Doing a Coverage test in Denver on a sprint test phone

[trout]

I currently use Nextel in Denver, but decided to go get a sprint loaner to do a coverage test.

IT will be fair and honest,

Sprint claims to have made improvments in Southern Denver, I had them in 99' and 01', so ill tell you what I think.

1st test.

Drive the Length of HIghlands Ranch Parkway from East to West, in the heart of Suburbia/Highlands Ranch
Tast Completed, Solid signal was on a call the whole time and never dropped, call clarity was suppurb.

2nd test
Drive North to south on University and Santa FE, through heart of HighlandsRanch and Littleton, thru to Tech Center and Belleview
Task, being completed...will report this evening.

SO far with test half thru, they have definately improved coverage in HR, we will see what happens at the old "DEAD ZONE" on university and C-470.

trout

[trout]

results of 2nd phase of my test:

Drove my north to south routes and added another East west route from arapahoe and yosemite to arapahoe and university.
Also made two passes at C-470 and university and broadway.


I made tons of calls to my wife at home...."Can you hear me now?.....yes, your a dork! thanks, can you hear me now?.....yes im hanging up!

But I can honestly say I never dropped a call and never lost signal. IN 2001 there were 5-6 spots that I can remember were big dropping zones and they extended for half mile or more, they are ALL gone in Littleton/centennial.
And highlands ranch is nutorious for bad signal strength, only phone I have ever been able to get to work at my house was Nextel, hence I have their service. Now I can go into a closet at home and my phone worked great and had full bars all over my neighborhood.

In short, the results of my honest and fair test of loaner phone showed increased coverage and no holes as far as I could find in the south denver area and southern suburbs.
UNLESS THERE IS SOME WAY THAT THEY CAN INCREASE the STRENGTH OF THE TEST PHONE?......it is a samsung sph-n300 .

Hope this helps someone, it helped me, im switching when my nextel contract is up!
nice work sprint!

trout

[larry]

Sounds like they have made many improvements in Denver just like the newsletter said. Thanks for letting us know. I hope Bill from mountainwireless.com sees this. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[jjdu4]

Good job.....

[Digiblur]

Get a Sanyo 4900 and you will have even greater coverage than that Samsung! I had a Samsung and had to go outside my house to talk without it breaking up. BTW...Cingular and AT&T is like this in my house. Nextel doesn't even get a signal at all outside. I can sit anywhere I want to in my house and never breakup once with the Sanyo 4900. Big difference indeed... read around...everyone will tell you that the Sanyo's have the best RF out of all the phones. The Kyocera's I find have the worst RF of the Sprint phones I've tested.

[BillRadio]

trout,
I'm pleased to see you are getting better Sprint service in "the Ranch", I have seen a bunch of new sites there, I'm glad to see some of them are Sprint's. At C-470 and University, it's still dead. Not out on University, but in Chili's. I get good service in Target, but if I want a signal in Chili's, I have to ask for a seat by the window, where it works OK. BTW, I also have trouble with Verizon at Chili's, but at worst it switches to analog, it never drops.

The most important place is at home. If it works there, you should be good to go. Sprint installed several sites in the Ranch on schools. It raised quite a fuss, but it's quieting down, and the sites have stayed.

I'm wondering why Sprint is claiming better service along I-25? It has always been good along the entire stretch between Denver and Colo Springs. They did finally add a site on 83 south of Franktown, but that doesn't affect I-25. And I am impressed with the new sites in Elizabeth and Kiowa. That's analog territory for everybody else, and Cellular One won't even let Qwest phones roam there any longer!

The next question is, what has been your experience with Nextel? Bad enough to leave?

-Bill

[trout]

actually Nextel has been fantastic. To be honest I dont think I have ever dropped a call in a year. But you cant roam, and once you driving cross country your phone is worthless, and it is not going to be a 3G network anytime soon, so I think I want the bells and whistles of a sprint phone. BUT, if I had to have a phone JUST for voice calls, nextel is rock solid in Denver.

what do the new towers in the ranch look like?? are they the 80 footers or are they the smaller light pole type towers.

thanks

Trout

[celfon]

Sprint and all other carriers had and are having huge issues with zoning in Highlands Ranch. All the people living there want wireless coverage but don't want sites near them. Imagine that!!! So any carrier that has good coverage there, know that they spent huge amounts of time and money to overcome all the challenges of the area.

As for I-25 know that the Surrey Ridge area will improve very soon for Sprint customers so you will no longer drop going over that first hill South of Denver. I can post when that issue is resolved if anyone else is interested in that area. Some phones are better than others and don't drop here but many do. It also depends on the time of day you go over Surrey Ridge as call volume affects this also.

[BillRadio]

trout,
The new sites in Highlands Ranch are well-disguised, except the ones on the schools. Several are on 50' poles that look like fat flag poles. Others are hidden in roof decorations (Alberston's and King Soopers), and the schools have the plain boxes mounted just below the roof line and painted to match the brick wall behind.

There are a couple others which are boxes on a roof, but I'm not sure they are Sprint's.

Also, that church right at I-25 and C-470 (NE side) had a tall Sprint antenna tower behind it. It is now all encased in a brownish enclosure leading me to believe they leased the site to a few other carriers and neighbors (Park Meadows?) began to complain.

-Bill

[celfon]

NE side of I-25 and C-470 has had multiple carriers for some time. For sure Sprint, Nextel and T-Mobile. They were all forced to build the new enclosure and move further back for the T-Rex, I-25 Expansion project.

[trout]

thanks for the info bill!

trout

[RenoWirelessGuru]

To see disguized cell towers and antennas, you can see some in the Reno area on my website listed in my signature. Click on on "Cellsite Pictures..." links located on the top of my home page. They may give you an idea where to look for them in your area.