Explorer
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25 Messages
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...
American Ninja
Scholar
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151 Messages
11 years ago
Do you think they are testing it or something?
Now that all these towers have been upgraded to 3G/4G ,will ATT need to add new antennas for when they eventually upgrade to LTE? or will these recent upgrades allow them to basically "turn on" LTE whenever they plan for LTE to go live on that tower?
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Lewyman
Scholar
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391 Messages
11 years ago
@JREwing53
Data here in Lewiston in shotty as it is toggling between 4 bars of EDGE and 2 bars of "4G" as well. They seem to have tuned the power level down when the 4G is on here and also the tower in Atlanta, which means they are still testing or there may be some other issues. I mapped coverage in both towns on Sensorly and you can see the very light, almost non-existant coverage on the map so my phone is depicting the weak signal the tower is giving off. It would appear there is complete HSDPA (3G) coverage on M-32 from Gaylord to Alpena, and on M-33 between Atlanta and Onaway.
@American Ninja
Yes they are testing but I don't think it will be long before they leave it on and turn it up to full power.....which doesn't mean an increase in speed however. I haven't been to Alpena lately, but the city is now depicted in darker Orange which I assume that means they are running HSDPA 7.2/UMTS/HSPA+ which is on some form of enhanced backhaul. The areas that have the new coverage now will be upgraded sometime later this year. AT&T does not have to add new pannels for LTE. All of the towers with new panels have the latest technology which are multi-modal and multi-frequency capable. They can be used for all of AT&T's network bands...EDGE/3G/HSPA+/LTE/AWS.
These screenshots were taken last night here in Lewiston. Notice the high dBm. This test was taken about 300 yards from the tower.
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Lewyman
Scholar
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391 Messages
11 years ago
JREwing53
Is the 4G still on and off in your area or has it been on consistantly?? Heard anything about Detour and Drummond Island??
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JREwing53
Scholar
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173 Messages
11 years ago
Today, we had 4g with five bars most of the day. Tonight, it's been Edge with three bars. If I turn airplane mode on and off, I will get 4g. Not sure why I keeps doing that.
They must be working on the Cedarville tower also. No news on Detour or Drummond Island.
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JREwing53
Scholar
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173 Messages
11 years ago
Inconsistent speeds tonight.
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Lewyman
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391 Messages
11 years ago
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JREwing53
Scholar
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173 Messages
11 years ago
It's Wednesday, August 7. Downtown Pickford is showing excellent coverage and download data speeds. The upload speed is pretty slow though. Showing five bars most of the time. If this keeps up, I'll stick with AT&T. Hey, it's not LTE, but at least it's decent for our area.
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Lewyman
Scholar
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391 Messages
11 years ago
Excellent!!! The speeds up there should only get better by the end of the year. If that test was in downtown Pickford and the tower is 3-5 miles south, you are doing very good. LTE is great but because the towers are spread out so far in northern MI ,you fall back to 3G and 1x quite often when venturing a few miles off the main roads. I have Verizon phone/data service and I can say that for a fact. Now AT&T will most likely launch LTE up there in the next year or so,but it probably won't be on 700 MHz. When they upgrade the entire U.P. that will be awesome!!! Here is a speedtest I ran last night using my AT&T Liberate hotspot, and which you should see similar speeds as well in the next 5 months.
HSPA+ Almont, Mi.
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JREwing53
Scholar
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173 Messages
11 years ago
That's faster than my internet service here in Pickford. We have Centurytel, and it's the most horrible internet service I've ever had. Zero customer service. But they have a monopoly here and they know it. Hopefully AT&T will bring UVerse here in the near future. Charter was here years ago, but left town.
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Lewyman
Scholar
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391 Messages
11 years ago
The network here is just lightning fast this evening. Don't know what is going on but I have a feeling AT&T is getting ready to fire up LTE very soon here. I can honestly say I have never seen uploads on HSPA+ this fast and consistant as they are running right now. The speeds from my hotspot are faster than my DSL as well.
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