Chriscic

LTE in Chicago has already been (soft)launched. Coverage is not complete in some parts of Chicago, but coverage will be filling in, tower by tower. If you are asking about the LTE speed, you won't be disappointed. In any situation, if you have a LTE signal, you have way more then enough speed for a smartphone.

EDIT: Fixed an error.

Yes, I meant the official launch.

I'm not concerned at all about the speed, I'm concerned about the coverage. The map is looking better, but a colleague who just happened to get a Sprint iPhone 5 popped into my office earlier today and no LTE here at our office in Naperville near Diehl and Winfield : (

Hopefully will come. Fortunately I can now check on his phone every once-in-a-while.

Thanks

Some good 4G updates around Aurora and Naperville where I love/work. Wonder when the Chicago launch will be. Maybe not too far myself from giving a Sprint iPhone 5 a try for 14 days and seeing if LTE here cuts the mustard. Unlimited would be nice.

Hayzoos,

Check out this thread:

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2293-animated-maps/

Not seeing tons of progress on the maps for out near the Aurora area yet, although I'm a bit unclear as the maps legend says 3G may include 4G, so wondering if some of those are in fact 4G already?

Do you even read our Sponsor maps and keep up with the deployment in Chicago?

Robert

Robert,

Believe it or not, I'm not so heavily invested in this that I've done extensive research: ) Even though I've looked at the sponsor maps for Chicago, I've never compared to other launch markets, and regardless it is certainly is not intuitive as to why Sprint would launch their other markets with crap and then Chicago in pristine condition with a best-in-class network. So what may be obvious to an expert is less obvious to me : ) Thanks for the assurance (which is what I was looking for) and as always the great site. I'll wait until the official launch and then get a Sprint iPhone 5 with the option to return within 14 days if not satisfied with the network. Cheers.

Yes. Yes I do believe it. If you watch the site map expand week after week, you can see how impressive it is. They have completed over 500 sites in the market already and still going strong.

 

Robert via Samsung Galaxy S-III 32GB using Forum Runner

As I said, I am still trying to believe it (since I'd much rather have unlimited when I very soon upgrade to the iPhone 5), but if Sprint's several existing launch markets are in bad shape, why would they launch Chicago in good shape?

Given this report, and Sprint's fairly lame response, does anyone really believe that Sprint's Chicago build-out is going to be solid within a few months? I read opinions here that the Sprint LTE network here will soon exceed that of Verizon and AT&T, and I want to believe it, but the little skeptic in me is shouting no way based on available evidence.

The Sprint store at Eola and Aurora roads in Aurora has an LTE signal on their in-store iPhone 5. No way for me to load/run speedtest on it though.

Ah, I see that by becoming a sponsor, which I am happy to do, I can see better maps.

Yes but how far out is considered "the Chicago Market?" I can see from their maps that 3G coverage expands way past Aurora (where I live) into far Western Illinois, but certainly they aren't going way out there with LTE anytime soon.

I would think Aurora with it's large population (and I live on the East side closer to Naperville) would have to be covered, but I don't want to assume. Thanks.

Come to think of it... are there any maps which show Sprint's intended LTE coverage for the Chicago market? My google's came up empty on that.

Hello all,

I realize I am really just asking for folks' informed specuation here, but trying to decide if a Sprint iPhone 5 is going to be a viable solution here in the Western Chicago 'burbs. My wife currently has AT&T (and I hate that company) with a legacy unlimited data account, so I could get her the iPhone 5 through them, but I would rather not. I'd rather go with Sprint, for whom I have a soft spot and of course they offer unlimited data as opposed to Verizon. With the LTE rollout happening now wondering if the Sprint network will be pretty robust by the end of the year, or if I'm fooling myself and I should just suck it up and stick to AT&T.

If it were my phone I'd probably make the leap to Sprint and hope for the best, but my wife is not going to be happy if I saddle her with a crummy network : ) Also I understand that AT&T spectrum is limited in Chicago, so their LTE here is slower than Verizon's and hopefully slower than what Sprint's will be.

Any thoughts appreciated; I will definitely be checking in here for user reports as the network starts to come up.

I live in Aurora and work in Naperville, so a solid LTE signal there is a must.