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Mjrtom7's profile

Explorer

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25 Messages

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 6:57 PM

Closed

Will Northeast MI ever receive 3G?

I've heard talk about how ATT is "working on their network coverage" and plans to provide 3G service in Northeast MI "in the coming months".  Well, now that another 2 year contract has expired, I'm seriously wondering if I would be better off jumping to Verizon.  The EDGE data network up here if virtually useless.  5 full bars, yet extremely poor data transfer.  

 

Can anyone provide an HONEST answer as to when this coverage is planned to be upgraded???  Verizon has had 3G for quite a long while up here...

Scholar

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391 Messages

9 years ago

Well, it is almost April and so far AT&T hasn't really done anything to improve their network this year. What's even more disappointing is that most of the new site builds that were scheduled for this year and 2016 have been cancelled. My AT&T contact that is involved in the network buildout said there are deep budget cuts due to the upcoming acquisition of Directv, and that Michigan is going to suffer as a direct result. The only new info that I can share is there is a new site scheduled to go online this year in Shingleton, near Munising(U.P.)and only a fairly small amount of new LTE upgrades across Michigan this year as well.

 

What is disappointing for me, is the tower in Lewiston was one of the first in NE MI to get UMTS (3G) back in June of 2013. Nothing has changed since and speeds have plummeted. In fact, one of the new sites that was recently cancelled was going to be constructed along M33 near 612, east of Lewiston. M33 is heavily travelled by people heading north and has been pretty much a dead spot, so I guess it will continue to be for the foreseeable future . You can see on the second pic where that new site was approved to go up, but has been axed:(  On a similar note, AT&T was supposed to construct a site in Trout Lake as well, but not going to happen:(

 

 

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2 Attachments

Scholar

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391 Messages

9 years ago

Well, looks like I will be eating some Crow for dinner tonight. Just got the word that AT&T turned up LTE this afternoon on the Lewiston site.:)

Professor

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827 Messages

9 years ago

I'd like to see when Drummond Island gets LTE.

Scholar

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391 Messages

9 years ago

I would as well. Still don't know if that new site on the island is running UMTS yet or not. Map still shows EDGE.

Scholar

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391 Messages

9 years ago

Well, this thread has gone cold. Anyway, for those of you who live in northwest lower Michigan the network is going to get better soon. AT&T is in the process of acquiring 24 MHz of 700 spectrum (B17) from Agri-Valley/Thumb Cellular that will cover all of northern, and especially northwest MIchigan including areas like Traverse City where they currently have B5 & B4 LTE deployed. They are also acquiring the 5 MHz chunk of spectrum that will cover counties in northeast MI as well. That will give AT&T a 10x10 LTE carrier on 700 MHz across all of northern lower Michigan and match Verizon's current B13 LTE deployment. AT&T has been lame so far this year, but I expect things are going to change.

Scholar

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391 Messages

9 years ago

AT&T LTE Carrier Aggregation in live in Gaylord Michigan! 10 MHz B4 + 5 MHz B17. Backhaul isn't provisioned to achieve maximum speeds but I was getting decent 50+ meg downloads yesterday evening.

Scholar

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151 Messages

9 years ago

Stopped by the Arnold tower a few days ago, still not activated. Looks like they are marking to run the fiber along the road now.

Guru

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1.1K Messages

9 years ago

The thing that drives me crazy is that my iPhone prefers Canadian LTE signals over US 2g signals which in the Eastern UP is a problem.  

Scholar

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391 Messages

9 years ago

Stufried,

Hope you aren't being charged for international data. I heard that the site in Goetzville received 3G/HSPA+ recently so all of the sites in the eastern U.P. should be upgraded, except for Drummond. Don't know if that one is upgraded or not.

There may be a setting to turn off international data.

Scholar

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391 Messages

9 years ago

American Ninja,

Thanks for the update on the Arnold site. If they are running fiber that is a great sign. My guess is, they didn't run T-1's to that site or it would have been online months ago. When it does go online, it should be the full Monty. UMTS/HSPA/LTE:)
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