T-Mobile has added a new cell site near South Virginia Street & Patriot Blvd. The site is co-located on an existing monopole which is also occupied by Sprint.

Reno ranks 124th of the most populous 125 metro areas in the United States in testing of overall mobile network performance according to a recent RootMetrics report.

Data for the Reno metro area only shows a virtual three-way tie between T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T for overall network performance. Individual tests of Network Reliability, Call and Text are virtually tied between the 4 major carriers which include Sprint. According to the report Verizon is the Award winner in terms of Network speed and Data, while Sprint falls short of the other 3 carriers in those categories.

Fierce Wireless has reported that the Cricket Wireless CDMA network will be shut down by mid-September 2015. AT&T bought Cricket in 2014 and has been transitioning customers to AT&T’s GSM/LTE network.

It’s possible that once the shut down is complete AT&T will transition the old Cricket cell sites to AT&T LTE sites and help fill-in coverage gaps in AT&T’s network.

Verizon recently completed construction on 6 new cell sites in the Reno area, mainly improving coverage in existing coverage areas. Those sites include:

• Mately Lane – Co-located on a tower with other wireless carriers near the intersection of Mill Street and Terminal Way
• Montello & 7th – Co-located on a tower with other wireless carriers near the intersection of Sutro and 6th Street
• Moya Blvd. & Lear Blvd. – New monopine in the Stead industrial area
• N. Virginia & W. Golden Valley Rd. – New monopole near the Raleigh Heights subdivision
• Pyramid Lake Hwy & Sha Neva Rd. – New 100′ monopole covering the north part of Spanish Springs
• S. Virginia & California Ave. – atop the Ponderosa Hotel

AT&T has completed the purchase of Cricket. AT&T will gain additional spectrum to improve coverage and capacity. Cricket users will have access to AT&T’s 4G LTE network. It is unknown at this time if AT&T will utilize some of Cricket’s cell site locations for improved coverage in poor coverage areas. Read more here: wirelessweek.com/news/2014/03/update-t-completes-acquisition-leap-wireless

Verizon recently added a cell site near Mill Street and Edison Way in Reno.

Photo courtesy K. Albright

Now that Reno’s 4 major wireless carriers have launched LTE data coverage, their next update will likely be moving voice traffic to LTE. Here’s an interesting article about Why Networks Want to Move to Voice Over LTE.

Verizon Wireless recently activated a new cell site near the intersection of Glendale Avenue and Industrial Way in Sparks. The new cell site has antennas co-located on a pre-existing monopole with Nextel and Sprint.

Reports on our Twitter feed indicate that AT&T launched its LTE high-speed data network this week in most areas of Reno, with download speeds reported up to 57 Mbps. The Reno Gazette-Journal also reports that T-Mobile has launched enhanced coverage and speeds to its data network.

See the RGJ article for more details.

Verizon Wireless recently completed a new cell site in Sun Valley, located at the “Sun Valley” clock tower at Sun Valley Blvd. and E Gepford Pkwy. The tower was previously occupied only by Sprint. Verizon added antennas below Sprint’s.