rmorrisonva

OMG *head explodes* I am pretty sure this is going to replace my GNex! I swore off LG after some poor past experiences (admittedly pre-smartphone mostly) with handsets... but Tri-band LTE, and Nexus... I'm sold

Yeah, my bad :-(

http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20130819/carriers/ntelos-stock-plunges-on-sprint-overbuild-concerns/ As someone who travels in crap-telos territory (and Shentel) a lot, all I can say is YESSSSS!

Yup there are several LTE towers live in that area. I get a pretty reliable run of 4G from Lewinsville Rd (just West of the Toll Rd.) up to near Cascades, although there are a couple of valleys where it will drop the 4G on occasion. You have an EVO LTE so I think that might be why you see it sporadically (I've heard similar stories here about the EVO and LTE issues). I have a GNex so my 4G is fine, but my 3G really blows in fringe-y areas... funny thing is as the fringe areas I travel in have started lighting up w/ 800SMR and LTE I get useable 4G service in places where I never really got decent 3G service. Each device has it's quirks, some more than others... but the GNex and the EVOLTE are both known to have some rather irksome ones :-(

Yeah I noticed the 4G lit up on Monday, the LTE site over next to the mall (in the vicinity of the MicroStrategies-signed building) is the one thats live. I get solid 4G on 3/4 sides of my building (which is across 7 behind the McDonalds). I actually just got in from running a few tests. You can see how NV/LTE will perform under load right now because this area is SOOOO dense w/ subscribers in the daytime (all the offices and the malls) and a lot will have LTE-enabled phones that are going to that one site. I got 0.5-3Mbps w/ pings under 50ms with a solid signal. Considering there are like a good 4-5 other sites nearby w/o LTE upgraded my suspicion is as those go live the load will be spread out a lot more and the speeds should go even higher. With my WiMax phone, and with a solid signal I averaged 2-4 Mbps in Tyson's during the day so it looks like LTE is going to kncok the socks off of that (and should be a little more stable in buildings since it's a lower frequency than WiMax)

The VIA Telecom baseband is most certainly bad, although I have noticed a dramatic improvement on 800SMR vs PCS as far as acquiring a stable signal in the fringes of coverage (ie. up in a National Park) which surprised me because I always assumed PCS attenuates less w/ clear line of sight than 800SMR would, but maybe I'm wrong there. When it was released the Galaxy Nexus was one of the first two handset released that supported LTE, and since the GSIII wasn't yet available I would call the Galaxy Nexus a "flagship" (at least when it came out, around when I bought mine). Some of my friends have the GSM model and don't seem to have any data issues. I think the unique way eHRPD and the CDMA and LTE basebands interact (and the fact that the VIA chip is trash) is really to root of most problems (including, coincedentally, the periodic overheating the device has been know to experience). That said, I consider myself lucky because while my GNex can get rather hot in the vehicle dock I don;t seem to have problems otherwise. My friend who also has one on Sprint has mentioned his will overheat from time to time. My theory is that the VIA baseband is so terrible on the fringes that it hunts and pecks for signal much more than it ought to, and this is what is usually the culprit. Tri-band GS4... that would be heaven... and LTE-A please too!

I always thought the EVO LTE takes the cake there. It's not perfect but what exactly makes it "one of the worst"? The CDMA baseband? RF performance? I mean I've had mine over a year and have my complaints (keep in mind the GNex was introduced a year and a half ago), but honestly not sure that assessment is entirely fair.

Oh c'mon guys, it's not THAT bad. Just the sh*tty CDMA baseband (but the CM10.1 stable build seems to be playing nicely, FINALLY). Another reason not to hate: POGO+Samsung Car Dock=money. That said, I am craving a Google Edition GS5 (since thats about the time I'll be up for my upgrade... man I miss the old Premier upgrade cycle!) After my Epic 4G (which wasn't TERRIBLE either) I swore off TW forever.

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 :-)

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

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.

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.

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)

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.

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!

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!

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.

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