greenbastard

Maybe Band 26 LTE was fired up but left with eCSFB issues. If Band 25 is congested, the system may be pushing you down to Band 26, which will then put you on EVDO is eCSFB is missing.

The downtilt is there for a reason. Maybe terrain or population density creates the need for tilt on the tower closest to you.

Also don't forget about the recession that has made many people from small towns and communities move into cities for work. Lot of movement of incoming foreigners here in Texas as well. (Central America, Mexico, and Louisiana.....yes, I consider Cajuns as foreigners. Weird dialect.)

I got a question about 8T8R radio heads. I know this has probably been answered before but I couldn't find it on the boards so my advanced apologies. Once 8T8R radios are installed and running, will wimax be taken down in order to accommodate the new RRHs? Or will both technologies run alongside each other until the end of 2015?

Going back to the original topic, I just saw what OP was referring to in the ever expanding subdivisions of greater Houston. Katy, TX has been growing at a rapid pace since the 90s and it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. If it wasn't for 1x 800, the entire area would have no native Sprint coverage. No LTE on most of my drive in that area and any scent of EVDO my phone caught was useless. If I had to guess, that area is serviced by one tower with no down tilt and with the new subdivisions, it is suffering from massive congestion. I'm sure this is a problem for all providers at the moment in that area.

I thought I should contribute some. Here is a Houston tower with B26, B25, and B41 all fired up. I'm using a GS5 to access all bands. So far from what I can tell, B26 is only better than B25 by about -3 to -4 dBms. Also, B41 is worse than I remember wimax being from the same tower. Right next to the tower, I never saw anything better than -87 dBms from B41. Obviously still a lot of work to go before this tower is fully optimized. This brings me to my next question. When all is said and done from NV, about how many dBms should B26 be better than B25?

Nice to see one of the oldest form of wireless communications making a comeback to Sprint. Smoke Signals. Let's just hope for the sake of our own health that data hoggers dont heavily congest that slice of spectrum.

Just noticed this about 2 days ago as well.

Popped my cherry. Yay...BUT, I had no Internet access through B41 and had to go to LTE only mode to even access it.

Thanks guys for the help. Sadly I'm still a Band 41 LTE virgin.

Thanks for the responses guys. The camera still seems a tad slow with image stabilization off As far as B41, I use Signal Check Pro to see which band I'm on. So far no B41 in Houston for me. How do i get to the engineering screen? Through ##DATA#?

So I've had the GS5 for about 24 hours now and here are some things I've noticed (keeping in mind I came from a GS3) 1. Immediately after activating the phone, I was on 800 LTE. Which is very odd since my GS3 had Band 25 LTE all over my house. After turning off Band 26 (which you have to reset the phone in order to take effect), I noticed that the GS5 is about -2 dbm better than my GS3 on Band 25. That's not great, but it's also not bad. I'm assuming the network is pushing me to B26 to alleviate traffic on B25? 2. eCSFB issues may still linger in areas that already have eCSFB. I've noticed that after each time I restart my phone, I will automatically have LTE, but phone calls and texts won't come through. I noticed that in order to fix this, I have to establish a phone call at least once in order to fix this (I usually dial my voice mail and then hang up). After that, texts and calls would come in just fine. It's an issue that's present every time I reboot. Hopefully this is something Sprint can fix. 3. I'm in Houston and so far 7 of the closest Sprint towers and 1 Stand alone Clear site I've visited have not yielded Band 41. Is there some sort of setting I have to mess with because I find it weird that Houston was one of the first Spark cities and I can't find Band 41. Band 26 is everywhere Band 25 is, but I find it odd that Band 41 is MIA 4. Is it just me, or does the camera seem slow out of the gate? Even the first picture takes a while to focus and snap. And those are my first observations from the very short time I've had to mess with this phone and its triband capabilities.

Yeah, I used to be like your coworkers. I used to work in a huge high school built out of concrete cinder blocks. I had no signal and the preferred roaming partner in Houston was Cricket (which also uses PCS band). My EVO's battery would drain extremely fast and the phone would keep switching between a useless weak Sprint signal and an even worse Cricket signal. But ever since then, I've done my due diligence when picking a phone. I'm sure things have changed now since 1x and LTE are available on the SMR band, but you can never be too careful when it comes to picking phones.

I've read many mixed posts about this device's signal performance (maybe due to people using signal bars as a measurement) Whats the bottom line on rf performance?

But that's always been the case with my old EVO 3D, Galaxy S2 and S3. I have always had to manually turn on roaming and then check the options for roaming (intl/data/voice). Even if this were to be the case, it still doesn't explain why some areas still have roaming (like East Texas) on the maps, yet other parts (like west Texas) lost their entire data roaming for the M8 and GS5. I get that a lot of you say that Sprint maps are innacurate, but nobody has been able to confirm an established data session while roaming on an area that has gone missing from the maps.

I can attest to EVDO roaming as well (verified with SignalCheck Pro). I recently went to San Diego, CA and when I got within 1000 feet of the border (the I-5 & I-805 interchange), I roamed on EVDO with Cricket. What was most interesting about the entire experience was that once I was in Tijuana, Sprint and Verizon were non existent (my buddy's Verizon phone went into Intl roaming right after crossing). It was all Cricket EVDO in Avenida Revolucion. I guess Sprint uses a directional pattern in the Cali/MX border because in Texas, I've been able to cross into Mexico and still have a usable sprint signal. But back on topic, the HTC One Max also shows to be severely handicapped on data roaming. The towns of Ishpeming and Marquette have data roaming, but outside of that there is no data roaming according to Sprint. I'll try to post the difference in coverage when I get on my computer later. This thing is still a mystery, but hopefully someone can confirm if data works or not soon.

If you don't mind me asking, which device do you have?

Unless you have a business account or are in one of the few areas that offer EVDO roaming, then you should roam on 1x only. But as far as the Nexus 5 roaming, Sprint shows its maps as having full roaming. So far, I see the SG5 (which I'm eyeing), LG Flex, and M8 as being heavily restricted on data roaming.

I know devices support both CDMA bands, but my concern is being able to access data while I'm roaming on another network. According to the maps, I can still use voice, but 1x data sessions will no longer be established. My main concern about this is being able to check email and receive IMs while driving through the many non-interstate highways in West Texas and New Mexico.

Sorry if this is in the wrong section, but I had a question about Sprint's data roaming on newer triband devices. I am currently in the market for a new triband cellphone but I noticed that the latest phones don't have data roaming in places older phones have data roaming. For example, this coverage map is for the newer Samsung Galaxy S5. Notice how data roaming is non existent between Denver and Wichita, KS Now notice the massive difference in data roaming on a single band Galaxy S4 Is this a correct depiction of data roaming on newer devices (like the Galaxy S5, G Flex, One M8)? And if it is, is it a compatibility issue or is it a move away from data roaming? I ask this because voice roaming seems to be the same on the voice coverage maps on all devices. This would definitely be a deal breaker for me since I do roam and use data(I use up about 60-80 MB a month). Any information on this would be great since my contract has been up for over a year and my phone is in dire need of retirement. I'd like to keep Sprint, but if roaming is out of the picture then I would need to consider my options. Thanks.

International Wi-Fi calling. Awesome!

Thanks

Insensitive much?

Its probably because you're blocking the antenna with your hand. My S3 LTE signal drops dramatically if I block the back of the top-left area. I am somewhat close to a sprint tower so for me its not an issue, but I have seen the phone go from -100 to -110 RSRP if my fingers go anywhere near the external speaker. Next time you hold your phone sideway, try to hold the phone from the bottom and see if your signal degrades.

Thanks. I'm going to try this sometime this week. Hopefully its a step up over ND8