LTE Arrives in Birmingham, AL - HTC Vivid, Raider, Velocity

Last night I just happened to glance at my phone and saw 4G/LTE at the top. Sure enough, I was getting LTE in the Birmingham, AL area. It has not been officially announced as far as I can determine.
I am not seeing the speeds that others have reported, but I am getting more than double my previous speeds. The internet loads faster and other data apps definitely load faster. So, I can see a significant improvement. Last night, I was getting faster upload speeds than download. This morning, it's more normal with download speeds about twice as fast as upload speeds.
Update: Initially I was seeing about 10 Mbps download and 6 Mbps upload. I did some later testing this morning and am now seeing 14-18 Mbps download speeds.
I suspsect AT&T wants to roll out LTE in more areas with the new iPhone coming out soon. People will not be happy if they don't see LTE when they turn on those new iPhone 5's.

I'm surprised Birmingham hasn't had LTE. We have it down here in Mobile.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2

bswann said:
I'm surprised Birmingham hasn't had LTE. We have it down here in Mobile.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
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Could be any number of reasons why they were able to implement it in Mobile before Birmingham. There are still a lot of major metropolitan areas that did not have AT&T LTE a few weeks ago when they announced a number of areas getting it. Birmingham was not on that list I saw.

Related

No LTE? No big deal

I really don't get why so many review sites are writing off the nexus 4 as some terrible device stating its "outdated" because it has no lte. Honestly I think lte is ahead of its time. It's useless without unlimited data, and personally I came from an lte phone and can't even tell a difference other than speed test results.
If it was just 3G I could understand more but hspa+ is more than capable on at&t and t-mobile.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
I think a big reason for the complaints from review sites is because many of them live and work in heavily populated areas. The hspa networks there are congested and speeds are dramatically slower than some of the smaller markets.
I live in a Minneapolis suburb and I get 20 Mbps down and 4 Mbps up on T-Mobile. Plenty fast for me. My fiancé is still on Verizon with a galaxy nexus and she doesn't even get LTE at our house.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Yeah not having lte on a Verizon phone is definitely a bigger deal because cdma is incapable of hspa+ speeds and 3G is about half the speed of gsm networks. I live in Greenwood, a suburb of Indianapolis, and I get pretty good hspa +speeds, usual between 3 to 12mbps, AT&T. Sure it's a far cry from the 30 to 50 I got on lte, but really can't tell a difference
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Cor-master said:
Yeah not having lte on a Verizon phone is definitely a bigger deal because cdma is incapable of hspa+ speeds and 3G is about half the speed of gsm networks. I live in Greenwood, a suburb of Indianapolis, and I get pretty good hspa +speeds, usual between 3 to 12mbps, AT&T. Sure it's a far cry from the 30 to 50 I got on lte, but really can't tell a difference
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
I live downtown in Indy, do you by chance know if ATT or TMO is faster around Indy?
jmcsk8 said:
I live downtown in Indy, do you by chance know if ATT or TMO is faster around Indy?
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Click to collapse
Not sure but I think at&t has better reception around here. However you can't beat the price on Tmobile, you actually get a discount for owning your own phone. I though about trying out T mobile but I makes me a bit concerned when I compare coverage maps and areas that are on 2G only for AT&T show no coverage on T mobile!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
I live in a suburb outside of Chicago. I had vzw and my LTE speeds where the same as T-Mobile HSPA+.. Cant really tell a difference
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Cor-master said:
Not sure but I think at&t has better reception around here. However you can't beat the price on Tmobile, you actually get a discount for owning your own phone. I though about trying out T mobile but I makes me a bit concerned when I compare coverage maps and areas that are on 2G only for AT&T show no coverage on T mobile!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I know what you mean.
I am getting ready to switch from Sprint which according some sites I have checked and speaking with friends that have T Moblie, I should have the same if not better coverage.
Well the nice thing about an unlocked phone is you can get prepaid sims and try before you device on one with prepaid sims. I though about grabbing a prepaid Tmobile sim and trying it for a month, though I'm under contract for my stupid HTC vivid until March of 2014 anyway, ugh...
Thank god for unlocked nexus devices, now I can get a nice phone at a reason price without committing to AT&T for 2 more years every time!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
I am never going to disable LTE on my Nexus 4. It is a big deal, once you experience it you will never go back!
Switched from the iPhone 5 and I haven't noticed any speed decrease for my use.
Nexus 4 doesn't have lte..? Could've fooled me! =]
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Delay in connecting to data

Is it normal to take a while to connect to data? How does I compare to other sprint LTE phones?
I've noticed that if I disconnect from wifi, it may take a while before I get any data at all. I drove nearly 5 blocks yesterday before it connected to anything at all, searching for signal since walking out the door and turning wifi off completely.
I'm guessing I'm just in spotty area for 4G and it doesn't know whether to connect to 3g or 4G.
Sent from my HTCONE using xda app-developers app
I live in Orlando Fl. and it doesn't usually take long to connect to data for me. But we only have 3G here for now. I don't think 4G is releasing until later this year. I do know that Sprints 3G speeds suck big time here. I'm lucky if I can get the Google page to load up in less than 3 minutes. It's pretty pathetic sometimes.
Sent from my HTC One
sonofshade said:
I live in Orlando Fl. and it doesn't usually take long to connect to data for me. But we only have 3G here for now. I don't think 4G is releasing until later this year. I do know that Sprints 3G speeds suck big time here. I'm lucky if I can get the Google page to load up in less than 3 minutes. It's pretty pathetic sometimes.
Sent from my HTC One
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Click to collapse
Have not really notice it but on vipers rom I can see it cycling between 1x and 3g in my house. Btw I es in a spot that has LTE yesterday and my wife's GSIII had 4g on but my ONE was not picking it up.
sonofshade: I was un Avalon park on Saturday and there is 4g there also parts of Altamonte mainly heading W from I4 and also when I was art Disney last week. It's spotty but they seem to be testing.
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2

4G LTE Indicator?

I just got the phone a while ago and u wonder, does it support the WiMax bands? Because I do get 4G occasionally but a speedtest shows it to be incredibly slow.
If possible could anyone on Sprint screenshot when they know they're on LTE and show me?
Thank you!
Sent from my HTC ONE using xda app-developers app
No you don't get a Wimax signal. The HTC's radio is not capable of this. As far as I know, neither is any other LTE phone. But you don't have much to lose. Sprint is expected to shut down its WiMax by 2015 (or something) and I've read it wasn't much good either. Sprint is just starting to roll out its LTE. I'm supposed to get it in August. I'm waiting. It should be worth it.
sauprankul said:
No you don't get a Wimax signal. The HTC's radio is not capable of this. As far as I know, neither is any other LTE phone. But you don't have much to lose. Sprint is expected to shut down its WiMax by 2015 (or something) and I've read it wasn't much good either. Sprint is just starting to roll out its LTE. I'm supposed to get it in August. I'm waiting. It should be worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any idea why I'm getting extremely slow speeds then?
At home I get blazing speed on LTE.. At work (4 min away) I get 3g but when I walk around the building I can sometimes connect to LTE but its very very slow.
budeone said:
At home I get blazing speed on LTE.. At work (4 min away) I get 3g but when I walk around the building I can sometimes connect to LTE but its very very slow.
Click to expand...
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Do you have any speed test results?
I have a great signal near a friends house and my upload is around 10 and my download barely increases.
TechnoHacker said:
Do you have any speed test results?
I have a great signal near a friends house and my upload is around 10 and my download barely increases.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might be in an area where 4G isn't fully implemented and just experimental. I work in NY and they never officially announced that they deployed LTE here. I do connect to 4G LTE outside my office but speed tests only show like 1.5 - 2 mb at best, even with full bars.
cnsviet said:
You might be in an area where 4G isn't fully implemented and just experimental. I work in NY and they never officially announced that they deployed LTE here. I do connect to 4G LTE outside my office but speed tests only show like 1.5 - 2 mb at best, even with full bars.
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Click to collapse
Ahh that explains it. Sprint did say they were going to rollout LTE here, but with no date.
That's literally my situation aha
Thank you!
TechnoHacker said:
Ahh that explains it. Sprint did say they were going to rollout LTE here, but with no date.
That's literally my situation aha
Thank you!
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Click to collapse
NP! I too have been patiently waiting for 4G LTE. Been paying the $10 premium monthly add-on for 3 years but getting what feels like AOL dial-up speeds :crying:
cnsviet said:
NP! I too have been patiently waiting for 4G LTE. Been paying the $10 premium monthly add-on for 3 years but getting what feels like AOL dial-up speeds :crying:
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Click to collapse
Yup. I know that feel. My friend's got the phone on another network ( I think it was AT&T ) and his speeds are insanely fast. :crying:
TechnoHacker said:
Do you have any speed test results?
I have a great signal near a friends house and my upload is around 10 and my download barely increases.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my HTCONE using xda app-developers app
TechnoHacker said:
Ahh that explains it. Sprint did say they were going to rollout LTE here, but with no date.
That's literally my situation aha
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Basically how it rolls. There's a few towers in my area that are sporadically transmitting LTE, but if you try to use actual data it'll kick you down to 3G (which would likely contribute to your low speeds).
Yeah this is my current situation as well. I might get a 4G signal, but it's like 1 maybe 1.5 down. Most of the time I'm on crappy 3G, with speeds of 0.1 mbps.
Sprint rep said August.... I can only hope.
cnsviet said:
You might be in an area where 4G isn't fully implemented and just experimental. I work in NY and they never officially announced that they deployed LTE here. I do connect to 4G LTE outside my office but speed tests only show like 1.5 - 2 mb at best, even with full bars.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just fyi, the bars at the top are for 1x only, not LTE:
http://www.s4gru.com/index.php?/top...-to-determine-your-actual-LTE-signal-strength
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2
subhumanderelict said:
Just fyi, the bars at the top are for 1x only, not LTE:
http://www.s4gru.com/index.php?/top...-to-determine-your-actual-LTE-signal-strength
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2
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Wow how misleading lol... seems like this is just for Sprint specifically?
cnsviet said:
Wow how misleading lol... seems like this is just for Sprint specifically?
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Click to collapse
ive seen it like that for other carriers as well (i work with cell phones for my job)
It would be cool if sprint implanted lte signal bars the same way wimax does!
Sent from my HTCONE using xda premium
It's not just sprint. HTC phones report signal this way. Cyanogenmod reports signal differently, and other manufactures report signal differently also.
but it's ok to eat fish cause they don't have feelings.....
Given that there's no standard for "bars" with data signals, that's fine with me. I'd like a statusbar widget though that reported that kind of info.
If you want a standard, use the "text" setting. It displays the signal strength in dBm

Sprint Instability

Had an entire section of town go down yesterday. Showed full signal but everytime anyone attempted to make a call it showed "network failure". Even attempting to call sprint's customer service numbers.
Finally got ahold of sprint via a land line and they claimed the towers show no problems and the network wasn't congested...
It is really bad since I rely on my phone for emergency response. Anyone else notice instability like this lately?
Are you in an area where LTE is being deployed? Sometimes that happens. You dont get LTE and the 3G gets worse.
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vader860 said:
Are you in an area where LTE is being deployed? Sometimes that happens. You dont get LTE and the 3G gets worse.
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4 Beta
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Click to collapse
Well we were on the "list" (Tallahassee, FL) but haven't seen much LTE (or any) in Tallahassee... It wasn't just 3g, the entire 1xRTT network dropped (no phone calls, no texts). I am on business so I get to use business tech (instead of consumer tech) and they viewed all the work orders for the towers in teh area. Said there was nothing currently happening that would have caused the entire network to go down and that we aren't even close to 800 SMR deployment (which pisses me off because Sprint coverage inside my office is horrible, while verizon I can get a strong 1x, 3g and LTE (my work phone and air card are all verizon)).
Same thing happened to me a while back, nothing worked, but I was roaming. It lasted for a few days, then when it started working again, I got LTE.
Same thing going on around Philly suburbs. Calls dropping like crazy and horribly slow 3g. When lte is turned on for good, does 3g go back to normal, or stay slower than the 1x speeds I get in some places?
prob tower issues it happens.. has nothing to do with sprint
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thlinx said:
prob tower issues it happens.. has nothing to do with sprint
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Click to collapse
if its sprint's tower issue, then it has everything to do with sprint
since its their towers
flex360 said:
if its sprint's tower issue, then it has everything to do with sprint
since its their towers
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Click to collapse
no its not sprints fault its the vendors fault
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thlinx said:
no its not sprints fault its the vendors fault
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
Lolololol
So do we go ask the vendor to fix their towers?
It's Sprint's responsibility to make sure it deals with good vendors and that they maintain the towers well.
thlinx said:
prob tower issues it happens.. has nothing to do with sprint
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How so when Sprint's internal diagnostic tools show the tower is functioning properly (in respect to the Sprint network)?
Its possible that your area is getting 1900 network vision upgrades, which knock you out for about a week.you don't really notice the lte install because you don't have the service, but you are dependent on 1900 for voice so its not pretty. Our area just got the upgrade and we had a lot of unhappy customers, I couldnt call or text for about 6 days. I'm off for a few weeks or I would check it out for you.
No issues
Sent from my One using XDA Premium HD app
So if I am scheduled to get LTE in my area soon, what kind of behavior would the network show?
I get crappy 3G almost everywhere, where every time I try to do anything, the 3G indicator goes dark and I get a network error. Whenever I get an LTE signal, it's usually a namesake, and I get knocked down to 3G. In select spots at select times, I get super duper slow 3G: around 90kbps. Sometimes 200. VERY few times, I get around 2 megs on LTE. That only lasts a little while.
I'm scheduled to get LTE this month. When should I expect decent coverage? All the threads in the International forum about gigs of data have me PUMPED!
sauprankul said:
Lolololol
So do we go ask the vendor to fix their towers?
It's Sprint's responsibility to make sure it deals with good vendors and that they maintain the towers well.
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Click to collapse
Towers go down. Power goes out, internet goes down.
These things happen. You call Sprint, you let them know. Even if they tell you everything looks good on their end, if they get 5 calls about the same tower, they'll send out an engineer.
Expecting 100% uptime is absurd.
sauprankul said:
So if I am scheduled to get LTE in my area soon, what kind of behavior would the network show?
I get crappy 3G almost everywhere, where every time I try to do anything, the 3G indicator goes dark and I get a network error. Whenever I get an LTE signal, it's usually a namesake, and I get knocked down to 3G. In select spots at select times, I get super duper slow 3G: around 90kbps. Sometimes 200. VERY few times, I get around 2 megs on LTE. That only lasts a little while.
I'm scheduled to get LTE this month. When should I expect decent coverage? All the threads in the International forum about gigs of data have me PUMPED!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Normally you will just start to see 4g more often. You may some some minor odd behavior because they are up on the tower fooling around but it won't be a big outage. They do one site at a time, and once it's on it has to be tuned for optimal performance which takes a while too.
Sadly your 3g speeds are normal anymore, smart phones now days have completely overwhelmed the marginal capacity that evodo offers. Only thing they can do is to throw more RF carriers up but that can cause interface issues between cell sites and it can actually hinder performance. Areas that have complete lte toll outs do end up with much better 3g since the data hogs are now on lte, I can get about 1.5 down on 3g here where we have both lte and 1900mghz 3g network vision complete.
Same issues in Washington, DC for the Past 3 days. I sure hope its because they are upgrading the towers
Same thing happened in Houston a couple of days ago. One of the three towers in the area I work has been Network Vision upgraded, other two still in the works. Anywho, all of a sudden, no calls/texts for a span of about 20-30 minutes (longer/more in other areas). Sprint: "no issues reported in your area", I was: "yeah, I'm reporting one/some". Everything back to normal, for the time being, super-slow 3G (less than 100kbps). Thank goodness for Xfinity at home/work. I work for a preferred retailer and all we have been advised is that the upgrades are coming and will resolve and greatly improve our (Sprint's) network. Hopefully, the influx of money from the new owners will make it so. Nextel bandwidth/spectrum to be used for LTE, yes you'll need a new phone with correct radio.
Sent from my HTCONE using xda premium
I havent read much of what's going on here just skimmed through but I would like to add what I've heard.
Lately we've been having a lot of iPhones come in with data issues. Not just the 5 but 4 and 4s as well. This week alone I've seen 6 myself. Before that... Maybe 1 or 2 everyone 6 months. It's rare. And today these people plus more have come back with a worse issue. They aren't getting reception anywhere. (I'm in Washington btw). So I called my nss support team and they said as of the 17th of July sprint has been getting way more aggressive with the network vision and the iPhone's are more sensitive to this update but other device will start experience these problems and it's going to get worse all over the state till about October. The eta is October.
Sprint wants to have this network vision finished by this year so it just makes sense it would be happening in other states also.
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tsdeaton said:
I havent read much of what's going on here just skimmed through but I would like to add what I've heard.
Lately we've been having a lot of iPhones come in with data issues. Not just the 5 but 4 and 4s as well. This week alone I've seen 6 myself. Before that... Maybe 1 or 2 everyone 6 months. It's rare. And today these people plus more have come back with a worse issue. They aren't getting reception anywhere. (I'm in Washington btw). So I called my nss support team and they said as of the 17th of July sprint has been getting way more aggressive with the network vision and the iPhone's are more sensitive to this update but other device will start experience these problems and it's going to get worse all over the state till about October. The eta is October.
Sprint wants to have this network vision finished by this year so it just makes sense it would be happening in other states also.
Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
You should have access to glance, it will tell you which sites are being upgraded and ETA's for lte and 3g nv. You have to be a lead or SM to access it.
duck9191 said:
You should have access to glance, it will tell you which sites are being upgraded and ETA's for lte and 3g nv. You have to be a lead or SM to access it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would be awesome to get this info for Tallahassee fl
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Sprint network is horrendous.

Been waiting for the 4g since 2010 and I've had enough. Time to go to T-Mobile.
Sent from my HTCONE using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
thinking about doing the same thing, I'm in Queens and it sucks haha
just worried about building penetration with them, especially in NYC
Yeah I hear you. I got sold on it today at work. One of my guys has been with T-Mobile for years I did a speed test and you see the results. He did it with his Samsung note 3 and got 29 mbps download and close to the same on upload. Frigging amazing. It's faster then my Wi-Fi on comcast at home. Time to make a move. Sad thing is I've been with sprint since 2000. Gonna be weird.
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I have been with Sprint over 10 years now. I don't know how much more I can take either. The network is so unstable in my area. Constant dropped calls, 3G is to the point where even at full signal I have to do toggle airplane mode for it to kinda work sometimes. 4G signal strength is a joke. Tri band is coming very soon but I'm just so so so tired of waiting.
You think your speeds are bad?
Sent from my One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Here are results from my newly upgraded Network Vision Tower not even a mile away from me just down the road.
Sprint 3G with "great signal".
Verizon 3G will usually run faster than 4G Sprint LTE. Even though I'm very close to the tower, it constantly cuts in and out. The speed sucks.
Thank god for Comcast. I know a lot of people hate them but I am very happy with my connection except for netflix congestion which should be fixed soon. I usually am above my rated speed even at peek times.
My tower is absolutely pathetic. They aren't all done but my tower has been borked since July of 2013. Now 3G pretty much doesn't work at all.
The only thing that is nice is I now have an HD Voice tower which does sound awesome when it works when talking to someone else with Sprint on an upgraded tower. That's if it can actually hold a call.
Dan Hesse is still promising a Super 4G network to rival the competition when he did a recent interview on Mad Money seen here.
The build out is taking way too long. I know a new network is not built overnight but it's absolutely awful. It's so bad my local news did a story on it cause so many viewers were calling in wanting them to do a story.
I'm still holding out for Tri-Band is the only hope left, but I just don't know how much more I can take.
At least your guys 3G "works" if you want to call those speeds "working"
I have the same results in maplewod, voice in my house is terrible always getting dropped. I manage to get pretty good 4g in bloomington, but I am not in bloomington that often. perhaps if sprint actually buys t-mobile that will help things along.
drifty999 said:
I have the same results in maplewod, voice in my house is terrible always getting dropped. I manage to get pretty good 4g in bloomington, but I am not in bloomington that often. perhaps if sprint actually buys t-mobile that will help things along.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A lot of the towers around here are just borked. What I have been reading it's the hand off between new equipment to older legacy equipment. So eventually it should all be replaced but yea pretty much anywhere in the metro it sucks big time. Most of our towers should be getting 800 MHz & 2.5 GHz LTE in the coming months. I will be upgrading to the next HTC in tri-band flavor. We *should* see awesome speeds on the 2.5 GHz band since we were in a wimax market. We will see how the handoffs go between the 3 frequencies. I'm expecting dumped signals & dropped connection but it's suppose to be seamless.
The fastest I got out of Sprint
Here's what I'm looking at
And that's after most of the university students went home for spring break. Usually at 4 AM the speeds skyrocket though I've hit the max that our 3G supports (I probably have insomnia)
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luigi311 said:
Here's what I'm looking at (IMG quote removed)
And that's after most of the university students went home for spring break. Usually at 4 AM the speeds skyrocket though I've hit the max that our 3G supports (I probably have insomnia)
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Click to collapse
I don't have any problems for the most part in the north east. Almost always 4g (LTE) and only occasionally does it drop to 3g while driving on highways.
I can stream netflix while driving and it only occasionally has to buffer.

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