Will Northeast MI ever receive 3G?

[Mjrtom7]

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...

[JREwing53]

As I said earlier on this thread, when I went to buy my HTC OneX last June, I asked about 4G in the area I was moving to. Yep, 4G was coming by July 30...nanenanea...  Guess what? Still on Edge. This was from an ATT corporate store.  So much for relibable info.

[American Ninja]

Thank you for the replies Tpeltz and Lewyman. Hopefully Escanaba gets 3G/4G this year.

A guy that I work with told me last year that he knows the guy who climbs the towers and puts in 3G/4G for AT&T in the U.P. He said Escanaba was suppose to get 3G last year sometime I guess but, AT&T told him to stop and wait for 4G. So if 4G hadn't come out yet Escanaba would of had 3G. lol

I have thought about switching to Verizion but they have a very bad signal out where I'm at.

[JREwing53]

The AT&T people told me that we are to get 4g by the end of June 2013. I wonder how far off 4gLTE is for the eastern UP? I'll just be glad to just get plain 4g.

[Lewyman]

You are welcome American Ninja. AT&T is misleading about what it calls "4G". Essentially it is an upgraded version of 3G that is on fiber backhaul known as HSPA+. Many areas of Michigan have been upgraded to 4G and is faster on newer phones than 3G, but lacks the true speed and low latency of LTE. AT&T simply does not have the spectrum to deploy LTE in the U.P. at this time. To skip 3G does not make sense because they have to overlay 3G with HSPA+14 or 21 in order for older 3G only phones to access the faster data network.

[American Ninja]

I hopes that turns out to be true JREwing53. Ah ok, thanks for the info. Lewyman. I didn't know that.

That's just sad. 

[Wild Banchi]

Even Laingsburg, a small town outside of Perry/Bath has 4G LTE deployed. I used to live in this area and it is a very small town. I was shocked to see that Verizon has their 4G network up and running there.

[Tpeltz]

I'm willing to bet that AT&T is waiting for the Merit fiber backbone project to finish up in June of this year. They are running backbone fiber capable of 100GB/s to most rural areas in all of northern MI and the UP. AT&T will be able to tap into this main line by running last mile fiber to their own cell sites. Then pay Merit for use on their backbone network. Merit's prices will probably be much lower than what Frontier or any other competitive local exchange provider could offer since it is government funded.

[American Ninja]

Oh really? I didn't know that.

[Lewyman]

@Tpeltz
That's interesting. Could that be what Verizon is waiting for in some area's as well? I know it's still only February but to me there should be more towers lit up at this point.

[JREwing53]

That might be the reason they told me June 29 for the 4G appearance.  Interesting.  Will we be seeing roadside digging on this project?  Those are always signs that something is up.

[Tpeltz]

The backbone itself will either be buried (underground construction) or strung on existing utility poles (aerial construction). They choose what ever method is most economical for specific areas. I believe in the UP most of it is underground, but once it gets into a city they bring it aerial. 

Here is the map of where the fiber backhone will be constructed (the dark red segmented/solid and dark blue segmented/solid lines are the important ones).

[American Ninja]

Thank you for the info. Tpeltz.

[Lewyman]

Good work Tpeltz. Believe it or not, there are more fiber lines installed underground then what people are aware of even in the more remote areas. They are not just in the right of ways of roads or on poles, but along railroad grades as well. Many of them are for government and municipality use only.

[electroshock]

Why do you think this happened?
Higher prices for crap service at first which eventually got better and people stuck with overpriced services until it finally got good. This is the only reason they are so big and plus their customer service isn't too pleasent either.

[JREwing53]

Welcome aboard electroshock.