This last weekend I traveled to Cleveland from Columbus. Sensorly was logging the drive up. I found that when I entered the Cleveland area (I-71 from Medina onwards north I-71) I had a mostly reliable eHRPD singal. At the time I did not remember what eHRPD was but I was happy to see a new change.
What I noticed was the Speed was much more "bursty". While testing with Sensorly peak speeds were hitting 3mbps but the average bandwidth was much much less 0.5 to 0.8Mbps down and 0.1 to 0.2 up. While testing in EVDO rev A coverage areas the Average was much higher 1.2 to 1.5 Mbps down and a steady 0.5Mbps up.
.
Since comming back to Columbus, I have driven arround town looking for the eHRPD connection. Unfortunately all I have been able to receive is EVDO rev A.signal. What is disturbing is how the Rollout process is being planned / implemented. Columbus, OH not even listed, 15th largest city and inbetween other LTE cities. I understand it takes time and alot of money to build a complete network. But C'mon!
When 3G EVDO first arrived (everywhere I traveled, worked or lived), it was deployed in High Traffic / High Dollar areas. They all seemed to be first installed at Airports, Downtown and High Traffic Expressways. It was perfect as it hit the areas who needed to be connected 24/7 and where time is money. It was a life saver. you cant always count on WiFi being available.
I am feeling like I should have left Sprint and not upgrade my phone as I did (EVO 4G to SGN2). The Sprint Wimax coverage I have used has been excelent. Blew me away finding full bars across NC especially in the mountains. Streaming my library, RDP/Citrix sessions,Netflix and Shoutcast no problems. I have been quite happy with WiMax.
Sprint needs to just roll out a single LTE cell in every POP, just to keep the people from revolting. Too many people are ditching Sprint or Talking about it because of Terrible 3G and no LTE even planned.
