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]

Here are the speeds I'm getting

Download: 2903 kbps

Upload: 1270 kbps

Ping: 166 ms

External

Is this good, bad, or average.

[Lewyman]

Well its been a LONG time coming but it is finally happening. Now I can say I believe that AT&T will truly have the entire state upgraded by the end of the year. The guy I talked to earlier this week that works at the AT&T store in Gaylord, said the techs and engineers that come into the store have said the first launch is basically HSDPA 7.2 (3G) followed by HSPA/HSPA+ 14 or 21. They will have that first layer of "4G" complete by years end and start working on LTE in northern MI next year.

[Lewyman]

Those speeds are to be expected for a short time. Then you should see them in the 2-5 MB/s down and 1-1.5 up. When they upgrade to the next layer you should see up to 10-12 megs on the download.
 
Edit: You should be the first to map the new coverage on Sensorly. You can download their app from the play store.  

[American Ninja]

Glad to hear you finally got "4G"!

I wonder if ATT added a new tower around the Perkins or Gladstone area? I used to get around 2-3 bars in Perkins and as I got closer to Gladstone my signal would improve to 4 then 5 bars. I noticed when I went into Gladstone Tues and Thurs I get 5 full bars now Right when I get into Perkins and stays that way all through Perkins and Gladstone.

[Lewyman]

@American Ninja
Sounds like they did.

Looking at the tower locations near Pickford and in Cedarville, I am wondering if they lit up the towers in Goetzville, Detour Village, and Drummond as well.

[JREwing53]

As of this afternoon, August 2, there is no data showing on our devices. No Edge or 4G. Wonder what's up?

[Lewyman]

Issues in the circuit most likely. I would guess data will be back on within a day at the most. The phantom data that is showing in Pickford right now probably exists but your phone won't connect to it because AT&T devices are locked to automatically connect to the best signal. I have observed this with my hotspot. At the northern end of the Detroit LTE market, you can actually be 4 miles within the LTE coverage area but not be able to connect to LTE because there are too many non-LTE ....4G towers which the device will stay connected to. That's one big complaint I have is the fact AT&T does not allow you to manually toggle between 2G/3G/4G like Verizon does.

[jwagger]

Sounds like maybe they are working their way across the U.P.(hoping anyway) as it sounds like the lower is done for now.  Another post said 3g was active in Curtis this morning too so...

AT&T has people by the nads when everyone is happy that 10+ year old technology is being deployed.

[Lewyman]

@jwagger
I don't think the lower is completely done yet as I would say there is still a lot to do. Agreed 100% that AT&T 3G/HSPA isn't as fast as Verizon LTE but when they upgrade the entire state to HSPA+14 or 21, they will have better coverage than Verizon. Now, with AT&T on the move in northern MI, that will give Verizon incentive to kick it into getting more cell sites up in the in-between areas. Everyone wins

[willzzz88]

It seems to me they upgraded the eqiptment (very important, it's Ericsson/Alcatel-Lucent SingleRAN, basically the hardware can do ALL the technologies up to LTE and even further with software upgrades) but not the backhaul. They will go back and run the backhaul with GigE fiber (this is where the HSPA+21 speeds come in). When this is done they can light up LTE next year. They are using the latest multi-modal antennas that support all the technologies from EDGE to HSPA+ to LTE. This is similar to what the Canadian carriers have done YEARS ago in their entire network. (Fiber or Microwave to Fiber backhaul). I guess it's all backhauled to their global MSC in Southfield (Metro Detroit). The West side of the state probably goes to Chicago.

[jwagger]

@lewyman
I was saying they were close to done since you had mentioned the Gaylord store said they lit many more locations.
There is no doubt Verizon 3g is terrible but at least it's not Edge. Most people would be happy with "4g" since it would be in the 3-10 mb, depending on signal and congestion of course. Or at least that's where i was at prior to LTE.
I and everyone else would be happy if they stopped when there was ZERO peach color on their coverage map across the U.S...and do it in this decade please.

[JREwing53]

Since about 4:00, we have had consistent 4g here. Been running some speed tests. Ranging from 1.998 - 3.779 download speeds. Anything over 3 is pretty good for 3G? Upload speeds running from .602 - 1.081. Noticed that the latest tests are the fastest. Tried two different servers. 

Update: Here is a snapshot of some of my speedtests

[American Ninja]

Still Edge in Rock and McFarland, Michigan.

[Lewyman]

@JREwing53

Yes that is decent. That first layer of HSPDA 7.2/UMTS (3G) can run up to 7 Mb/s down depending on how close you are to the tower. Just arrived in Lewiston MI. AT&T "4G" is live here as well but only one bar so there must be some issues. Also, complete 4G coverage on I-75 from around exit 225 all the way through Gaylord. Mapped it on Sensorly and will be hunting more new coverage this weekend.

[Lewyman]

Lewiston, Frederick, Waters, Atlanta, and Johannesburg all have HSDPA*(3G), but some of them are running on low power with a weak signal. I would guess they are now around 80% finished with upgrading the network in the lower peninsula which is a lot further than it was 4 months ago.Still EDGE on I-75 from mile marker 177 to 225 which is suprising.

@jwagger* Agreed. It's too bad they have lost so many customers to Verizon when they did their complete 3G upgrade years ago but at least AT&T is doing large scale upgrades now. Its going to be very interesting to see how they rollout LTE up here when they currently don't have the spectrum to deploy on 700MHz. Hope the deal with Centurytel is approved.