tommym65

10-30mbps down all day in Chicago. Right outside the Chicago theater, and near the river. Tons of people. Band 41 the whole time. Kiss my ass, red, blue, and magenta. Yes, I was running speed tests while taking my wedding photos. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1411853349.167205.jpg

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6

ROTFL!!!  My god, man, It was your WEDDING!!!

I need some help from my fellow Chicagoan's on this site.  I can't tell if my lack of service and connectivity is because of something with my device or something happened to the local network near my location.  I lost my ability to get an LTE signal at the Ogilvy Center about 4-6 weeks ago, since then all I get is a no bar weak 1xRTT or even 1xRTT roam.  I used to get a strong LTE signal in the lobby/food court and up in my office 22 floors up a good LTE signal around -100 to -105 dbM.  That has since disappeared, and yes I have dropped my phone and cracked the screen since then too so maybe its my device.  Who knows.  If anyone is going to be in the area of Ogilvy can you stop by walk into the building and see what kind of service you get and report back here.  That would be awesome.

I was inside Ogilvie twice last night (coming in, going out) and got B25/2nd carrier on the outbound trip.  I did not see carrier 1, but that was probably because I was getting B26 and Clear B41 coming in.  On B25, I didn't note the signal strength, but was getting very fast response sitting on the choo-choo waiting to head out (I was, or course, checking S4GRU, as I had been out of touch for a couple of hours ).  Hope that helps.

Wow.. I think I know who my favorite person of the week is! I just went through my log as well, and out of over 1,000 entries I have saved (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, ATL, BWI, MKE, and ORD), every single B25/B26 site does have an even third character. And the handful of B41 sites (all Clearwire / pre-8T8R AFAIK) all have an odd character.

 

I trust what you're saying, I don't need your log at the moment -- but can others check and confirm this? Particularly in other markets and where NV 2.0 deployments are live. I don't need specifics other than if this pattern holds true and where you are.

 

-Mike

At least in the Chicago Market, Clear sites may be 00A or 00B (but always leading with 00). 

Took the train in to the City from Crystal Lake yesterday afternoon, then went to River North.  I logged the trip with Signal Check Pro, and here's what it saw:

135 total sectors on the ~50 mile trip inbound.

42 Band 25/Carrier 1 sectors

16 Band 25/Carrier 2 sectors

42 Band 26 sectors (!)

29 Band 41 Clear sectors

6 Band 41 8T8R sectors (all between Des Plaines and Dee Road)

Uninterrupted data connection, good to excellent speeds (even indoors on B41).  Examples: 12.56 Mbps DL 8T8R on a moving train near Des Plaines, 30.22 Mbps DL Clear 41 moving near Clybourn. I was surprised at how many B26 sectors were active.

Enough! 

If you want an Android and are pissed off at Sprint for charging you too much, find a better plan on another carrier and LEAVE! 

If you want to pay less and stay on Sprint,  get an iPhone! 

This discussion has become ridiculous. Sprint is participating in a free market.  They are free to set prices wherever they want. You are participating in a free market.  You are free to buy whatever phone/plan that is your best fit.  If it ain't on Sprint,  so be it. 

So stop whining.  I have multiple Androids.  Other family members have iPhones. We are all on Sprint. We are happy.  We are tired of your bitching. 

Ah! That is very interesting, I wonder if Sprint is going to eventually transition everything onto 310120. It's not all bad news.. yes, it's more work for me, but identifying the PLMN has proven to be very unreliable. That's why SignalCheck isn't great at B41 identification yet. Is there a confirmed GCI pattern? I thought I follow all the relevant threads, I will go do some digging. The app would actually work much better if it only had to rely on GCI patterns (see Band 26 and AT&T band identification).

 

There's always time for football!!

 

-Mike

In Chicagoland, the pattern is for B25/B26 GCIs to be 07Exxxnn, while B41 8T8R is 07Fxxxnn (i.e., the market identifier is incremented by 1).  Columbus reports the same (I don't remember their market IDs).  Of course, the dratted site ID is different for the B41 stuff (for example, 07E19300 for a B25 north-facing sector vs. 07F5E300 for B41 facing north on the same site). No one has yet reported if the site ID offset (F5E3-E193 = hex 1450) is a constant or varies wildly like the B25/B26 site IDs themselves vary.  This will likely have to come from someplace like Columbus where they have identified and charted the sites, as in Chicagoland we are too preoccupied watching what passes for baseball & football to do the spreadsheets (or maybe we are just too lazy ). (And the market has over 1,000 sites, which is rather intimidating.) Further, as the immediately preceding post suggests, there may be more numbers flying around as Sprint turns on the full 8T8R capability.

It's so simple . . .

Mike,

In the "Error in Custom LTE Discovery Apps" thread, you say:

"Are you sure it's on Band 41 (i.e. confirmed thorough engineering screen)? SignalCheck uses the PLMN to identify B41, it should be 311490 or 311870. Band 25 and 26 use PLMN 310120."

The new 8T8R B41sites apparently also use the 310120 PLMN, but offset the B25/B26 GCI.  This has been illustrated in the "TDD LTE 2600 . . ." Premier thread, and I have also seen it in the Chicago market.

Just another happy Sprint idiosyncrasy to drive you totally insane as you try to get Signal Check to report the truth.

And you thought you'd have time to watch football . . .

Performance on the iPhone 6 with Band 41 is fantastic. Wouldn't surprise me if it did reach that far!

 

I HATE you, iPhone!  You have shamed my Android!!!

(Just kidding!)

I'm on the iPhone 6 now so I don't think I can get GCI'S.. And I think it may be from the site at 31 and 176

 

Use the dialer code *3001#12345#* to get to the engineering screens, if the 6 is like earlier iPhones..

It's just that your speed test is insanely fast for that distance from the 176/31 site.  I was there this afternoon (my daughter rents a storage locker on Ray Street, literally right under it) and was getting mid 20's, and have gotten mid 60's at the McBurgers across 176, but 50's from miles away is really fast.

Band 41 at US Route 14 and ILL Rt 31 in Crystal Lake. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1411320194.711661.jpg

 

How can that be?  There aren't any B41 sites for miles. Did you get a GCI?

Just a brief follow up on the Chicagoland Speedway COWs: 

The photo on the left shows one of the Sprint COWs, next to a macro site (I think AT&T is on the lower rack, Sprint on the one 2 up from that).  On the right (pardon the poor quality) shows the 12 antennas on the COW.  The top 3 on the left are different -- Are they some form of B41? If so, my GS5 didn't pick up anything from them.  I can post SCP GCI info in the Premier thread, if anyone is interested.  I saw both Band 25 carriers, but spent most of my time on B26.  I am fairly sure that I can distinguish the macro site (2 observations) from the COWs.

Example speeds: 11:33 am 28.53 down 6.11 up 54 ms ping, outside near a COW.

12:14 pm 5.33 down 3.94 up 48 ms ping, seated near turn 4, race hadn't started yet.

2:23 pm 0.65 down 1.08 up 54 ms ping, yellow flag, EVERYBODY was on their phones trying to figure out what was going on - my phone was still responsive. This was the lowest speed I saw all day, and only briefly was it this slow.

3:20 pm 1.20 down 3.06 up 49 ms ping, green flag, less phone use.

4:18 pm 10.74 down 1.68 up 49 ms ping, walking out after the race, under the grandstand.

4:38 pm 21.43 down 5.77 up 48 ms ping, after race, outside, near the COW again.

Overall, pretty impressive results. There were at least 70,000 attendees. Unfortunately, everyone in our group was on Sprint, so I couldn't see what the other carriers' performance was. I WAS on B26 almost all the time, but both B25 carriers were present, so I would bet that all Sprint LTE users got reasonable speeds and responsiveness.

That's surprising that band 41 wasn't present. That's their bread and butter for capacity. It wasn't on the air show cows, either. I don't get it.

There were some B41-ish looking antennas on the COWs, but SCP saw no B41 GCIs at all.  I would guess that the COWs can't do Clear B41, and don't have 8t8r yet.  Just a guess.  I have  COW picture, but won't be able to post it until tomorrow.

I forgot to note that I didn't find the 8t8r turned on across the street when I drove by Friday evening. Hopefully, those got turned on. I know that site has all 3 5x5's broadcasting. Last year, it was only one 5x5. My family said service was miserable during that really long rain delay.

Without violating the Sponsor rules, I can say that I was on both B25 bands and on B26 (in fact, I was on B26 most of the time I was there), but so no B41 at any time, according to Signal Check.

Utter bullshit coming from a long time sprint hater known as craig moffet. 

 

C'mon, Tim, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel!

At least 3 Sprint COWs at Chicagoland Speedway today for Sprint Cup. Speeds varied from mediocre to high 20's,  texts were working without any problems. (No visible COW's from any of the other guys.)

Also guys I got a new galaxy s5 today and there is no way ti enable roaming? Anybody else notice this? Its the gold colored s5 running 4.4.2.

Settings > Network Connections > More networks > Roaming

I guess I am slow, I don't get it.

In this context, "I've" is a grammatically correct but somewhat archaic contraction of "I have", meaning "I possess". Some people find this phrasing to be awkward or difficult to understand.

Well.....http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-NBFQ5D6KLVRZ01-3IFVFJ69P7UA7JHB4CBV6BRK1K

Looks like charlie might start playing games.. Either buy Tmo or bluffing to make sprint give him a deal..

Ergen and LeGere -- Now THAT would be a marriage made in Hell!!!!!!!!!

And, as if by magic, the extra 20GB allotment per line just disappeared from my account.  It was there from the time I changed plans last week until a few minutes ago, and now, voila!, it has vanished.  I have 7 lines, and it is no longer on any of them.  Looks like someone is actually doing Q.A.

UPDATE:  The 20 GB/$100 add-on no longer shows up on my account on the full web site.  However, it does still show up on the Sprint Zone mobile site.  My uneducated guess is that Sprint's web people fixed it on the primary site, but haven't gotten around to fixing the other.  However, I will know more in a few days when I get my first updated bill. 

I ended up calling in and they also show 40 GBs in their system on the 20 GB for $100 plan with no extra charges pending. I guess we will have to wait and see what the actual end result is.

 

My guess is that the software is stupid and is duplicating the 20GB package for each line.

 

Still doesn't make a whole lot of sense though because my promotional data doesn't get doubled. Weird.

And, as if by magic, the extra 20GB allotment per line just disappeared from my account.  It was there from the time I changed plans last week until a few minutes ago, and now, voila!, it has vanished.  I have 7 lines, and it is no longer on any of them.  Looks like someone is actually doing Q.A.

[A footnote:  My bill actually went down by adding a 7th device (LivePro), and will go down yet more when I can dump the 6th device (Zing) and finish the Easy Pay.  Ain't competition grand!]

[An historical footnote:  A large number of years ago, I worked for a company that sold software to Sprint for its first customer service web site.  The site was slower than turtle poop, and a bitch to maintain.  The company I worked for was a bunch of idiots.  We parted un-amicably, (eventually settling out of court).  Their stock subsequently tanked.  I believe Sprint replaced their crapware soon after.  So Sprint was, and hopefully still is, capable of learning from their mistakes.]

And the fact is that, as Sprint's network approaches completion, the need to roam will progressively be reduced.  I have disabled roaming on all 5 of my phones, and not a single family member has threatened me with great physical or mental harm (beyond what they already inflict).  Yes, I know that I live in a very complete market.  But I do travel significantly, and recently have not had too much data difficulty on Sprint.  Plus, the situation is improving daily for markets which have not yet been completed.

And, at the risk of offending those who live/travel there, many of the areas where Sprint is absent (thus, where roaming is necessary) would not be profitable for Sprint to cover.  As many others have said, if these areas are critical to you, another vendor might be a better choice than Sprint.

If I recall, a certain other US carrier hasn't exactly been massively profitable either......

 

T-Mobile turned a profit in Q2 (a very small one) and turned an even smaller loss in Q1. As of right now, they still have a very small net profit this year.

 

More or less they are breaking even. Sprint is in nearly the same boat with very small profits for Q1 and Q2.

TMo's Q2 profit was entirely due to a one-time sale of spectrum. They showed an operating loss for the quarter.

Has anyone had issues connecting to WiFi calling to 5 ghz frequency? I can't get mine to authenticate on this frequency.

Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk 4

Works for me on my -AC router at 5 GHz, no problems.

And, in reference to earlier discussion of international WiFi calling, keep in mind that the cellular radio is deactivated when WiFi calling is turned on, so the phone cannot look for cellular signals, thus cannot try to roam.

A semi truck is quite different from a Lamborghini.

Nah, it's just a subtle difference in driving style .  A little more gas here, a little less brake there, and they would be indistinguishable.  (At least, that seems to be how some truckers drive.)  (Of course, I've never driven either a semi or a Lamborghini, which makes me an instant expert on both!)

Back on topic, I will be quite interested to hear your comparison between LV and Chicago after your visit, as I am scheduled for a family visit plus a trade show in Vegas at the end of January.