juan2three

I was at boniva and Fruitville yesterday and I got no LTE.

The signal there is also very weak. I think it's coming from the towers that have been upgraded out by the interstate.

It appears as though the tower on beneva and Bahia vista is now turned off? I know they test, and then turn on later, but how long does that usually take?

I pass by that tower almost everyday and as far as I can tell there aren't even NV panels up on that tower. I see legacy Sprint panels on either the 2nd or 3rd rack from the top, I don't remember.

Anyway, I get a very weak LTE signal that almost instantaneously drops back to 3G when I'm at that intersection so I doubt very much it's coming from that tower.

Can anyone tell me, where is the site that has Downtown covered? Is it a stealth site? I see a ton of panels on the roof of the Bank of America tower, but nothing I recognize as NV equipment.

found another small pocket of LTE in Sarasota. it was a small stretch, picked it up headed east on Fruitville from 41 and dropped back down to 3G at the Tuttle intersection.

Well i was not sure if my S3 was really picking up LTE or not the other day. I was going past Bayshore HS and turned off wifi and had full Bars of 4G as i went south it went off to 3g when i hit Bayshore Gardens Parkway. So i turned around and went back up 34th Street where i had it and had nothing but 3g. But i have a question. My Contract of 10 lines comes up soon and i am not going to Stay with sprint if it misses my area. So my Question is are there any Towers in my area that will get me LTE? i Live just South of Bayshore Ele School in South Bayshore Gardens. I just need to know if it will reach here ever cause when you ask sprint they know nothing about nothing.

LTE in Bradenton just lit up for the first time last week. Betacom (the company that has been contracted for NV in this area) has been actively working in towers all over Sarasota/Bradenton for a few weeks now.

Now that the first couple of sites are live (all along West Cortez Rd. and over by the mall) I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the month we have some pretty solid LTE coverage throught out most of Bradenton.

OH, HAPPY DAY!

I arrived at work in Bradenton this morning to find sweet, sweet LTE coverage from the corner of 14th St. & W. Cortez Rd. all the way down to about Walmart.

Sorry, can't map, on iOS.

 

 

I'm near the corner of 82 and Gunnery. Again tonight 4G comes and goes, only staying for a couple minutes. That seems kind of strange.

You're either in a fringe zone, and picking up a distant, weak signal or a tower near you has been lot up and is being tested. Neither scenario uncommon of a nascent network. I'm sure your battery life is taking a big hit though!

So I talked to 2 of the crew members at the tower I've been watching in Bradenton, both super nice guys. I was really nervouse about approaching them but they had no problem chatting with me.

They hope to have NV panels up by Wednesday (what they were working on today) and broadcasting LTE shortly after.

Funny story; the reason work had been delayed at this particular site, and the RRU's had to be mounted on the ground is because there is a birds nest on Sprint's rack which could absolutely NOT be disturbed until it was hatched and vacated.

Effin' birds! haha

another crew at the tower behind the donut shop in Bradenton this morning! hope to see some NV panels going up soon! not much activity at that site since RRU's were brought in 2 weeks ago.

just checked the map and seen a Port Charlotte sighting omgggg. I will go check it out now

On Sensorly? I'm not seeing it.

 

 

In looking at the Google Maps street view of this site, it looks like an at capacity monopole. And if AT&T and Verizon have already done their upgrades here, there probably is no more additional weight allowed and still meet hurricane wind loads. It makes perfect sense why this would be a full build site with Ground Mount RRU's. Good find! Thanks.

 

Robert

AT&T has definitely done their upgrades at this site. If you look closely you can see their classic setup of one RRU per sector on the second rack from the bottom. I have never been able to find out what Verizon's LTE equipment looks like so I really couldn't tell you. I think at this particular site Verizon is on the top rack.

No work that I saw being done today, but it is a rainy, windy day here.

 

 

I'm pretty certain this is a full build site with ground mount RRU's. They are not all that uncommon. Rickie has found some in the Kansas market. Most sites like this will have to be hot swapped, because weight limitation was the most likely culprit why it had to have ground mount RRU's. They may even have to remove and add each panel individually, swap one for one.

 

Where is this one located?

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

 

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

This is in Bradenton, on the corner of 14th St. and Orlando Ave. behind the donut shop.

I can confirm NV panels were not up today. I know pretty much what they look like, and if you look closely at the picture I snapped today, the RRU's are not hooked up to anything. Here's a picture of the tower either way.

 

 

Would a site like this get all the nv goodies without the ruu being mounted on the back of the panels? Also did the crew install new panels or used the old ones?

I think Full Build out does mean new panels.

No NV Panels installed as of today, I think they just went in with RRU's first. The reason I think the RRU's are being installed on the ground at this site is because it looks to be a high capacity site for all 4 major carriers. There are already 5 VERY crowded racks on this tower, I don't really see how they would have been able to fit the RRU's behind the panels.

I'll be sure to snap more pictures when they arrive!

Exciting day!! I walked by the tower at work today and look what magically appeared! RRU's!!! I never actually got to see the crew so I don't know if they were installed over the weekend, or really quickly this morning. Either way, I'm super stoked to see some progress. Looks like this is gonna be a GMO site after all. It is a pretty crowded tower with all 4 major carriers on it.

You're right, the RRU's are different, but the panel looks just like Ericssons. For some reason I thought AlcaLu's panels looked different.

Not sure what you are asking but I'll try to be helpful.

 

Sprint's 3G and 4G LTE runs into the same antenna enclosure.

 

Here is a picture:

 

 

So there are actually multiple antennas in that enclosure.

 

Does that help?

I think the OP was asking about Alcatel Lucent NV equipment specifically. That appears to be an Ericsson panel.

what part of Bradenton specifically? anyone know? I work in west Bradenton on the corner of 14th and Cortez.

what is seriously the delay in Sarasota/Bradenton?! Since October, when I came back to Sprint, I keep hearing "soon, soon" but soon never comes.

I'm not here to whine or complain, it's just frustrating at this point to see that Tampa is either about to launch, or already has, work is underway with several live sites down in Ft. Myers, including sites out in the middle of NOWHERE like Alva and LaBelle. It's really seems like almost every other city in the SW Florida market EXCEPT Sarasota/Bradenton is well underway and Sarasota is this big void in the middle of my market that for some reason is being neglected.

I'd be content to at the very least see some crews doing some work in my city, but here we are now, 4 days into March and still nothing.

just noticed some panels going up at the flagpole site at SCF in Bradenton. Pretty sure it's a T-Mobile site, though not sure.

I'm helping my brother move today. But tonight I will check the Florida acceptance reports.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

any way you could tell is if work has started ANHWHERE in Saraaota/Bradenton?

 

 

Thanks for posting. To me, this does not look like an Ericsson GMO site. The cabinets do not look right, and neither do the RRU's. The cabinets look similar to what AT&T installs around here. But those little boxes are not like anything I've ever seen.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

Hmm... I guess I was just being optimistic, to be honest I didn't really think those little boxes looked right either. RRU's are much bigger, are they not?

Can anyone tell me which of those 5 racks is Sprint? I only recognize the AT&T stuff.

Multi-Carrier tower at the intersection of 14th St. and Orlando Ave. behind the donut shop. Just read the post this morning about GMO sites and I think this might be one of them.

Anyway, when I went back yesterday after work the crew was gone and data services had been restored to normal. I think I had noticed a slight boost in EVDO speeds but that may have just been wishful thinking.

It seems like work might finally be starting in Bradenton. Another unmarked truck at the cell site by my work today! I didn't have time to stop but I did notice it wasn't the AT&T crew that was out there last week.

Also, service quickly deteriorated as soon as I connected to the tower. I'm showing a 3G connection on my status bar but don't have an actual data connection. I went ahead and shut off iMessage and text keep failing to send at and interval of about 20 minutes or so. I don't make a lot of phone calls during the day so I don't know if or how voice service has been affected.

Will make a stop by the site after work to check out what's going on!

 

 

Well I screwed that up! Wrong tower. Must be AT&T RRU going up. Tower on the other side of the street is sprints. Looked at some pictures on here and looks just like a AT&T RRU. Sorry all.

 

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