Network Vision/LTE - Northern & Southern Connecticut Markets (includes all cities)

[banananuts87]

VoLTE is live in CT. 

[Johnner1999]

it's been over a year since I annoyed folks here i mean posted here -- just curious how is service in CT these days?  

[banananuts87]

Still spotty. More band 41, and roaming via T-mobile is definitely helping with the gaps in coverage. 

[banananuts87]

Hartford is getting some mMimo loving

 

https://www.ct.gov/csc/lib/csc/ems/hartford/meadowst/sprint/em-sprint-064-190705_filing_meadowst.pdf

[Paynefanbro]

I'm on I-84 near Danbury and noticed that Sprint is aggregating two Band 41 carriers, one that is 20MHz and the other is 10MHz. Did anyone know why they're doing that?

[nexgencpu]

34 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

I'm on I-84 near Danbury and noticed that Sprint is aggregating two Band 41 carriers, one that is 20MHz and the other is 10MHz. Did anyone know why they're doing that?

What is the EARFCN for that 10mhz carrier? Could just simply be a spectrum limitation. They finally added a third carrier here in the BX and its also 10Mhz on EARFCN 41148.

[Paynefanbro]

6 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

What is the EARFCN for that 10mhz carrier? Could just simply be a spectrum limitation. They finally added a third carrier here in the BX and its also 10Mhz on EARFCN 41148.

Yup it's 41148. What's the source of the spectrum limitation?

[nexgencpu]

Just now, Paynefanbro said:

Yup it's 41148. What's the source of the spectrum limitation?

The assumption is that they just don't own enough contiguous spectrum to add the full 20mhz carrier. I guess once non-contiguous B41 CA is a thing (if ever) it will be less of an issue.

[banananuts87]

So, any insight in “Project Sprint Dark Fiber”?

 

https://www.ct.gov/csc/lib/csc/ems/hamden/wintergreenave/sprint/em-sprint-062-191009_responseandacknowledgement_wintergreenave.pdf

[Paynefanbro]

New T-Mobile site in Sterling, CT with 180MHz n41 and 1.6Gbps speeds. Absolutely insane!

 

[PedroDaGr8]

16 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

New T-Mobile site in Sterling, CT with 180MHz n41 and 1.6Gbps speeds. Absolutely insane!

 

Second fastest speeds I have seen other than those posted by falconhand on the Bellevue Greg's Bicycle Site

[Paynefanbro]

I was just in Greenwich, CT doing some shopping and naturally also doing some recording of cell sites in the background on Cellmapper. Specifically I was along Greenwich Ave which is the most dense part of the city.

1. Verizon: Literally didn't work most of the time. Even though their coverage shows the entire city blanketed in 5GUW you'll only be on their nationwide 5G network or LTE if you're anywhere south of Lewis St. Regular 5G (non C-band) didn't work at all. I don't mean it was slow, I mean it didn't pass any data at all. When I opened Instagram it told me "No connection". In a store I was in I even overheard someone asking another shopper if they had service in the store. I immediately knew they were on Verizon. Switching to LTE gave me data although it was slow. In most stores I'd get speeds in the low teens, outside it'd go up to 40Mbps. Above Lewis St. my phone finally connected to n77. On n77 I was seeing ~180Mbps. It seems like the issue isn't backhaul, it's just that Verizon doesn't have any remaining capacity on the LTE side.
    
2. AT&T: AT&T was slow but didn't suffer from the same "No data connection" issue that Verizon did. Speeds were in the low teens most of the time and peaked around 50Mbps. My phone hopped between AT&T's nationwide 5G and LTE frequently much like Verizon. Also just like Verizon, north of Lewis St. I suddenly connected to 5G+ which gave me speeds just over 100Mbps. AT&T also at least one small cell along Greenwich Ave for additional capacity and coverage and it's doing wonders for their network in the area. I'd go as far as saying it's probably the only reason they're not in the same situation as Verizon.
    
3. T-Mobile: Not to sound like an ad for the company but I was really blown away by T-Mobile's performance here. T-Mobile is collocated on the same towers as Verizon and AT&T in the region but they have an extra site in the steeple a church along Greenwich Ave that they've upgraded with n41. As a result, T-Mobile not only has the strongest signal indoors and outdoors, they also have the fastest speeds by a long shot. Nowhere along the commercial strip did I drop below 500Mbps. Indoors I was seeing over 300Mbps and outdoors I peaked at over 600Mbps. For the sake of testing I switched my phone to LTE and saw speeds of 180Mbps indoors.

 

[Paynefanbro]

Got my fastest n41 speed test ever on a pretty unassuming macro while driving on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Woodbridge, CT on Friday. Was stuck in a bit of traffic and ran a speedtest and got nearly 2Gbps.