Daemon42

Turns out there was an issue with my device. A setting that I have never directly touched was in a weird state. On the Galaxy S4 Triband, in Settings - Connections - More Networks - Mobile Networks - Network Mode There are four choices (CDMA, LTE/CDMA, GSM/ UTMS, Automatic) and they are radio button choices so that one must be selected at all time. On my phone, none were selected. Not sure how it got this way. My device is not rooted and there's no way to unselect all the options from the screen. Chose the 2nd option, and it's all good now with generally more LTE coverage than not driving across town (Lakewood -> Denver -> Thornton -> Northglenn -> Westminster), although mostly Band 25, and average speeds in the 5-8Mbit/s range with occasional peaks in the 20-30Mbit/s range if I'm close to a tower.

I can of course bang my head with Sprint support, but I'm pretty sure it's not the phone. Looking back only a couple pages in this thread http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2172-network-visionlte-colorado-market-denvercolo-springsfort-collinspueblogrand-jct/page-161 I see that I am not the only one in what appears to be an almost completely LTE-free zone on the west side of the metro area (Colfax, 6th Ave, Alameda, Simms.. generally whole Lakewood area and then some). Where is one of those new LTE sites in Golden? I'll drive up to one of the towers and check if I have to. I used to have great band 25 coverage there all through downtown Golden, all the way up on Mt. Zion (the one with the "M" on it), and south past the justice center, all the way to the soccer fields at I-70 and C470. Now it's all gone. [edit]I did just see something I've never seen before. Forced LTE at home, near Green Mtn, and got 1 bar on band 25 (tells me the band 25 radio is working at least, so can't blame the Golden issue on the hardware). I'm often very close to the tower it claims it's connected to, and it has never chosen LTE on its own there.

Strange thing about that though. I have a non-rooted Triband Galaxy S4 and 2-3 months ago I regularly saw LTE while moving around the metro area although rarely for very long. Today, I seem to be stuck on 3G 99% of the time and not solid at that. There was also really good band 25 coverage in Golden, which appears now be totally gone as of 1-2 months ago, even if I force my phone to LTE.

Same problem last few days a little north of here in Lakewood near Green Mtn. Will find that out of the blue there is no data, while the voice signal is strong. Sometimes restarting the radios will fix it, sometimes not. The other day it came back immediately once I started digging through the ##DEBUG# menus (probably coincidence). Couple days before that I was losing voice completely from my home for most of the day, where I normally see 5 bars. I guess I can be optimistic that this means they're working on my tower, but doesn't change the fact that it's really annoying. No hint of LTE signal anywhere south or east of Roony Rd. yet.

Final resolution with my GS4 was to just return what I bought at Best Buy and order the Tri-band model direct from Sprint as BB cannot figure out whether they have any or not. The model number listed on BB's website is different than what's on the boxes in the store and none of them have a T in em. In the process of re-ordering through Sprint, discovered BB had also changed my contract in a subtle way (lost my really nice cheap grandfathered plan with unlimited data plus a protection plan), which Sprint said should not have happened for a regular upgrade, so they pushed through a fix for that. My guess is, BB isn't going to put Spark capable GS4s on the shelves in Denver area until the Sprint network upgrade is done. Anyway, thanks to those who helped me sort this out in time to return the phone. If hadn't seen some form of working LTE in Golden, I'd probably be none the wiser till much too late.

Unsurprisingly, the folks at Bestbuy are clueless on this issue. "Spark? Oh, that's a Sprint thing, isn't it."

Ya, I'm working on that now. This is my last day to return at Best Buy. From my research, it looks like this is not an uncommon problem. People being told by Sprint and Best Buy reps that they were buying a Spark capable device but getting the standard SPL-H720 model instead.

Then Sprint is screwing me over, because they claimed the GS4 I bought two weeks ago was/is a Spark capable Tri-band device. That's also how they had it listed on sprint.com, then and now. http://tinyurl.com/mmkuqos After a 45 minute chat with 3 different sprint support drones, the best they can come up with, is that my current phone is Tri-band capable, but there will be an OTA update to enable Spark, and they're so sorry the website doesn't mention that anywhere. We'll see.

What I posted above was all done from a Tri-band phone.

Did a little more testing over in Golden this evening. I get a very solid 4G/LTE signal at Washingon St. and Highway 58. Engineering screen seems to indicate LTE is on band 25 so it indeed not a Spark site. Here's my next question. Sprint is imfamous for being unable to handle calls and data at the same time, yet I was able to stay on a voice call while simultaneously performing speed tests on the web. Also was able to receive a call while connected as shown below with eHRPD not active. Is that just some quirk of band25 that will go away once the network upgrade is complete? I seem to recall something to that effect mentioned earlier in the thread.

So in that context, it isn't considered a "Spark site" unless it includes connectivity to band 41? Just trying to get the nomenclature clear.

Am I missing something, or is that assertion inconsistent with what I posted a couple pages ago? http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2172-network-visionlte-colorado-market-denvercolo-springsfort-collinspueblogrand-jct/page-87&do=findComment&comment=280428 Solid, working 4G LTE with eHRPD from my Triband phone in Golden, CO. Is that the only place it's working?

Long time lurker. Watching this forum is what finally convinced me to upgrade to a tri-band phone a couple weeks ago. 4G LTE in downtown Golden Colorado with EHRPD (received a phone call between speed tests)