rmorrisonva

Agreed, there's certainly no shortage of skilled labor in this region. Getting anything done in DC is a bureaucratic nightmare - even if you're a contractor hired by the District itself. One would think the efficiencies of a combined city-county-state government would make things easier but there's actually a long list of federal agencies to deal with.

Yeah you are spot on... Prince William County and the District are two very very different regulatory and bureaucratic beasts.

I guess it's quite literally a "Federal project" when it comes to NV deployment inside the District :-)

It has surely improved but it all depends on what tower you're connected and who else is connected with you. During the weekdays and commuting periods there just isn't enough capacity to go around. My dream is just that Sprint is just waiting for the Nextel shutdown, so they can bring up a new 3G core in my bubble that includes 800. One could dream....

 

Anyways, I bet the slowdown is because of backhaul/DC DCRA (permit issuer)/roof access to certain buildings near the White House. Comcast, AT&T and RCN are most likely providing some of the backhaul and I have no problem yelling at my contacts there.

That's my bet too, that the pattern of site acceptances as work progresses seem to lend a bit of truth to the hunch.

I've also noticed explosive progress in SE Fairfax, Stafford, and Prince William Co's (right up to the market borders even), if it was a matter of equipment or labor shortages we wouldn't be seeing all the progress we are in those parts of the market.

And adamo has been trolling this thread about the "slow LTE rollout" for a while, it nearly resulted in this thread being closed for a second time (only in DC I say!) so if I'm terse... thats why

The post that both you and I were responding to was specifically in reference LTE, not NV; hence the 22% figure. Additionally, I don't need to blame anyone: I think we're all just blowing off a little steam and having some conversation. Not having the backhaul is actually a big deal. Installing a new EVDO airlink while leaving it connected to the same old congested T1 does nothing to enhance the customer experience in most cases.

Market size is not a constant, and not even really relevant to this conversation. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that Sprint knew the size of the markets when they began planning deployment schedules and fired up the PR machine. Sprint has fallen behind their projected schedule, it's ok, we've all accepted it. Also, please don't place the phrase "Sprint has abandoned us" in quotes when replying to me. I never used it so please don't attribute it to me.

Again, I never called it a forgotten market. Please re-read what I said. It's great news that you and other customers in rural areas are seeing improvement, and I'm happy for you. However I (and the majority of Sprint customers in the DC market) live, work, and play in the city. There hasn't been a whole lot of activity in some of the most densely populated areas of DC, and that's worth mentioning.

 

It's frustrating to lose the ability to use one's phone the minute one walks in to a building, while friends and co-workers with VZW and ATT experience no such issues with their service. I made the decision to switch to Sprint based on promises from their corporate sales staff, and information presented here on S4GRU, that led me to believe improvements were just around the corner. Nearly a year in to my contract, these improvements have failed to materialize. Ultimately it was my decision to sign up with Sprint and I'm ok with it. But it's human nature to want to find others to commiserate with, and I think it makes us all feel a little better knowing we're not the only ones holding our breath for NV/LTE completion. 

This is not the place to complain, and sorry if this seems a bit harsh but there are plenty of other places you can do that on the internet but this really isn't the venue to "vent". 

You are absolutely correct, if you switched to Sprint based on the expectation of LTE being deployed faster that was your own decision and frankly I'm not all that interested in hearing yet another person complain. I switched from a WiMax phone to an LTE handset thinking LTE would be deployed faster and it was disappointing that it's taken longer... I can live with that without resorting to commiserating as you say on a forum devoted to monitoring the progress. If you want to complain may I suggest doing so on Sprint's own forums, this is not the place.

I thought I'd counter with a bit of glass half full observations but it appears you aren't all that interested in that. And for the record I don't live in a rural area, I just get out a fair amount... picking up LTE in Shenandoah National Park while hiking was a thrill... but it doesn't tick me off that I see no LTE in town sometimes... that's just life and chance.

I wouldn't exactly call 22% site acceptance "approaching completion". It's frustrating that many (more than half) second-round markets have a higher completion rate. I agree, it's far from dead - but does sort of feel like we're the forgotten first-round market.

That's actually incorrect, the number you reference is the LTE site acceptance rate which is really influenced by backhaul getting to the site than anything else. The NV completion rate is much higher. If you want to blame somebody I think it'd be whoever does a majority of the backhaul around here (Verizon? COX? Comcast?). Another thing that's a bit misleading about the 1st round second round comparison is that second round markets tend to be (and for good reason) smaller metro's  than the first rounders. Given a constant as far as available crews in a given geographic area, and cell density somewhat relative to population density you are probably going to see the smaller second round markets catch up to or overtake the larger first round markets as time progresses not because "Sprint has abandoned us" but because of fairly simple logistical reasons.

Anecdotally I'm noticing near universal increases in 3G performance even where there isn't yet live LTE, and I've noticed more areas with LTE and in places I had it already I've noticed better penetration as other sites go live.

I think it's a bit silly to call it a forgotten market, simply not true. Even in rural parts of the market where I used to have awful data service I am seeing dramatic increases in those speeds and the reliability of the data connection. And occasionally some LTE.

Robert why is this market dead? LTE rollout is slow compared to New York, Chicago and SF.

Considering we have NV 3G and LTE acceptances in each update I'd say it's pretty far from dead. Chicago was always faster due to the 3G handoff issues with legacy equipment AND the other cities started after us so are earlier in the NV process (20 new sites when you have 100 active already is a lot different than 20 new sites when you have 1000 active already, especially if you are just looking at the maps of sites).

That said, progress as a percentage of progress-to date will decline as you progress.... it's not like they are bringing in more crews, and as the market approaches completion things will slow down of course)

Has anyone noticed LTE speeds becoming a little sluggish in the DC area (I assume its because more and more people are starting to migrate over or use LTE) but I've been consistantly getting aroung 4 mbps down and 1.7 mbps up two months ago it was nothing to get a consistant 10 down 10 up.

I wonder if it's because tons of people are running speed tests :-)

Another observation: in Tyson's there is only one LTE site active (as far as I can tell) and it covers the area around the Mall, and tons of offices. At 2pm in the afternoon (When I would guess peak-traffic occurs) I am pulling sub 50ms pings and 2Mbps down/1.5Mbps up. Given the sheer saturation of the site and my sector I am impressed it's still operating at a half decent speed, as other sites go online these speeds will no doubt go up (as LTE traffic slides to adjacent sites). But for a "worst case" traffic situation it looks like NV is able to take it in stride.

That's great - any chance you could run Sensorly and map that area a bit - if you haven't done so already. I don't see very much purple over in that area right now.

I would but Sensorly hasn't been playing nicely w/ my phone, after using it my baseband will act up sometimes and stop connecting to eHrpd (and by association, LTE) so I can't sorry :-( I have mapped a ton though in the past so I've paid my dues :-) For example, theres a spot out near the Bull Run Mtns off 15... that was me :-) Actually I was one of the first who started mapping in the District too, crazy to see how far we've come so fast!

LTE live in Tyson's area... got a signal near Fashion Blvd (north east facing building), tower seems to be towards McLean because I lose it on the Vienna side of our building. But still. yay!

No worries my wireless brother! We will have our network soon.

Let there be... LTE!

I'm sorry, I may have come off a little harsh. It's just that clearly Sprint understands the situation here and Network Vision is underway. Posting about the slow pace of upgrades here/there in the market is not likely to have any effect on when upgrades happen. I'm pretty sure Robert said before it's really more a matter of the contractors doing the work and not Sprint corporate per-se.

Understand and share some of your frustration but count yourself lucky not to be in nTelos areas like my family in Central VA. Their 3G is OK but they haven't even announced when/if LTE is coming to nTelos served markets.

I'm sure you will be speeding along on some wonderful LTE before too long, I can't wait for it either!

Cheers!

Just so you don't think we are whiners in Frederick.

Even if you were whining this is not the place to do it... (See: the rules)

And frankly, I've seen worse.

I've been with Sprint over 10 years and if I wanted to leave nothing would stop me, that said I don't. I think we are all well aware of the current situation... if you can't wait it out/stand another moment of it just switch carriers. Being on a contract is no excuse because the network woes have been going on for far longer than 2 years.

How is 3G peformance in DC?central not suburbs cause in the suburbs its almost the same around rockville?

Please folks... for the love of god don't feed it.

Any update for LTE in the Bethesda area? Thank you so much for your help and updates!

It's an active deployment area. Each site goes live after it completes and passes inspection. Some sites go live every week. That will happen until the whole market is covered.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

Putting LTE all over the place just jking sorry if i boder u i wont post anymore. XD

Yes please, don't post anymore!

PSA: The tower that is live in Fairfax is at Waples Mill Rd and I66 I'm fairly certain.

What LUCK! I've been following this site to keep up w/ the LTE rollout. I got my first taste several months ago (quite literally, just enough to run a few tests to convince myself it was real!) in Baltimore on my way back from Philly. I ventured out when Alexandria started showing up on Sensorly and I mapped a few points off Eisenhower Ave. I've also done my best to add some extra points out in Front Royal on the Shentel side of things when I go to Shenandoah NP. However this weekend's newest LTE blossom in the I66/US50/123 area of Fairfax is almost to good to be true. 1st... I live along side I66 and in a sort of "bowled out" area of land so I never got WiMAX at my house (yard, indoors, upstairs, anywhere). The signal would literally drop the second I went up my drive. Likewise, my EvDO service was marginal (1-2 GNex "bars") but generally provided adequate voice coverage and data when I ventured out of WiFi range.

FAST FORWARD to last night

I get home, I was having software-related connectivity issues w/ eHRPD (could "see" CDMA and/or 4G but wouldn;t handoff), only forcing EvDO sans-eHRPD/LTE would enable me to aquire data connectivity. After a reflash of my rom I was able to aquire an LTE signal in my yard... and most surprisingly in my house as well!!! I do seem to notice a very modest increase in my CDMA signal strength too but that could just be placebo. Anyways... I went from marginal 3G and no LTE or WiMAX to useable LTE even indoors and that's with just one nearby site complete and LTE-enabled... Network Vision is going to be awesome!!!!!