jasonacg

This afternoon's work took me to St. Petersburg. I couldn't get 4G in my part of downtown (Beach Drive, to be exact), but on the way back to Tampa, I did manage to get a weak 4G signal on the Howard Frankland Bridge, from the Pinellas side, to the hump. Once I crossed into Hillsborough, it was gone. Not much speed, and barely usable. But it was enough to keep the 4G indicator lit. When that tower on the Pinellas side of the bridge is done, coverage across the Bay should be good. Sensorly should have it soon, if not already.

Did some driving for work this morning. Took 52 towards 19 in Hudson, north to Spring Hill. On the way back to my office in Tampa, I went out County Line Rd, and south on 41. I was hoping to find additional coverage beyond the one site at Shady Hills, but nothing yet. However, I got some of my best 3G speeds ever, while on US41. Broke 2Mbps a few times.

On my way home yesterday, I passed by the Land O' Lakes tower again. I resisted the urge to toggle my phone in/out of airplane mode, to see what would happen. I was disappointed to see that my phone (Moto Photon Q) didn't switch to 4G, even when I was right underneath the tower. Once I toggled, I got the 4G connection. Is this an issue with my phone's settings (set to Sprint Only), or are the phones not actively searching for LTE, until the market is officially live? While I was in the area, I went into a little more uncharted territory, testing the coverage through the Lake Padgett development, via Parkway Blvd. Probably not strong enough for in-building coverage in that area yet. But the southern half of that large neighborhood, has outdoor coverage at least.

Spent some time around the Land o' Lakes tower this evening. I discovered that the Speedtest.net application, is much better for measuring the performance of these sites. The Sensorly test gave me 8-9Mbps, over several tests. While parked in the same position, the Speedtest.net app reported just over 30Mbps down. That just makes me want LTE coverage even more than I did. I guess I can't take screenshots on a non-rooted device, so I'll have to find other way to show my results.

So, two of the three sites appear to be in Pasco County (assuming the Shady Hills tower is on the south side of the county line). Does this mean that they are probably having an easier time of getting permits/access in this county, or it just plain luck?

Took a detour on my drive home from work, and attempted to extend the coverage on SR54. I took Collier Parkway north from 54, and carried the 4G signal to somewhere between Parkway Blvd, and Hale Rd. Ran two speed tests in Sensorly, with between 7-10mb reported. So, check out the new purple on your Sensorly maps.

Since I can't/shouldn't watch the screen too closely while I'm driving, is there anything, whether in Sensorly or another app, that will give an audible alert when my phone switches to 4G mode?

Quick update: Out of curiosity, I had to take the 15-minute drive to the Shady Hills area. Parked at Shady Hills/County Line, started/stopped airplane mode, and saw that my LTE-capable phone finally had some LTE. Heading east on County Line, I could not carry the 4G signal as far as the Suncoast Parkway, and on my drive back home, I found nothing yet along the parkway itself. Speeds are impressive. My best upload speed (out of two tests) was 28Mbit, and best down was 14.5Mbit. Should have used the speed test in Sensorly, but didn't think about it. Used the Speedtest.net app instead. Hopefully, there won't be much of a speed drop, when more users get on the network. I'm just glad that "Coming Soon" has at least been upgraded to "kinda-sorta here." Looking forward to seeing the coverage drift further south.

I should have been monitoring this thread long ago! Great to see LTE finally making an appearance on Sprint's network in this area. I live in central Pasco (near 52/Suncoast) and commute to Tampa (near 275/Dale Mabry), usually either via the Suncoast Parkway, or Dale Mabry. I'll try to watch for signs of 4G life in my travels. I also saw tower work taking place this week, on the Pinellas side of the Howard Frankland Bridge. It's a shared site, so I'm not sure if the work was for Sprint, or one of the other carriers. I'll be optimistic, and assume that they are prepping for LTE service along I-275. Quick question: My phone (Moto Photon Q) can be set to either "Sprint Only" or "CDMA/4G." Will the "Sprint Only" option search for 4G sites, in addition to CDMA? Is one more aggressive at trying to find 4G coverage, than the other? I'm not far from the reported 4G coverage in the Shady Hills area, but not close enough to reach it from home. Going for a ride...back later!