A2CKilla

Well, it's not at fast as Lancaster, but it's cool to finally see some B41. This was on East market street in York

I know people have been grumbling in the Shentel market that their data speeds have been slowing down signifcantly over the past 1-1.5 years, and after looking over the slides from Shentel's most recent quarterly presentation it contains some interesting supporting data.

 

Here are some of my takeaways (excuse my early morning math):

 

• 62% of their LTE data is on 1900 MHz which supports the slow data speeds being reported.
• 61 sites (11% of their network) have 2.5 GHz deployed which are generating 5% of their network traffic.

• I'm struggling on what conclusions to draw from this stat. It appears that there are a lot of devices in their area which have been upgraded to tri-band which bodes well for balancing data across all three bands as 2.5 is deployed. I think it also is indicative of a good network balancing approach. Any ideas on what the "ideal" proportion of traffic across the bands Sprint is looking to have?

 

556 Cell Sites

 95% have a second LTE carrier at 800 MHz

 193 sites have three carriers, including a second carrier at 1900 MHz

 61 2.5 GHz sites

 

 Traffic

 92% of data traffic is on LTE, with 30% on 800 MHz, 5% on 2.5GHz

 Data usage grew 19% in Q1’16

 Average speeds of approximately 5 Mbps

 Average customer uses approximately 5 GB per month

 Dropped calls - 0.4%

 Blocked calls - 0.3%

Well I guess it's nice to see why I have such a terrible time when I go to York vs when I'm in Lancaster...

B41 is in Shentel but just high traffic areas.

Gotcha, cause around here in Lancaster it's basically everywhere besides where they're still working on tower density. The area sprint rep keeps me posted on a lot between softbank and sprint and things with the network and I always show him stuff you guys talk about on the forums. But even he's surprised shentel isn't on track with a lot of other places when I talk about my visits here

Band 25 vs Band 41. What did you honestly expect?

That's the point.....it's almost everywhere but shentel land

Well this is what happened when I got to shentel land....

Compared to being on the bridge and in Columbia....

I mean I'm rooting for shentel....but...this [emoji30]

Well, ran into some B41 when I was coming to york this morning, this was in the Columbia area, but as soon as I got across the bridge, B25 and slow speeds (compared to lancaster), is shentel still working on stuff? It's really bad when it just seems like no improvement is really happening is all. The most I've seen happen is second carrier B25 (at least around my areas) and B26 with sub-par speeds (once again, compared to lancaster) when I'm seeing B41, second carrier B41 and speed increases happen around here so often. This post is definitely not trying to bash anything either, just want some insight I suppose.

 

Is that what you meant to write? That's not possible off of B41 in your market. 

 

Did a test at work and with the sprint rep as well when I was showing him CA in the area with an S6 and I had my nexus 6, I use signal check pro, wasn't reporting being connected to b41 like usual nor B41 second carrier. Unless the app was acting up which it usually doesn't, I could be wrong. But I'm just going by what's being shown.

Yes, Shentel is installing a fiber ring through Franklin, Adams, York, Cumberland, Dauphin counties.  Lots of money being spent to establish it. I have no info as to the completion date but it may be active in some areas.  Actually, single digits and low teens is not bad if B-41 is not yet active.

 

Okay, good, I was really starting to wonder

 

 

Are you connected to B41 when getting single digits and low teens? If that's on B41 you may have a very weak signal.

 

If you're getting low teens on B25 that sounds perfectly acceptable to me. If anything that's much faster than what we have been seeing in York over the past year. At my home I was barely able to get 2 mbps on B25. For a while I was able to get faster speeds on 3G by turning off the LTE radio (I was getting almost 2.5 mbps on 3G.) And even after the 2nd carrier went live, I couldn't crack 5-6 mbps. 

 

Now this past weekend, just before connecting to B41 for the first time, I was getting 12-15 mpbs on B25. I take it that the tower nearest to me (in Resevoir Park behind York College) has indeed had it's backhaul upgraded.

 

No, was not connected to B41, was mostly a general question because I'm so use to double digits (upper 20s-30s) here in lancaster and high 50s-70s on a CA device even off B41. It was just a shock because I saw you guys posting about sightings of B41, I thought they got backhaul in most areas after all this time.

Well, went out to york yesterday, is shentel working on backhaul? The speeds where extremely low, I mean single digits to low teens in most areas I went to

well, seeing b41 pop up gives me some hope when I travel back down to york, got so use to the speeds in corporate land here in lancaster and york always left me disappointed whenever I'd visit

Just pulled this down on a customers phone at work....really making me want to get a new phone but I don't want to give up my nexus 6  . Anyone have opinions on the g4(can get a decent price on a used one) since it's a CA phone or does anyone know if the 6p supports CA

 

Well....second carrier b41 is live out here, got some decent speeds, was at school, HACC lancaster campus if anyone was interested

 

Im on B41 all day as well, my battery life on my N6 averages just under 4hrs screen on time. Its probably your phone software causing issues. B41 definitely does not degrade battery, in fact, because its faster and takes less time to do task online it improves battery life considerably over 3G.

 

The reason battery was crap on wimax devices, was because it relied on a separate modem that sucked more juice.

Gotcha, I stand corrected, hopefully 6.0 next week and the new deep sleep will make a huge difference

I will say though, the one thing that's starting to kill me with b41, just like in the wimax days, such a battery killer, my Nexus 6 is barely surviving because I'm on b41 all day. Now it could just be my phone or me but just wanted to throw that out there

I have to say folks, haven't seen him in a few days, there was a new rep he was training last I spoke with him, so that might have something to do with it. Will still try to ask about some of the areas mentioned next time I get in touch with him though

What about Intercourse, Paradise, and Blue Ball?

 

 

AJ

at first I thought you we're messing with me about talking to the sprint rep when I'm at work....but then I remembered those places really are around here (pa is weird) but nothing on those areas, I'll ask him, he's usually in the store quite often and he likes talking to me about the network, even tells me what areas actually have CA around here and what towers are done

I hope Ephrata and New Holland are not in the middle of nowhere. LTE out of here is more symbolic sort of like a thousand points of light / 333.

I fall back to 3G all the time out here. The Ephrata Walmart is a prime example of very poor service even in the parking lot.

Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk

well the sprint rep that I'm buddies with says that ephrata is covered, can't speak on new holland, and the occasional times I went to ephrata I had LTE, and towards east earl I had b41 LTE

How is Sprint in Lancaster and the Poconos?

Lancaster is covered in LTE for the most part, the sprint rep that I talk to always tells me about the CA in the area and I also check things myself. b26 is all around some areas have b41 and plenty of b25, I rarely drop to 3g unless I'm really in the middle of no where.

I'm starting to get 40mbps at the bestbuy

I wasn't WRONG. I said that speedtest SOMETIMES does not reflect aggregated speeds. Sensorly is not a good speed tester, but in an instance where speedtest is not actually giving you a CA speed, Sensorly will. That was my point.

I understood that, that's what I was saying was wrong and explained why right after saying it.....

Just a note for future reference...CA speeds sometimes do not reflect on Speedtest app servers.  You are better off using Sensorly's speed test app when trying to discover CA performance.

I'm still getting the upper 20s to 30s at work, and this admin was actually wrong, I got consistently lower speeds with sensorly due to random server picks that where so far away it would make any carrier look bad, so I'm sticking to speed test and picking servers that make sense, not some server in canada.....but I'm really happy to see the speeds staying high, just hoping what happened in shentel land doesn't happen here

Just a note for future reference...CA speeds sometimes do not reflect on Speedtest app servers.  You are better off using Sensorly's speed test app when trying to discover CA performance.

didn't know this....hmmm, well looks like I'll be doing some trials at work

Well I can report CA isn't in this area yet   messed around with someone's s6 when I was updating it and I got the same speeds I was getting with my nexus 6...but there's still always hope and on a side note, the shentel market speeds are really low...I mean lower then they were prior to b26, so now I really do see the difference in the corporate market, especially since we have b41 out here

Absolutely amazing speeds there. 40MBS down. Wow! Make me want to check that spot out next time I get down that way.

 

What is the general location in case I get down that way?

If you know where the bestbuy, costco, and lowe's on heampsted road is, that's exactly where I'm at, but you can pull B41 the whole way up the road, but there's about 3 towers in that general area, one on a water tower right off old philly pike, one near the HACC campus and I'm really believing the other is right outside the bestbuy on the interstate. But I generally get -88 to -109 on B41 and inside the entire store I'm always on B41, never drops a connection. Now granted the nexus 6 (motorola) has the best radios in a phone I've ever!, but even dealing with customers with sprint, every single person had strong LTE signals in the store. I just have yet to grab a phone and test to see if CA is active in this area, might have to try next time I'm diagnosing someone's s6. Working for samsung has it's perks sometimes

Well after the announcement of CA look what I get at work, man I wish the nexus 6 supported CA