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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

wow, when I was in Ann Arbor I was getting 40MB down and like 12MB up.

Scholar

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138 Messages

11 years ago

The Saginaw slow speeds are most likely congestion I would say. I read somewhere online that for LTE AT&T and Verizon REQUIRE fiber backhaul to every single BTS or transmission site. Or it is high capacity microwave in rural areas to a location with access to the global fiber backbone (most likely the nearest city with a "lit" CO being transported to their Mobility MSC).

 

Ann Arbor and other major metro areas have high speeds because AT&T is densifying the network by installing more and more cell sites within a limited amount of space. A2 is in some ways a global tech hub with the University of Michigan and I've personally seen an AT&T cell site on the top of a downtown parking structure.

Scholar

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391 Messages

11 years ago

I would also say the slower speeds are partly do to congestion and quite possibly not all of their towers have active LTE on them in the Saginaw area yet. AT&T is doing a lot of work to their network right now so that may also have a bearing on it. Here is a Verizon LTE speedtest taken yesterday south of Almont. Their network has been very quirky as of late.

 

 

Screenshot_2013-08-15-17-39-37.png

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Tutor

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5 Messages

11 years ago

In places like Detroit, Flint, GrandRapids, etc,at&t is deploying LTE on 20 mhz of spectrum which allows 10mhz for the downlink and another 10 for the uplink. Unfortunately in saginaw at&t only holds enough 700 mhz spectrum to deploy lte on 10mhz of spectrum or 5mhz for downlink as well 5 mhz for uplink.  That being said, lte in Saginaw is more prone to slowdowns during peak times (Think less lanes of traffic on the expressway).

 

Now hspa+ (which has been confirmed on this thread to be live in Pickford like you stated), is also deployed on 5x5 blocks of spectrum. Each 5x5 block is called a carrier. It is likely that there is more than one hspa+ carrier deployed on the tower. 

With less loading and room for several carriers in Pickford, it isn't surprising your speeds in saginaw are lower. When at&t deploys lte on wcs spectrum a couple years from now this issue should be resolved.

 

 

A side note: 2mbps on lte is still going to feel faster than 2mbps on hspa+. Thank lte's low ping times for that. 

Scholar

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391 Messages

11 years ago

I was told from someone with inside information that AT&T will have their entire network covered with LTE by the end of 2014 with most areas getting it sooner, rather than later. I would like
to know how they are going to deploy LTE in the thumb area, like Huron and Tuscola counties for example, when AT&T has neither the 700 MHz or AWS spectrum. A refarm of their Cellular or PCS perhaps?? LTE on WCS won't happen by next year so I am really curious. Now as far as LTE in northern MI......after their Ethernet fiber backhaul is completed, they plan on launching LTE on their AWS spectrum. Tpeltz confirmed that they have installed multi-modal 1700/2100 MHz panels and equipment  on a tower near Rogers City.

Scholar

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151 Messages

11 years ago

Just saw this in my RSS feed:

 

AT&T 4G LTE COMING TO 50 ADDITIONAL MARKETS THIS YEAR

 

21. Battle Creek, MI
22. Jackson, MI

 

http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/21/att-to-bring-lte-to-50-more-markets-by-the-end-of-2013/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

Tutor

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5 Messages

11 years ago

Lewyman, do you know if this new panels that support AWS have remote radio units installed? Was recently up north and seen new panels on towers in grayling and in bounce city. Curious to if these were AT&T towers.

Scholar

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391 Messages

11 years ago

It's hard to say, not knowing who's towers those are but I don't think AT&T has any RRU's mounted on their panels yet with the exception of possibly Detroit and/or a current large LTE market in Michigan. The brand new antennas on the tower in Red Oak have small boxes mounted on the backs of the panels, but I found out those are TMA's or Tower Mounted Amplifiers mainly used on the 1900 band and possibly the 850.  Verizon has started swapping out their new 700 MHz panels with RRU's in large cities like NYC and Chicago, so I think it's safe to say it will be a while yet before areas like Grayling or Boyne get them.....but then again you never know. Now there is a tower in Presque Isle county that currently has new active 3G/HSPA+ service and has newer panels as well. This tower appears to have multi-freq/multi-modal GSM/HSPA+/LTE/AWS panels installed. This is a close up pic of the equipment installed at the shelter, which supports all of their GSM and UMTS bands 850/1800/1900/2100 (all except 900 which isn't used) including 700 and AWS. I can't say if this equipment is installed on every tower, but I would bet that it is. Again it's really hard to say exactly what they are going to do but AT&T has gotten serious about northern MI!! 

 

 

IMG954988.jpg

 

**Just a quick note** This pic was sent to me by a very good source.

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Scholar

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151 Messages

11 years ago

There is a big tower in Perkins. I dont know what its for but on the ATT coverage map it doesnt show it for voice or data. Next to the tower is an ATT building. The name of the road its on is Tower 29.5 Lane. lol I'll have to take some pics of it sometime. It has some weird antennas on it.

Scholar

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391 Messages

11 years ago

Nice. That might possibly be a new site in the works. Can't wait to see it:)
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