gusherb

I could only get my phone to connect to CDMA 800 by starting a PRL update and then it would connect, and stay connected continuously until I traveled into 1900 only area's. I did make some phone calls while in a basement with the 1x debug screen open and did witness it handoff to 1900 after the call was made, and connect back to 800 after hanging up but that was only once. It wouldn't repeat that afterwards, and even with very poor signal it won't connect to 800 on it's own. Not sure if it has to do with the fact that the towers by me aren't officially deployed with 800 SMR or not but I haven't had any luck with getting my GS3 to stay connected on it's own or connect automatically. I've been on 1900 continuously since I stopped forcing it over to 800 even in very poor signal spots.

Even after LTE started getting lit up all over Chicago 3G is still uselessly slow even with the improved back haul. They definitely do need the extra spectrum

MMS on the Galaxy S3 will actually offload to wifi. It's wonderful to have in bad 3G area's or indoor area's with very poor signal. iPhone 5 and GS3 offload MMS to LTE but not wifi for iP5.

My iPhone 5 had the issue too when I had it. Wonder if it's a bad batch. Restoring while doing a handstand and saying the magic word while performing the "magical" ##update# does absolutely nothing to resolve the issue. It's already on it's second PRL and first iOS6 update since she got it and still doing this. Perhaps it's a bad phone. Problem is that she doesn't know crap about how to handle issues like this and I do, and I am so sick of fighting with people over stupid intermittent problems (long history of this crap with other tech related things)

My mom still has 3G issues on her 5 even after doing the update. (issue is where after awhile, OR after a long phone call 3G just freezes up completely and you must toggle the cellular data switch off then back on to make it work again) This is the very same reason I returned mine 5 days after getting it. there is NO WAY I can stand an issue like that.

Verizon traditionally has always been awful for me, but recently I switched my dad's AT&T GSM Tracfone over to a Tracfone that works on Verizon and was astonished at the fact that it actually has good voice quality! VQ is good enough that I don't wanna hang up right away or scream into the phone (like it was back when he was using AT&T Edge) Still Verizon is noticeably worse then Sprint, even on a good handset but at their absolute best Verizon can sound much better then we are accustomed to from them.

Hah, that's the trademark description of Verizon's sound quality...tinny.

My mom's iPhone 5 updated to 55009 from 5500x (can't remember if the last digit was a 6 or 8) Does that PRL update have any relation to 25009? Someone said that the 55xxx PRL's don't have CDMA 800 capability? I don't get why the iP5 has a different PRL then an LTE android phone such as my GS3.

there are quite a few more sites live with CDMA 800 then even the site maps show around Chicagoland

I had this happen last week in Chicago. Was inside a building and started roaming, made a call and then went by a window and the phone connected to LTE while roaming on US Cellular. The GS3 displays an R instead of the little triangle when connected to LTE and 1x roaming.

I just manually started a PRL update on my GS3 and it updated to 25009 as well.

Just lots of strong wind here. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, especially for late October it always gets very windy anyway. As for the waves I assume that they are very big but I haven't been to the beach to see them. No lights flickering and most certainly no cellular outages. The leaves have all come off the trees so no limbs breaking left and right either.

After just over a week since my phone saw CDMA 800 last it's finally reconnected to it after powering the radio off and on. Signal on 1900 was inconsistent but usually hovered around -83 db, on 800 I'm sitting at -71. I really can't wait til this is deployed all over! especially in Chicago where it's needed terribly.

I wish that map showing the Nextel sites to be shut down was still around. It took awhile to recall, but I'm now pretty sure that they had this site marked to be shut down. I bet this site has been shut off already! I'm familiar with the bottom rack of panels as being Nextel panels but not the top. You say that you see the top panels often on Nextel sites. I wonder what the two different racks/panels for Nextel would have been for if that's really the case. I do remember that tower being there as a little kid (late 90s early 2000s) Don't recall it having the bottom rack back then. and the tower to the left wasn't there til 2004 I think, same for the other mystery tower that I didn't mention that is close to these two as well. These 3 towers are also close by to the town water tower that has the Sprint site colocated on it that I have a photo of floating around somewhere.

That's how I figured most of it out. But Antenna Search only takes me so far, and pretty much dead ends most of the time since the towers aren't owned by the carriers and/or don't say who's co-located on them. Without the NV maps on here finding Sprint sites would be like pulling teeth too.

Right. I'm pretty certain the one owned by Crown Castle is a Verizon site. It's not pictured in the photo's I posted. The US Cellular tower is actually the one on the left in my photo above. And the GTP tower is the one that I didn't know for sure what exactly it was and who all it had on it. I thought Nextel only used the longer panels? Not sure what's on the top and what that's for.

They are located about a half mile from my house. Here's a link to there location on google maps: http://goo.gl/maps/YQcig

Have they ever mentioned anything about you having an account that's out of the ordinary when you go there? When I call into Sprint I'm always transferred to their "Employee Accounts department". I thought it didn't make sense that you couldn't upgrade with third parties if you have an EPRP account, I'm guessing they can't add EPRP lines and make changes to the plans though.

There are a few towers by my house I'm trying to identify. The tower on the right I've found info indicating that it was once owned by Nextel then sold off. What I'm wondering is are those Nextel panels on the lower portion? and even more curiously can anyone give me any clue as to what those panels up at the top may be for? CDMA, GSM, a particular carrier etc? Some time ago I found some kind of evidence that lead back to Denali Spectrum aka Leap/Cricket, but now I can't find that info anymore and I'm wondering If that could be in fact whose panels those are. Thanks

I thought you could only do upgrades on EPRP accounts through sprint only?

Today I was receiving continuous LTE from 35th street all the way up to Roosevelt on Halsted st in Chicago, and then again heading east on Roosevelt and at Roosevelt and Canal. Pretty much all over the south loop and south of downtown. Was right on the very southern edge of downtown but didn't go downtown so no reports on that. Saw speeds of 6 down 7 up with a good but not strong signal. I'm able to sustain LTE signal from the south loop and all the way home on the Skyway/Indiana Toll Road with only a couple coverage gaps, which I expect to fill in within the next month.

A friend of mine that lives in Vallejo reports LTE at his house on his iPhone 5.

We're using two sets of Panasonic cordless phones that I bought late last year. They redesigned their phones around last year and they have much better sound quality then they did with the previous models. They were the absolute best sounding cordless phones on the market I could find at the time (Uniden, Vtech, and the AT&T branded ones would hum, click, hiss, and usually had poorer range) and then all over the house is Western Electric phones because I like their sound quality best (and I collect them for a hobby) We also have an Ooma as our second line, that has excellent sound quality, especially when calling another VOIP user like someone with Comcast Voice. Back when I had AT&T as a cellphone provider there was a huge difference between using my iPhone 4 and the POTS or Ooma lines at home. Now that I'm on Sprint like I said before it is almost as good as the POTS line.

Your probably using a crappy cordless landline phone, or a crappy corded phone... When I compare to a landline I use only the best corded phones available... why the old Western Electric models dating back to the Ma Bell era of course! Comcast sounds better then AT&T POTS when comparing the two with one of the phones stated above. the iPhone 5 is about equal to AT&T POTS (on a western electric, or certain cordless phones) for me

iPhone 5 pretty much rivals a landline on Sprint. When I first got it (and then my GS3 after that) I was almost startled at how clear things were. Sprint (especially when I had the iPhone 5) makes even crappy carriers VQ sound tolerable! Verizon OTOH I don't know how anyone could even say it comes anywhere near Sprint... I've tried VZW plenty of times and every time it was very muffled or even distorted and garbled. No matter who I call or what I call from VZW lines most of the time don't even have intelligible voice quality.