The Doc

We don’t beg people to stay. We advocate that people need to do what is best for them, and in your case, you said another carrier is better for you.

So you responded with a classy and snarky "goodbye".

I said I was "thinking"

Goodbye,

Nice.

Quiet around here

 

Rochester seems to be pulling some great 4G signal in the south side of town finally. Great to see.

I'm guessing with last week leading up to Easter that things slowed down somewhat.

I have to admit after reading that the current production rate completion date is now looking like it is October 2014 that I am really thinking about switching carriers at this point.

I work downtown and travel via 100 to 394 and noticed a few areas where the signal drops, but otherwise the signal seems strong, especially in St Louis Park.

Sensorly is showing LTE snaking down Highway 100 all the way to 50th street now. Also seeing strong LTE near the Minnekahda Vista Park.

I was on that stretch on Saturday and Sunday and noticed that going north I couldn't get an LTE signal until after Minnetonka Blvd. Going south I had the signal just past Excelsior Blvd.

I briefly received a signal in Edina off of Vernon and Interlachen tonight. Could be bleed over from St. Louis Park.

I was getting gas in St Louis Park today and couldn't get an LTE signal. They must be doing more tweaking to the tower and area.

That would not surprise me that they would angle them up. The service in the upper parts of the towers used to be really bad before they started working on their upgrades.

Cool. My friend works near there, he will be happy as he's a SprintDude.

I got it on the upper floors but when I went left I didn't get one on the main level. Maybe because the towers are higher downtown.

Just got an LTE signal at the Capella tower in Mpls. That was a nice surprise.

When your phone is in 3g, to save battery it only intermittently looks for 4g. If you were sitting in a 4g area long enough, you most likely would switch from 3g to 4g relatively quickly. Different phones have different thresholds for how often they check for LTE and what signal is needed to stay connected. Toggling airplane mode is just an easy way to get the phone to scan for all available networks, including 4g.

That makes sense. Thanks for the information!

I know for my phone (HTC EVO 4G LTE), I have to sometimes toggle Airplane mode. This is a known issue with my phone.

I have the iPhone 5 and not sure if that is a know issue or not.

I believe Sprint has a tower at Louisiana AVE and Cedar Lake Road in St. Louis Park on the water tower. On Sunday and Monday, I saw a few guys using a bucket lift to work on the cell panels

That is great news!

Does anyone know why you would have to toggle between Airplane mode to get an LTE signal in areas that are up? I'm wondering if it Is something with Sprint or my phone.

I have a rooted HTC Evo and when LTE had started poping up in my area I'd try and got the same results as you but I just kept trying and finally it would connect.

 

Now I can go to the areas in town and get on pretty quick or just use LTE Discovery. Then I use sensorly to map it.

 

Keep trying, remember as far as I know LTE isn't "official" in MN. Cuz like tonight when I was out driving around it wouldn't connect. Yet 6 hours earlier in the day it had.

 

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

I had the same experience last night that I couldn't get any LTE signals.

Yes, I was totally kidding! They get high school kids or whoever they can get and they're not radio/technology geeks usually. A lot of it is a game of telephone with "Oh, my regional manager heard from the guy who services one of the tower guys washing machine...."

 

I also had a guy tell me in one of the Sprint stores with a straight face that the entire network vision rollout would be done by March in Minnesota and I'm thinking "I know exactly how many sites have been put in place and there's no WAY they'll be done by then unless they're superhuman." Late spring/early summer maybe?

I had an employee at the Sprint store in Southdale tell me the same thing in November. lol

I'm not in EP yet, but I'll update you. Sensorly shows towers of the area i'll be in.

Thanks gameaddict!

I had nice signal today in St Louis Park by Home Depot and Costco.

1. I live en Eden Prairie close to the water tower and close to Costco. I'm able to get LTE every morning and late at night (about 2 bars) Not the case during the day thou. Some speed test are 10+ Megs down 5 up
   

I was over there last night and had brief signal on Flying Cloud and Technology Drive but that was about it.

My job training is in Eden Prairie. Looks like LTE is there. How convenient. Lol

Just wondering but where in EP are you getting a signal? Is it a stable signal? Every time I am over there it is very spotty for me.

On my home tonight from downtown Minneapolis I got an LTE signal once I turned on to 1st Ave from 7th Street and it lasted until I hit the metered lights just before entering 394.

I didn't know this until I actually looked at the streets but 1st Ave turns into 9th Street North and then into Hawthorne even though you never exit off of it. Weird

I'm right there with you. I generally work in Minneapolis, and the current 3g speeds are about as close to unusable as I can imagine. I came from Verizon and though I have no one to blame but myself for not doing my research, the difference in speed is staggering.

 

I just ran a speed test and was at 26 kbps/19 kbps with 900ms latency. That's from the Lake/1st Ave area in MPLS.

 

Nowhere to go but up I suppose.

Agreed about the unusable speeds in Minneapolis. I work downtown and my speeds are always bad. I love seeing some spots lighting up close by.

This is common in unlauched markets. Sometimes the signals come and go. It will be back soon

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

Thanks Robert!

I don't understand why the signals are so hit and miss in the western suburbs. I was heading down 212 yesterday and had a LTE signal most of the way from EP Road to almost 41. Today I was on it again and I get nothing.

I have yet to receive an LTE signal on HWY 5 but it shows on Sensorly that there is a signal there.

Are they only turning it on when they are working on it and then shut it down when they go home for the day?

The Sprint Store staff at Southdale Mall said that "March 2013" was the launch month/date but how accurate that date is can't be confirmed. Sure seems like things are ramping up faster than I expected.

 

I also saw someone working on the outside of a Sprint tower near my home in Bloomington - it looked like the guy was on small crane type device - so work is proceeding but it might be a bit more until your locale has LTE.

 

Wouldn't surprise me a bit if city bureaucracy is at work too. Especially in appearance conscious places.

I also heard something similar to the March date from the Apple store at Southdale about a month ago.

I was back getting gas at Costco last night and did get an LTE signal while in line.

You'll see spots of LTE popping up over the whole market here in a few weeks. Things will probably speed up after the first of the year.

I do see LTE popping up in the market still and I am sure after the 1st of the year things will get more movement.

It's very possible that they ran into issues in that area. It doesn't seem like anything has been updated or strengthened in the EP market in a few weeks.

I'd like to see them expanded further east down the 212/62 highway.