prophead

I work for a company that uses Direct Connect quite extensively and yesterday (02-05-13) many of the Direct Connect calls were not completing. I did a speed test and ping times were good less than (100MS on average) however downloads and uploads either did not work at all or were in the order of .01 to .04 Mbps down and up. This tower normally is very good, usually speeds right around 2.0 down and about 1 up.

I called Sprint and they stated that Tower ID PL72XC013 was down as a result of receiving Network Vision updates. (Updates would be completed today they said) They claimed this was causing an overload on the surrounding towers including the tower we were connected to and as a result data/Direct Connect was not working right. This sounded logical but I decided to investigate since this is a third round market in a rural area.

On the way home from the office I drive almost past this tower and decided to stop in for a look. This is a legacy Nextel site mounted on a power transmission pole. I am no expert on the different installation types however I have seen a few and to me this does not look at all like a NV site, no RRU's (could this unit have ground mounted RRUS?)

I took a few pics....was Sprint rep misinformed or is this (NV?) site different than most?

The Antenna's - Looks to me like a co-located site but NV? Not convinced.

No equipment visible on the ground - it is all in this shed.

The cabling

Just downloaded PRL #61092 this morning. Can anybody tell me what changed between this and 61091?

I'm hoping this opens up 800mhz SMR for voice (which Shentel told me should start working around new year)

Thanks for any info!

PS.... this is on a DuraXT

Shentel's making things happen. I passed what I believe is their northern most tower on the I81 corridor about 2 weeks ago and they were installing new backhaul. Went passed today and the NV equipment has been installed. Tower located here https://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.464572,-76.516610

Also passed this tower today http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.453536,-76.38073 (I believe this is the north eastern most Shentel tower) and there appeared to be a cabinet sitting outside the fence. I did not drive in to verify what it was but I suspect/hope it is the start of new equipment deliveries to this site.

Go Shentel!

Just passed the Walmart in Lebanon, PA and noticed a bunch of new equipment hanging on a Shentel tower next to it. Stopped in to take a closer look and there sat an Alcatel Lucent truck and another truck and trailer. I spoke with the fellow from Alcatel Lucent and he was doing testing. I asked him how soon he expects it to go live. His response was that he does not make that determination, however he has seen them go live as soon as the next day and as long as 2 weeks. So Lebanon, PA you are about to experience some LTE!

I did not have a camera along but did grab to pics from my phone. They are pretty bad due to the rain.

Exact tower location is here 40.353298,-76.385411

Nice to see an update. Anyone know how many total sites Shentel will need to do? Any info on which sites have been done or a schedule on upcoming sites?

Generalizing in this regard serves little purpose, as the number of variables is quite great. Additionally, 3.5 miles is certainly not the maximum usable propagation distance for CDMA1X 1900.

Got it and not saying it was I was just looking for the average. In my part of Central PA there is rolling hills, small towns and woods patches. In this type of terrain I find a pretty consistent 3-3.5 miles till I start to see a signal strength of about -100db.

SMR 800 MHz has ~7 dB free space path loss advantage over PCS 1900 MHz.

Thank you! That information is very helpful.

Now does anybody now at what point in NV this 800mhz SMR gets activated?

Seems LTE is generating all the Network vision excitement, but what I am curious about is 800mhz CDMA....

At what point in the Network Vision upgrade process does 800mhz CDMA become live?

Also....

From my experience 3.5 miles is about the max for a usable 1900 mhz CDMA signal. What is the average real world usable distance for 800 mhz CDMA?

Ahhh, so an area like that, probably would be on the chopping block, lack of customer base maybe?

Quite possible however they have towers all around, this is simply a hole that could be filled by installing antenna's on the Nextel tower. The center of this hole is about 5-6 miles from the closest Sprint towers on each side. Seems the current 1900 PCS single degrades pretty quickly at about 3 miles.

Maybe the 800mhz overlay will be enough to fill this in?

Will they need to turn off iDen 800mhz before they can start using 800MHZ CDMA? If so is there any info the time lapse from killing 800mhz iDen before 800mhz CDMA starts?

I personally know about a dozen iDen users running off the tower in question and am certain there is more since the options are very limited.

The bottom line here is that this is an area where I know that the loss of iDen will also cause a loss of Sprint customers unless this is handled correctly. I am watching closely to see how this gets handled as it may reflect Sprints attitude nationwide and as a Sprint investor it concerns me a bit.

As I said before the options in this area for a usable signal are really only Nextel and AT&T. If Sprint and or Shentel handles this correctly they have a leg up over the competition if not they walk and the chances of getting them back will be slim.

So....If the 800mhz overlay will fill in this hole will they:

Make sure the 800mhz overlay is up and running before killing iDen?

After the 800mhz is up and running and/or after installing CDMA antenna's on this tower and before iDen is killed, contact the customers and help them get migrated to CDMA.

If any of these steps are not followed in the proper order customers in an area like this will walk. I don't know how many customers live and/or work in areas like this, however most of the iDen users I know are farmers (rural areas) and contractors. If these types of customers make up a large percentage of the iDen user base, and Sprint botches up the migration in this area I will assume it is being handled similarly in other areas. This would cause me concern and might cause me to sell as the iDen shutdown deadline approaches. Time will tell, until then I will watch closely and glean any info I can.

Are the majority of those folks iDEN users?

Nextel was the first to offer service in this area and as a result there are quite a few iDen users. Cingular (now AT&T) has since added a tower about 1/4 mile from this iDen tower and as a result they have decent service. I don't know where the Verizon signal is coming from but it is very weak and if you're lucky you might be able to make a call. Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile are all located on the Scheafferstown tower. From that tower Sprint gets a decent signal to about Kleinfeltersville and T-mobile goes a little further to about Cocalico road. Heading east from there your only options are AT&T or Nextel until about Peartown road where you start to get a usable Sprint signal again.

Or is there is a co-located PCS site on that tower?

It is an iDen only site.

Recently, we did find out that Sprint is converting approximately 100 iDEN only sites to CDMA/LTE in Network Vision.

Do you have a list of those 100 and could you make it available? If not could you check if this tower happens to be one of them?

I know quite a few people that will loose service when iDen is killed on this tower. Contrary to the Sprint coverage maps they do NOT have a usable signal in the locations covered by this tower. This tower was originally a Nextel Partners tower and since the buyout is now located in no mans land right on the border of Sprint corporate and Shentel coverage areas. I spoke with Shentel and they have no plans to place a tower east of this tower which has got ATT, Sprint and T-mobile antenna's.