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Mjrtom7's profile

Explorer

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25 Messages

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 6:57 PM

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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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151 Messages

11 years ago

Oh ok cool. Thats good to know. Now I know what to look for in my area. There were lots of rolls of it and crews were working on it. So hopefully that means thwere will be 3G/4G all the way up to the bridge soon.

 

I'm not sure. I do know that but as we got closer to the bridge I did have E even though I saw towers right off I-75 that clearly had 3G/4G antennas on them.

 

I have another question. On M-35 between Perkins and Gwin there is only E data service. Now will they still have to lay fiber down to upgrade the McFarland tower if Charter internet runs along the highway?

Scholar

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391 Messages

11 years ago

Interesting question. If Charter has a fiber cable on the poles along the road near the tower I would say yes. If AT&T is willing to pay Charter for the use of it, but then again if there are other AT&T towers on the same loop that need to be backhauled, they might wait to lay new fiber. They have been very lax in regards to upgrading northern MI but when Verizon opted to skip upgrading their network to EVDO Rev. B and jump right to LTE, AT&T really got caught. IMHO, AT&T should have worked out a roaming partnership with T-Mo instead of trying to buy them. That would have given both carriers virtually the same LTE and AWS footprint (spectrum wise) as Verizon.

 

EDIT: Well I called AT&T this evening and was on the phone for a good 45 minutes and got to talk to Tier 1& 2 support. It was confirmed from both people I talked to that indeed there is no 3G or HSPA"4G" coverage in Pickford, or from the tower south of Pickford and there was no timeframe given on their computer either as to when the tower will get upgraded service.

    I also asked Tier 2 to check and see when the areas around Gaylord will be getting expanded 3G/4G. This person told me AT&T's system indicated that several towers including Grayling, Frederick, Johannesburg, Lewiston, Atlanta, Hillman, Mio, and other areas are slated to get 3G service by the end of this month. Basically there will be coverage from Petoskey all across to Alpena along M-32. Also, both confirmed that their entire network is supposed to be upgraded to at least 3G by years end. Now, along with no info on the tower in Pickford, there was no timeframe given on the tower in Lovells either.So that is a very tall order in which we will have to wait and see.

Scholar

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391 Messages

11 years ago

Just a quick note. Verizon's new coverage map is out and it looks like the entire lower peninsula is lit up with LTE. Also, De Tour Village and the western part of Drummond Island are lit up as well.

Scholar

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173 Messages

11 years ago

I've heard from several people from Detour that Verizon has really good coverage there. The minute Big Red lights up here, I'm bolting to Verizon. Can't figure out why Verizon has no coverage around Pickford. But I was talking to a Verizon person a few weeks ago, and he indicated that they were trying to get access to an existing tower two miles straight east of the ATT tower. If that happens, then everyone around here will be switching to Verizon.

I'm curious when you were talking to the ATT people, if they said anything as to why their coverage map shows 4G here when they admit that it doesn't exist.

Scholar

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391 Messages

11 years ago

They could not explain why the coverage is on the map. Their system indicated Pickford is basically GSM only (EDGE) but she was going to forward it to another department to correct the map. Now the pics you posted here of the tower would indicate that its pretty much set to go its just a matter of the backhaul. If it is indeed on microwave B/H or if the tower is already on fiber, possibly since it was constructed, than it could be anytime they flip the switch on. They did tell me AT&T's system was showing several towers in NE lower MI are scheduled to have 3G activations by the end of this month. I did specifically talk about the tower in Pickford and one thing interesting that Tier 2 said was that tower showed up in the system as a network partner which she said they have no info on. I did some research on that specific cell site and it is registered as Cingular which is an AT&T holding.

Scholar

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173 Messages

11 years ago

Confirmed that Verizon has 4G LTE in Detour Village and Drummond Island. And I hear that they will be putting up some more towers here in the Eastern UP. ATT is still on Edge.

Scholar

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391 Messages

11 years ago

That's good to hear. Big Red needs to put up a lot more towers in the lower as well. My phone drops to 3G and 1x quite a bit in the extended areas. I guess no company is perfect.

Teacher

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29 Messages

11 years ago

Is there an actual tower in Pickford?  To me it looks like the tower is south of Pickford and has no indication of 4g.  It looks like the "4g"on the map is fall out from the tower in Rudyard, which the map for some reason "predicts".  It must be because of the East wind the day they mapped it Smiley LOL    

Scholar

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138 Messages

11 years ago

AT&T is SO SAD. They can't even get 4G HSPA+ in Northern MI while EVERY OTHER PROVIDER in the world at least provides HSPA+21 or even 42 dual carrier (ala T-Mobile). I believe their HSPA+ is 14.4 at most in some areas. I haven't been up north lately though but AT&T has superior Canadian and global roaming coverage.

 

BTW when you are near the border make sure your phone doesn't automatically roam onto a Canadian Rogers or Tbaytel or Bell Canada signal (they have full HSPA+21).

 

http://www.rogers.com/business/on/en/smallbusiness/rogers/coverage/ (also shows Tbaytel coverage)

 

http://www.tbaytel.net/business/mobility/coverageandtravel/coverage

 

http://www.bell.ca/Mobility/Coverage_map

 

Too bad VZW is CDMA2000 but at least they are moving at lightning speed to move to GSM ala LTE! (I have them right now and getting a global phone soon with CDMA & GSM which fixes my problem as I want the ability to use prepaid SIM cards when I travel abroad from Detroit/Ann Arbor).

 

 AT&T is TRULY an embarrasement to the rest of MI. ;(

Scholar

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391 Messages

11 years ago

@willzzz88

 

Actually AT&T has a LOT more 3G/HSPA+("4G") coverage than t-mobile does in MI.  T-mo has absolutely no 3G/4G north of I-69 except two blotches in Grand Rapids and Flint. I live in northern Macomb County and it is still 2G here. Sprint has a decent 3G footprint up north but is spotty in most areas but their LTE is appearing in many areas now as well. Verizon now has all of their towers in the lower penninsula running on LTESmiley Wink

 

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