A question for those in official lte markets.

[MannyZ28]

My town isn't official yet, but lte has been popping up all over the place. I understand they are still in the build out phase here, but I am curious about something. Coverage seems to be limited to major roads, highways, and the interstate. What's interesting is that I can get full signal strength on the main road, getting great ping and 5 digit download speeds, but as soon as I turn off the main highway, the lte just disappears as if I just drove through a magic barrier that turns it off. Yesterday was the best example, I was sitting in my truck, in my garage, got a good 2 digit ping and 11 MBit download, (16 in my driveway) with it showing strong signal. I walk into the house and bam, back to 3g. Going back outside and turning airplane mode on and off didn't make lte come back, I had to drive a couple of hundred yards to get it back again.

How can that be? Can they physically turn the coverage on and off at certain geographic locations? It just seems weird to me how you get full bars and good speeds in a location and it just disappears a few minutes later.

How is it for you guys in official areas?

I have been using the Sensorly app to map my trips, and I find it a fun tool to make an actual map of my lte coverage.

Anyhow, I hope 4g will soon be as common and readily available as 3g, because when 4g works my phone feels like a new phone. I am amazed how fast Netflix buffers even when jumping around all over the movie.

For anyone in official and merging lte markets, get the Sensorly app on the play store, it's fun to map things out!

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[Mellimel22]

Im in Chicago and still get good speeds.

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[MannyZ28]

Do you experience that weird "going from one zone to the next" thing where it switches to 3g despite just running a successful speed test with good signal? I mean I can understand the signal petering out over long distances, but we are talking no more than a hundred yards going from awesome to no bueno?

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[Rcrdude64]

That's how mine was before they "finished" it. I only seemed to get it on 1 major road and one specific location outside the building where I work.

Sent from the phablet king

 

[MannyZ28]

That's how mine was before they "finished" it. I only seemed to get it on 1 major road and one specific location outside the building where I work.

Sent from the phablet king

But now it's fine and all over the place?

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[Mellimel22]

Do you experience that weird "going from one zone to the next" thing where it switches to 3g despite just running a successful speed test with good signal? I mean I can understand the signal petering out over long distances, but we are talking no more than a hundred yards going from awesome to no bueno?

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I used to a couple months back but now days naw I dont lol.

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[zmann]

I am in Boston market and went through that last summer,, that is how it started. There must be only one tower lit around you. Over the next several months they will lite up more towers around you and change the angles of the lte radios on the towers and tune it all up. The coverage will slowly but steadily get better and better. What you described sounds exactly how it started for me. Within 6 months I was getting strong lte all around me, even indoors.

Note 2, it's true, ,size is everything!

 

[MannyZ28]

I am in Boston market and went through that last summer,, that is how it started. There must be only one tower lit around you. Over the next several months they will lite up more towers around you and change the angles of the lte radios on the towers and tune it all up. The coverage will slowly but steadily get better and better. What you described sounds exactly how it started for me. Within 6 months I was getting strong lte all around me, even indoors.

Note 2, it's true, ,size is everything!

Glad to hear that! Thankfully the places I go to for fun times all have great lte signal. I am beating my friends galaxy s4 on At&t almost every time in direct speed test comparisons.

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[Samsmalls]

Hey Manny remember that the "Bars" doesn't represent the strength of your 4G lte signal. Full Bars = Great Voice Coverage. As I type this I have 1 bar or so, however the 4g icon is lit and my data is pretty fast between 5 - 12mbps! I'm in right outside of Chicago also, and its really everywhere I go, you get so use to it that it's shocking when you see "3G" icon! 4G wimax was similar however it didn't seem to travel the distances as LTE I can pick it up in my basement, and also in some corners force it back to 3g . I only got wimax in my house about twice. Since your picking it up in your driveway & garage now, you'll probably get it throughout your entire house once your markets official and don't worry about bars if you have full bars you must have a tower nearby, I only usually have 0 - 3 bars but that LTE "stays put" , before you know it it'll be everywhere even in the Walmart!

What worries me is after about another year or so, when SGS2, Evo Shift / 3D, & iPhone 4s ect... late arrivals sign up to the party, will it become congested and slow down? No sign of this yet though....

 

[MannyZ28]

Hey Manny remember that the "Bars" doesn't represent the strength of your 4G lte signal. Full Bars = Great Voice Coverage. As I type this I have 1 bar or so, however the 4g icon is lit and my data is pretty fast between 5 - 12mbps! I'm in right outside of Chicago also, and its really everywhere I go, you get so use to it that it's shocking when you see "3G" icon! 4G wimax was similar however it didn't seem to travel the distances as LTE I can pick it up in my basement, and also in some corners force it back to 3g . I only got wimax in my house about twice. Since your picking it up in your driveway & garage now, you'll probably get it throughout your entire house once your markets official and don't worry about bars if you have full bars you must have a tower nearby, I only usually have 0 - 3 bars but that LTE "stays put" , before you know it it'll be everywhere even in the Walmart!

What worries me is after about another year or so, when SGS2, Evo Shift / 3D, & iPhone 4s ect... late arrivals sign up to the party, will it become congested and slow down? No sign of this yet though....

Just two days ago I got inside my house too and it pretty much stays on the entire time. Connection speeds are a bit shaky yet at times to the point that I turn wifi back on, but it seems to be improving slowly. The upload is the biggest problem which is usually below one MBit.

As far as all the other phones you mentioned, they don't have lte capable radios so I wouldn't worry about those. If you live in a urban area like Chicago you would probably have to be more concerned about congestion because of all the new phones joining and crowding up the network. In my area, I have only noticed an improvement in 3g coverage, so hopefully sprint can maintain the quality of service. After all, this is an all new network they are building in and with the money infusion from either softbank or dish network, things are bound to get better. They have a little bit of info on their website about the advantages of their new network, check it out some time.

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[zmann]

My outside average is 20 down and inside average is 12 so be patient, it will get great.

Note 2, it's true, ,size is everything!

 

[tirith]

Yep, was like that initially for me... now I get lte basically everywhere. Even in my house, I'm seeing on average 25mb down, 8+ up... on my back porch, I see am average of about 30

~swyped from a galaxy (note 2) far far away

 

[MannyZ28]

Best I have hit so far is 35 down and 12 up. Just not at my house yet. If it will be like that everywhere I go, like it currently is for Verizon people, then I don't know how they can survive with just 2 or 5 gb a month. Hope Sprint will keep unlimited data, they kind of have to since it is what differentiates them from the other carriers.

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[MannyZ28]

One thing I noticed is that when I am at my house with wifi off and I try to download an app that's of significant size from the play store, the download is extremely slow. Is that the same for people in an official lte market? I can stop the app download and stream youtube and Netflix at high quality without problems, so that's a weird issue that will hopefully go away.

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[tirith]

My app downloads have been crazy slow no matter what I'm using... wifi, lte, 3g

~swyped from a galaxy (note 2) far far away

 

[MannyZ28]

Mine are fine using wifi, Hm, weird.

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[Mellimel22]

My download speeds are awesome compared to before.

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[Fussolia]

I'm in mid Michigan and I'm getting LTE around East Lansing and Lansing!

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[11DanTheMan11]

I live in a southern town and thats how my LTE coverage was as well. Starting in February I could get 4g at really random times, at the store up the street (1/4 mile from my house), but was on 3g everywhere else. It seemed like the next month I could pick it up 50% of the time but not at my house. And now, I get it all the time, even in my living room. They must be putting the finishing touches on the towers or something. My 4g connection is faster than my WiFi from Charter. With the Hotspot I can power the Apple tv, 2 laptops, Playstation 3, and my phone with not a single hiccup. Netflix loads HD with no buffering. It really is like having a new phone. I was starting to get pissed because I have been paying the Sprint 4g charge and NEVER got the signal for something like 2 years. Now tho, I get it everywhere. I heard that Sprint was building their entire network from the group up again, anyone know if this is true?

 

[tirith]

I live in a southern town and thats how my LTE coverage was as well. Starting in February I could get 4g at really random times, at the store up the street (1/4 mile from my house), but was on 3g everywhere else. It seemed like the next month I could pick it up 50% of the time but not at my house. And now, I get it all the time, even in my living room. They must be putting the finishing touches on the towers or something. My 4g connection is faster than my WiFi from Charter. With the Hotspot I can power the Apple tv, 2 laptops, Playstation 3, and my phone with not a single hiccup. Netflix loads HD with no buffering. It really is like having a new phone. I was starting to get pissed because I have been paying the Sprint 4g charge and NEVER got the signal for something like 2 years. Now tho, I get it everywhere. I heard that Sprint was building their entire network from the group up again, anyone know if this is true?

From what I understand, yes, Sprint basically is, with the addition of lte towers and the network vision which is revamped 3g / voice towers

~swyped from a galaxy (note 2) far far away