Northeast PA 3G expansion?

[ssavoy]

Over the last few days, 3G has been a work in progress in Tunkhannock. Just today [or perhaps yesterday] they finally turned on the main site covering the town. It was previously designated as 23746 if I remember correctly.

I was just there on Sunday and it was definitely EDGE in town, so good to hear they got 3G up and running finally.

I know exactly where the hard-cutoff area is - it's 30 seconds past the Frontier building as you exit Dallas. It could be a terrain issue as it cuts out right around the bend. There's an AT&T-only tower in Kunkle that is still on EDGE, but I'm assuming that will be 3G along with the rest of Tunkhannock.

Once those cell sites are upgraded, it seems like almost 100% of the Philadelphia market will be 3G. I don't know where the market cutoffs are, though.

[dctmpeg]

My understanding is that the Philadelphia market actually goes as far Northwest as Windham Township, Pa. The AT&T GSM site there has yet to see the equipment at the base of the tower upgraded. Meanwhile five miles West is the New York market.... which has seen SLOW but usable HSDPA for a good year now. 3G from Tunkhannock to there is a bit of a mess at the moment, [Not so much in Tunkhannock on Tioga street, etc.] because it has the same if not worse signal drop-offs that GSM Had. That being said, the Wyoming County fairgrounds seems to have 3G now. It vanishes not too far west from there.

And yeah, right past the Frontier building was the place where the signal cuts out.

This is probably not even considered NEPA anymore, but some of the television stations in the Scranton area get picked up there, so I will count it as such... ...

Significantly farther West on 6, Mansfield, has yet to see 3G, though towns on the way such as Troy have had it since last summer. Considering how bad EDGE was in Mansfield when there were no students sometime last summer, I don't even want to imagine what it's like when Mansfield University of Pennsylvania is in session. At that point, you might as well force roam on Indigo Wireless and use their GPRS [It might be EDGE there... but it is GPRS in Tunkhannock] network. Quick way to cancel your contract! LOL.

Ah, AT&T... How you consistently remain a mixed bag everywhere I go... Of course, if I had T-Mobile, I would lose 3G coverage every single time I go into a building, so I think I will stick with you despite your major issues....

[dctmpeg]

Well, Tunkhannock 3G was working well. Then the storm came through. It took down two of the sites, but probably on the back-end because they were up and running a few days later.

On the other hand, all it took was the firehouse carnival to take down the 3G data side of things. Voice still worked. LOL.

[ssavoy]

Well, Tunkhannock 3G was working well. Then the storm came through. It took down two of the sites, but probably on the back-end because they were up and running a few days later.

On the other hand, all it took was the firehouse carnival to take down the 3G data side of things. Voice still worked. LOL.

If you look at their coverage map, Tunkhannock is still under "3G", not the faux-4G w/ enhanced backhaul. I can only assume they said "screw it" and turned on 3G equipment without upgrading the backhaul. They probably still have copper backhaul. Also - one of the sites up there has a wireless feed to another one. If one site goes down, chances are it'll take the other one with it.

How many people were at the carnival? I can't believe it would only take that much to take it down. It seems like Verizon has the largest market share in this area anyway.

[dctmpeg]

Yeah, I noticed that on the coverage map. There must have been a little over 100 people at the carnival. Perhaps the network was being tuned when it was happening.

And yeah, most people are on Verizon Wireless. No-one in their right mind would have obtained AT&T service unless they migrated from a much better market.... Even with 3G, the coverage is about as piecemeal as it was when the mom and pop company built the original GSM network.

Also, their coverage map is all wrong west of Tunkhannock. They indicate full 3G coverage in 18623. Yeah. If you stand right in the right spot with a phone that you can force to use only 3G.

3G was mandatory for Tunkhannock because of how BAD the EDGE network was. Ironically, even with the coverage dropoffs and dropped calls while moving ten feet in elevation, it's still better than when it was on EDGE. Lol.

[ssavoy]

Anyone notice AT&T LTE panels going up? The AT&T tower serving the Wyoming Valley mall has newly-added LTE antennas along with two towers in Pittston and one in Moosic. As they fill in the remaining 3G gaps, LTE is quickly coming behind them.

[dctmpeg]

The tower that serves the Wyoming Valley Mall looks quite ugly. It must be straight out of the 1990s.