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Thread: Flow LTE

  1. #111
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    Here's ANOTHER update, FLOW has lit up LTE towers at UWI Campus. I can confirm a personal sighting of LTE on an iPhone. The device was attached to the exact same site I referred to as being completely upgraded (UWI Backgate). I have not yet confirmed whether the Post Office site or the Hospital site are lit up for LTE yet.

    Note: All FLOW sites serving the campus are all high traffic cell towers. New 700/850 MHz panels were added onto the the towers and as such, leads me to believe that FLOW likely has 700 MHz active, which would make UWI the first LTE-A area in the island. I have NOT confirmed this so don't quote me lol.
    Last edited by Brandysull; Feb 3, 2017 at 09:41 PM.

  2. #112
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brandysull View Post
    Here's ANOTHER update, FLOW has lit up LTE towers at UWI Campus. I can confirm a personal sighting of LTE on an iPhone. The device was attached to the exact same site I referred to as being completely upgraded (UWI Backgate). I have not yet confirmed whether the Post Office site or the Hospital site are lit up for LTE yet.

    Note: All FLOW sites serving the campus are all high traffic cell towers. New 700/850 MHz panels were added onto the the towers and as such, leads me to believe that FLOW likely has 700 MHz active, which would make UWI the first LTE-A area in the island. I have NOT confirmed this so don't quote me lol.
    This is great, Hopefully By early to mid April they will be finished rolling out LTE in Kingston. Just in time or a little before the Samsung Galaxy S8 Hits the markets for sale.

  3. #113
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    I did a SIM change and voila! LTE! These speed tests were done on the UWI Campus. Turns out they have coverage at the Post Office tower, Back Gate and the Hospital tower.



    Coverage actually surprised me, I did the change at FLOW Sovereign and as soon as I inserted my SIM, I got LTE coverage. Speeds were excellent deep inside of the mall. Driving away from Sovereign impacted it very little. I did notice a switch down to HSPA+ while travelling down Mona Road. It did pick up once more right by the Total Gas Station. Note, you will fallback to 3G if you go inside buildings and they are conciously limiting users to 50 down /10 up but I have seen spikes up to 50 Mbit/s up and 70 Mbit/s down
    Last edited by Brandysull; Feb 4, 2017 at 05:37 PM.

  4. #114
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brandysull View Post
    I did a SIM change and voila! LTE! These speed tests were done on the UWI Campus. Turns out they have coverage at the Post Office tower, Back Gate and the Hospital tower.

    http://i.imgur.com/edS5UFE.png
    http://i.imgur.com/iOP7CDT.png

    Coverage actually surprised me, I did the change at FLOW Sovereign and as soon as I inserted my SIM, I got LTE coverage. Speeds were excellent deep inside of the mall. Driving away from Sovereign impacted it very little. I did notice a switch down to HSPA+ while travelling down Mona Road. It did pick up once more right by the Total Gas Station. Note, you will fallback to 3G if you go inside buildings and they are conciously limiting users to 50 down /10 up but I have seen spikes up to 50 Mbit/s up and 70 Mbit/s down
    You had to get a new SIM Card?, if this is so. Will some users need to upgrade their SIM Card?. I got my Sim Card in December of last year, So I'm hoping that I wont have to change it. And I hope it is compatible, I do hope that Flow will change the name in the Status bar from LIME to Flow, I hate seeing the LIME Network Indicator on my status bar.
    Last edited by Arch_Angel; Feb 5, 2017 at 07:57 AM. Reason: removed large pics from quote

  5. #115
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nathan77791 View Post
    You had to get a new SIM Card?, if this is so. Will some users need to upgrade their SIM Card?. I got my Sim Card in December of last year, So I'm hoping that I wont have to change it. And I hope it is compatible, I do hope that Flow will change the name in the Status bar from LIME to Flow, I hate seeing the LIME Network Indicator on my status bar.
    A SIM Upgrade is only needed to access the network IF your previous SIM was not compatible. My SIM card was not compatible as it was a Series 05.00 SIM. Apparently, Series 08.00 SIMs and up are the LTE SIMs. To see if you have one, check on the barcode of the SIM Card (not the pop-out) and beside the ICCID (the REALLY long series of digits beginning with 89010), you should see 4 digits in the format XX.XX. Check to see if it is 08.00, which is the U-SIM needed for LTE.

  6. #116
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brandysull View Post
    A SIM Upgrade is only needed to access the network IF your previous SIM was not compatible. My SIM card was not compatible as it was a Series 05.00 SIM. Apparently, Series 08.00 SIMs and up are the LTE SIMs. To see if you have one, check on the barcode of the SIM Card (not the pop-out) and beside the ICCID (the REALLY long series of digits beginning with 89010), you should see 4 digits in the format XX.XX. Check to see if it is 08.00, which is the U-SIM needed for LTE.
    I checked and its the 08.00 digits on the SIM Card Holder. Do you know if there is any separate USSID codes to subscribe to Flow LTE Network?. I wonder if they will follow Digicel and charge separately for LTE and HSPA+ services?. I would not like that at all, also there is no way they would offer 50 and 100MB on a LTE Plan?. As one speed test, and all of that done. So maybe they will come up with new data plans for both prepaid and Postpaid customers.

  7. #117
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nathan77791 View Post
    I checked and its the 08.00 digits on the SIM Card Holder. Do you know if there is any separate USSID codes to subscribe to Flow LTE Network?. I wonder if they will follow Digicel and charge separately for LTE and HSPA+ services?. I would not like that at all, also there is no way they would offer 50 and 100MB on a LTE Plan?. As one speed test, and all of that done. So maybe they will come up with new data plans for both prepaid and Postpaid customers.
    Is there service from UWI to HWT? As in is there consistent LTE coverage along the route to UWI ,NEW KGN ETC?


    Also could you also compare the speed with LTE and HSPA? By taking the speed test at the same location so i can see

  8. #118
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nathan77791 View Post
    I checked and its the 08.00 digits on the SIM Card Holder. Do you know if there is any separate USSID codes to subscribe to Flow LTE Network?. I wonder if they will follow Digicel and charge separately for LTE and HSPA+ services?. I would not like that at all, also there is no way they would offer 50 and 100MB on a LTE Plan?. As one speed test, and all of that done. So maybe they will come up with new data plans for both prepaid and Postpaid customers.
    FLOW is currrently not charging separately for LTE so your current data plan will avail you use of the LTE network. When I spoke to them last, they were drafting new data plans to complement the LTE network (I assume they don't discriminate based on RAT; FLOW has never done this in any other market, they usually get rid of the '4G' plans and sell LTE only plans). I also assume the company is bringing their popular prepaid combo plans hopefully with the 10x data promotion they did in Cayman too lol. As far as I see it, an unlimited option is not as far off as we think. Their LTE network demands an unlimited tariff (especially with network averages from what I'm seeing of ~40 Mbit/s)
    Last edited by Brandysull; Feb 5, 2017 at 03:06 AM.

  9. #119
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    Quote Originally Posted by 876 View Post
    Is there service from UWI to HWT? As in is there consistent LTE coverage along the route to UWI ,NEW KGN ETC?


    Also could you also compare the speed with LTE and HSPA? By taking the speed test at the same location so i can see
    Coverage at UWI is consistent outside... All my tests went above the 40 Mbit/s mark without fail and latency was sub 30 ms as well. Outside of UWI, I had LTE while at Sovereign too. I'm unsure about the exact length and breadth of the network being as how this is my first day of using it.

    The route to UWI (AFAIK) only had a switchdown to HSPA+ for a really short period of time right by the stoplight by Wellington Drive. Once I re-established a connection on the LTE network by the Total Gas station at Mona Heights, it was smooth sailing from there on. All sites serving UWI are pumping out glorious LTE.

    Just to note, coverage was also available Downtown and at NMIA since the first light up. It may have expanded since as FLOW's working hard to meet that March deadline for Kingston-wide LTE.

    Here's a sample from FLOW's HSPA+ network (this is the 850 MHz layer, which is almost always the first preference for switchdown - a phenomenon you will experience quite a bit given LTE's fragile air link & Band 4's limited penetrative ability)



    LTE (note the graph peaks; active throttling is being used)



    I would caution against using LTE on plans sub 1 GB for a protracted period of time. Since being on the network for more than 12 hours I've used 1.1 GB of data already. Every speed test is upwards of 100 MBs EVEN with FLOW actively throttling you (for now at least) to 50 Mbit/s down and 10 Mbit/s up.
    Last edited by Brandysull; Feb 5, 2017 at 03:17 AM.

  10. #120
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    Quote Originally Posted by Brandysull View Post
    FLOW is currrently not charging separately for LTE so your current data plan will avail you use of the LTE network. When I spoke to them last, they were drafting new data plans to complement the LTE network (I assume they don't discriminate based on RAT; FLOW has never done this in any other market, they usually get rid of the '4G' plans and sell LTE only plans). I also assume the company is bringing their popular prepaid combo plans hopefully with the 10x data promotion they did in Cayman too lol. As far as I see it, an unlimited option is not as far off as we think. Their LTE network demands an unlimited tariff (especially with network averages from what I'm seeing of ~40 Mbit/s)
    That's good to know, would love for them to include prepaid data plans. Similar to the ones they have for Cayman, as you mentioned. I would love to see unlimited data plans, but that I think is far off. Also no carrier ever really allows "Unlimited" data usage. after a certain amount of data is used up. Lets say around 22GB for AT&T, they slow down the speeds and throttle the service. For me unlimited means unlimited, they should't have to throttle and cap data usage to customers. I was told that networks have to throttle to reduce stress and overload on the Network, I don't buy that at all.

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