Manny789

how do you determine what tower is servicing LTE from the field tech mode on a iphone?

Dial *3001#12345#* in the Phone app and press call. Under Serving Cell Info the important things are Physical Cell ID and Cell Identity. Each sector of a site has a separate ID, but from what I can tell, the first 6 digits of the Cell Identity are a tower identifier.

You have to do your own detective work to relate a tower identifier to an actually site though.

I suspected Lithia Pinecrest near Lynx Paw Trail as the source of new LTE in the area, but your site jives with my findings.

 

I still suspect Lithia Pinecrest/Lynx Paw, only because I get LTE as far as Boyette and Dorman. And that's on an iPhone, so you know that the tower must be relatively close.

I did some checking using the iPhone's Field Test and it turns out that the signal I see in this area is still from the Bell Shoals site. Per Robert's suggestion, I am keeping a log of the LTE sites and sectors that I connect to, which is the only way I way able to figure this out..

(Update - waiting for Sensorly to update, but I think I found a live one!) Yes I did... the one at Lithia Pinecrest and Valrico Rd. is live. My catches went on and off as I was using the LTE Discovery app... too busy with the motorcycle to mess with the phone )

I suspected Lithia Pinecrest near Lynx Paw Trail as the source of new LTE in the area, but your site jives with my findings.

I still suspect Lithia Pinecrest/Lynx Paw, only because I get LTE as far as Boyette and Dorman. And that's on an iPhone, so you know that the tower must be relatively close.

I stro

Most of the tracks around Brandon mall have been there a week or so but the tower you mentioned came online last night.

I strongly suspect a tower*, but no one has been over there to confirm/deny.

From Sensorly, it looks like the Brandon Mall area signals are coming from a tower* near NW corner of the I-4 & I-75 interchange.

Tampa folks, how many of these sites that have recently lit up are in progress sites or sites that you guys knew of?

Without knowing what tower we're actually connecting to, it hard to say. There seems to be a number of towers in the wild that are not yet on the updates, that we only know about cause someone had physically seen the work being done.

Interesting, I am thinking it may be the one on Lithia Pinecrest and not the Seffner one based on how my signal dropped off when I was heading north on 301 near 60. I'll know better on my early drive in tomorrow morning where I will take the longer route up I-75, then down I-4 to I-275 then on to the airport.

The tower I'm talking about is across from Lithia Springs Elementary, though, east of the Bells Shoals site. So I'd imagine those signals are coming from somewhere else. Either the newly completed sites by I-4/Fairgrounds or the Seffner site, or even site not yet on the update.

My iPhone is getting LTE on Lithia Pinecrest in Valrico. The in-progress tower may have lit up.

Figures that area would light up after I'd already went back to Brandon...

Surprisingly, nothing in that area was in the latest update. Perhaps a sign that Sprint is moving faster than we can track them? This bodes very well.

 

Robert, how much do you know about Sprint's mobile towers on trucks? They have deployed one on campus to replace the tower they lost (TA60XC129) when the building it was on needed to be demolished. While it's nice to have some coverage that was lost, it is also annoying as well. It only broadcasts a very strong 1X signal and no EVDO. It also seems like the 1X will just drop off from 6 bars to none when you get out of it's range, which strikes me as incredibly odd. The signal doesn't seem particularly reliable either- call quality suffers.

 

It's just North of the water tower, by the AT&T tower on a truck if any of you USF peeps are interested.

I've been wondering why my iPhone drops to 2G in that area. Mystery solved.

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I must have missed that post. Which Perkins was it

The one on Fowler near the Sprint Store?

Ah ok. I am in Cape Coral at the moment. We have some friends renting a place down here for two months so will be down here most weekends. Will check that area out.

 

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My hometown before Brandon... Good hunting!

Just got one bar of LTE on my iPhone at Dover & Durant near Valrico/Dover. That's either LOS from the Bell Shoals site or a nearly activated site.

 

I actually am the one that went into the start of Panther Trace from Balm Riverview. I rode my bicycle down Balm Riverview and into that park off of Rhodine road, which is the reason that area is lit up. As soon as I started to get into Panther Trace the signal from the Bell Shoals tower dropped off. As you can see, it reached into Summerfield where I am. With my personal phone, the S3, I can pick up a weak signal in my back yard. With my work phone, and iPhone, nothing. By the way, my other two wheeler is a bicycle and I do ride it through Panther Trace when I do.

 

I'm hoping one day to see them working on the tower there, but I think I understand why certain towers are being worked and others not at the moment. There may be no reasoning to it but what I would do is hit every other tower or skip a few and hit a wider area, then catch the ones in between to complete the coverage. I am sure I'm wrong on that theory, but think it is a good idea to hit the ones off of the main thoroughfares like I-4, I-275, and US-41 as well, before hitting the neighborhood towers.

Your logic pretty seems pretty sound to me, based on the in-progress sites..

Does anyone know where the closet tower to cypress trace Apartments is I thought the one on bellshols was but I was wrong I have tried to search but can't find anything.

Bell Shoals is the closest site that is active at this time.

So do you think I would get better lte coverage from the site on lithiapincrest or improved. Just look for opinions thanks

Just realized that I didn't answer your exact question...

The Lithia site will expand Valrico area coverage to the east, but since you're west of this area, nothing should change for you, barring a closer (to you) site becoming active.

So do you think I would get better lte coverage from the site on lithiapincrest or improved. Just look for opinions thanks

When it become active I'm sure that the entire area with super 4Gified.

 

From what I remember about Nextel installs, all the towers had corresponding azimuths. So if one tower had sectors set at 60, 175,and 250 degrees all panels that we installed at any other site would be set at those degrees. I'm not sure how that corresponds to anything else though.

 

I'm sure someone will chime in on what I'm about to say so if I'm wrong someone will step in. I THINK Sprint is going to have an interesting problem here in Florida at least. From initial testing it seems the LTE signal carries further than 3G. I'm not even sure if I'm saying that right but I'm seeing that I am holding a usable LTE signal past at least another Sprint site that has not been upgraded yet. I'm sure they are not going to decommission sites but it is a question

 

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The greater coverage is due to no downtilt. They will add downtilt later as they add more towers.

OK have a question according to sprints site where they have towers the closet on is the bellshols one the next closet one is on causeway. I live in cypress trace apartments and yet I get like 0-1 bars of lte I don't think I would get better coverage from any other site my ? Is do they angle this panels to cover different sides of town or just try to go as far in any direction.

I think that the Bell Shoals tower is current set to broadcast the heck out of some LTE since it's the only active tower in the area. Your phone picks up the highest (LTE vs 3G vs. 2g) network it can, which is a weak LTE in your case. Turn off LTE and you should have decent 3G signal.

If they light up one more over here by kings it would be good coverage. Seeking what that one is doing

The recent update has a tower off Lithia Pinecrest, south of Bloomingdale, listed as in progress.

 

It's listed as complete now.

Well, 4G complete at least.

Is the tower in Brandon/valrico completed or is it still in progress ?

It's listed as complete now.

Keep in mind that the initial launch sites may have changed for a number of reasons. It may be another. Worth a ride just to satisfy your curiosity.

 

The tower that is in South St Pete that is live I couldn't believe it was sending LTE all the way where it was showing on sensorly so I took a ride. Found another site was live and got the deep purple in that area. It's funny though the tower I found seems to be more of a helper to get a user to another close by tower.

 

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A change in the initial deployment is my secret hope because a single northern tower and a single southern tower for all of the Brandon area is not going to cut it.

Take a look at the sponsor map and see if there is another tower that's close to that signal.

 

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The nearest tower that is in the initial launch list is off of N Valrico near Sefner.

Did some mapping on causeway there is a tower somewhere over their could not stay connected but was getting its up on sensorly right by 75 and causeway. I also went the oppesit way on bellshols or what ever and it goes far down that way aswell

I think all of that is coming from the Bell Shoals tower, since it goes just as far south with similar signal strength. Although Sensorly doesn't show it, that signal also extends east on Fish Hawk Blvd to just past Osprey Ridge Dr.