gfurr24

Oh man!  Look at Sensorly in the SC market!  Just about all of I-77 from Charlotte to Columbia is now LTE (wasn't just this past Saturday when I went to Georgia from Charlotte on I-77), and most of I-26 all the way to I-95, and even down I-95 towards Savannah as well.  That is impressive!

Either sensorly had a bunch of data that wasn't published yet, or someone was very busy today mapping down the highway! That wasn't nearly like that yesterday at all! It makes me happy, bring that action on over to Myrtle Beach!

Charleston just lit up. Great progress this monthSent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

Any new towers, besides the 4 that we already know about from acceptance reports? I'm sure progress will move fast, this area needs it pretty badly!

Awesome!

Heck, at current pace they should be finished in the South Carolina market by 5am this morning, then they can work on us!!!

Yeah, maybe they will give us our crews back! MB hasn't had an update at all since all this SC Market LTE epidimic! I'm not hatin, I'm just saying share the love! Having 1 tower lit up was a tease, I was thinking we would have at least 4 or 5 by now. Oh well, patience patience patience...our time will come next. Looks like they are starting upstate and moving their way east. Makes sense as Gville and Cola are the most populous areas in the state. I kinda feel sorry for those Charleston peeps, they have a huge need for LTE and they don't have 1 tower yet. Looks like they may be after us or same time. Like if they tag team GV and Cola, they will more than likely do the same with Charleston and MB. At least I hope they have that type of urgency and speed when they reach us! These last couple of updates have been impressive! Keep it up ALU! Very nice!

I'm a sponsor, do you have a link to the tower information resource?

From the main site page go to Interactive S4GRU Maps and then NV Sites Complete. Or just search NV Sites Complete

I ran sensorly this morning on 26 and have the same readings for LTE. Is there a way to see what sites have been approved, specifically the tower locations? What about the total number of LTE towers that are being worked on? The Sprint website provides the worthlessly vague '# Data Upgrades' for all of the local towers.

Make a donation to the site, then you become a Sponsor. There are detailed maps that show the exact pinpoint location of all the towers that went live in the sponsors forum. Well worth it in my opinion. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/index donate link is in the top right

Man, I'm sorry. That is definitely a typo. I was really tired last night. I'll fix it.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Knew it was too good to be true... But a 3G update is better than none. Shouldn't be too much longer now till they run out of 3G updates and have no choice but to do LTE! At least I hope so. Patience is a virtuous thing my friends...

Myrtle Beach – 2 updates (LTE)

 

Anyone else not seeing these pins on the map? I'm wondering if this was a typo and it was just 2 more 3G sites. I hope they are starting to light up LTE! We certainly need it with all these tourists clogging up our network!

Well, coming to work Monday, the site was back online, but no LTE.  Shouldn't be much longer, as most sites are either in progress or done around Hartsville/Darlington/Florence.  Also, given that the sites in this area connect to the Columbia MSC, I think it's got to do with that.  Maybe the switch isn't quite ready to accept LTE yet.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm sure the site should be live soon with LTE. I'm hoping that all if these full build will start going live in the next couple months. All these sites are on the Columbia switch. I even heard from a Sprint sales manager that it shouldn't be long and that being on the Columbia switch means everything to why we are getting upgraded so early in the NV rollout.

Well, during the race, no LTE 

 

However, today I stopped by a tower in Hartsville, SC that was offline (one to no bars about 2/10 of a mile from the tower).  Saw some men up working on one of the racks.  Stopped by the tower and they confirmed that it was for Sprint.  This tower has shown 3G complete for a few months now, but they just installed the new panels and RRU's this past week.  The guy said that the tower would be back online in 2-4 hours, and said that they were going to fire up LTE.  Hope he is right!  I'll find out on Monday when I go to work.

Awesome news! Hope that guy was right, and wasn't just saying that. Keep us updated. I know they have started full builds all over the place down here in Myrtle Beach and all down 501. It would be nice if they start lighting up LTE here too! Let us know when that tower goes live

The accepted LTE site in Columbia (I-26/I-77) is ready hardware wise, but it hasn't been "switched" on for LTE at the Columbia MSC. Waiting for both this site, and the Darlington one to be "switched' on.

Doesn't look like that Darlington site was on the acceptance reports from Tuesday, as it still has an in progress white pin. I'm wondering if it will take a few days to get to Robert in the reports he receives? On another note, does anyone know how to figure out which sites were the latest accepted on the new maps? There used to be a search bar on the top right of the old maps, but I haven't seen one on the new maps. I love how fast the new maps are though!

The Bojangles Southern 500 is going to be held at the Darlington Raceway in Darlington, SC a week from today. (May 10th-12th). The tower near the raceway and another around Darlington has the new panels and RUU's up, but not broadcasting LTE as of today (May 3rd). I wonder if they will get them completed, up and running by the time the race is starting. They do have a COW already placed outside the raceway ready to be fired up next week.

I usually go every year but this year I'm too busy. It would be cool if they did get that tower up and running LTE by then! I mean it is the Sprint Cup! Sprint ads everywhere! It would make sense from a business stand point to have it ready if they have the equipment in place. Keep us posted if you go.

Stumbled upon this video on YouTube, not sure if its been posted here yet! Nice close up of some new Sprint NV panels before they go up on a tower! Lucky dude got to film it and looks like the tower crew was cool with him doing it! This guy may even be a member of S4GRU, if not, he needs to be!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTL0Zi-rHn0

It looks like Site #CR04AW301 near New Bern, NC went live today with LTE. This is the first Myrtle Beach market site to go live with LTE. Also, it is a Ground Mount site. So, this is exciting on two fronts. We probably will see some more LTE going live around completed Myrtle Beach market sites soon.

 

If we have any members in the New Bern area, I would love some photos of this site. The tower and the equipment yard. It is located on the other side of the river off US 17, just north of Bridgeton.

 

Robert

 

Awesome news! Hopefully someone closer can get some pics and tests. I'm about 3:15 away unfortunately! It would be closer for me to go to Charlotte! I hope this means that LTE will be rolled to other towers that are actually in Myrtle Beach in the near future! Maybe some of the 3G NV sites that have been getting some love here lately!

I am having trouble locating the tower on 76th Ave N. I am guessing it is an antenna on top of one of the hotels beachside, While in the area I have gotten up to 2 mbps down a couple of times, and this was last fall, I imagine this was before work started, though, and I most likely am connected to the tower at 55 north, which I believe is also on top of one of the hotels(Ocean Forest Plaza maybe), as I live just a bit south of there. I am really excited about these as well! One thing I have noticed is that tower *, seems to have dropped off of the sprint version of the tower maps, I am pretty sure it is on top of the water tower @38th north and Little river neck, as it is ringed in what are obviously cell panels, but I never seem to get better connectivity as I approach this one, not really sure what that is about, just curious I suppose. Thanks again for all the great work you guys have been doing keeping us updated as well. This is great stuff and if I have any better fortune locating these towers I will keep trying to get any new info and share as well.

 

Scoped out this tower the other day. I believe it is located on top of the Horizon hotel downtown. No roof access unless you work for the hotel

 

 

You poor, poor thing. Sprint has been awful in MYB. A couple of summers ago, I couldn't send texts, make calls, anything on the south end of Myrtle while on vacation (between the old AFB and Hwy. 544 along Kings Hwy.). I ended up calling from someone else's AT&T phone and getting a bill credit for an entire month. It was marginally better this past summer, but Sprint's EV-DO makes AT&T's Edge look like a fiber connection. I was pulling ~20kbps.

 

Don't feel too bad for us. They have already started rolling out NV 3G here and it has made a huge difference capacity wise. I live near Coastal Grand Mall and get serviced from that tower that also services all of the mall traffic. The tower has been upgraded and can handle much more traffic, the big test so far was the holidays with all of the shoppers. I was still getting consistently over 1.5mbps down and around 1mbps up, even inside the mall where before it was 200/100 if lucky. At night when no one is on I get well over 2mbps. They have already done NV upgrades on about 5 towers around here and it's holding up pretty well. Fingers crossed that they get LTE on at least those towers and more 3G done by summer time. That's the true test for me.

I posted this in the sponsor section, so I will repost in the regular site to hopefully make more sense of the rollout order.

 

Sprint is not doing the work, Sprint's contractors Samsung, Ericsson and ALU are not even doing the work. Local contractors from all over the country are doing the work. That is the reasoning for the "shotgun approach" with sites popping up all over, and it is one reason that the outlying areas seem to get upgraded before the bigger cities.

 

My theory is that in big cities, the contractors that work on cell sites have thousands of sites in their area to work on. This includes all the major carriers and all sorts of other items that are within their realm. They have a lot going on, but they also are larger companies with more employees. Then in the outlying and rural areas, the local contractors are smaller and have less "business" in their area. If they have nothing else to do, they have the equipment and the site is ready... rock and roll! Let's get that work done boys!

 

That is just an educated guess as to why we end up seeing some areas, that have us scratching our head, before others. There is also backhaul availability issues, permitting etc that can hinder work progression in some areas.

 

I envision the Senior Sprint NV Project Manager sitting at his desk with a blind-fold on, throwing darts at a big USA map and saying to himself, "Yep, lets do this RANDOM city next!"

Its funny how the Myrtle Beach market was one of the first markets in SC to get any type of NV upgrades (3G only for now) but they have yet to have any official Sprint announcements here or anywhere close to here. Im wondering if we have towers that have already been upgraded to LTE and the equipment isn't ready yet or LTE stuff has yet to be installed. Kinda funny how Sprint announces random cities and it just seems to me that they are bouncing around too much. Work here, work there, and nothing really complete here nor there. Maybe its just me, but this rollout is kind of a Cluster F! At least we are seeing good progress though!

Got bored this morning and rode by the tower near my house, near the 501 and 17 Bypass interchange.

 

 

Here's the photo I was referring to. Hope it's okay to repost this here for questionary purposes

 

 

If like other AlcaLu markets, the very first LTE sites will come from within these 3G complete sites. And most of the LTE sites will come from then pool of complete 3G sites. It is rare for an AlcaLu site to go from nothing straight to LTE.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 on Tapatalk

 

Would it be safe to assume that the equipment installation may already be complete on the sites for LTE and maybe we are just waiting on an LTE switch to be flipped? Or would you think maybe more equipment and panels may need to go up for LTE? I was looking at this picture that digiblur posted on identifying nv equipment and it looks as if sprint panels operate evdo/800/LTE all from one panel if I'm not mistaken.

Robert,

 

Is it safe to assume that the sites that have already had the 3G NV upgraded will more than likely be the first sites in the area to also go LTE since they have possibly been provisioned, or could it be totally random in the selection of which tower goes live with LTE first?

Thanks again for all your insight and everything you do here on the site!

I see that towers in some markets (such as Myrtle Beach) are getting only 3G... is there a reason for this? Why not do it all at once (or if it is all being done, why not turn it on?)... I could see if the 800 band was still in use for Nextel -- leaving that off until this summer but still do it and the 4G along with the std 3G stuff at one time...

 

(edited out specific location information from post)

 

It would have made sense to do all of the upgrades at once but I'm thinking the same things your thinking. Why would they make two installs and have teams go up and do the work on towers twice, unless (a. They didn't have the LTE equipment with them when they did the NV 3G upgrades, or b. they didn't have the work order to do the LTE upgrade at that time, or c. The towers do have LTE installed but its not accepting connections and is blocked). Either way, it's good news for our market. I know that when I first started following this forum around the time the NV press conference was a ways back. When the initial information came out and Robert got his hands on all of the plans and timelines, Myrtle Beach was never listed anywhere. Now we magically show up as a third round market! I was so excited when I saw that! I couldn't believe we would be getting LTE and NV before Columbia, Charleston, and Greenville! That's kinda how Sprint rolls though, very spontaneously!

And from what I saw, I did fairly frequent testing on the NV upgraded tower near my house that also services the mall. This tower held up very well during the busy holidays. And we all know what kind of traffic that mall gets during the holidays!

I live in MB near the Coastal Grand Mall and I have noticed a significant difference in the data speeds (both peak and off-peak hours). Normally get consistently over 1mbps down and 700kbps up. Those are usually the slowest I get now. Highest would be 2.5mbps/1.5mbps. When I check the Sprint tower upgrade map on sprint.com it shows the towers in this area have been getting significant upgrades. Cant wait till they get the ultimate LTE upgrade! This market has needed this for a while!