dcshobby

Will microwave hurt pings though? It's a brilliant idea, I just am not sure about what its impact will be on pings.

Any licensed backhaul links that Sprint uses have sub-ms latency like 0.2ms per link so the latency increase is negligible.

I also don't use Facebook, but wish you the best of luck.  It sounds like you provide significantly better service than my parents' fixed wireless ISP.  If there was absolutely anyone else who would provide them service (even satellite isn't taking customers!) they would be long gone.

 

- Trip

What kind of speeds does their WISP offer? Is it one with low speeds and data caps? We're trying to stay unlimited as long as possible for residential but some users are pushing us to reconsider when they use more than 500GB of data in a month. Those users receive an email from us mentioning common bandwidth hogs such as video that should only be run when users are watching it, not as background noise. It also mentions file sharing as common heavy usage for their connection.

Compared to Verizon 4G and satellite which only offer 10-30 GB of anytime usage, we think being able to use about 500GB for $57 per month is a fair deal. If a customer wants to use more than that, we can throttle speed down or convert them to business and they can use it all they want. But just like Sprint, we understand unlimited can't last forever as people continue increasing their VERY heavy usage. 

Its sad you offer better service probably than most cable companies offer. Too bad you dont have service in My neck of the woods. Its sad to see upload speeds below 10mbps these days. I wouldnt mind that 30/30 package. What is the coverage distance from the tower outwards usually like? Also if its unlicensed spectrum isnt it open to more interference?

Hey Jeremy,

The furthest we install clients with Line of Sight is about 8-9 miles on 5 GHz. It is unlicensed so we have to carefully monitor quality and capacity on each sector so we can detect with our tools if there is interference. If there is, we do a spectrum scan and see if we can find a cleaner channel and then switch it. We also get around this by putting in more sectors with smaller beamwidths for example going from 120* sectors to 60* sectors. This gives us more capacity and less interference overall so we can add more customers and offer higher speeds.

Josh is correct that in areas with 2 or more wireline competitors, we generally wouldn't target residential subscribers because they often have choices with higher speeds and/or lower pricing than our company does. In those same areas though, we can heavily target businesses where we can offer more reliable service, better customer support, higher speeds, or just a backup connection to their primary.

Our bread and butter is definitely rural markets where cable doesn't go and DSL is non-existent or under 1-3 Mbps. 

Thanks for your votes so far guys!

Our residential offerings are listed on our website and are 3/1, 10/10, 20/20, and 30/30 Mbps speeds. We can do custom plans up to 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps) via licensed wireless as well if a business needs that much speed. Most consumers pick our 10 or 20 Mbps plan. Our competition is DSL under 1 Mbps, dialup, satellite internet, and 4G services through Verizon with horrible data caps. In many places, we're the only unlimited data option for home and business fixed services. 

I think you're safe to ask any questions here since it is a General Topic and not related to Network Vision. Please vote for our grant if you haven't already

Feel free to ask any more questions. 

Hey Jeremy,

We run a lot of Ubiquiti equipment and as long as you have good signals, clean spectrum, and don't overload the sectors, our customers see 2-3ms on the first hop to the tower. Then our backhauls are roughly 2-4ms from our fiber. So 3-7ms from our customers to our fiber transport to the internet. This is better than DSL (12-36ms) and a little better than Cable which generally is 6-8ms on the first hop.

From our tower sites, there is unlicensed and sometimes licensed backhauls to our core. From there, we have two geographically separate GigE fiber connections to different datacenters in Minnesota for redundancy. We purchase Cogent and Hurricane Electric currently and will soon be upgrading to 10 Gigabit connections at both locations and back to our core.

Hello all,

I'm an avid reader here at S4GRU but I seldom post due to running a WISP (Wireless ISP in Minnesota). We have applied for a $100,000 grant through Chase Mission Main Street where they give away 20 grants each year totaling $2 million.

As part of this community, we would very much appreciate your vote by clicking the link below and voting through your Facebook account. We just need 250 votes minimum to go to the next round where judges look at our proposal. 

Please help us with this so we can expand Fast, Reliable, Affordable and Unlimited Internet to more of rural Minnesota. Also, please feel free to pick my brain on how our WISP operates so you can learn more about what we do. Anything from Fiber to Licensed backhauls, customer service, etc.

Thank you for your support!

https://www.missionmainstreetgrants.com/b/68293

On iPhones, "Extended LTE" doesn't mean that. It actually means "Extended" and "LTE" in the sense that you're roaming on 1X on a roaming carrier but also connected to Sprint LTE. They are to be looked at separately, not together. It is perfectly possible to be roaming on Verizon or US Cellular 1X and have a Sprint LTE signal as well. LTE may reconnect faster than the 1X scanning finds a native Sprint signal again.

I just got an Airave 2.5 (had the old model but it stopped working).   My 3G speeds on the old one were about 2.3mb at best.   With the 2.5 airave I am getting 2.51mb down and 0.73 upload.   

 

 

When my old airave was down for a few months I would get 4G speeds inside and sometimes get 4mb down from the Sprint towers.   This airave sometimes says it's on 4G with full bars, and will get 3-4mb down, but upload is usually around 1mb.      Do the 2.5 Airaves get LTE?       It just seems weird b/c I thought they didn't get 4G?     Even if it does get 4G, it makes me wonder b/c when I would get 4mb down with Sprint towers I barely had a signal.    This was done on the Speedtest app, so could that be why?   

 

 

I guess it really doesn't matter at the end of the day though, because I am going to be connected to a 70mb connection.   I was just curious though.    I also only got the 2.5 Airave b/c the old one bit the dust, and sometimes people come over and don't use the wifi, so the airave treated them nicely that they didn't ask for the wifi password, lol.

If you are receiving 4G in your home everywhere, you don't need the Airave. 4G is more fragile than 1X and 3G for calling so if you get 4G, your voice calling and texting should be just fine. You are better off not on the Airave and on the macro network. You will also save a few bucks in taxes because the Airave is considered a phone line and has some taxes and fees on it. People should use WiFi wherever they are

Put your address in here and let us know what it says.

http://www.sprint.com/landings/airave_eligibility/index.html?ECID=vanity:airavecoverage

oh ok because I have an airwave in the because there 3G signal in my house was only about 2-3 bars. I turned off the airwave and the LTE signal give me all bars sometimes but drops down to 3 the most.

If you have signal that great without the Airave, you are better off sending that back to Sprint now and just use WiFi when at home. The Airave adds some additional taxes on your bill because it technically has a "phone" line so if you have good service without it, send it back and save some money and hassle of running it through your internet connection.

This deserves a whole topic!!! Not sure where the topic would go, but I would love to see Sprint take on Verizon's 850 coverage. I know some places in northern Minnesota that T-Mobile and Sprint would both like to venture into (selfish).

In northern MN, Verizon actually sucks compared to AT&T. They both bought the smaller local carriers up north and south of the cities, Verizon is best and north of the cities, AT&T is much better. At least by our cabin NW of Grand Rapids

There are about 100 towers nationwide according to Mr. Robert that will not be getting network vision. Mostly due to backhaul constraints. Not sure if there is a list floating around here though.

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

That is incorrect. EVERY tower will be getting Network Vision but around 100 towers won't be getting LTE but they will still be overhauled with network vision.

Is there any way to find out what they are doing now in my area? The service has been getting worse and the sprint site shows upgrades coming.

 

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

What you see listed on the network.sprint.com for your area are only upgrades to the legacy equipment currently there and has nothing to do with Network Vision work. Data capacity is a carrier add or additional spectrum and a data speed add is an additional T1. Hopefully these upgrades will be completed soon and you should notice some increase in data speeds. They have been doing these upgrades to Rochester, MN as well and I have noticed improved data performance ahead of Network Vision from these upgrades.

EDIT:: Didn't see the other replies on Page 3.. Sorry guys ha

Yes the far western part of Minnesota including Alexandria is in the Dakotas market which is a round 3 or 4 market which means it starts sometime next year. S4GRU hasn't yet announced the start dates of those markets because they keep moving around the schedule and it is not firm yet. When things appear more solid, Robert will start announcing the round 3 and 4 markets. Most of network vision is supposed to be finished by the end of 2013 with some sites finishing up early 2014 so you can use that as a general guideline as to when network vision will be started in your area.

Sprint LTE will be a HUGE improvement over the Wimax junk network that barely worked in MSP when I tested it last year. Sprint LTE will slowly be implemented on EVERY sprint tower in the nation including every tower in the Minnesota market. Anywhere you get Sprint 3G now will have LTE by the end of next summer in Minnesota. Then later 2013 into 2014, they will also put an 800MHz carrier on the air which will help LTE penetrate further and better indoors.

When they mention 3G improvements, they are talking about improved backhaul for better speeds and improved coverage due to the RRU's providing a small signal increase. When they talk about reduced roaming and better in-building coverage for calls than they are talking about 1x 800mhz. Hopefully that goes active when the LTE does in these markets.

Well, here's what I found. Robert may have more up to date info...

 

CH03XC935 -

CH03XC496 -

 

Something to keep in mind with those dates... the backhaul vendors are still behind in our area, so, if you're still seeing extremely slow 3G speeds, then you can assume right there that the backhaul hasn't been upgraded. Best way to know for sure is to speedtest those two towers daily. Once the new backhaul is in, you'll know

Didn't you read the email from Robert saying how premier sponsors SHOULD NOT be giving away the information we have access to to people are aren't paid sponsors? Defeats the purpose of sponsoring the site.

Des Moines is either a round 3 or 4 market as all markets in Round 1 and 2 have been announced by Sprint already. There is one thing that is pretty much guaranteed and thats that all markets should start construction before the end of 2013. Almost all sites will be complete before end of 2013 and the rest of the sites will finish up early 2014. So there's a very good chance that Des Moines will start in 2013 sometime but we don't know when yet. We will know later this year

You still can't say that 8mbps or 20mbps is gonna make a difference for video streaming on a phone. Netflix will look the same because it will never use anywhere close to 8mbps on a phone and anything above 6-8mbps is just extra speed goodness.

This is the tower. Its at 16514 Ash Way in Lynnwood WA.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

That actually looks like a Verizon tower. Sprint's antennas don't look like that and there are 3 RRU's per antenna but there appears to only be 1 on this tower.

Over 99% of Sprint sites will get LTE. And the few that do not are in dense areas with redundant coverages from other LTE sites. There also may be a few very remote rural sites in the West that may also not get LTE. But it's only approximately 150 sites out of 38,000.

 

 

 

I have been saying (and Sprint has too) that deployment should continue into 2014. However, it appears that Sprint should be able to start all markets before the end of 2013.

 

Robert via CM9 Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

Any way we can see which sites won't get LTE in an interactive map?

Up at our cabin north of Deer River, MN we are able to connect to the one Sprint tower in Deer River and we are exactly 18.5 miles NW of the tower with woods the whole way and can make calls outside and inside the cabin and text. EVDO isn't able to work but 1X data works ok but not great. This is obviously on Sprint 1900MHz and I'm absolutely amazed it reaches this far. This has been confirmed based on checking the PN when we are a mile from the tower and have great signal and EV and then checking again at our cabin.

Perhaps Sprint should NOT have sold ANY LTE devices UNTIL the area was 100%. Then I would still have my original Evo. Sprint could give those in the areas no increased speeds at all a price break. The good news is I got my Evo 4G LTE during a Best Buy promotion and only paid $50 for it. I went to Waco this past weekend (4G city). The part of Waco I was at must not be LTE yet, however the 3G was MUCH faster than it is in Austin proper.

 

Test Date: Jul 21, 2012 12:18:33 pm

Connection Type: EvdoA

Server: Temple, TX

Download: 1478 kbps

Upload: 457 kbps

Ping: 185 ms

IP addresses removed

Latitude: 31.54962

Longitude: -97.12459

A detailed image for this result can be found here:

http://www.speedtest...d/215827055.png

 

 

Austin, TX speedtest (not currently a LTE city or an enhanced 3G city)

 

 

Test Date: Jul 21, 2012 2:32:40 pm

Connection Type: Ehrpd

Server: Temple, TX

Download: 592 kbps

Upload: 395 kbps

Ping: 292 ms

IP addresses removed

Latitude: 30.41396

Longitude: -97.67565

A detailed image for this result can be found here:

 

http://www.speedtest...d/215889945.png

 

I was thinking of dropping Roadrunner, and giving Sprint the extra $30 per month after LTE speeds are at my apartment, but with these speeds and UNLIMITED, I'll have to wait and see what the LTE speed is when it gets here.

 

As a comparison, when the EVO 4G LTE is using Wifi at my apartment (Roadrunner is my ISP) the speedtest is below:

 

Test Date: Jul 22, 2012 7:20:58 am

Connection Type: Wifi

Server: Fort Worth, TX

Download: 28520 kbps

Upload: 1240 kbps

Ping: 42 ms

IP addresses removed

Latitude: 30.36651

Longitude: -97.70127

A detailed image for this result can be found here:

http://www.speedtest...d/216247661.png

You CANNOT use Sprint as your primary ISP for your home. The service is not meant for that at all and is meant for unlimited usage on your phone. Yes, I do root and tether once in awhile on the go but that usage is usually under 200-400mb per month at most. I do not and will not ever use Sprint 3G or 4G to tether permanently at home. The network can't support doing that for everyone. With a smartphone, you should use WiFi at home when you can and 3G/4G when mobile and don't have access. This will help keep our smartphone unlimited data plans as long as possible.

Don't ABUSE it!

Well I use my phone as a hot spot constantly and there actually are aps that can use large amounts ie Netflix streaming in HD as well as you tube 1 hour of streaming in HD can be up to 5 gb. Also not trying to brag by any means or troll but my dodge viper technically could probably operate below 150hp yet it has 505hp and can do over 200mph when in Texas there is only one road that even goes up to 80mph the answer is I just want it. And if you dont need those speeds how come att released they are dumping more money in research of 5g data than there lte services this year and that you can look up all over the web

Watching Netflix or Youtube in HD does NOT need 14mbps or 10 or even more than 4-5mbps for an HD stream that doesn't buffer. Anything more than 5mbps is not necessary for HD video over the internet, especially on a phone. Also, if you are tethering you should not be downloading huge amounts of data if you are rooted. Use it for internet on the go but don't abuse it and download tons over the cell network. That is a douche move for the rest of the users who use it the right away.

Just did a web search on "AT&T 5G network". Not much turned up and I don't know where you're getting your information from but that sounds like a fallacy to me. They are spending their money on LTE like Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile are.

I have 1/4 bar on 4G with my 3D inside my house.

 

Now I am getting 4/5 bar on HTC LTE on LTE inside the house.

 

Its different phone though.

The Clearwire equipment is likely on a different tower than Sprint is which would help signal strength but also Sprint uses 1900 MHz instead of 2500 MHz which helps for better indoor coverage. Be very happy with 4/5 bars for LTE. You'll get great speeds but remember to try to make WiFi use at home a habit to keep any unnecessary strain off Sprint so we can keep unlimited data longer.