Nomadicgeek

Just saw 118 CDMA 800 upgrades in North Wisconsin in one day. Can't wait for Jax. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I left sensorly running all the way back to the beach and didn't drop to 3g until I got inside my house. I almost feel like I live in the 21st century. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

I ran a couple of speed tests in sensorly at the Town Center this evening. Came out between 6 and 11 Mb/sec. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

And this is before the site has been accepted, so it should get better. Merry Christmas to all of us who have been waiting for this hole to be filled. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

I also saw work on another transmission line tower by the Town Center. This one is east of the Town Center next to a little lake between it and UNF, on the west side of 295. That one is not on the Sprint map, so it is probably another carrier's, but that makes 4 cranes in that area working on cell towers. The Hodges and JTB is now sending out a really strong signal, which transitions over nicely to the tower at San Pablo. JTB from Hodges to the intra coastal now has excellent coverage. It drops off after that. Ponte Vedra has some major holes in coverage. I live just north of JTB and the coverage here is pretty spotty. The were working on the tower by Marsh Landing earlier, so I am expecting much better coverage soon.

I was just listening to CNBC while I was dropping my son of at school. They were talking a little about Sprint and a possible T-Mobile merger. It seems that there is a spectrum auction coming up in 2015, and in order to be competitive in the bidding, Sprint will need to have a larger subscriber base over which they can spread the costs of acquiring spectrum. It is interesting that you have the SEC trying to keep some sort of competition by not allowing the biggest companies to consolidate any further, while the FCC spectrum auctions put the smaller players at a significant disadvantage.

Is coverage still good inside buildings? I've noticed poor performance inside, but I tend to work in industrial areas. I'd be happy with good 3G inside, but it seems that the NV upgrades still have a ways to go from looking at the sites completed map. There are lots of 4G towers that still need the 3G upgrades. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

What app or apps do you use to see which bands are being used? Masayoshi Son, the Softbank CO, is pretty ambitious and seems to have a good track record. He has been saying since June that he wants to buy T-Mobile as well, and that was back when he was trying to beat out Dish Network for Sprint and Clearwire. My impression of him is that he knows his business. He founded Softbank and has built a pretty respectable empire. I don't think that he is a meathead NBA bean counter type. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

A couple other exciting things today. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sprint is working on a possible bid for T-Mobile. I'd really like to see Softbank shake things up in the mobile market. AT&T and Verizon could use more competition. The other thing I saw is that Houston just had 55 CDMA 800 upgrades accepted. So, it seems that once they get the ball rolling on this, it moves pretty fast.

I made a Costco run after lunch today. Of course I wasn't able to check email or do anything data-wise while I was there. Totally unusable. As I got on the overpass to get on JTB, I noticed that there are three cranes at the tower by the FBI building. This location shows up as one tower on the maps, but it looks like there are actually two sets of panels on two separate transmission line towers. They were hoisting equipment up to the platforms. Heading east, the tower near JTB and Hodges shows activity. They were hoisting new equipment up. At the end of JTB near Marsh Landing, there was a crane and flatbed with equipment last weekend. It has been a long wait, hopefully it will all be worth it in the end. I hope that they are making further plans in the town center area to handle the high traffic. The Town Center and Alltel Stadium are two places that you would think Sprint would put a little more effort into. What kind of PR is it to have all of your customers pissed off at you, and all of their friends making note not to switch to Sprint, even if it is cheaper and you have unlimited data?

I picked up some 800 while riding BART out to the airport in San Francisco last week. It definitely lead to much better reception in the tunnels. Looking forward to a widespread rollout.

I was out at the Town Center last week and tweeted to Sprint that their service was so bad that I had to connect to wifi so that I could complain about it. Fortunately, they said that upgrades are happening in the coming months, so we are good (you might detect a hint of sarcasm). I recently read a couple of articles discussing how AT&T is trying to use their near monopoly on fiber to squeeze the likes of Sprint and other carriers. They are trying to jack up the rates. I'm sure that they aren't all that motivated to fulfill service orders from Sprint for all of the new backhaul fiber any faster than they have to. Why would they want to help make their competitor's service better any faster than they have to.

I see cranes and a lot of work happening at JTB and Hodges, and the end of JTB by Marsh Landing. I'll see if I can get some pictures in the next few days. Was at the Town Center last night, and data was unusable. I know that there was some chatter about LTE by UNF, so hopefully something is going on in that area. The closest tower that I see on the map is next to the FBI building. From what I can tell, the radios are at the top of a power line. I haven't seen anything happening there. Does anyone know if there is anything else in that area?

I'm out in San Francisco now and I can say that the LTE coverage here still leaves a lot to be desired. Throughput is highly variable depending on location. You can go from. 10Mb/sec to less than one within 100 yards. Looking at the maps, Sprint still has a ton of upgrades to do in Jax. There are a lot of towers that have 4G bit still haven't had 3G upgraded. I'm hopeful that the end product will be better, but expect it to still take a while. Looks like we will finish. 2013 with still unusable data in the town center area. Sprint fell pretty far behind and it is going to take a ton of effort to catch up. I'm still hoping that the Softbank acquisition will stir things up long term, but don't see any evidence of changes yet. Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

If they have a crane on site, they are probably pressed to get finished and return it. Those things are very expensive to rent.

Just saw this. I hope that Sprint will be able to do the same thing. 80 Mb/sec on LTE sounds pretty awesome to me. http://phandroid.com/2013/10/15/verizon-lte-tower-upgrades/

I was over at Costco yesterday and checked to see if I was getting any 4G, but no luck. From the maps, it looks like the closest tower to that area is southwest of the Town Center, next to the FBI office. I haven't been over that way lately, but that should be the one to watch for work. It still surprises me that they have done such a poor job of covering that area. Like others have noted, the data service in that area is horrible. If there was not wifi available, I would be able to get any data access. It certainly isn't very good for Sprint when you go out for dinner or shopping and your friends on other networks are able to use data on their phones, and you just have a brick in your pocket. Hopefully soon.

I just checked the maps and see that the tower at JTB and San Pablo has been completed for 4G. There is definitely more work going on out there because I picked up 4G on JTB further west on Saturday.

I picked up LTE in Arlington near JU for the first time last weekend. I also noticed on the ride home that I was getting it on more of 295. I was even on LTE on 295 between UNF and the Town Center. I guess I would have heard if anyone was getting LTE at the town center, but it has to be getting close. Beach Blvd is now mostly covered as well. Nice to see progress.

That is encouraging to hear, so there might be more going on than what the map is reporting. I haven't seen any of the towers in the area being worked on, but I'll keep an eye out.

I'm getting LTE on Beach Blvd from the beach to about Kernan now from the completed tower near Beach and Hodges. The tower at Beach and Kernan shows "in progress" on the NV sites complete map, so we should have that area covered soon. Still no signs of activity (from the S4GRU maps) along Atlantic, JTB, or the Town Center/UNF area. There are about 6-8 towers in those areas that still need to be done, from what I can tell from looking at the map of all Sprint towers in that area. The NV sites complete map shows that there are only 4 towers in the immediate Jacksonville area that are currently in progress, so it could still be a while.

Sorry for that second post. Not that good with Tapatalk yet. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

From what I can tell, they are doing a pretty competent job of managing the upgrades, they just started from way behind and have a huge task. I was pretty amazed that they had not run fiber backhaul until the NV upgrades. I'm sure they will get the hole filled as soon as they can. They have to realize that is a particularly high profile area. I would be really interested to know the reason for the delay, but unless someone has some inside information, we just have to be patient and hope they work it out soon. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

With the tower in progress at Beach and Kernan, things should improve. I wish that they would start something at the Town Center soon. Data is practically useless there during the day. Upgrades in that area are sorely needed. I was in the panhandle earlier this week and was pleasantly surprised to pick up some 4G in a couple of spots. I was also surprised how far west I had LTE on I-10. It is hard to be patient, but I am enjoying the 4G at the beach and it seems to be working better in the places that I visit for work. From what I can tell, it looks like about 50% of the sites in Jax have had upgrades, and about 50% of those have both 3G/4G finished, while the other half have only had the 4G upgrade. It will make a big difference when these sites also have the 3G upgraded. Some of my frustrations have probably been caused when using 4G and losing the LTE signal only to fall back to 3G that is not yet upgraded. The 4G building penetration leaves a lot to be desired, but I will at least be happy if I can fall back to the NV 3G with a fiber uplink and get something closer to 1Mb, rather than what we have been getting on the old saturated network.