks for confirming i'm not crazy! i went out for a drive over lunch (found my first tower with new panels getting installed!!!!) and kept an eye on the app and the only time it would update was when i reset the data connection, or one time i lost 3G and when it came back it showed a new ID that matched.

Would be nice to have updating real time but having the shortcut to field trial saves me from dialing so don't waste too much time on it

Wow, talk about a thorough uninstall and troubleshooting run!  I appreciate the info.  Clearly either SignalCheck or the engineering screen is not getting updates as quickly as the other.  Like I said before, I am going to assume engineering mode is more reliable.  I will keep digging to see if I can figure out what is going on.

 

What ROM and Android version are you running?  Do you ever happen to notice if engineering mode seems to be showing an ID that SignalCheck picks up a period of time later, i.e. is the app perhaps one ID behind, if you know what I mean?

 

The Reset Data Connection feature essentially just turns on airplane mode for a few seconds (I occasionally tweak the exact length of time to see if anyone reports better/worse reconnection scenarios; right now I believe it is set to 1 second), and then turns it off again.  Sometimes the connection comes back up fine, other times you need to hit it again.  It's the same "airplane mode" you are accessing from any other menu on your device, so the effect should be the same.

 

Unfortunately, there is no other method for a third-party developer to implement anything that enables, disables, or restarts the radio(s).  It's not a perfect solution, but Android is very protective of access to most radio functions.  Nobody has reported it yet, but I know for a fact that RDC does not work in Android 4.2+ because Google removed access to airplane mode for developers.  There is a big outcry to bring it back, but I'm not sure if Google will listen.

 

-Mike

i work in tech support so thorough troubleshooting is what i do right now i'm running MeanBean 3.09 which is based on the latest RRU and android 4.1.1. and unless i've messed something up i'm running the latest radio update too (baseband is 1.12.11.1210 and build # is 3.16.651.3 CL147243). last night i tried two other ROMs too, Viper's and Evilution, they both did the same thing as well.

From what i can tell it appears to be one behind. so if they both match, and field trial updates to a new one signalcheck will still be showing the old one. its not always just one behind though. sometimes they will match and i will see field trial show two different new ones and signalcheck will still show the old one, for example if they are both on 1 and field trial shows 2 and then settles on 3 signalcheck is still on 1. 

i'm starting to think its something with my phone though, so far today it has been fine (did a nandroid last night before trying other roms and then restored the nandroid) but since i've installed signalcheck it will eventually start lagging real bad and not responding to trying to get to the menu or going back to the home screen and if i can't get it to exit it will then show the not responding message asking if you want to wait or close.

as to the airplane mode, that makes sense to me, just wasn't for sure if that was normal or not since it was really fast and it seemed like i had to do it 2-3 times in order to really see the connections reset.

thanks for all your hard work on this!

went out last night looking for upgrade work, went to most of the towers around Urbandale, Clive, Grimes, and West Des Moines and didn't see any other signs of work and didn't pick up any 4G signals (wasn't expecting to just confirming). I *think* they are running fiber to the Ryko water tower on the south side of Grimes next to 80/35 off 141 but they weren't close enough to the tower yet to say for sure. Also out of the 5 towers that i've confirmed do have base cabinets installed i found guide wires run at 2 of them (one at MLK and Hickman, the other off 2nd ave south of Euclid).

I did confirm that the work at the Clive water tower is them repainting it. Still not sure who/why the temporary tower they setup is for as there are a lot of carriers besides sprint on that tower yet only one set of panels on the temp tower. here is a pic of those in case anyone can tell whose they are

I know I've heard mention that Verizon was going back and installing RRUs in some markets, other than that I was under the impression that Sprint/Clearwire was the only ones so far installing RRUs mounted up with the panel.

I was out checking towers for upgrades last night and found these panels with what looks like RRUs installed behind them. They don't look like the Samsung equipment Sprint is installing. Anyone have any guesses on whose they are?

Also where i took these pictures they are re-painting the water tower, they have setup a temporary tower but it only has 1 set of panels on it (there are multiple carriers on the water tower), can anyone tell whose they are?

and just for fun here is a pic of one of the Clearwire WiMax protection sites around here

I uninstalled the app, rebooted to recovery, wiped cache and dalvik cache, rebooted, and installed the app. When i first launched it the sector ID matched between signalcheck and field trial. I then did reset data connection a few times to try and force a new sector ID. after doing that field trial now shows 3B57E (has stayed on that for the past minute) and signal check shows 8E97F.

OK i think i just figured it out. if i use the option to reset the data connection from the app the sector ID doesn't always update after that. if i do airplane mode outside the app, even with it on in the background, the sector ID will update closer to real time instead of getting stuck. 

i'll keep testing between the two reset modes and see if that holds true.

speaking of the connection reset, should it flash airplane mode really fast and then go back to bars but no 3G icon and just sit there? i seem to have to hit the button a few times in order to cause all connections to go away and see it reconnecting and the 3G icon come back up.

thanks for your help!

Hmmm... that is strange.  I'm not sure how this would happen.  I pull the EVDO sector ID out using code similar to lordsutch's discovery of how to find the LTE serving cell.. the sector ID displayed in SignalCheck updates each time any of the signal levels change (not just the EVDO signal).

 

I have been watching my EVO LTE, and sector values always seem to match.  Do yours ever match?  Any chance that while you were sitting by the tower, you were quickly switching between two sectors?  I see the values only differ by one character, so my (very uneducated) guess would be that each of those is the same site but a different sector.

 

I'd like to assume the engineering screen is more reliable, but at the same time, perhaps that value does not always update and it was stale information?  Lots of what-ifs...

 

-Mike

it could have been switching between channels/sectors on the same tower but i switched back and forth several times and the values in the screenshots stayed the same. Yes they do match sometimes, and sometimes when they don't match it will eventually update without any intervention from me and then they will match.

Right now they do not match and i've been watching them for over an hour, both the field trial screen and signalcheck have shown the same sector ID for this whole time (each being different). Field trial (last 5 digits) is 1557F and signalcheck (last 5 digits) is DB06F. I haven't done much to try and force them to match this time, besides exiting and relaunching the app, as i was waiting to see if they would eventually match on their own. plus i'm on a good EVDO tower/sector right now and don't want to risk losing it by toggling airplane mode

all other info shown on the screen is constantly changing so its not that info isn't getting updated. Since you have the same phone and its working fine on yours i'm guessing that either my phone is a piece of crap, or something with the ROM i'm running is messing it up. i'll trying clearing out some cache's and re-installing the app and let you know if it makes a difference.

just got a text from my brother, had him scouting out ames towers for me, he found one a little north of ames off of interstate 35 with new base cabinets installed

he also thought the one off of lincoln way might have new cabinets but he couldn't get close enough to confirm.

Interesting thought with Iowa being one of the last to get an LTE upgrade and how fast technology gets better. Will we be getting the latest equipment then say California who was first to get LTE?

i would say that all of the equipment is probably going to be mostly the same as what they installed in the first markets. since we are closer to last, and our deployment didn't start until after the nextel shutdown, i would say our chances of having 800 voice and 800 LTE off the bat would be higher as there wouldn't really be a reason not to install it and turn it on while they are here doing everything else and that would save a trip back here.

The other day a guy I work with was saying when he was out in West Des Moines he was getting a 4G signal, anyone have any insight on this possibility or has anyone else gotten a 4G signal?

i will be out in the jordan creek area tonight, will see if i can pick anything up, hopefully i'll be able to drive around to the towers to verify.