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Network Vision/LTE - Upstate New York Markets - Central & East (including Syracuse, Albany, Binghamton, Ithaca, Utica)


bstrignano

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Things looking good in UNY. I just had a 121 MB download in Glens Falls NY with my XS Max. I’ve also noticed the TMO roaming helping fill the gaps too. I’ve found my phone roaming to B2 & 12 on CA. 2nd pic is circled TMO speed test. 09c2eef486442c4f938627385511cf48.jpgebcbb6400aa09d3ac79c6881476bcb99.jpg


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  • 4 months later...

A lot of rebuilds with B41 and B25/26 or just B25/26 on NY17 between Roscoe and Monticello. Previously these were all B25 only GMO site. Still a lot of coverage gaps between sites where I would drop Sprint LTE or hold on to B26 until -130dBm. 

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Noticed hugely improved coverage along 17 a few weeks ago. Hopefully once B26 is tuned it'll be solid the whole way through. 

Anyone know if I-88 is solid from Binghamton to Albany yet? There were still a bunch of LTE --> 3G drops a few months ago when I checked. This should have been solid LTE years ago. :(

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On 4/26/2019 at 3:33 PM, burnout8488 said:

Noticed hugely improved coverage along 17 a few weeks ago. Hopefully once B26 is tuned it'll be solid the whole way through. 

Anyone know if I-88 is solid from Binghamton to Albany yet? There were still a bunch of LTE --> 3G drops a few months ago when I checked. This should have been solid LTE years ago. :(

According to cellmapper uploads, it looks like I-88 coverage has improved a lot since last year. The trouble spots seem to be the six or so sites where they are strictly B25 and have hills and/or dense forest blocking the signal. Some rural sites got B41 along with B26 added to them.

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Forgot to mention that the COLT or COW with Saltilite backhaul wasn't in Walton when I returned a few weeks ago. T-mobile roaming was in full effect although it seemed like it was only B12

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  • 8 months later...
  • 2 years later...

Reviving another thread!

I went up to Hudson, NY this weekend and tested T-Mobile and Verizon's networks while there. Most of the urbanized area of Hudson is served by a single site on top of Columbia Memorial Hospital that nearly every carrier is collocated on. Verizon's site at the hospital is broadcasting Band 2/5/13/66 and no 5G at all. T-Mobile's is broadcasting Band 2/12/41/66/71 and n41/71. 

Coverage on both carriers is roughly the same but speeds are leaps and bounds better on T-Mobile. If I had to take I guess, I think that this due to a combination of T-Mobile having more spectrum deployed and simply having fewer customers in the region. In equal conditions along Warren St (Hudson's Main Street) I was seeing average speeds of ~350Mbps on T-Mobile and on Verizon I was seeing ~60Mbps on average. In normal usage, I couldn't tell a difference between 60Mbps and 350Mbps on my phones.

While in Hudson, I stayed at The Wick Hotel (I highly recommend it if you visit) which is located pretty much as far as you can get away from the city's main cell site while staying in Hudson. It's near the waterfront and just across the street from the Hudson Amtrak Station.

In my hotel room the difference in the networks was a lot more noticeable. My T-Mobile line no longer connected to 5G. Instead it flipped between 5MHz of Band 12 and 5MHz of Band 71. On Verizon I was only able to get 10MHz of Band 13. During the day, the Verizon's Band 13 carrier could barely get over 1Mbps on the 1-2 bars of LTE I was seeing in my room. T-Mobile on the other hand was getting a consistent 12Mbps on both Band 12 and Band 71 with similar signal strength to Verizon. I also tested at 3AM to see the difference in speeds when the network is barely in use. This was the only time during my trip where Verizon outperformed T-Mobile. With those same 1-2 bars at 3AM I managed to get 54Mbps on Verizon and on T-Mobile I was only able to get up to 27Mbps. It seems like this difference in speed can mostly be attributed to the difference in carrier size as opposed to capacity.

Sidenote: One thing I noticed in Hudson is that I often had a stronger signal on n41 than I did on Band 66. When I checked FieldTestMode I’d see something like Band 66 at -112dbm while n41 was at -106dbm. Goes to show how good n41's propagation can be in areas where they can just increase power to the max.

— — — — —

I also went for lunch at Frank Guido's Port of Call in Catskill, NY. Neither Verizon nor T-Mobile have 5G in Catskill. There, T-Mobile outperformed Verizon once again. Verizon's network was completely unusable in the restaurant. I couldn't load any social media or place a call and I was barely able to send a text out on the 1 bar of Band 13 I was seeing. I was unable to even run a speed test on Verizon as it failed every single time. My T-Mobile line on the other hand bounced between 1-2 bars of Band 12, enough to give me about 3Mbps down and 1Mbps up.

— — — — —

Purple and red markers are where the T-Mobile/Verizon site is located, the blue marker is where The Wick Hotel is, and the red line is Warren St. It seems like coverage is optimized on both carriers to cover Warren Street as best as they can.

ET4LlYF.png

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