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5 Replies Last post - 3 months ago by macuser09

by fivegear

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6 posts since
Nov 18, 2009

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Nov 18, 2009

Coverage in Hillsboro, Ohio

Can anyone tell me if Hillsboro, Ohio is part of the iPCS affiliate? In this area iDEN has far superior coverage over CDMA, I now carry one of each. I have a Blackberry 8350i for my daily full time phone and I have a Samsung Moment for a secondary line / toy. I would love to be CDMA only, the problem is coverage is very poor on the CDMA side compared to iDEN and there is no EVDO at all. Nobody has ever been able to tell me if or when we will be upgraded to EVDO and if or when there might be more towers for this area. I also have had lots of issues with any CDMA handset not ringing and going straight to voicemail that nobody can tell me anything about. I have had more than half a dozen CDMA handsets and they all do this in this area. Sorry for the long post, just looking for answers. Thanks in advance, Brian.

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Tags: tower, 3g, network, evdo

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by miketech_79

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Sep 6, 2007

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1. Nov 19, 2009 Posted in response to: fivegear

Re: Coverage in Hillsboro, Ohio

fivegear wrote:

Can anyone tell me if Hillsboro, Ohio is part of the iPCS affiliate? In this area iDEN has far superior coverage over CDMA, I now carry one of each. I have a Blackberry 8350i for my daily full time phone and I have a Samsung Moment for a secondary line / toy. I would love to be CDMA only, the problem is coverage is very poor on the CDMA side compared to iDEN and there is no EVDO at all. Nobody has ever been able to tell me if or when we will be upgraded to EVDO and if or when there might be more towers for this area. I also have had lots of issues with any CDMA handset not ringing and going straight to voicemail that nobody can tell me anything about. I have had more than half a dozen CDMA handsets and they all do this in this area. Sorry for the long post, just looking for answers. Thanks in advance, Brian.

It is in iPCS, easy way to tell in the coverage viewer there will be no "Best, Good, Fair" green. It is all dark green and will say "Sprint coverage - signal strength varies"

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by fivegear

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Nov 18, 2009

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2. Nov 19, 2009 Posted in response to: miketech_79

Re: Coverage in Hillsboro, Ohio

I was afraid that was the case. I hope Sprint is able to aquire iPCS soon and make all the related problems go away! Sprint is the only company with coverage here in town that doesn't have 3G. AT&T, Verizon, even Cricket, a pre-paid phone service has 3G in the area. I wish it wasn't such a big secret as to when new towers and upgrades to current towers would take place. Kind of ironic that Sprint is advertising the launch of 4g technology and we have never yet seen EVDO/3G.

Sprint, if you are reading this, you have dropped the ball in this market coverage wise (only on the CDMA side, iDEN is great here). Very poor signal strength, and no 3g. All the competition has multiple towers to cover the hilly terrain except you. This town was named Hillsboro for a reason....

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by macuser09

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Oct 15, 2007

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3. Nov 21, 2009 Posted in response to: fivegear

Re: Coverage in Hillsboro, Ohio

EVDO is being rolled out as they expand coverage to match the IDEN footprint. They are pretty much done with that in IL and are getting close in IA. They are working now in MI, IN, and NJ at expanding the coverage and getting the EVDO equipment installed at existing towers. They may be working on getting the equipment installed in your area but I don't have a clue. The problem that is coming is that Sprint is buying them and all expansion and EVDO upgrades will probably come to a halt for a year after the purchase. All upgrades and coverage improvements will be put at the bottom of the list. It is nice that Sprint is buying them but after that happens it often takes a long time for all the improvements and upgrades to be reviewed, approved and implemented. Sprint could really surprise many people and start on the upgrades right away. That would be nice.

If you really want to know more information send them an email at corporate inquires. Give them a list of cross streets with poor coverage and they will may forward your email to an RF engineer. They are great to work with on issues and a great wealth of information.

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by fivegear

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Nov 18, 2009

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4. Nov 23, 2009 Posted in response to: macuser09

Re: Coverage in Hillsboro, Ohio

Macuser, thanks for the info! I have been patiently waiting for years now. If you go just barely north of town you can pick up EVDO from the next tower outside of town, and if you go just barely west of town the same thing happens. Kind of ironic that the even more rural areas around us have EVDO and in town does not. Then there is the issue of South of town and East of town, CDMA has pretty much nothing. Another odd note is that just shortly after the merger they added CDMA equipment to the existing iDEN tower in town and didn't add the high speed EVDO at the time. At that point in time they could have cornered the market in this area on high speed wireless, nobody had it in town then, no everybody but them has it. I sure hope the acquisition of iPCS doesn't stop the upgrades and expansions like you mentioned, Sprint can't afford to stub their toe right about now on much of anything.

It seems to me that the CDMA signal doesn't reach as far or penetrate buildings as well as iDEN, is this correct or am I imagining things?

Thanks, Brian

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by macuser09

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5. Nov 23, 2009 Posted in response to: fivegear

Re: Coverage in Hillsboro, Ohio

fivegear wrote:

It seems to me that the CDMA signal doesn't reach as far or penetrate buildings as well as iDEN, is this correct or am I imagining things?

Thanks, Brian

You aren't imagining things. This is due to CDMA being on 1900 MHz and IDEN being on 850-900MHz. The lower frequencies have an easier time passing through building materials than high frequencies. IDEN also has a tendency to travel farther from the tower. I know CDMA has limits due to timing but not sure if IDEN has those same limits. Others can explain the limits out in the open much better than I can. CDMA can travel fairly far though as I have used towers 15 miles away and everything was clear as if I was standing next to the tower. Have to love tall towers and flat land. 200' was a fairly common tower height for iPCS in IL where everyone else was using 100' towers and they had smaller coverage areas. A trade off of the tall towers and large coverage area is that building penetration seemed to be greatly reduced unless you were within 5 miles of the tower.

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