tommym65

Anyone have a tri-band device yet? I want to see what's going on with TD-LTE with respect to to the Chicago market

I have a Netgear Zing, and have seen flashes of B41 in the far northwest suburbs. No B26 yet.

Ahh, I keep equating capacity and backhaul when they in fact are not equal. I should know better.

I think I was fooled by the fact that I wasn't expecting capacity issues this quickly after NV was launched in Chicago. Pretty naive. Can't wait for that USCC spectrum to kick in.

I think most of us have been surprised at how quickly speeds have gone down here as usage has increased. But Sprint is currently limited to only 10 MHz of LTE spectrum in the Chicago market, where the other guys all have more. When USCC is gone, I believe Sprint will get another 30 MHz of PCS spectrum, and I think the Nextel shutdown yielded at least 10 MHz of 800 SMR, thus at least 40 MHz of new capacity. I don't know how much of that will be re-farmed into LTE, but a lot of it will be. I am not counting the former Clearwire spectrum, as deployment is going to be too sparse to be useful for quite a while.

 

In any event, within a few months, Sprint's capacity issues in Chicagoland will take a dramatic turn for the better.

 

Now if they'd just finish my backhaul and fix the SNR . . .

Are we absolutely sure this is a SNR issue? I haven't been looking at it before but when I look now, I'm getting a healthy 30dB in Humboldt Park. However my speed tests are still pretty bad. Not unusable though. Also, I haven't been having issues with dropped calls or call quality.

 

Your screen shots show capacity limitations, which are becoming more common as more people get on LTE in Chicagoland. This will improve when Sprint can activate 1 or more LTE carriers on USCC spectrum in January, and when 800 LTE becomes available starting (hopefully) any day now (although you will need an iPhone 5c or 5s or a tri-band phone or hotspot to see 800 LTE). And it's probably not backhaul related, as Sprint won't turn on LTE until either fiber or microwave backhaul is in service, as both mhammett and I know all too well from our experience in Dekalb and Crystal Lake.

 

Other people are reporting signal-to-noise ratios very close to zero, even with strong RSRPs: This is likely caused by something electrical or electronic actually interfering with the LTE signal, and likely has little or nothing to do with traffic or capacity.

 

That's why I asked in an earlier post if anyone in the city itself had seen SNR improvements, or if things were just as bad. Certainly Sprint's network engineers are completely aware of the problem, and if it is caused by another carrier (either TMO or USCC), they would know who is causing the problem, and Sprint would contact the other carrier, and the problem would go away quickly, before the hypothetical other carrier faced fines and sanctions from the FCC.

 

(Your screen shots also show that Sensorly routes its speed tests through France or Uzbekhistan or someplace like that, hence the ridiculous pings.)

The fact the Dekalb is not a Chicago suburb nor really part of the Chicago metro area is what I am getting at.  Dekalb has more people than my hometown in the south burbs, but a suburb of Chicago with 10K people 20 miles outside of the city is a whole lot different than a town, even of 50K that is 60 miles outside.  Is Dekalb even part of the 950+ "Chicago Metro towers" list from Sprint?  It might not get the same attention based on these arbitrary boundaries, no matter what the size.  I can easily see some sort of Sprint classification of priority based on tower issues, and if so no way Dekalb would get some sort of high prioritization unless it was classified as part of the Chicago metro area.

I might agree in principle, except that it is surrounded by LTE. (Disclaimer: I do not now live nor have I ever lived in or near Dekalb. I did have to bail someone out of jail there, once, however.)

"Dan" AKA Veronica called me this morning. I didn't recognize the number, so I didn't answer. She'll call back on Tuesday, so we'll see what they will do.

"Dan" aka Laquita called me today, too. I also missed the call. Apparently, Laquita-Dan is only open Tuesday-Friday. We'll see where that call takes us next week.

Dagnabbit, people, answer your phones!!! This is far more important than whatever else you were doing!!!!

For the Big City folks: I am currently inside baggage claim (lower level) at O'Hare, and am consistently getting:

 

 

 

Note the SNR. (In fact, this one is low, I am now getting 11-18 in the same spot, but I'm too lazy to do another screen shot) I don't remember anyone complaining about LTE in this part of the city, but could someone say if SNRs are better today in other areas?

 

[The fact that Dekalb has 3 Sprint sites, btw, suggests that Sprint does not think it is a "small market".]

Anyone know a good one to buy for a decent price? Links?

 

Digiblur recently bought one, I think there is a thread, but don't have a clue how to find it.  PM him???

. . .  According to AJ and other sources, Sprint has initially deployed 1900 LTE on PCS Block G (1910-1915MHz and 1990-1995MHz). PCS Block C (1895-1910MHz and 1975-1990MHz) falls directly below Block G, and is operated by T-Mobile in Chicago. The frequencies above Block G are not mobile communication, and I have no idea what they are used for. So, is the ultra-urgent TMO LTE deployment in Block C somehow responsible for the Sprint LTE mess? Or is something going on in the frequencies above 1995, and is THAT somehow responsible?

 

 

And a later note: TMO also occupies all of C Block in the St. Louis market, but does not have the C Block band adjacent to G Block in Minneapolis.  What has their experience been?

 

See the chart at:

 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pj4vuAanG1g/Uc3Hf4eyCdI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/4BwgaajgDzQ/s1102/uscellular_chicago_pcs.JPG&imgrefurl=http://allnetlabs.blogspot.com/&h=614&w=1102&sz=200&tbnid=_b503cgiADZAdM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=162&zoom=1&usg=__9nCMl-2pHzdJqXpAhxhNIcYcMn0=&docid=rWUks6D4xSLtDM&sa=X&ei=_Vd8UofCDsTmsATghYDQCw&ved=0CGQQ9QEwBg

How can we verify?  Would Sprint verify? And if T-Mobile is the cause of the interference what will happen?

 

Sprint is not likely to comment, for legal reasons, unless they file an FCC complaint or a lawsuit.  What we need is someone with a spectrum analyzer to go into the city and look at the G Block and the adjacent frequencies. Hypothetically, if TMO is the cause, they would get slapped with some very hefty fines.

Vtrossi, on 07 Nov 2013 - 4:53 PM, said:

Has anyone travelled recently to another launched LTE market? I work way too much to travel, and I'm wondering how other markets are in real world use. I've read on here and other forums about how disgusted people in Houston are with data speeds.

 

 

I am currently in downtown Colorado Springs, and the LTE screenshot I am posting above is a site about 1.7 miles east of me (although the 1xRTT address is offset to the west), based on the latest NV map update. The RSRP is poor, but the SNR is very good. Speeds between .6 and 2.0 down, .25 and 1 up, ping low 100's. Technically, Colo Springs is pre-launch, but the SNR number is fairly typical of what I have seen in recent trips to California, Missouri, and Colorado

 

That said, some comments on the Great Chicago SNR Debacle. One of the customers at the user group meeting that I am attending operates an extensive, combined wireless/wired ISP on a Caribbean island. I showed him the "Red Line" screen shot from earlier today (-55 dBm RSPR, 0.1 dB SNR), and based on his experience, his immediate comment was that there was MAJOR interference from an adjacent frequency, and that whoever is responsible is violating the law. Mobile phones are very good at cutting through noise (my phrase) on the frequencies they are programmed to receive, but cannot not cope well with noise on either side of a given frequency.

 

Which leads to some questions: According to AJ and other sources, Sprint has initially deployed 1900 LTE on PCS Block G (1910-1915MHz and 1990-1995MHz). PCS Block C (1895-1910MHz and 1975-1990MHz) falls directly below Block G, and is operated by T-Mobile in Chicago. The frequencies above Block G are not mobile communication, and I have no idea what they are used for. So, is the ultra-urgent TMO LTE deployment in Block C somehow responsible for the Sprint LTE mess? Or is something going on in the frequencies above 1995, and is THAT somehow responsible?

 

The Sprint D and E blocks are voice/CDMA at this time, and it is not likely that they would be impacted by the same interference that might affect LTE in the G Block. And as far as we know, Sprint hasn't started using, at least at full power, the USCC segment of Block B, so that probably isn't causing a problem, and Verizon (which owns the rest of the B block) hasn't done anything radical that we know of, so that probably isn't the cause.

 

Someone way earlier in this thread asked if TMO might be the cause of Sprint's Chicago LTE problem. Based on the spectrum allocation and on TMO's ultra-aggressive LTE deployment, the answer may very well be "Yes!!!!!"

 

FWIW

Does the 800 mHz network work for voice yet? I try to force it every once in a while but nothing goes through.

It hasn't been activated everywhere. In Samsung NV markets, it seems to be very common, but I think I have read that it is non-existent in Erickson markets.

Because the placard on the site facing out to the public is guarded knowledge?

If you post the site id that is physically on the sign, that is ok, but the mods may question you, so it is best to state that you actually saw the Id or even post a picture if you have one.

I was messing around in my Sprint account and came across this. Anyone know what phones are supported? I've never even heard of this outside of T-Mobile.

 

wifi calling.JPG

 

2 that aren't supported: GS3 and iPhone 5c --  I just checked.  So . . . what IS supported?

Correct, just like with 1.9 LTE it wasn't enabled everywhere at the beginning. The update to turn it on came in the form of PRL updates. The 800LTE will probably be in a profile update or other small APN file update.

 

I thought the PRL affected only voice/text?

How would you describe the difference in coverage before and after 800mhz came online?

 

I will echo tongboy & runagun, I am almost always on 800 voice now. I haven't dropped a call in forever, and there are virtually no dead spots. Even in the center of Crystal Lake (the town, not the lake), where 1900 voice and LTE are practically non-existent, since 800 fired up, voice & text have been unbreakable. And that's with 1 of CL's 4 towers not having any 800 at all (I think they have been waiting over a year for the $%#@ water tower to be re-painted, and have avoided installing 1900 LTE or 800 SMR until it's done -- they moved the 1900 voice down 75 feet to a wooden pole for the duration). Signal Check says that I frequently connect to 800 sites 5-10 miles away, and the signal strength is excellent even then.

Probably dropping signal making it rescan as they haven't set a high priority to the band yet nor do I think they will for a long time.

Not likely that the 1900 signal is dropping, this is in an area where sites are dense. And the PRL is 25016, so nothing new there. But I think 800 SMR in the Chicago market is as dense or denser than any market, and the phone seems predisposed to jump onto 800. I know, this doesn't make sense given how the PRL works, but it is what I have observed recently, and it seems to happen more readily now than even a couple of weeks ago.

I see there are several 800MHz sites online about 20 miles from where I live. I've been thinking about taking a shopping trip to the area covered by one of these sites. Will my phone automatically switch to the 800MHz band or just keep sitting on the 1900MHz band? If it keeps sitting on 1900, will making a VOICE call cause it to switch to 800?

 

(Actually, I just want to hear the cute notification tone from Signalcheck)

Recently, my GS3 has been voluntarily moving from 1900 to 800 even when I don't do a forced PRL update and even when it's already on 1900 and even when I know 1900 is readily available. This is in northwest Chicagoland, where 800 SMR is now pretty much everywhere.

I have a Verizon GS3, got it maybe two months ago.Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

And does it show any signs of the Great LTE Madness?

The mystery device apparently causing the USCC issues is apparently a batch of Galaxy S3s....

 

http://teamuscellular.com/Forum/blog/2/entry-434-certain-device-blamed-for-network-issues/?st=40

http://teamuscellular.com/Forum/topic/5621-galaxy-s3-pulled-off-shelves-today/

 

Now is that problem bleeding over to the Sprint Network (as apparently some of the same frequencies are being broadcasted in the area), or are some of the S3s on the Sprint network creating the problems described here. Or is it could still be one of the other reasons cited earlier....

 

 

Or is it some combination of factors including (but not necessarily limited to) all of the above.

 

A Premier thread suggested that Verizon is also having GS3 problems, but there has been no further discussion or verification of that since Saturday.

 

EDITED:  And it wouldn't necessarily have to be the same frequencies: A defective radio could bleed noise into adjacent frequencies, and as mhammett pointed out, USCC, Verizon, and Sprint are adjacent in the PCS 1900 spectrum in Chicagoland, at least until USCC shuts down here early next year.

 

Your emoticon sums it up perfectly!

I believe tongboy highlighted this earlier.  I found this in the "bars lie for LTE signal strength" article here on S4GRU.

 

Also another factor for good download speeds is the latency which determines the time taken to connect to the IP-Backhaul and backbone. The RSRP is good measure to find out the signal quantity but for signal quality SNR value needs to be accounted which shows a clean signal . below are the approx ranges for that metric

22 dbm-30dbm--- excellent

11dbm-22ddm--- decent

0dbm- 11 dbm--- bad

 

What is needed is for somebody to run a signal analyzer in the vicinity of a few Sprint sites in Chicagoland, to see whether there is some sort of obvious RF interference. (Where is AJ when we need him? Or rather, where we need him?)  Something is clearly out of whack.

I have the Samsung Galaxy S2 and it's a problematic phone including a pretty bad reception issue. I'm getting the iPhone when I have the chance but I'm wondering how much better the reception will be? I'm Salt Lake where 4G hasn't come yet and I was going to switch to Verizon for a better signal but I have a feeling the iPhone will be better on Sprint and if it is I can wait until 4G comes. 

 

Your thoughts?

 

I respectfully disagree with just about everybody else here.

 

First, do you use Wimax on your S2? If the answer is "yes", then I will respectfully agree with everyone else, and will take back what I just typed: Wait for a tri-band Android, so you will get the vastly superior (but somewhat fragile -- my Zing has a hell of a time locking on to it) 2500/2600 LTE that Sprint is in the process of deploying, as well as building-busting 800 LTE.

 

But, if your answer is "no", and especially if you really want an iPhone, then either the 5s or 5c will work well for you, especially when Sprint deploys 800 LTE.  Much better than your S2.  I choke on those words, because I am a rabid Android bigot (I currently have 4 GS3's on my plan).  But I also have an iPhone 5c -- well I don't have it, my wife does.  It is a good phone for those who don't enjoy the infinite flexibility of Android, and it gets good voice/text coverage (far better than her old 4s), and it picks up 1900 LTE very well.  No verdict on 800 LTE yet, obviously.  Sadly, it will never get 2500/2600 anything.

 

I will now retreat into the back corner of my basement and hide, to avoid the hostility and invective about to be heaped on my innocent self.

I live in the neighborhood directly to the left of the "oakwood rd" label on these maps(on the zoomed map, the Coventry ln area).  As you can see, there is no 3g or LTE in that neighborhood.  I literally get .12 mb download speeds on a good day. 

 

The LTE thats is going up in my area has spread a little, so I'm wondering if once the tower supplying this area is finished, if the signal will get longer and spread to my neighborhood.  I now get LTE at work which is in Morton, IL and if I drive 8 mins from my house, I get LTE.  Just not at my house.

 

 

Understand that Sensorly does not show where the signal actually is, but only shows where people have detected a signal while mapping with Sensorly.  What you are seeing on the LTE map are tracks as people drove on specific roads -- the blank spaces don't necessarily mean that LTE isn't there.

 

And, as CDK noted, Central Illinois is a work in progress.  If you were to become a sponsor ( [Become an S4GRU Sponsor] ) you would be able to see all 3G-4G-800 Voice upgraded Sprint sites, and when 800 LTE and 2500-2600 LTE sites are reported to Robert, he has said he will post those too.

Another issue that Im sure someone on this board can answer.  Do any of our 2012 phones with LTE have a chipset to support the 800Mhz or 2500Mhz LTE.  For example, my Samsung Galaxy S3.    .  .  .

 

I recently asked the same question on another thread (don't recall which): Theoretically, if the GS3 (and GS4) have radios which support 800 MHz and software which supports LTE, could they be programmed to support 800Mhz LTE? I never got an answer. I said "theoretically" because I wouldn't expect Sprint to support such an upgrade, nice though it would be.

 

My solution was to buy a Zing hotspot, which will support all 3 Sprint LTE bands, although I realize that it is an added expense. I travel widely, and use the hotspot for Internet connection in out-of-the-way hotels and customer sites, and I turned off the hotspot in my GS3, so the net cost was only about $15/month over what I was already paying.  (So far in the far Chicagoland Northwest, the hotspot hasn't been very useful, as we don't have any Band 26, and Band 41 is so elusive as to be practically non-existent.)  EDIT: And, it ain't unlimited like phones are.

 

All of that doesn't really ease your pain. The future event which should help you (and all of us in Northeast Illinois) will be when Sprint can fire up the re-farmed USCC spectrum this winter, but that will still have all the shortcomings of 1900 MHz.

One possible dumb question: will the 4g us cellular antennas become 4g sprint antennas when sprint turns off us cellular on 31 October?

 

Nope.  Sprint bought the spectrum, not the infrastructure, so the USCC sites will be shut down.  Sprint will then be able to add more carrier channels to their existing (and new) NV sites.

The nastiness and name calling above borders on being reportable, and should stop before the Mods give someone a vacation.

 

That said, I am an Android bigot. However, my wife, my neighbor, and my daughter's boyfriend have all bought iPhone 5x's and in the past 10 days, and are delighted with them.  Their phones may not have all the whiz-bang gadgetry of my Android, but they are solid performers and have good battery life. (I have to use a juice pack to get through a long day with my GS3.)  Last night, I sat my GS3 and my wife's 5c next to each other on a table at an Illinois Tollway oasis (not the best cell-phone environment), and the 2 phones tracked within percentage points on LTE ping, download, and upload speeds.  Neither had an advantage radio-wise (although I will be jealous when 800 LTE bursts forth!).

 

The subject of this thread is supposed to be the iPhone, not "Let's Insult Each Other's Phones, Intelligence, and Manhood".  Fixed battery, removable battery, external battery, juice pack: Frankly, who needs to give a damn.  If you want to be able to swap batteries, buy a GS4. If you want elegant design, buy an iPhone.  If you insist on a metal phone, buy an HTC One.  Just stop criticizing other people because they have different tastes (or needs) than you do.