NE5G

22 hours ago, Dkoellerwx said:

2 of those Sprint conversions were live on Saturday. That leaves only one left and T-Mobile will have converted all of the former Sprint sites west of Lincoln on I-80 in Nebraska. They've brought online 9 expansion sites west of the former Sprint footprint, only a couple gaps left in coverage until I-80 is fully covered. 70 expansion sites in total now online across Nebraska.

Interesting! Thanks for the update. I am a little sad about some of the sites in Lincoln that were supposed to be converted and never were...

Looking at new phone number blocks coming to carriers, T-Mobile will receive 308-206 for Kearney, Nebraska. I believe they also inherited some numbers from Sprint in that area. They did decomission the multitude of numbers Sprint had reserved in Minden, NE. That was a weird one.

I am only aware of 2 sites (really 1) in Kearney and 2 in Grand Island. Based on size, Kearney could benefit from another 2-3, as well as GI.

On 2/7/2023 at 4:44 PM, Dkoellerwx said:

There's a lot of colors here, but the teal and purple sites are expansion. Currently we have 50 tracked, with at least 17 more permitted. Based on the latest coverage map update, I believe I need to add a few more expansion sites.

We've also had 121 Sprint conversions, with over a dozen still permitted, though we're not sure if those will come to fruition.

Can you send me a link to this map?

On 12/14/2022 at 9:46 PM, Dkoellerwx said:

Sorry for back to back posts... but this is unrelated to the others.

12 new sites have shown up in Nebraska on today's coverage map update! That makes 43 new sites in total since the start of October. That does not count the Sprint conversions which number over 100 for our market (Nebraska/West Iowa).

Thank you so much for tracking this! I haven't been on here in YEARS, but did some digging and found this! I have also been keeping tabs on the expansion, and this looks great.

The areas around Lincoln definitely need some love. It seems like every carrier besides Verizon avoids filling in rural Lancaster/surrounding counties. Been that way forever and I don't know why. Even USCC is weak in rural Lancaster.

Looking forward to other updates!

I got bored and decided to test out the speed of an iPhone 5s on Sprint's LTE. I've done this before at my house and have gotten about 3 down, 1.5 up but on my mom's LG G3 have gotten 30 down, 18 up in the exact same spot. Just tested near 56th and Old Cheney where I got this incredible speed! Honestly can't see a reason to not have Sprint in Lincoln unless you live in an area with lots of foliage (40th Street, Randolph, A, etc.). Wi-Fi Calling is also really great!

in the des moines metro and ames its good outside of those areas sprint doesn't have a big presence so you are mostly roaming and no LTE. in the metro areas there are very few spots i lose LTE anymore and speeds are good, not amazing and the top, but good enough to do whatever i need to do. on average i get 3-6 meg down on either B25 or B26. sometimes i'll hit 10, 15, or 20 meg down but in the places i frequent its usually around the 4 to 5 meg mark. sprint only has 3 towers with B41 here (unlike lincoln that has a lot ) and when i hit one of those then its 30 to 50 meg down. calls and texting are never issues around here.

 

if this stuff is becoming interesting to you, you should consider donating to the site. thats how it stays running is from donations from people, plus it gets you access to the maps so you can see where the towers are and what technology is installed in them. in IA and NE we have a pretty active community that keeps track of the upgrades on the towers. you do have to get to premier level to see B41 and B26 info, but your initial donation will get you access to maps on where the towers are and which ones at least have LTE.

Yep, us in Lincoln are blessed! Sprint 3G is notoriously slow, so I did a speed test yesterday, 1.80 (2.1 max) down , 1.48 up. Totally blew my expectations.

Hey bmoses, hows the coverage in Central IA?

there is a possibility for expansion to SD based on the report he did here

 

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-382-sprint-planning-large-network-expansion-adding-9000-new-lte-sites-nationwide/

I love how extensive this forum is

When I started S4GRU, I lived in a Sprint market.  But we have flourished despite my new South Dakota location far from the Sprint network.  Where I live, it is harder to get farther away from Sprint without getting closer.  

So you're saying your coverage is improving?!

Well, that's pretty cool that he started this forum then!

In many instances Sprint is exceeding their original B41 plans, and doing things faster than expected.  Nice change.

Hi, question, how do you have a Moto X2? Is this on Republic? Different carrier? Just wondering. Thanks

hello and welcome no lincoln isn't an "official" spark city but B41 is deployed almost everywhere in lincoln. with those kinds of speeds and 0 to 1 bars you were probably on B41, the max you could get right now on B41 on an unused sector and full bars is around 78meg down.

 

for the most part yes its normal for 3G to have more bars than 4G, there are many factors to this but the main one is there are 3 different frequencies that LTE runs on and only 1 frequency 3G runs on, so depending on what band of LTE you are on you could have a stronger or weaker signal than 3G. for the most part though even a weak LTE signal is going to be faster than a strong 3G signal.

Cool, thanks! I am really excited about switching to Sprint from Verizon! Love what they have to offer so far.

Getting 26 mbps down, 15-ish up with 0-1 bar of Sprint LTE.

Lincoln isn't a Spark city, but seeing Spark-like speeds.

Is it normal for 3G to have more bars than LTE?

Got that on a LG G3 (sisters)