MM, who is your carrier?
 

Merrymeeting, who is your carrier?

I don't think the tower is going to help much over toward Merrymeeting Lake. As you say, the hills there will be sheltering you from the tower, but I may be wrong (I hope for your sake.)

Given the fact that Verizon's territory was Belknap Co, not Stafford, they would be more likely to improve the signal over in Belknap. The new tower will fill in the areas that are shielded from the Prospect Mt tower as you go out the bay. Once you get out the bay, you can pick up the Roberts Knoll Campground Tower off of Rte 28. quite well. Still no help like in West Alton. nature of the beast, I guess.

I thought of posting but since I had mentioned it in a few prior posts, didn't bother...AT&T. So any benefit I should be seeing already. :(

You may have and I missed it
 

Sorry, MM, I probably missed it.

I know that my family were psyched about how good the coverage at our house is now, but then again we are across the bay from the tower.

Not sure how much justification ATT can have to get a tower put up in the middle of the Farmington - Middleton - New Durham area. Not the middle of a thriving metropolis, unfortunately.

I thought there was an ATT (formerly Cell One) tower up on the ridge where there is a large farm on Governor's Rd running from Milton to Middleton. I haven't looked for it from rte 11 in quite a while. It would give you a pretty good signal from in the area where Prospect Mt. is blocked as you head into Farmington.

Anyway, sorry that the new tower doesn't help any in New Durham, but perhaps you will be able to really enjoy it when you are over on our side of the ridge ;):).

I agree on the business justification on the Farmington side. Kings Highway has little to no coverage from New Durham, through Middleton/Milton, into Farmington. I expect that since as you say, not a lot of customers to justify it.

But I am surprised there hasn't been much more effort to get Rt 28 better coverage given the traffic it carries.

You are right. Coverage along Rt 11 and on that side of New Durham is fine. It's the hills and ridges around the lake that mess things up. (I get a GREAT signal on my boat in the middle of the lake :). I've even had to go out there to take business calls when the internet link went down)

Updates?
 

Anyone have any new info or updates on the new tower? Or ideas when Verizon might be up and running on it?

Funny you should mention that...
 

I sent a message to another member who is a tech for AT&T, and back in early Dec, he told me that the Verizon tech said they hoped to be up and running at the end of the month. I assumed he (Verizon Tech) was talking about Dec, but obviously, it would be just about any month.:rolleye2:

Reminds me of the story about the family cleaning out a house after the patriarch of the family had passed away. In the center drawer of the desk, the son found a ticket for a pair of shoes left at the shoe shop for being re-heeled. On a whim, the son took the ticket down to the cobbler, who looked at the ticket, thought for a minute or two, then said " Ah yes, brown penny loafers... need new heels... be ready next Tuesday." :):rolleye1:

Woo Hoo....sort of....
 

My neighbor posted on FB to me that it seemed that Verizon was up and running on the tower.

I have been watching the signal, and I am varying between 3G 1 bar to 3G 4bars. My wife has 4G with 2 bars and varying as well. Hopefully, they have turned it on, and are now tweeking it, like Den65 said they were doing with ATT a few months ago. In the past, I have not had 3G, so this is encouraging.

Hopefully I will see the 3-4 bars my kids had at Christmas on ATT. :rolleye2:

Verizon
 

Upthesaukee, good to hear. Please keep us updated.
Thanks

Yet, another tower update
 

No, Verizon is not on yet. I'll know because my son will no longer be texting his girl friend and be calling her on his cell phone from our house.:laugh: I live on Trask Side Rd. Here's a picture of the tower from last Monday.

Perhaps a lot has happened since Monday...
 

I was talking with some friends tonight. One from close to East Side Drive on Trask Rd has 4G four bars at his house, and has had since Tuesday. Never had that kind of signal before until this week.

I have 2 bars of 3G as we speak, and my wife has 2 bars of 4G, something we have never had. We have had 1 bar of coverage, at 1x or just 1x until this week.

I do think that Verizon is up and running. I just hope that they tweak it up just a bit. I would like to see the 4 bars that my kids have on ATT off the same tower. :rolleye2:

Upthesaukee where in the bay are you located?

Rand Hill Rd
 

Rand Hill Rd, also know as Old Laconia Rd to the old, old-timers. It starts at Busy Corner, by Amilynne's and JP China, goes up to Alton Mt Rd, and then comes out on Rte 11 again about a half mile before Jesus Valley Rd / Rte 11D intersection.

Pinning it down a little more, I am just west of Lakewood Dr, and just under a half mile off the lake.

To pin it down even more, I am here "X" :laugh:;).

And here is a pic of my wife's phone
 

Just took this picture a few minutes ago. As I said, we have never had 3G or 4G coverage at the house, until this week.

I know the area well. Let's hope they tweak the signal so you end up with 4 bars like your children on AT&T. Thanks again.

Somethings not right here
 

My wife is out with her friends tonight, so I took the kids over to the Rusty Moose for dinner. On the way back we stopped at the corner of Rt. 28 and Bowman Rd. I had no signal and my son only had 1 bar. We drove down Bowman and turned onto Jude Hill Rd. I got 1 bar my son got 2. Drove up Jude Hill right to the base of the new tower, I got 2 bars my son got 3. We should have seen a bigger jump in bars back at Rt. 28 and Bowman. I think what we are getting is either the Old Wolfeboro Rd. Tower or the Roberts cove Tower. We got back home to Trask Side Rd. and back to no bars.

Upthesaukee, might you be picking up someone's network extender/home cell phone repeater? We have a couple of these on Trask Side Rd. Some overlapping between the homes. They seem to be getting more common. This could be giving someone else the impression the they have more cell service than they really do.

No arguement here...
 

As I sit here tonight, I have 1-2 bars, still 3G. Not sure why... I am on an acre and a half of land, and the cell phone extenders are good for about 4500 sq ft. That would be a 40 ft radius.

I borrowed one from a friend, and could not go out of the house to the porch on the side of our garage and get a signal. Not sure what is going on... but I notice the signal is a little less tonight than during the day.

Not sure if they are working (daytime hours) on getting it up and running. I guess time will tell. I certainly do not have the signal to contemplate getting rid of my landline.

Your picture of the new array being installed is certainly a positive sign, and from what I heard a few weeks or so ago, maybe just a little longer, was they were trying to get TDS to get the phone lines in to the site.

From my end, it appears it is up... but not nearly as good as ATT... as I said, I hope they are still working on it.

And thanks for your input, Keng3. Between us, we will be able to sort it out eventually. :laugh:

Is Verizon even on the old wolfeboro rd tower? I drove right by it to the end of the road across from 28A the other day and wasn't getting much for service

It has to be on now, 4 bars of service going by sandy point and I'm able to access the internet too... Unheard of till a few days ago...

Still no improvement off Echo Point Rd
 

I still don't see any improvement off of Echo Point Rd. Same as before, lucky to pick up one bar.

Four bars last year
 

I was getting 3 and sometimes 4 bars at the top of the hill at Sandy Point last summer and also could access the internet on my phone. I even could access the internet via cell phone near the cottages just below the wall behind the restaurant.

Better Coverage there from Prospect Mt.
 

The tower at Prospect Mt. gave pretty good coverage further out the bay than by the town docks. The terrain behind JP China was enough of a block to knock down the signal some. Out by Sandy Point, the signal was much better. On really windy days where we would just anchor on the town dock side of Sandy Point, we would have 3-4 bars there as well.

The new tower will help on East Side dr. and rte 11 with their little nooks and crannies. Also, up on the hills on the west side of the bay.

Driving through the bay today and up Rte 11 towards Gilford I had great 4G service past Jesus Valley Rd and by the scenic view pull off. After Mt Major it dropped off. Going down the hill by Minge Cove Rd service was the same as it has been. Seems like West Alton towards Gilford won't be picking up anything from the new site.

Has anyone got an update on the cell phone service in West Alton? Thanks!

No Verizon Yet
 

As far as I can tell there isn't any Verizon on the tower yet. AT&T is working though.

They said that it should be up and running by the end of the month. Which month is the question, I guess.

As I type on my iPhone 4, I have 2 bars. Even with occasional 3 bars my phone will not call from my house in East Alton. My mother-in-law however was here this evening and she had full signal with her iPhone 5C. Is it a 4G or LTE thing? I don't need data, I just need my phone. :(

Does anyone in the know have any ideas? Maybe I need to update my roaming tomorrow when I get a signal and try again.

Thanks,
GH

who does she have her service with?
 

I am still sitting here with 1 bar of 3G on my Verizon Droid. When the kids were here the other day, 4 bars 4G AT&T. Grrrrrrrr.

Does the mother in law have AT&T, Sprint, or TMobile? Those are the other services that are supposed to be on the tower.

That's the kicker! She has Verizon. I think it's a 4G tower or something.
Maybe new installations are 4G because they are the newest technology and anyone with a 4G phone is backwards compatible in case there aren't 4G sites nearby Burt if you have a 3G phone then you are out of luck.

I'm just guessing though.

I and my wife have Sprint and notice no difference when at the bay or the dump. And Sprint coverage map still shows us in roaming area.:confused:

I drive 28 from Wolfeboro to Alton and back every day, I have a Verizon iPhone 4S.

I have not noticed any change in signal strength or service yet. Signal southbound starts to drop @ St. Katherine Drexel, is down to 1-2 bars and 1x service after 28A, and most calls are dropped after the second hill. Coming back, I have 3G to Bay Hill Road, then drops off rapidly, no service to 1 bar 1x at the bottom of the first hill, 3G not back until Chestnut Cove Road.

I doubt very much that there is a Verizon radio on that tower at this point. Hope it's coming.

Verizon is not up and running on the new tower. I have a 3G phone and my wife has a 4G phone. We are across the bay from the tower. Depending on where we are on Rte 11 depends on how good a signal we get. When we can physically see Prospect Mt, south of the Alton traffic Circle, we will have 3-4 bars of coverage. When we get back into the nooks and crannies of Rte 11, we have a few spots of no coverage, generally 1-2 bars.

West Alton has no new towers, and I don't know how the new tower on the east side of the bay, near Echo Point (Bowman Rd off rte 28) will help over at West Alton. Time will tell. It should help some, and perhaps will reach into West Alton Marina, and to the Sand Bar.

Gearhead, can't explain why Mom would have a good signal and you don't and you are both on Verizon. As I have said on this thread, when my kids are here with ATT phones, I grit my teeth and smoke comes out my ears. With the wife and I, no better signal than we had last year as the leaves came off the trees last fall.

Well thanks everyone for the detailed answers. I guess all of us will just have to wait and see what happens with the tower. I can't wait much longer Verizon... :)

I realize this thread is going on three years old, but does anyone know if there is optical fiber running to this tower?

Fiber to the cell site
 

If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say the answer is yes. There's plenty of dark fiber running nearby and fiber backhaul for cell sites is something both Metrocast and TDS offer to the carriers. RF backhaul is generally used of fiber isn't available, but that's not the case here. A lot of 4G/LTE traffic is not easily handled by microwave backhaul, particularly if the path length between cells is long and the potential for very high data demand.

Thanks for the information. The organization I work for is looking to put in equipment that can do long distance wireless Internet to our location. It needs line of sight to do so and I've been looking for an appropriate transmission point that has a fiber connection. This cell tower look like a prime candidate.

Are you looking to install something in the 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz bands, the 600MHz/700MHz LTE bands, or in some other band?

Is it WiFi, some form of WiMax, or a point-to-point private link?

We are looking to use the AirFiber 5 from Ubiquiti which uses the 5 GHz band. These units have a good history of operation in all parts of the world:

https://www.ubnt.com/airfiber/airfiber5/

https://ubcdn.co/media/images/produc...nna-design.jpg

It would be a private point-to point link with paired devices. The AirFiber 5 needs line of sight, but does have a rated maximum distance of 100 kilometers. It has a maximum of 600 Mbps transmission capability under ideal conditions. We calculate we can get a minimum of 100 Mbps in this instance where we will be transmitting 25 kilometers.

The price of the AirFIber 5 is extremely reasonable - about $1000 for each unit.

I hope you can stand the sticker shock of renting a spot on a commercial tower and the costs of using their fiber. All the big guy cell companies require at least $1M insurance, plus approved installers, etc, etc. It's not like putting ham gear on your own stick. It looks like what you are planning to spend on equipment might be about what I would expect your monthly costs would run. Not intending to talk down, you may know everything there is to know about tower rentals.

Good Luck with your endeavor.

Yes, you are absolutely correct on the costs. We will be starting a similar install in Michigan shortly and the equipment price is the cheapest part of the deal. Tower rent is $375/month, 100 Mbps fiber is $950/month, tower installation is $4500, electrical work $3000, cable $1000, two UPS $1400, two switches $1000, tower inspection after installation $1000, and the one million dollar insurance policy.

The motivation for doing this is that the building complex in Michigan that will be the recipient of the connection currently uses three T1 lines to get 4.5 Mbps at a cost of $1000/month. The new setup will give them 100 Mbps for $1325/month. A 32% increase in monthly cost for a 22x increase in Internet speed.

If all goes well with the Michigan project, then next spring we will tackle the New Hampshire project for a complex that has similar needs.

Try these guys, they may be able to help. http://186comm.com/about/

It is too bad there isn't fiber going near your Michigan or NH project. I work with a company in sleepy Meredith (chuckle) that needed 100M, and Metrocast had some dark fiber running nearby and hooked them up.

I agree tho, UBNT equipment works well, have several systems up on the mountain working, undisturbed, for decades.