AR 4G LTE Markets

palmdroid1

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

Well here it is almost the middle of February and Verizon 4G LTE has still not been officially turned on in Benton AR as was first promised by the end of November. What is the Friggin deal? And another thing.. my Verizon 4G 551? USB modem I bought in october disconnects constantly and I have to reconnect. I'm starting to think I should not have signed a 2 yr contract for this fiasco!

Man, the salesmen will promise anything to sell you something...Commission. I always wondered why each time I've upgraded one of my 5 lines on the family plan, they wanted me to give up my Alltel plan...Commission. They make money on plan changes and sales. The guy that activated my T-bolt told me that because of my Alltel Smartpack, The phone would work, but I wouldn't get 4G...I knew that was a line. Most of the sales folks don't know much about network upgrades, unless it's something planned less than 2 weeks out in that area.

The wait is all about getting the backhaul to the towers, and getting the towers ready for LTE. More importantly, is the backhaul. Because of location(being in the south, where there aren't as many tech savvies), it's not easy to get the kinda bandwidth necessary to support LTE to many towers. That's why Jonesboro got it before Little Rock. Jonesboro is in a lucky position to have close access to multiple Tier1 and Tier2 providers. Ritter, Suddenlink Communications, AT&T, and Verizon for sure all have their own bandwidth available in or near Jonesboro. Possibly others. Not sure on Little Rock, as far as their providers. It probably doesn't hurt Jonesboro that it's so close to Memphis either.

I'm impatiently waiting as well. We're right on I55, an hour north of Memphis, I was told February by a VZW employee that was not in a sales postion. He was a regional manager for somewhere south of here. I don't know if it's true or not, they been working on the tower. I got fingers crossed, but hey, it's only the 9th. We still have over 2 weeks. Who knows?
 

One Radical Dude

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

Well here it is almost the middle of February and Verizon 4G LTE has still not been officially turned on in Benton AR as was first promised by the end of November. What is the Friggin deal? And another thing.. my Verizon 4G 551? USB modem I bought in october disconnects constantly and I have to reconnect. I'm starting to think I should not have signed a 2 yr contract for this fiasco!

I have a feeling it may be March or April. They just recently upgraded the monopole site near Haskell, closest to the Valero convenience store. It had four antennas on each side, but it looks like that's no longer the case.

I'm still waiting to see the nearest cell sites in my community get upgraded, and so far, I haven't seen any new antennas.

I took a pic of this site earlier. The only thing I see different (that I do not remember seeing before) is what appears to be a microwave antenna (I guess that's what that is) on the lower left. Otherwise, that's it.

By the way, palmdroid, thank you for the images.
 

palmdroid1

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

I have a feeling it may be March or April. They just recently upgraded the monopole site near Haskell, closest to the Valero convenience store. It had four antennas on each side, but it looks like that's no longer the case.

I'm still waiting to see the nearest cell sites in my community get upgraded, and so far, I haven't seen any new antennas.

I took a pic of this site earlier. The only thing I see different (that I do not remember seeing before) is what appears to be a microwave antenna (I guess that's what that is) on the lower left. Otherwise, that's it.

By the way, palmdroid, thank you for the images.


You're welcome, bud. I found out what they took off the tower a few days ago. We were one of the few towns in Arkansas with Open Range Communicatons WiMAX service. Clear is still on the tower. I don't know if anyone has heard of Open Range, but they were a company that got a huge grant from the gov't to promote broadband in rural/hard to service areas...Well it was obvious they did't know what they were doing since they put up service in a town that already has AT&T DSL everywhere, Ritter Cable in most areas, and outside of town I think they've got CenturyLink. We weren't the only town that was already in good shape that they put up service in, so I see why they went under. It's hard to sell 3 MBPS WiMAX to people that are paying 40/mo for 15 MBPS Cable.

I'm itching to at least hear the next big LTE expansion plans. It really seems like they've slowed down the rollout. I was hearing new places all the time all last year. This year they haven't gotten off to an impressive start.
 

One Radical Dude

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

You're welcome, bud. I found out what they took off the tower a few days ago. We were one of the few towns in Arkansas with Open Range Communicatons WiMAX service. Clear is still on the tower. I don't know if anyone has heard of Open Range, but they were a company that got a huge grant from the gov't to promote broadband in rural/hard to service areas...Well it was obvious they did't know what they were doing since they put up service in a town that already has AT&T DSL everywhere, Ritter Cable in most areas, and outside of town I think they've got CenturyLink. We weren't the only town that was already in good shape that they put up service in, so I see why they went under. It's hard to sell 3 MBPS WiMAX to people that are paying 40/mo for 15 MBPS Cable.

I'm itching to at least hear the next big LTE expansion plans. It really seems like they've slowed down the rollout. I was hearing new places all the time all last year. This year they haven't gotten off to an impressive start.

I want to know what they are going to do next, also. I wasn't surprised that January was really quiet for LTE new markets and expansions. I want to think it will be more so this month, but I don't know. Maybe their announcements will be very small and not very noticeable, since most large cities have already launched LTE.
 

njt462

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

A Verizon employee told me that LTE mass roll out is complete, now they will just turn on what they see as "holes" in the service area as they get it up and running.

The Verizon employee told me it will be probably a 2015 point before there whole 3G footprint is LTE but they are hearing rumors now that they are not even going to do the whole 3G footprint.
 

One Radical Dude

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

A Verizon employee told me that LTE mass roll out is complete, now they will just turn on what they see as "holes" in the service area as they get it up and running.

The Verizon employee told me it will be probably a 2015 point before there whole 3G footprint is LTE but they are hearing rumors now that they are not even going to do the whole 3G footprint.

Verizon employees, for the most part, will say anything, and the information they give you ends up being false. I don't believe any of it. VZW has said numerous times that it would complete its LTE footprint by the end of 2013.
 

palmdroid1

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

Verizon employees, for the most part, will say anything, and the information they give you ends up being false. I don't believe any of it. VZW has said numerous times that it would complete its LTE footprint by the end of 2013.

You're right. So far, I can't think of one true thing a Verizon employee has told me. And they have no idea what they're talking about. I said something about CDMA to a Verizon sales associate, and they had no idea what that meant. There are a few good one's. Probably more good than bad, but you remember the bad ones. And they seem to be the ones willing to tell you all the "news"

Verizon has stated they will have 4G LTE coverage in as many or more places than they currently have 3G by the end of 2013.

They've also stated in a couple of places (including on their customer forum on the VZ site) that if you have 3G today, you've got a good chance of having 4G by the end of 2012.

2013 will be the year that they "fill in the holes".

Based on everything I've found online and the little bit of information I've been given that's believable this is how the rollout has gone, and will go:

Late 2010- Start off with LTE in the largest cities and major national airports

2011- Rapidly expand LTE to all major airports not covered, major cities, and cover all (or as many as possible) major college towns

2012- Connect the cities...I remember reading several articles stating that if you live within 30 miles of the interstate system, or major highways, you should have 4G this year. Covering the interstates and major highways will then cover most medium to mid (and even many small) towns in America

2013- Fill in those holes. Upgrade the backwoods, boondocks areas that are still at that point only 3G.
 

ghc37

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

Well it looks like Verizon has been doing some more tweaking on the 4g in my area (2 miles west of Alcoa Exchange in Benton/Salem). Past 5 days I have had consistent 4g signal, no switching to 3g then back to 4g as previously. 3 bars sig strength instead of 2. A little over 6 mbps down, 8 mbps up every day I have checked it. Modem still disconnects after 20- 40 min of inactivity, guess I can live with that
 

palmdroid1

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

Well it looks like Verizon has been doing some more tweaking on the 4g in my area (2 miles west of Alcoa Exchange in Benton/Salem). Past 5 days I have had consistent 4g signal, no switching to 3g then back to 4g as previously. 3 bars sig strength instead of 2. A little over 6 mbps down, 8 mbps up every day I have checked it. Modem still disconnects after 20- 40 min of inactivity, guess I can live with that

That's awesome! I wish they'd hurry up and get ours going in our little corner of Arkansas.

I'm still eagerly waiting to see the next announcements, if any.

Verizon's big launch days for things like phones, and new 4G areas are almost always on a Thursday, we've only got 2 Thursday's left in February, where's the list of new markets or areas being turned on?
 

palmdroid1

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

Just read it!

I was starting to worry that they forgot about the whole 4G network.

It's awesome that Arkansas is getting some lovin'

Too bad it's not in my corner. But who knows, I don't remember seeing anything about Searcy till I saw it on the coverage map. The road in front of the tower was closed and I had to detour on lunch, and they had a lot of stuff dug up and cables sticking up out of the ground..had the road busted up...probably working on something else though...like our crappy public bleach (cough cough I mean water) supply.

They're still not impressing me with the 2012 rollout, maybe I expect too much.

I want to see a REAL announcement, like contiguous 4G LTE from Little Rock to St. Louis.

Or Memphis to New Orleans.

At least it's something. I'm glad they're getting it going down there and expanding to cover more people. I was so shocked when Jonesboro and Ft. Smith got it before Little Rock.

Jonesboro's coverage seemed better last week. I have a friend that lives on the edge of town, and last time I was there, less than 2 months ago, even if I set it to LTE Mode, it wouldn't get LTE. Now it bounces back and forth, 3G/4G at her place now. She was and still is in a dark red 4G area, several miles from "extended" so I know the maps aren't quite right. She has a tower right by her house, but it's only 3G for the time being, based on the map for that area, and the location of that tower, it appears Verizon's map shows that tower as 4G when I know in fact, it is not.
 

ghc37

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

I'm betting Benton, Bryant, Hot Springs, and maybe down towards Pine Bluff. I saw a tower in Redfield that appears to have been upgraded for 4G.
 

One Radical Dude

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

Searcy was one of those silent launch areas. I believe they launched in December.

I don't think the 2012 launch announcements are going to be like they were in 2011. Most of the large markets have already happened. A lot of what they're going to do is expand existing markets and add smaller cities.

I was shocked, as well, when Fort Smith and Jonesboro got LTE before Little Rock. Jonesboro was the first market I tested in all of Arkansas, though I tried LTE in at the DFW airport first, then in L.A., San Diego, Phoenix, and then Las Vegas in that order.

As I mentioned, if they haven't activated other cities in AR early, yet, I really don't expect LTE, but I want to know how much closer they are to my location. I'm sick of getting 0.20-0.50Mbps download speeds (yeah, I do hit 1+Mbps sometimes, but not often).
 

One Radical Dude

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

I'm betting Benton, Bryant, Hot Springs, and maybe down towards Pine Bluff. I saw a tower in Redfield that appears to have been upgraded for 4G.

They also have LTE antennas on at least one site in Arkadelphia. We'll see. how far they expand the coverage. I was really shocked, when Benton and Bryant were not included in the November launch.
 

palmdroid1

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

Searcy was in December. On the launch Thursday in December, I went to the map to look and see how many more (and how many got bigger) dark reddish brown blobs there were on the map and thought something was odd, zoomed in, and sure enough, Searcy was on the map. And I swore I hadn't seen or heard it announced anywhere.
So you just confirmed that for me....Thank you! Thought maybe I'd lost a few more of my marbles.

My first experience with LTE was on my ThunderBolt in Memphis. I was near the airport, but it wasn't long before the official Memphis launch. I noticed I had LTE here and there around the city, but went out by the airport specifically for LTE. The very first test clocked over 20 down and over 15 up. My next experience was in August, but not Jonesboro, in St. Louis. I went and stayed a week with family that lives just across the river in Illinois. I stayed up till 2 or 3 each morning streaming 1080p YouTube, and used nearly 18 GB in one week. Next of course was Jonesboro, a few days prior to the official launch, and it was already up and running.

I think you're right, One Radical Dude, in that we won't be seeing huge announcements like we did through 2011, but it would be nice to know. I usually don't get under 1.5 or 2, even during peak use times, but I still want more.
My boss is from Sheridan or Arkadelphia, I can't remember, but I know he hangs out in that general area on the weekends a lot, I may have to pull the T-Bolt out of the drawer and send it with him to see what he can get down there.
 

tim242

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

Bryant has had it for about a month now. But, it is not on my end of Springhill/Sparks yet. Hoping tomorrow is the day. I'm in extended right now, but it isn't usable when it pops on. They tested it months ago, and I got 18 down, out here. So, I know it's coming. I am hoping they get HS in this launch as well. Can't wait til 3am to check the coverage map haha
 

One Radical Dude

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

Bryant has had it for about a month now. But, it is not on my end of Springhill/Sparks yet. Hoping tomorrow is the day. I'm in extended right now, but it isn't usable when it pops on. They tested it months ago, and I got 18 down, out here. So, I know it's coming. I am hoping they get HS in this launch as well. Can't wait til 3am to check the coverage map haha

Yeah, I'll be watching that coverage map, also. :p If my city isn't covered (I bet I'll still be waiting), I really hope the wait is not long. I hate having to continue paying for sluggish data at home.
 

One Radical Dude

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

Where do you live?

I live in Malvern. I know of two sites that have VZW antennas. The last time I saw, I didn't really see anything upgraded, as of last week, though on one of them, it looks like they added a microwave antenna (I didn't remember seeing it before). That's pretty much it.

Update: According to the updated LTE map, it looks like Bryant (Benton, for the most part, is not covered), Alexander, Shannon Hills, East End, and from Cabot, Beebe and towns from there to near Searcy. So, yeah, I knew my location would be waiting. So, Hot Springs, Benton, Pine Bluff, still waiting.
 
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ghc37

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Re: Little Rock/Central AR LTE

Well my neighborhood made the dark red but if you drive 3 miles south toward benton it's extended coverage. Not real impressed I have to say
 

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