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Reading all these posts makes me really concerned about porting my family over to Sprint who lives in Chicago.

 

Is it really as bad everyone says?

I may have been concerned just recently given unique circumstances, but to be fair and sum up my feelings of service in Chicago I would say has been overwhelmingly positive. I have had Sprint for over 15 years and service in Chicago for a large portion of that, and would say until recently the service was good everywhere I needed it in the city and often I found I could get service in large buildings or underground in spots when other people's providers weren't connecting.

So, if you're worried then just wait a month or 2 and things should be humming along quite nicely with a fabulous network and speeds, but by no means would I say you should be worried long-term about Sprint for your provider for your family's service.

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I have not seen any correlation between sites that are live and locations of Sprint stores. Anywhere that occurs is coincidence. In fact, Sprint hasn't even put much LTE coverage around their HQ in Overland Park, Kansas yet.

 

And I am not picking on you specifically, but I always find it amazing that people in Chicago who are in an active Network Vision market with 4G LTE popping up all around them, especially today of all days, complain that they are at their breaking point. As the cavalry is riding into town saving them. But they are not the first ones in town to be rescued.

 

I can't help but contrast you folks in Chicago to the poor saps in Phoenix, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Albuquerque, San Diego, etc. that currently suffer severe 3G data problems and don't have any hope of WiMax off haul for themselves or help alleviate the 3G congestion. Sprint customers in any of these markets want to strangle Chicagoans at this point, when they are so close to rescue. And their rescue doesn't even begin for several more months or later next year.

 

All things are relative, I suppose.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

I dont take it personally at all. I've been kosher and all with the crippled service and I am happy that by the end of the year this will be a distant memory, but when I called Sprint and the tech was checking on service in my area they found that the 3 closest towers to me were all essentially down and another 5 towers in my zipcode were also. The size of postal codes to geographic area size in the city proper is fairly small, so they basically made it a deadzone. The tech did say that a repair ticket was showing that it was supposed to be completed by 6pm that same day, and service is a bit better but I have no way to confirm whats been fixed or not.

I will say I came across a topic thread on xda about flashing modems/radios for the SIII. Sure enough after reading through the thread and people's recommendatilns I flashed and tried 2 different radios and instantly saw a dramatic improvement in my connection and data speeds. It did cause a bit of a hit in battery life, not that I'm surprised with a ''stronger'' radio, but nothing drastic like you'd see when using wimax. Totally worth the trade off! Then early the next day I found a well respected forum member on xda had finally created a custom kernel for the SIII. I did a full backup of my phone, and crossed my fingers it wouldn't brick me or screw anything up. Updated it without a hiccup, and my battery life and performance has been better than ever!!!

So a little time investment on my part has made a dramatic improvement in my phone's performance and service. I'm still missing some calls given all the tower issues in my particular area, but my phone is totally usuable and I can live with that in the short term. I'm getting data speeds of at least 250 with some tests hitting 750+ down and 175+ up even in my place.

Anyone interested can search over on xda-

I tried modems LEN and Lf9, and settled on using Lf9.

The custom kernel AGAT GS3 1.0 kernel

And then swapped out the current PRL for the latest (afaik) corporate PRL : 24006

I hope its okay to mention it here for anyone else looking to fix their service issues- or at least try, but I'll be happy to edit or delete this post if instructed to do so.

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I have two points to make. First I went to the Sprint Store in the Loop on Lasalle and Clark to get some service done on my phone. While waiting I was messing around with their demo LTE phones; Galaxy S3, Photon Q, EVO LTE. I ran speed tests on all of them, they were connected to 3G and got between 40-80K on all devices. I even said something to the Sprint tech rep I spoke with and he was like yea, thats what the iPhone 4 (a 3G only device) has done to our 3G network right there. Yeah its that bad, and this was at like 11am too.

 

Second, I went to cubs game at Wrigley last night, the stadium was empty maybe 15K people there tops. Anyway, I had my phone in 3G mode cuz my batter was low and damn WiMax sucks battery life. Point being I couldnt do anything in 3G mode, couldnt make calls, access the web, no data connection for apps (they all timed out). Could this be an indication that NV has finally hit Chicago neighborhood towers such as in Wrigleyville? Anyone else notice something similar.

 

P.S. If I went back to 4G WiMax the phone worked fine, points to NV on the 3G Sprint towers IMO.

I literally live about a minute walk from that Sprint store that's located on Clark and Division, and I'm praying the fact that they have a Sprint store there will mean that anything will be moved along at a faster pace - even just the closest tower being updated faster which I believe is just at the corner or so of LaSalle and Division, unless there is one just to the east of the store that's closer, but I dont think there is that's closer when I've walked the area with netmonitor.

I'm at my breaking point- the slow speeds I will begrudgingly suffer through, but as of this last week and a half I missed calls and texts show up 5-6 hours late. I can't have this going on for an extended period of time, so it was my hope that this extreme in terrible service would be a sign of impending upgrades and a resolution to this limbo of service I've been living in!

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Its pretty damn good to be honest. The building penetration is outstanding the speeds are only amazing if you have never seen Verizon LTE in action. But good nonetheless. I have nothing to REALLY complain about.... and the delivered sooner than expected so sprint has finally earned the money I dreaded paying them since I got a gs3 and left the 3vo. XD

Ya, but still I'll agree with the original post- all that speed is of little use to me if I'm data capped, and if was was to download any large files I think in real world scenarios it would be negligible because you can only get so much bandwidth from most servers you are trying to download from. Now maybe it would be a plus if doing multiple data heavy tasks like download and stream or something but I don't even want to imagine the monthly charges I'd rack up by going over my cap on Verizon or at&t.

Does the EVO have a much bigger battery than the GSIII, because I don't think there's any way I could get that battery life duration on my GSIII, or is there something I'm not doing or managing the settings because I feel like my battery goes quick and isn't terrible but definitely not getting close to Samsung's stated battery life???

 

You may already know this, but that -73dBm signal shown in NetMonitor is actually the 1x signal strength. NetMonitor never shows the actual LTE signal strength, unfortunately, nor the actual LTE site location. But it will tell you whether you have an active LTE data session.

 

The only place to get the actual LTE signal strength in a LTE device is in the ##DEBUG# menu in the LTE Engineering screen.

 

Robert

That's weird or maybe just coincidental that when I connected in the suburbs a few weeks ago I drove to the spot on the map and pulled off to the side of the road right in front of me visually and was the new tower and I watched the dBm get stronger and strong as I approached other and had a super strong and fast signal when doing a speedtest. The location on the map was spot on with where the tower was I pulled right up to? So that was coincidental or what?

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I suggest reading this article if you haven't yet. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-166-sprint-battling-network-vision-deployment-woes-in-the-windy-city/

Ya I read that before but still curious not so much with dropping calls because of hard handoff but why the data connection is basically running at 5-10k. The towers are there and running and I'm in downtown and have 5 towers close enough to pull a signal in from at my place- at least 1 is ehrc.

What I'm saying is there is definitely something different probably in the allowance of crippled service compared to when KC was upgrading, as it is Sprint's headquarters. Swapping out gear and dropping calls don't equate with weeks on end of 1rxtt service, or the article doesn't expound on this and maybe I just don't know how and why this would be the cause and the case.

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Ya, the initial word I remember hearing and this was from way back when it was first announced that Chicago would be in the 2nd group after the KC group, was the end of August. This was coming from a Sprint employee in KC that worked at the HQ.

For the last 2 years I've been splitting time in KC and Chicago, but primarily in KC, until the end of June, and now back in Chicago almost all the time.

What's crazy is this whole last year, while they were upgrading KC I guess I almost never noticed anything like the service issues and ''transition'' craziness that I've been dealing with here in Chicago? I wonder why that is, because other than tweaking my home agent setting, I consistently got at least 400k connection- most times it was around 750k, and NEVER this unusable 10-30k connection I'm suffering with lately here in downtown.

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So for all my Chicago buddies on this site, how is the coverage and speeds on 3G in your personal experience? I'm porting my cousin over from T-Mobile to Sprint, but am concerned how the network is currently.

 

I checked the maps and he has a NV site a block from his apartment, but what about the rest of the city proper?

I'd definitely hold off as its really been erratic at best ! I don't have access to the maps, but it seems to me, and maybe I'm wrong, but the LTE launch that was initially expected late summer / early fall looks to be more like the end of the year? I hope it's sooner, but if they are doing the city last as they are working outside to inside then that's a lot of towers still needing service work in Chicago proper.

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My lord! So today it got to the point where my connection was so bad that people were calling and my phone never rang and my data speeds were like 9-10k! Plus it was constantly dropping the data connection. I can handle the slow speeds being in downtown Chicago and all given the payoff in a short while supposedly, but it has to at least work properly enough that I don't miss calls and texts.

So, that was it, time to find some solution or at least try to, and I decided to explore some different PRLs. Found a zip file with what claims to be every Sprint prl including some custom ones for accessing other provider networks or allowing 3G roaming. Did a little playing around and trying a few and hit the Jackpot!!!!

I know I'll have to limit my use and not go crazy with using it, but one of the custom PRL files is giving me a better connection than I've ever had. Just an initial test I did right after the phone restarted and the 3G icon popped up returned this:

I'd say that's a drastic improvement going from essentially 1xrtt data connection speeds to about 1.5Mb down and .5 up!!!

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It's probably nothing more than my wishful thinking and hopes they will upgrade the towers by me sooner than later as the data connection by my place the last few weeks has become useless, and now I've come to find out I'm missing calls as people have tried to reach me but my phone never rings, and I'll often get a handful of texts or new emails after completing an outgoing call. This only has been recent and before I had what I would consider a pretty good connection before.

So this morning I was playing with the netmonitor app and was checking out the map of my surrounding towers that I was connecting to when I noticed that the 2 closest towers to me highlighted in red and then I was connecting to a few other towers considerably further away from the 2 closer towers....

Any significance to this or just my phone or the app being screwy? Like I said, I'm probably just wishing they were in the process of upgrades, but I'm really pretty close to the loop and it's my understanding that they won't be starting work in the city for a little while longer as they're starting outside and working inwards.

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Distants might be a factor for you, I live near route 20 and Randall rd,

Here is a map of towers https://network.sprint.com/search/60123/

 

If I'm near the tower on larkin and mclean rd I get about 2.3 download on 3G, but by my house it's peaks about 1.3 download. There is an improvement.

That's weird- when I checked the map for my zip code (60610) it shows no upgrades in the last 6 months, and no planned upgrades for the next 6 months even though there's got to be some for LTE and Network Vision... ?

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Okay I don't know what this may indicate if anything, so maybe someone else can enlighten me if this is any type of indication of possible upgrade or work on the towers closest to my home ( right by LaSalle and Division).

It started a few weeks ago and before that I had a decent but not blazing fast data connection while at home.

It's been getting worse and worse, and today it's almost worthless. I did a speedtest a few times and notice that my upload speed is now always faster than my download speeds... ?

I'm averaging based on a couple of tests:

Ping: 1341

Upload: 109k

Download: 44k

Any significance to this as upload speed should never trump down speeds, correct? Assuming the network is running properly.

sent from my G III via tapatalk.

 

No way, no how will there be a Chicago roll-out tomorrow. If anything, they may see that nearby towers are supposed to be complete with NV upgrades. But I am even skeptical of that.

 

Robert

 

 

 

You may want to get a WiMax hotspot to use with your GS-III in the interim. I would hate to go back myself to the Epic. Heck, I wouldn't even want to go back to the E4GT. You may even be able to get Sprint to give you the hotspot for a severe discount because of it being a customer service issue.

 

Robert

 

 

 

I can't see this happening. I am willing to entertain bets on this (where permissible by law).

 

Robert

Well even if it did, it doesn't mean it would be available in the US then let alone on Sprint, so I agree with you essentially. Plus, I was just going off an insiders website blurb talking about the rumored release date and how based upon tips and parts manufacturer orders that the next Galaxy S is supposed to be a "major" upgrade and update with a heavy focus on standalone media capabilities- whatever that exactly means?

The one thing they talked about in specific was a major upgrade to the audio, both in isolation of callers voices and clarity and the clarity and volume of the loudspeakers- I guess giving it 2 and essentially the ability to play music etc. at the same fidelity and volume as if it were connected to a speaker dock. Guess we'll have to wait and see?

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EVDO. How ever I did connect to a tower that had eHRPD in Zion going north on greenbay road.

 

Sent From EVO LTE

No way, no how, not a chance.

Now that I'm back in the city at my place and since I rarely am out in the burbs to take advantage of even a decent EVDO connection, I'm beginning to debate if it would be wise to return my Galaxy S3?

I can use an Epic 4G that has wimax in the mean time, because I'm getting a usual data connection of at best 80k down and probably 30k up. I mean I like the phone and all but thought Chicago would be live in part by now or soon, and I'm not bitching about the time frame bc it is what it is, but now I'm thinking using wimax in the meantime, and surely by the time lte really is available for downtown Chicago there will be newer "better" phones that will serve as the flagship phones, RIGHT?

Anyone got some feedback... please share!

Heck I heard the Galaxy S4 is rumored to be out in like 4-5 months.

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Now that I know an app that will capture this I will happily- if you're around Joliet they have the towers live for quite a long stretch along 55 & 80- in fact I can see the towers which I confirmed a few with a tower signal location mapping app but it didn't have a screen capture function to show the mapped towers it was connecting to

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Stopped off in Joliet to grab a bite to eat and noticed I got my first 4G connection.

Ran a speedtest and got the following:

Ping: 63

Download: 19.737

Upload: 9.439

Now I'm really gonna be dying for this to go live back at my place in the city where I'm getting about 82k data connection speeds.

sent from my G III via tapatalk.

What kind of horrible?

 

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Browsing websites and forums via tapatalk, maybe play card ace casino (now big fish casino) for 20-25 min. Send a couple of texts, check email and respond or compose 1 or 2 at max. Rarely do I talk on the phone - but at most it would be like 5-10 minutes. I've tried setting the brightness and using autodim, & do not keep the GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi switched on. Tried it with sprint's autoconnect on and off. Primarily I use it for internet access when out and about, but nothing really otherwise except use of an app here or there, and that lays me out with a 15-20% battery life after about 2 to 2.5 hours.... closer to 15 and going quickly!!

I haven't done any custom Rom or other. tweaks .

I have forced dump /terminated apps via the the task manager submenu, and at times it says it that it ended about 52, 37, 28 running apps give or take a few. AlsAlso those numbers of background processeses occur at about the same rate of occurance...

So, sorry if I explained and/or described that poorly, but a couple of hours give or take of battery life I think qualifies as being deemed " horrible " .

Could I have a dud battery...?

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I'm coming from using a Palm Pre and briefly using an Epic 4G S1, and the view in sunlight on the galaxy s3 is really poor- heck the backlighting is really weak coming from the Pre which I could keep at between 4 and 20% of brightness and it was as bright as the S3 in full brightness. The screen is pretty but definitely has a viewability more in line with a tv.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong but my battery life has been horrible and I have checked the battery resource consumption and nothing running in background services or apps indicating heavy ccause of the drain? Im in downtown Chicago so wondering if the terrible service and data connection is the culprit as its straining to get solid connection and that my data speeds probably max out regularely at like 85k. Sort of a major frustration because I was doing fine on the Epic 4G with a Wimax connection- even though it would chew through battery life to justify that given the data rate speeds. Though it is a concern that seemed like epic 4 g also had a faster 3G connection. I'm wondering if I should just switch back to the epic 4 G given the better connection quality and that downtown Chicago will not have updated for a couple more months probably be and updated flagship phone available even though I have had a positive experience with my galaxy s 3 spite of the data connection slowed speeds and quick battery drain which compared to others seems like is draining way too fast based on comparable rates of use....

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