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Comments on news posted 2012-11-26 16:14:18: Sprint has lit up eleven more LTE markets with a continued focus on smaller towns and cities. ..

Prespd
join:2004-03-10
Wyoming, MI

Prespd

Member

Now build where people live

Great Sprint. I'm happy to see more markets going live, but how about a running count of cities/regions with any real qty of POPS? At least give us a count like say 50/300 existing towers upgraded, and 10/4,000 new ones activated? How about an ETA map?

Sure don't give away the farm, then at least identify the top 15 tier markets and give us a total of the running upgrades/installations. Don't worry, we can calculate percentages on our own. Give us some more details, but sure, protect your market position with what you share. Nerds like me want to know.

Edited due to my crappy spelling
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: Now build where people live

»s4gru.com

Wish, granted.

The info isn't directly from Sprint's PR folks, but it is real, actual info.

Also, as has been said before, Sprint is launching smaller markets because you can launch a small market after upgrading five or ten towers. Whereas you need to upgrade five hundred towers/cell sites to get some place like LA online.
WeKnSmith
join:2001-08-09
Noblesville, IN

WeKnSmith to Prespd

Member

to Prespd
The three listed Indiana markets are all college towns. Indianapolis is really filling in too:

»sensorly.com/map/4G/US/U ··· #q=46038

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

Numbers game...

This is the only way for it to appear that Sprint isn't so far behind on LTE..... Get the numbers up with multiple small towns launching at the same time.

I don't fault Sprint for doing it this way. They simply don't have the money or capital to launch large markets simultaneously like Verizon and to a lesser extent, AT&T does. Verizon is the king of LTE launches.

Getting numbers up quickly looks better than it really is. Hopefully they don't lose customers in the big cities while they build out small towns.

The wait for LTE on an iPhone 5 or other LTE-capable device in larger markets has got to be frustrating as hell for those folks.
ydoucare
join:2003-03-12
Lafayette, IN

ydoucare

Member

Re: Numbers game...

said by IPPlanMan:

Hopefully they don't lose customers in the big cities while they build out small towns.

They're not delaying big cities to focus on smaller cities by any stretch of the imagination. Most of these small cities fall within the large markets, like Chicago, that they're already working on. Chicago, for example, has hundreds of cell sites complete and operational already, they just haven't officially launched it. Sprint's biggest problem is people making ignorant assumptions of their LTE rollout based on worthless press releases.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

Re: Numbers game...

said by ydoucare:

Sprint's biggest problem is people making ignorant assumptions of their LTE rollout based on worthless press releases.

You mean "worthless press releases" directly from Sprint? Those worthless press releases?

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· 8Sx4B2Sk

morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000

morbo to IPPlanMan

Member

to IPPlanMan
said by IPPlanMan:

The wait for LTE on an iPhone 5

LTE networks have been out for more than 2 years while the iPhone 3Gs was still being produced. I think the faithful have proven they can and will wait it out for next generation LTE network.

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD

Premium Member

Re: Numbers game...

If it wasn't for iPhone, Sprint would have kept its "4G" as wimax.

toby
Troy Mcclure
join:2001-11-13
Seattle, WA

1 recommendation

toby

Member

Re: Numbers game...

said by AVD:

If it wasn't for iPhone, Sprint would have kept its "4G" as wimax.

Huh?

Clearwire owns the Wimax towers and infrastructure, Sprint leased space from them.

Sprint is implementing their own LTE infrastructure on 99% of their existing towers.

Wimax is a very capable platform, it was never installed very widely.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx to AVD

Member

to AVD
I echo toby's "huh?"

Sprint has been working on its own LTE network (as opposed to Clearwire's higher-frequency, footprint-limited WiMAX network) since well before the iPhone 5 was launched. Heck, the iPhone is one of the poorer devices, feature-wise, on Sprint that does LTE. The big example being its inability to do voice and any kind of data at the same time, though every other LTE phone on Sprint can at least do voice and LTE at the same time, and many can do voice and 3G.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan to morbo

Member

to morbo
The device itself is no longer the limiting factor... It's geography, permits, money and NIMBY's... (Not in my backyarders...)

morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000

morbo

Member

Re: Numbers game...

NIMBY is an issue with new towers. Not so much with replacing existing tower equipment. Am I missing something?

LightS
Premium Member
join:2005-12-17
Greenville, TX

LightS to IPPlanMan

Premium Member

to IPPlanMan
For what it's worth, I'm about 45 miles from Dallas and I have LTE with Sprint. Coverage in the entire DFW region is much better than it was just a few months ago.


xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Re: Numbers game...

Coverage in KC sucked at first too but they keep adding more LTE sites. Even outskirts of KC have LTE now. But they still need to do some more infill.

»dl.dropbox.com/u/3812896 ··· tlte.png

WHT
join:2010-03-26
Rosston, TX

WHT to LightS

Member

to LightS
Far northwest Fort Worth on Loop 620, on a rare occasion I see 5 Mbps, but usually less than 3 Mbps...and more than often, it drops to half speed one third of the way through the speed test. Sunday afternoon 4G was 800 Kbps and 3G was only 200 Kbps.

LightS
Premium Member
join:2005-12-17
Greenville, TX

LightS

Premium Member

Re: Numbers game...

The point of my original post, though, was to state that a large amount of cities in the DFW region have LTE service without Sprint saying explicitly that they do.

I was actually just in northwest FW (North Richland Hills) a few days ago and I was getting about 29mbps down. Pretty good.

Other times, it's lower, about 9 or so - but I've never seen 3mbps on LTE around there with Sprint. I've only had this iPhone 5 for a week, but I did a lot of driving and took note of speeds. They were almost always great. 3G is, of course, garbage lol.
NiteSn0w
join:2010-12-24

NiteSn0w to WHT

Member

to WHT
Either the tower you're connecting to is two far away or is not completely upgraded and approved by Sprint. Sprint LTE should yield 37/18 Mbit/s (up/down) with full signal.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: Numbers game...

Correction: Sprint LTE theoretically supports 37/18 with full signal. Realistically, if you're the only one on the tower sector and have full signal, 36/14 is doable (I've been in this situation). Real-world speeds with good signal will realistically be half that.
NiteSn0w
join:2010-12-24

NiteSn0w

Member

Re: Numbers game...

Oh yeah with a loaded network everything will drop to half but half is still pretty damn amazing especially with how consistent the latency has been on Sprint's LTE network. With latency below 60ms in most cases I don't think anyone can complain about the network. Unless they're out in a field in the middle of Kansas trying to have a pissing contest with Verizon's or AT&T's LTE network. But even then the latency will be a big factor in performance. You can have 70 Mbit/s (probably not even that specifically due to latency) of throughput but with 150+ms latency you're not going to be able to enjoy it much at all. AT&T has done better than Verizon with latency but in a lot of areas they're still pretty high up there.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: Numbers game...

Depends on where you are. I've seen 50-70ms latency consistently with Verizon these days. Sprint has been lower, but the connection speed and low jitter on VZW means that you don't really notice a difference, all else equal, unless you're gamin0 (which I do)g, and maybe not even then.
NiteSn0w
join:2010-12-24

NiteSn0w

Member

Re: Numbers game...

There are quite a few places where I have seen consistently high latency on Verizon's network one of which would be here in Cleveland. Latency sits around 125ms+ and speeds never really surpass 12/3 Mbit/s. It's about as bad as using 3G to browse the web. Even though you have good download speeds you still have high latency which makes web browsing feel sluggish. If Sprint can one up Verizon here I wouldn't be surprised. Clearwire WiMAX is already better than Verizon LTE here. Sprint seems to have consistently low latency all around the country with very little variation.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: Numbers game...

What does a traceroute look like out of CLE? I know that for awhile Verizon was hauling LTE traffic in Denver out to Seattle before doing anything useful with it. I imagine that the issue is similar where you are.

T-Mobile is actually quite good about this, as is CricKet; since neither have national backbone networks, they'll just dump traffic onto the Internet at the nearest large city.
NiteSn0w
join:2010-12-24

NiteSn0w

Member

Re: Numbers game...

I can't check on Verizon right now, as my mom is the one with Verizon LTE and getting her phone from her for 5 seconds to run a traceroute will be like pulling teeth, but I can try and grab one later on today.

I wouldn't doubt Verizon is doing something ridiculous with traffic before it hits the internet from here. Verizon shouldn't have any problems putting in a LTE core here. Sprint has managed to do it just fine, eHRPD is already up and running in CLE.

It seems like everything from CLE on Sprint's network goes to CAK and gets dumped onto the internet. Latency from CLE to CAK is ~5ms on my home internet (it should be much lower for fiber). This should mean that latency on Sprint's LTE should sit around 25-30ms for local sites and 35-50ms for everything from the east coast to Kansas.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon to NiteSn0w

Member

to NiteSn0w
said by NiteSn0w:

Oh yeah with a loaded network everything will drop to half but half is still pretty damn amazing especially with how consistent the latency has been on Sprint's LTE network. With latency below 60ms in most cases I don't think anyone can complain about the network. You can have 70 Mbit/s (probably not even that specifically due to latency) of throughput but with 150+ms latency you're not going to be able to enjoy it much at all.

I completely agree with this. A smartphone only needs a few Mbps. After that, latency matters more to app performance. Bloggers and speedqueens don't seem to understand latency impacts app/web performance. Sprint is winning when it comes to latency partly because they have more sites closer together.
NiteSn0w
join:2010-12-24

NiteSn0w

Member

Re: Numbers game...

said by xenophon:

said by NiteSn0w:

Oh yeah with a loaded network everything will drop to half but half is still pretty damn amazing especially with how consistent the latency has been on Sprint's LTE network. With latency below 60ms in most cases I don't think anyone can complain about the network. You can have 70 Mbit/s (probably not even that specifically due to latency) of throughput but with 150+ms latency you're not going to be able to enjoy it much at all.

I completely agree with this. A smartphone only needs a few Mbps. After that, latency matters more to app performance. Bloggers and speedqueens don't seem to understand latency impacts app/web performance. Sprint is winning when it comes to latency partly because they have more sites closer together.

Well there's latency over the air-link but that's likely minimal. Having sites closer together will reduce latency there. But also having less people on each tower will reduce latency from cell load.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Re: Numbers game...

Yup, and because Sprint sites are closer together, there are fewer users per site. And of course Sprint has half the users of ATT/VZW.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx to WHT

Member

to WHT
Which phone do you have? If you're looking at bars to show what signal you've got, they're dead wrong. You have to go into field test mode (##DEBUG#, passcode SPRINT) to get real readings. -90 dBm RSRP is good. -100 is okay. -110 is bad.
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32

Premium Member

Tired of waiting for LTE

As a company, I like Sprint. As a company I hate Verizon Wireless. But Saturday after 9 years of being with Nextel & Sprint, I switched over to Verizon. And boy did it hurt!

What good is Unlimited Data when average speeds on 3G are not much faster than dial up? On Thursdays for work, I'm in a small rural town with no Sprint service. I would roam on to Verizon’s 1X network and at -85 dB pull in faster speeds then having a perfect signal on Sprints own native EVDO network when I’m back to civilization. Tell me that isn’t fucked up. I could deal with not having LTE coverage for another year, but when it takes 10 minutes to load a stupid YouTube clip, that was enough. Sprint has announced no plans to upgrade either Buffalo or Rochester, NY to LTE. Although as of two weeks ago, progress was being made as Sprints EVDO Network now registers as EHRPD which is a prelude to LTE. Speeds got slightly better, but nothing to write home about.

Verizon’s LTE speeds are a tad bid disappointing around here. I’ve been averaging 8-13 Mb Down and about 3-5Mb Up. When I had a wimax phone on Sprint, in Rochester I would get the same download and 1.5-2.0Mb on the upload. When Sprint launches LTE in Upstate NY and has a significant portion of the area covered, I may switch back. Contracts and ETFs don’t scare me. I just bought the Evo 4G LTE in June and less than 6 months later I moved on.

LightS
Premium Member
join:2005-12-17
Greenville, TX

1 edit

LightS

Premium Member

Re: Tired of waiting for LTE

Wait.... if I may ask, why is 8-13mb down so bad? My Verizon Galaxy Nexus gets good LTE speeds. I've seen around 30mbps for both my Galaxy Nexus on LTE & Sprint's LTE.

Sprint iPhone 5

Verizon Galaxy Nexus


I would take a new Verizon LTE test but I haven't lived in that area for months & no LTE here.

edit: while I agree, 8-13mbps is nothing compared to what I posted above... do you honestly need that speed? If your area is congested with LTE phones, I think that's pretty darn respectable. I'd love to get 30mbps all of the time, but honestly, for the majority of the stuff I do on a phone etc even 5mbps is enough... while you may be different, I don't see how you can need that much lol
Beans5
join:2005-07-16
united state

Beans5

Member

Re: Tired of waiting for LTE

Simple if your teathered to your laptop, download a large file, yes I want 30 Mbps all the time, but for everything else, Nope.

LightS
Premium Member
join:2005-12-17
Greenville, TX

LightS

Premium Member

Re: Tired of waiting for LTE

You want 30mbps all of the time? Not happening unless you're on a lone tower with nobody else using data.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: Tired of waiting for LTE

Give T-Mobile a year and a half. They'll have 20MHz FD LTE carriers capable of giving a consistent 30 Mbps, up and down. Maybe even double that for downloads.

Sprint will also be able to hit that once they get Clearwire TD-LTE online.
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32 to LightS

Premium Member

to LightS
It’s not really bad, just disappointing. After reading on sites like this how shitty wimax is and how much better LTE is, I was expecting more.

Here’s my personal best on Sprint 4G Wimax:


Here’s my personal best on Verizon 4G LTE:

••••••••
dmelling
join:2009-02-26
New Paris, OH

dmelling

Member

Softbank Deal......just wait

Yes, I have been frustrated with Sprint service and was first to get the first EVO waiting for WiMax......it never happened. Now I am waiting for a taste of LTE. My home WISP service is horrible and got a pre-paid Mifi from Verizon, the speeds were good 8-12 meg...but I burnt past my allotted 4 Gig in 6 days.....

Anyhow, was reading all about the founder of Softbank and with their 20B cash infusion into Sprint, and his belief of shaking up the pricing scheme to beat the competition, I believe we will see LTE-TD service at a much lower price point than anyone plus without caps.
LineNoise
join:2006-06-25
Downers Grove, IL
(Software) pfSense

LineNoise

Member

who cares?

I left S about 5 month ago when I couldn't drive around the block and keep a call and had to walk out to the street in my suburban home when I used to be able to hold a call in my basement.

I'd really like to keep my money with a wholly US based company. I guess that leaves AT&T and Leap. Fuck.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

You know a company is screwed when...

They start building little markets out to pump their market count up. AT&T and Verizon didn't do that- they tackled NYC, SF, LA, Chicago, Boston, etc, etc, right up front where LTE is actually needed (Ok, Sprint's 3G is so bad that everywhere needs LTE, but still...).

••••••••••••

joe_durt
@airadvantage.net

joe_durt

Anon

you got LTE and still complain ?

I live in an area where ATT and Sprint are the only major players, and neither offer 3G, let alone LTE. The best connection we have around here is a small mom and pop wireless company that has had 3G for a few years and is getting ready to light up LTE. Meanwhile, AT&T is contemplating upgrading a few select sites from omni to sector....Yey. Cable, WiSP, DSL ? Too funny. My WiSP provider charges for broadband and supplies eye popping speeds near that of dial-up.

So, while you remain spoiled with several options for broadband, remember the rest of us.
Expand your moderator at work
Prespd
join:2004-03-10
Wyoming, MI

Prespd

Member

Still like Sprint

Still, I prefer Sprint over everything else for unlimited. And I can attest, that I have LTE in a non-launched market on Sprint, SF Bay Area, and the speeds are around 14-16 down. It's the coverage that I can't wait to be expanded.

Than and the iPhone 5 I have craps out sometimes when switching signals, especially from LTE to 3G and to and from Wifi. Sometimes need to cycle data on and off to pick up the best signal when it is there.

NY
@mtahq.org

NY

Anon

Tired of waiting

It was about 2 years ago I bought my HTC Evo 4g from sprint, they told me that 4g would be out shortly. Two years later at the end of my contract I was still waiting and face with the descision of changing carriers. I decided to go with Verizon and am I happy, the speeds on my phones are quite impressive, compared with the constant buffering I was use to with sprint. I got tired of waiting, if they have there act together 2 years from now I will consider coming back, but just couldn't see running my new samsung note 2 on a 3g service.