owensri2

Yeah, that's the tower. I just find it coincidental that I'm roaming where I normally get full signal, and then I see the men working, replacing the panels and seeing Ericsson logos on the boxes. Could be wrong, but the timing is indicative of something going on.

It is located at the corner of Rosewood Dr and Garners Ferry Rd in Columbia, SC.

On my way home from work today, I passed the tower by my place, as I always do. I noticed that my phone had zero bars, and switched to roaming. There were men working up on the tower, and as I passed the site, I saw boxes with Ericsson on them. They were new panels! I didn't get a chance to stop and ask the men what they were doing, but given that I had no signal and the tower was offline, I'd imagine it was for Sprint! Coincidentally, eHRPD became active here at the end of last week. Would this signify the start of NV in Columbia?? I hope so!! Here is a picture of the tower that the men were installing the new panels on. You can see the cables running down the side, and they were working on the 3rd level down:

There have been a few instances where eHRPD has caused me to lose data connectivity. I had to actually go into the ##DATA# menu and disable eHRPD and restart the phone to get any data. For some reason, the signal will be full, then none, then full, then none while it is trying to connect to data. Once I turn off eHRPD and restart, it comes up and immediately connects to EvDo Rev. A fine. That happened just last night while driving up to Suffolk, VA where I'm currently at.

Yep, that's just up the road from where I was. Unfortunately, I wasn't driving, so I didn't want to hassle everyone I was with to explore more areas, haha.

I know!!! I was so focused on getting a SpeedTest that I forgot to go to Sensorly.

While in Charlotte this past weekend, I connected to LTE in near Matthews, NC on Pineville-Matthews Rd and Providence Rd. It was only for about a mile or so, then it dropped back to 3G. Couldn't get an LTE connection after that the rest of the weekend. I managed to snag a SpeedTest before the connection dropped:

I installed an Airave at a friends place this past weekend near Charlotte, NC. The Airave is active on their account, which is registered to Southeastern Michigan. Would this mean that the Airave is connecting through a "switch" near Detroit? This is what I get from your comment above.

Sprint didn't have a problem with me activating it, and I did tell them I got it on eBay. I did activate it on their account.

Oh yeah, I know. I guess I just got a litte excited, haha. I edited the image, thanks!

Installed an Airave this weekend at a friends house where cell services is awful. You can use your phone outside ok, but inside, zero to no bars and switching back and forth from roaming. Verizon also has spotty service inside as well. I got the Airave off of eBay and hooked it up. Now there is full coverage throughout the house and even just outside the house! Data speeds are about 1.00 to 2.00 Mbps download, and about 0.80 Mbps upload. Sure beats a dead battery in a few hours, and you can actually talk on the phone without random drops and choppy connections.

Just happened to check today, and found that my phone is now connected to eHRPD here in Columbia, SC! I recall seeing posts before about eHRPD just being a software update, but hopefully this means something for the SC market.

Anyone else notice that at random times, the 3G icon arrows will not work, but data continues? It's the only thing that really annoys me about the Photon Q.

I've never had an issue with 3G dropping randomly for no apparent reason. However, when in a weak signal environment (signal edge as stated above), it happens quite frequently.

My thoughts exactly! I keep hitting that darn 'M' every time I want an 'N'! Other than that, I don't have any complaints about the keyboard. It's really easy to use.

From my experience this past weekend in Atlanta, the switching between 4G and 3G is seamless. I was in the middle of doing a speed test while on 4G, and the connection dropped back to 3G in the middle of the test. The test continued like nothing happened, other than the obvious drop in speed. I think we're in for a good network once it's all said and done. However, switching from 3G to 4G was kind of a pain. Sometimes it would switch after a few minutes of being in a 4G area, others I had to enable and disable Airplane Mode to get it to connect. A few times, it wouldn't even stay on 4G, but showed it briefly and then drop right back to 3G (when obviously a 4G LTE signal was available). I had to force it to "LTE Only" mode (by dialing *#*#4636#*#*). It would hold an LTE connection fairly well in that mode, but you aren't able to make calls because CDMA is disabled. Hopefully once most towers are upgraded and LTE has solid footprint, this won't be an issue. That being said, and to summarize...I'd say the Photon Q is a great device and it really wasn't the devices "fault" that caused the issues above. More like weak LTE signals in this early stage of deployment.

I've been doing some testing of the LTE network while in Atlanta this weekend. I am pretty disappointed in the LTE coverage. Was north of town, just near downtown, and on I-85 near Duluth. Seems like as soon as I get the 4G icon, it only stays on for a bit. I can use it if I don't move too much. In buildings, only 3G is available. Not the performance I was expecting. I did get decent speeds when I was able to connect.

Isn't it true though that the original Sprint network was built from the ground up? Like meaning all of Sprints towers and equipment were only Sprint and not acquired from an acquisition? I've heard that a few times before.

I would assume that would mean the tower by my house isn't T1 then, since I got over 1.4 Mbps, huh?

My highest Download speed was 2.56 Mbps (about a month ago), while my highest upload was 1.54 Mbps (occuring last night incidentally).

So 56006 is the one I need to load onto my Photon Q? I still haven't rooted my phone yet, so I haven't been able to use Roam Control to force roam here in Columbia, SC onto Verizon to see if I get EvDo or not on 55006 As I said before, I did get EvDo service on Verizon and on US Cellular between Hartsville, SC and Monroe, NC while traveling back and forth from work.

While roaming on Verizon EvDo, I have never had a ping less than 200, even though the speed has been right up there where yours is. I think it may be because you aren't going through Verizon directly, so the ping takes longer. Just a guess, but if anyone wants to chime in if they know the reason, I'd be interested.

My Photon just says "Network Type: CDMA - EvDo Rev. A" Doesn't have the number after it. I think it's a ICS thing, given that the Photon (WiMax) has Gingerbread still.

Thanks for the info! Mine is fixed now as well. My username ended in "@sprintpcs.com.com". I just called Sprint and told them what the issue with the username was. They gave the MSL code just like that so I could fix it, no questions asked. Now the phone is perfect, lol.

This is good news. It certainly is correct, as I've seen drastic speed improvements here in Columbia, SC.