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]

Was across much of the UP today. Newberry is LTE. Marquette is not yet on LTE. 

Suprisingly, I was in Gwinn, and all of that area is still on Edge. 

[American Ninja]

No changes here yet.

[MNelly420]

does Lovells have 3G yet?

[Lewyman]

MNelly420.......unfortunately the Lovells site is still Edge. From what I was told, they probably won't have that site running 3G/LTE until the end of this year. It could happen sooner but there seems to be several issues with that particular one. I traveled all the roads around Lovells this past weekend and there is absolutely no sign of fiber being run towards it and no Microwave equipment on the tower either. Again, it could happen sooner and if I hear anything else I will post it.

I did a ton of traveling around this past weekend and can say many sites have LTE panels on them including Grayling, Rogers City, Atlanta, Mancelona, Kalkaska, Johannesburg, and the one sight just north of Lewiston. I was also told that LTE is scheduled to go live on a vast majority of sites by the end of July, including the U.P.

There are other towers still on E that are supposed to get 3G sometime this week. This is the info I was given, so hopefully things will go as scheduled.

[Lewyman]

JREwing53:

Have they run Ethernet backhaul to the site in Pickford yet? If you see skinny white poles about 3 feet high with orange colored ends in the right of way, those are fiber markers. Or, have you noticed a Microwave dish installed on the tower? I am guessing that site will be lit up in the next couple of months.

[MNelly420]

Well hopefully the 3G signal i got near the southeast shore of Shupac Lk is a little stronger. That was back in early Oct.  I could get 1-3 bars and do stuff. Was good enough to stream espn and netflix.  Just had to keep my phone toward the lake side of the cabin.

[Lewyman]

I hope they use Microwave from a neighboring site to get that tower up and running soon because that tower covers a fairly large area. My tablet has actually held 1 bar of 3G while sitting in front of the site but switches to E when heading back to Lewiston on 612.

I would have to think you were on either the Red Oak site or the tower near Waters (east side of 75). Sites in Gaylord, Otsego Lake, Waters, and Frederick are now running LTE. 

[MNelly420]

where exactly is the lovells tower located?

[Lewyman]

  This is the exact location of that site. You can't see it at all in Lovells unless you drive down Old 612 by the township hall. On the satellite view of Google maps you can see it as well.

  You should get an excellent signal when they fire it up and I believe by late summer when most of Michigan has LTE, AT&T will put more of their resources on these problem sites and get them online sooner.

[MNelly420]

Thanks. I might take a look at it.

[American Ninja]

No 4G at the Lathrop tower yet.

[Lewyman]

It should be anytime now.

It has been awfully quiet this last couple of weeks across Michigan as far as tower activations go. I have been waiting for a reply from my contact for a week or so which tells me he is busy. Hopefully, there will be some action this week.

[American Ninja]

Still no change here. They must have ran into problems at the Lathrop tower.

[Lewyman]

American Ninja:

That stinks. When you get a chance to swing by the Lathrop site, check to see if there is a new Microwave dish installed on it. My contact said that site was scheduled to get UMTS(3G) last month and receive ethernet backhaul via Microwave in mid-June. That is what the system was telling him but that wouldn't make sense which leads me to believe they won't launch 3G until they have ethernet in place. The good news is ethernet is scheduled very soon and there's a good chance they will launch 3G and HSPA+ at the same time, followed by LTE shortly after. By the end of July, that site along with many others are supposed to have LTE turned up 🙂

It has to be frustrating, but hang in there because the end of the EDGE data network is near!! People who have stuck with AT&T will be glad they did . After they get LTE turned up on all sites with fast HSPA+ to fall back to in fringe areas, activate new towers, and fire up carrier aggregation(spectrum bonding) they will blow Big Red right out of the water.

Edit:    Looking at the pics in a previous post, AT&T was prepping the Lathrop site for Ethernet backhaul via fiber. For them to change to Microwave, that tells me that AT&T is no longer waiting for Frontier and other companies to bring in fiber where AT&T may not legally be able to run their own. This seems to be the case in other areas as well including the Thumb, where Microwave dishes are popping up on several sites. They may in the future run fiber to the Lathrop site, however.

[American Ninja]

I might get a chance to go by the tower this afternoon. I don't know what the hold up is. They ran fiber last fall along M-35 right to the driveway by the tower. I don't know what the trouble would be.