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azoclark

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Posts posted by azoclark

    Network Vision/LTE - West Michigan Market (Grand Rapids/Lansing/Kalamazoo)

    in Markets

    Posted

    Anyone notice the big fake tree tower that was recently installed in Portage near Centre and Oakland? I believe the flag pole is a tower for Verizon and/or ATT, but I noticed the crane putting the tree up the other day. Not sure if it might be a Sprint tower or not.

    I noticed that last weekend and almost took a photo but decided it wasn't really relevant for this site. I don't know the carrier but it is not Sprint. Sprint is on the flagpole at Center and 131.

     

    Couple of of us at $DAYJOB joke that it (new tower) is the Redwood of Portage in that it seems to be double the height of the surrounding trees. So much for it fitting it.  It seems to stick out more than the flag pole tower when you are heading south and sitting at the Oakland/Center light.

     

    See previous posts about the flag pole tower behind Portage Cleaners and the new tower across Oakland:

    • Like 1

    Sprint LTE Coverage Maps via Sensorly

    in Network, Network Vision/LTE Deployment

    Posted

    To me if map updates happen on the closest zoom level withhn 3 or 4 hours that is cool. Then the others updating around 24 hours was fine as well. But of course we will always take faster :)

     

    Agreed. Though it was nice to do some mapping on the way to work and then by the time that I got into the office (15 minutes or so after parking) and sat down I could already see my additions. Repeat for lunch and trip home. But seeing updates in 15/30 minutes are by no way a need.

     

    My problem is that I am starting to run out of ways to work and around town that I (or others) haven't covered already. Thus seeing updates within 12 hours helps me see what new way I have to go.

     

    Don't get me wrong as there is still areas to cover in town, but they are getting more and more out-of-the way for my in-town trips. But since there is only one local LTE tower active right now...I am working on filling in the 3G still. Once we have more LTE towers, I get to retrace my steps. :) And then when they fire up the NV 3G...will have to look at the weak coverage areas, and then 800 LTE.....oh, crap. I am going to need a new car. :D

     

     

    May the 4th be with you!

    • Like 3

    Sprint LTE Coverage Maps via Sensorly

    in Network, Network Vision/LTE Deployment

    Posted

    Question for someone out there to answer.

     

    I don't have an answer, but I have an idea.....

     

    I have a deactivated GS3 and I thought I would try mapping with it just to see if it would work. We the funny thing is, it did work. After a out 5 minutes of mapping data would become active on the phone and I would start getting 4g points.

     

    So my idea is that Sensorly is only looking at the signal strength and other tower-to-phone meta-data (SID, NID, BID, etc). It doesn't really care if you account is active or not. Kind of like on wi-fi where a client can see the SSIDs on an access point(s), but can't connect if there is any encryption.

     

     

    When I got home it surly uploaded the data.

     

    Was the upload via the phone connecting to your home's wi-fi?

    • Like 1

    Network Vision/LTE - West Michigan Market (Grand Rapids/Lansing/Kalamazoo)

    in Markets

    Posted

    While this story linked below is primarily about at&t and Verizon, it does mention Sprint at the end, but seems to misrepresent their LTE offerings. I thought they officially launched in parts of the state, right?

     

    http://www.mlive.com...t_river_default

     

    I think that latest official word that I remember hearing about that mentioned Michigan was in the following press release: <http://newsroom.sprint.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=2495>

     

    I took at look at AT&T LTE Sensorly maps for Michigan and it sure looks to me that Sprint has more LTE coverage now than AT&T.

    Sprint LTE Coverage Maps via Sensorly

    in Network, Network Vision/LTE Deployment

    Posted

    I am pretty sure this is not the correct place for a feature request, I couldn't really find anything on the Sensorly site. (I will admit I also didn't look very hard if it is there.)

     

    As my area just had two towers go live over that last few weeks with more to come, I thought it would be interesting to see what the coverage is on a tower by tower basis. This would of course require that the app send the BID in with the rest of the data. Does Sensorly log the BID for each data point?

     

    What I am looking for would be kind of like the "area map" in the compare carriers section, but instead of it being the 50 acre square/rectangle it would be the signal strength map overlay of the current tower the phone is associated with. I would think you could access it via the coverage maps area and then an option on the right slide-out menu. (I guess you also might want a manual search option where the user would enter the operator, NID and BID.)

     

    Does any of the above make sense?

    Network Vision/LTE - West Michigan Market (Grand Rapids/Lansing/Kalamazoo)

    in Markets

    Posted

    I took a drive up 131 last night and couldn't connect to LTE at W Main. I got off, went west a bit, then turned around and went back south.

     

    The only active LTE tower that I am aware of in the Kalamazoo area is at D Ave and US-131 (just south of the MI DEQ buidling on the southwest side of the intersection). It is pretty amazing the reach of that tower, but it is on top of a nice hill. If you look carefully as you cross the H Ave bridge over US-131 you can see the tower 4 miles away. Clear line of sight always helps!

    Network Vision/LTE - West Michigan Market (Grand Rapids/Lansing/Kalamazoo)

    in Markets

    Posted

    Is this site at the corner of Oakland and Centre behind the laundromat? If so, I'm pretty sure that isn't Sprint. I want to say Tmob off the top of my head but I easily could be wrong.

     

    Yes, it is behind Portage Cleaners and Papa Johns. Crane was still there today. Based on current Sensorly Sprint 3G maps, I didn't think it was a Sprint site either. I would be a nice tower for Sprint to get on as it would help fill the gaps between the Haverhill water tower site and the Shaver Road/Industrial Drive tower.

     

     

    95% sure that's a Verizon site. Believe they're decommissioning that flag pole tower and putting up a new faux pine tree tower instead in the woods.

     

    It might be. The new Alltel tower is going to be across Oakland (southwest of this site a hundered yards or so) just south of the bank. It looks like the new tower was approved on 29-Jan-2013.

    Network Vision/LTE - West Michigan Market (Grand Rapids/Lansing/Kalamazoo)

    in Markets

    Posted

    Looks like Samsung is doing something a bit different in Michigan with the panels. All the other Samsung panels I've seen have been much longer.

     

    Michigan sites in the SMR exclusion zone will only have a single RRU, once you get to the western side of the state, expect to see two RRUs, maybe three.

     

    I have an idea what the "SMR exlusion zone" might be, but can someone explain it in more detail or point where it is explained. (Don't want to hijack this thread.) Thanks.

    Network Vision/LTE - West Michigan Market (Grand Rapids/Lansing/Kalamazoo)

    in Markets

    Posted · Edited by azoclark

     

    I talked to a t-com/network person at WMU and they were not aware of this yet. They said it will be interesting on this one as this site is still served via T-1s. Sprint has to work with them to get the fiber access and that can be interesting with the campus fiber plant being they only way and if there are any dark pairs between the campus PoPs and the building. Verizon is also on this building as is Clearwire. Verizon has a fiber path already. Not sure about Clearwire.

     

    I also found the following others in Kalamazoo

    And this one in Grand Rapids

    There is one other in Jackson that i will post over in the East Michigan Market topic. ( http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2262-network-visionlte-east-michigan-market-detroitflintann-arbortri-cities/page__view__findpost__p__96448 )

     

    I wonder what the time frame is from the time that these are published till the comment window closes, permits are issued and work begins.

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