Verizon LTE - Ames (8/16/12)

[CompCy]

Just saw that Verizon is turning on LTE for the Ames area this Thursday August 16.

"New coverage will include the communities of Ames, Huxley, Nevada and Slater with coverage north of Des Moines from the Polk County line on Interstate 35 to mile marker 116. From Ames, new coverage will extend east on U.S. Highway 30 to one mile east of Nevada and west on U.S. Highway 30 to State Highway 17."

Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Network To Expand North Of Des Moines To Ames, Iowa, On Aug.16

 

[RayShimley]

Just saw that Verizon is turning on LTE for the Ames area this Thursday August 16.

"New coverage will include the communities of Ames, Huxley, Nevada and Slater with coverage north of Des Moines from the Polk County line on Interstate 35 to mile marker 116. From Ames, new coverage will extend east on U.S. Highway 30 to one mile east of Nevada and west on U.S. Highway 30 to State Highway 17."

Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Network To Expand North Of Des Moines To Ames, Iowa, On Aug.16

Finally!! Uninterrupted 4G from DSM to Ames!

 

[IcSyU]

*checks to see when phone upgrade is available*

 

[mclatch]

Just saw that Verizon is turning on LTE for the Ames area this Thursday August 16.

"New coverage will include the communities of Ames, Huxley, Nevada and Slater with coverage north of Des Moines from the Polk County line on Interstate 35 to mile marker 116. From Ames, new coverage will extend east on U.S. Highway 30 to one mile east of Nevada and west on U.S. Highway 30 to State Highway 17."

Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Network To Expand North Of Des Moines To Ames, Iowa, On Aug.16

But will you be able to make a simple phone call from Roland IA? Probably not.

 

[ISUCyclones2015]

And Sprint Users everywhere weep...

 

[Jgraham]

My poor battery life.

 

[Cy4Patriots]

My poor battery life.

Get ready. It will be terrible.

 

[Cy4Patriots]

Does this mean anything for the current iPhone users?

 

[cstrunk]

I loved 4G at first... but with my phone (HTC Thunderbolt) it sucks the battery life much faster and some applications actually run slower, although the connection is faster. I turned it off so I only use 3G now which is plenty fast. I only turn on 4G if I want to download a file really quickly.

 

[Cpech56]

Just saw that Verizon is turning on LTE for the Ames area this Thursday August 16.

"New coverage will include the communities of Ames, Huxley, Nevada and Slater with coverage north of Des Moines from the Polk County line on Interstate 35 to mile marker 116. From Ames, new coverage will extend east on U.S. Highway 30 to one mile east of Nevada and west on U.S. Highway 30 to State Highway 17."

Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Network To Expand North Of Des Moines To Ames, Iowa, On Aug.16

I can confirm this. I am contracted by Verizon Wireless as a tower climber and have recently installed new 6 foot dishes in the cities listed above. The coverage will be much better than in recent history. Especially during football season with the larger crowds in Ames. I can also confirm that there will be a COW set up at Jack Trice. To those of you not familiar with what that is I will explain. Its simply a mobile cell phone tower. It will help with coverage at the home games. We recently used them for Ragbrai and they worked great. Cheers to being able to send a damn text message.

Go Clones

 

[Jordanj6502]

I can confirm this. I am contracted by Verizon Wireless as a tower climber and have recently installed new 6 foot dishes in the cities listed above. The coverage will be much better than in recent history. Especially during football season with the larger crowds in Ames. I can also confirm that there will be a COW set up at Jack Trice. To those of you not familiar with what that is I will explain. Its simply a mobile cell phone tower. It will help with coverage at the home games. We recently used them for Ragbrai and they worked great. Cheers to being able to send a damn text message.

Go Clones

Verizon didn't use the portable/temporary towers in the past at football games?

 

[CycloneJL]

Somebody did. There were always one or two parked in G7 for every home game.

 

[Clonehomer]

I loved 4G at first... but with my phone (HTC Thunderbolt) it sucks the battery life much faster and some applications actually run slower, although the connection is faster. I turned it off so I only use 3G now which is plenty fast. I only turn on 4G if I want to download a file really quickly.

That was more of an issue with the Thunderbolt than LTE. They basically shoe horned a 4G radio into a 3G phone. Newer phones integrate the LTE onto the chip so it doesn't use as much power. After switching from the Thunderbolt to the Galaxy S3 I have found that the battery life is night and day.

 

[CompCy]

I can confirm this. I am contracted by Verizon Wireless as a tower climber and have recently installed new 6 foot dishes in the cities listed above. The coverage will be much better than in recent history. Especially during football season with the larger crowds in Ames. I can also confirm that there will be a COW set up at Jack Trice. To those of you not familiar with what that is I will explain. Its simply a mobile cell phone tower. It will help with coverage at the home games. We recently used them for Ragbrai and they worked great. Cheers to being able to send a damn text message.

Go Clones

You are ******* crazy.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlVxRdTnNqI]Man Freeclimbs 1700 foot tower - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Max57]

It's about time. This will help w work too - that's the downside.

 

[chewbocka]

Somebody did. There were always one or two parked in G7 for every home game.

US Cellular always had 2 or 3 sitting around the area.

 

[Cpech56]

You are ******* crazy.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlVxRdTnNqI]Man Freeclimbs 1700 foot tower - YouTube[/ame]

If I had a dollar for everyone thats told me this. It is the worlds deadliest job. Proven fact. However with preparation and the ability to work hard, anyone can do it. Well maybe not anyone but you get the point. The highest I have ever been up is 2,000 feet. There are 4 towers just north of Des Moines called the "Alleman" towers because they are in Alleman,IA. They are all 2,000 foot towers, however these feature a cozy nut to butt elevator ride to 1,600 feet, from there you get out and free climb the rest of the way up. Scary as ****, but someones gotta do it. Oh, and dont think for one second I dont get paid well, and am fully invested in a hell of a life insurance policy.

As for the gentleman above who asked about there being previous mobile cell units. Verizon has had them there in the past, yes. However the majority of the time the ones you are speaking of are US CELL. The only time Verizon brought theres in is for the IA-ISU game. Expect coverage to be better, but ultimately it comes down to the fact that theres an extremely large amout of data trying to be processed in a very small area. If we all had the old school Nokia's with the best game ever (Snake) we would surely have no problem at all getting reception.

Hope this helps clear a few things up.

 

[alarson]

Good to hear. Its been a nightmare even trying to send texts at some games. Its not a huge deal if i don't have great data during games, but voice\text is necessary for coordinating with others (and with crowd noise, usually text is the best option)

 

[CompCy]

I just tried out the LTE here and got 20Mbps down and 16 Mbps up. I'm sure there weren't many other people on it this morning, though. I'm a little sad that it looks like the LTE coverage doesn't quite reach to my house.

 

[Max57]

Woot - 4G finally.