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At some point over the weekend, T-Mobile bumped the Omaha metro from 100+40 to 100+90 of n41! That's a pretty large increase from what we had just a few weeks ago when we were sitting at 80+40Mhz. Out of curiosity, tested a site on my way to work and pulled 1.4Gpbs. That's the fastest I've ever gotten on T-Mobile! For those that know Omaha, this was on Dodge street in Midtown so not exactly a quiet area!

Hopefully this indicates T-Mobile hasn't completely abandoned mmwave and/or small cells? But then again this is the loop, so take that as you will. Hopefully now that most macro activity is done (besides rural colo/builds), they will start working on small cells.

T-Mobile acquiring SoniqWave's 2.5 GHz spectrum Another spectrum speculator down! T-Mobile is acquiring all of their BRS/EBS licenses and their leases. Details are lacking but it looks like T-Mobile might be giving them 3.45GHz in exchange in some of the markets where they're acquiring BRS/EBS to sweeten the deal and stay below the spectrum screen. Hopefully NextWave is at the negotiating table with T-Mobile so NYC can finally get access to the full BRS/EBS band as well. — — — — — Edit: Turns out this is a spectrum swap where T-Mobile is basically giving them DoD spectrum in a bunch of markets in exchange for all of SoniqWave's BRS/EBS. SoniqWave will likely turn around and sell the DoD spectrum to AT&T whenever the FCC removes the 40MHz cap.

Drove from Omaha to KC this weekend. There were a number of n41 sites that previously only had 50 or 50+20Mhz on air and didn't allow for the n41 channel to be the primary channel on SA NR. As of this past weekend (probably sometime last month) all of them had 100 + at least 40Mhz of n41 and had n41 as the primary channel. A couple of them had 100+90. The network in KC was also increased to 100+90 since the last time I was here, giving a total of 15 n71, 20 + 5 n25, 100 + 90 n41. Pulled 1.2Gbps on a random site at 5pm Saturday afternoon.

This has been approved.. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/fcc-approves-t-mobiles-deal-to-purchase-mint-mobile/

"The company’s unique multi-layer approach to 5G, with dedicated standalone 5G deployed nationwide across 600MHz, 1.9GHz, and 2.5GHz delivers customers a consistently strong experience, with 85% of 5G traffic on sites with all three spectrum bands deployed." Meanwhile they are very close to a construction deadline June 1 for 850Mhz of mmWave in most of Ohio covering 27500-28350Mhz expiring 6/8/2028. No reported sightings. Buildout notice issue sent by FCC in March 5, 2024 https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/letterPdf/LetterPdfController?licId=4019733&letterVersionId=178&autoLetterId=13060705&letterCode=CR&radioServiceCode=UU&op=LetterPdf&licSide=Y&archive=null&letterTo=L No specific permits seen in a quick check of Columbus. They also have an additional 200Mhz covering at 24350-25450 Mhz and 24950-25050Mhz with no buildout date expiring 12/11/2029.

New T-Mobile site went live earlier this year at 5 W 86th St, just off of Central Park. It's not a Sprint conversion so I hope this means more new builds are gonna stop popping up in areas that need coverage the most. — — — — — Also spotted a unicorn (mapped a new AT&T site) in Greenpoint. It's eNB ID 115932/119932. I spotted the permit a super long time ago but it looks like it finally went live earlier this month. That makes 5 new AT&T sites in Brooklyn in the past 2 years. — — — — — Noticed that I touched a Sprint conversion site while mapping today. It has been live since at least December and is already on the keep site map. Sprint eNB 74215 -> T-Mobile gNB 1371628 Located at: 40.767977371545726, -73.96146218469505 Still a bunch more we've found that don't have any decommission permits submitted yet. — — — — — Adding a bunch of gig+ sites I haven't reported yet. eNB 44076 Located at 40.72513188568983, -73.95130108843207 eNB 44110 Located at 40.78671665921442, -73.97831748836762 eNB 47002 Located at 40.71818871096234, -73.97553242675835 eNB 48023 Located at 40.70014576627346, -73.95511802661758 eNB 129912/130917 Located at 40.71727220756978, -73.95652417532955 eNB 875917 Located at 40.72274052431834, -73.84403351784677 eNB 49849 Located at 40.72181611705532, -73.86627810663067

Quote from wsj; "The T-Mobile deal could be reached as soon as later this month, while discussions with Verizon on a separate transaction are expected to take longer or might not result in an agreement, the people said." "The rising value of wireless licenses is a driving force behind the deal. U.S. Cellular’s spectrum portfolio touches 30 states and covers about 51 million people, according to regulatory filings." https://specmap.sequence-omega.net/

From WSJ which is paywalled but they're reporting that T-Mobile and Verizon are working on a joint deal to buy and split up U.S. Cellular. https://www.wsj.com/business/telecom/t-mobile-verizon-in-talks-to-carve-up-u-s-cellular-46d1e5e6?st=qwngrnh4s3bcr76 — — — — — Summary from a user in the Reddit thread:

Was at the Yankees vs Tigers game today and besides being a terrible day to have good seats, T-Mobile had great speeds via the stadium's DAS. I consistently saw 500-600Mbps on 5G and on LTE I got upwards of 200Mbps. I noticed that the stadiums DAS is broadcasting 140MHz n41 while macros that surround the stadium are at 80MHz. Pics of antennas I spotted and speed tests:

Boston Baked Beans

Boston cream pie

https://www.t-mobile.com/2023-annual-report Most items s4gru members will be aware of, but an interesting read.

https://www.phonearena.com/news/t-mobile-older-rate-plan-prices-june_id157821 We're on Sprint Max for our seven phone/two Apple Watch (with Cellular) family plan... Because it doesn't make sense to switch to anything else, especially if we can't even finance all of our devices. Some of you may recall that T-Mobile suddenly cut our credit limit to $1,500 (which is barely more than one iPhone 15 Pro) with no notice at all. I escalated it to the Office of the CEO and was told to pound sand, even though I have 800+ Credit as a longtime customer and was suddenly being treated as a deadbeat. I ultimately upgraded my three iPhone lines directly through Apple and they're Unlocked. I haven't bothered to check on whether my Credit Limit has updated, but I don't plan on upgrading them through T-Mobile again. I guess we'll find out if "Sprint Max" counts as "older" soon enough.

In the conference call they had two question on additional spectrum. One was the 800 spectrum. They are not certain what will happen, thus have not really put it into their plans either way (sale or no sale). They do have a reserve level. Nationwide 800Mhz is seen as great for new technologies which I presume is IOT or 5g slices. T-Mobile did not bite on use of their c-band or DOD. mmWave rapidly approaching deadlines not mentioned at all. FWA brushes on this as it deals with underutilized spectrum on a sector by sector basis. They are willing to take more money to allow FWA to be mobile (think RV or camping). Unsure if this represents a higher priority, for example, FWA Mobile in RVs in Walmart parking lots working where mobile phones need all the capacity. In terms of FWA capacity, their offload strategy is fiber through joint ventures where T-Mobile does the marketing, sales, and customer support while the fiber company does the network planning and installation. 50%-50% financial split not being consolidated into their books. I think discussion of other spectrum would have diluted the fiber joint venture discussion. They do have a fund which one use is to purchase new spectrum. Sale of the 800Mhz would go into this. It should be noted that they continue to buy 2.5Ghz spectrum from schools etc to replace leases. They will have a conference this fall to update their overall strategies. Other notes from the call are 75% of the phones on the network are 5g. About 85% of their sites have n41, n25, and n71, 90% 5g. 93% of traffic is on midband. SA is also adding to their performance advantage, which they figure is still ahead of other carriers by two years. It took two weeks to put the auction 108 spectrum to use at their existing sites. Mention was also made that their site spacing was designed for midrange thus no gaps in n41 coverage, while competitors was designed for lowband thus toggles back and forth for n77 also with its shorter range.

Here in NYC I don’t think NextWave even has any clients. By my count they only have about two dozen sites deployed across the entire city. It’s pretty much a network only put up to try to pressure T-Mobile into buying them by forcing T-Mobile to switch their n41 configuration from 140MHz to 80MHz over a growing portion of the city. That’s not competitive with Verizon who has 160MHz citywide. I hope we get to the point soon where T-Mobile decides it’s worth it to just buy out NextWave, take over their leases, and finally have a full 190MHz across the city.

Progress!

Musical Plant

Finally got a rainbow sim after about a year of occassionally trying. N70, n71, and n66 working on byod s24 ultra. Speed around 550Mbps down, 40 up during rush hour: https://imgur.com/a/ENhnSI2

A SCP beta update is rolling out now.. it includes more adjustments to site note features including saving notes and displaying neighbor notes. If you are seeing odd behavior with notes (especially those of you 'missing' notes that you know should be appearing), please send a diagnostic report soon after you observe this behavior. I have added additional logging that should capture what is going on (it can be seen on the Diagnostic Mode page). A major improvement to the function to clean up duplicate LTE GCIs is included in this release. Instead of deleting all duplicate entries, it will now save the entry that has the highest 'hits' column value, and delete all others. It is not perfect, but should be a huge improvement over deleting all of the entries. Please keep in mind if you have duplicates, this could impact site note display. Duplicate GCI entries are typically a product of quickly-changing PLMNs that the OS does not report in sync with other data, resulting in some information being logged with the wrong PLMN. Similar issues are happening on dual-SIM devices that I have not been able to resolve yet. Keep in mind that dual-SIM functionality is still in testing, and even the new option to disable dual-SIM logging is still buggy. I'm working on it! Thanks for all of the feedback, keep it coming...

It took NINE MONTHS for contractors to replace the traffic light pole they took down for this, but Verizon contractors finally returned to install an oDAS unit in Downtown Brooklyn. I only saw it in the states of having no antennas and then mmWave antenna, so I'm not sure if they added more on top. I'm once again very confused by the placement of this site since it's on the same block as a macro site with mmWave, and standing in this position I can get 2.5Gbps download speeds. What is Verizon doing?

Jelly Beans

This is market-specific. As an example, in Richmond, VA, this is true. Here in the DC area, though, two of the three PCIs are clearly part of a sequential set, but the third is clearly not. I'm not sure why some markets are like this and some are not, but I note Richmond was one of their earlier test markets, while DC was not. - Trip

American Pie

Today I was driving over in Bothell/Kenmore area. I noticed the site which used to host Sprint eNB 745953 (where Waynita Way NE turns into 100th Ave NE) before it was fully decommissioned last year is now hosting all new T-Mobile gear. The gear isn't live yet but is fully installed. My guess is they plan to decommission the T-Mobile B2/B66 (enB 84647) only site a few blocks up the hill. This is a great move because decommissioning that old site would reduce interference with eNB 84740/175124. At the same time, the new location should notably improve coverage in the geographically shielded area along Waynita/100th. The weird thing is I can't find a permit for this anywhere!

Mint and Ultra: Welcome to the T-Mobile Family! https://www.t-mobile.com/news/business/t-mobile-closes-acquisition-mint-and-ultra-mobile

From just under a week ago: https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/t-mobile-announces-163-million-in-completed-network-upgrades-for-arkansas Progress!

American Football

Yes! That does keep it from wandering off Dish and most importantly, reconnecting immediately (at least where there is n70). Thanks!

I have my Dish phone locked to NR-only. That keeps it on Dish and only occasionally will it see T-Mobile NR SA for brief periods before going to no service. I also don't have mine band locked beyond that, except that I have some of the unused bands turned off just to try to reduce scan time. Fortunately, my Dish phone is the one with the MediaTek chipset, so it has NR neighbor cells, and I can usually see n71, n70, n66, and sometimes n29 (market-dependent) through those regardless of which band it's connected to as primary. - Trip

T-Mobile Delivers Industry-Leading Customer, Service Revenue and Profitability Growth in Q1 2024, and Raises 2024 Guidance https://www.t-mobile.com/news/business/t-mobile-q1-2024-earnings — — — — — I find it funny that when they talk about their spectrum layers they're saying n71, n25, and n41. They're completely avoiding talking about mmWave.

T-Mobile and EQT Announce Joint Venture to Acquire Lumos and Build Out the Un-carrier’s First Fiber Footprint https://www.t-mobile.com/news/business/t-mobile-eqt-jv-to-acquire-lumos

Drove out into the country today. Dish stuck to my phone like glue. At least -120 rsrp. Likely only good for phone calls (should have tested.) It then switched to T-Mobile. Getting back on Dish was another issue. I am used to dragging out coverage so I expected a few miles, but had to drive at least 10 miles towards a Dish site. Airplane mode, which worked for Sprint, did nothing. Rebooting did nothing. Finally got it to change over about 2 miles from the site by manually setting the carrier to Dish then it had great reception. Sprint used to have a 15 minute timeout but I did not have the patience today. Previously I did a speed test on Dish out in the country at the edge of Dish coverage. My speeds were 2g variety. Dish has really overclocked some of these sites. Seen rssp readings in the 50s. Would have called them boomer sites with Sprint but much more common with Dish.

NextWave is complaining about interference from T-Mobile's network again. It's super annoying considering the area where T-Mobile operates a full 150MHz of BRS/EBS shrank significantly in late 2023. In a place as dense as NYC, have two operators with such split holdings of this band doesn't make sense. Interference seems nearly inevitable. Next Wave has only submitted permits for 22 sites so far, they honestly should just sell. https://www.lightreading.com/5g/redzone-nextwave-also-complain-of-interference-from-t-mobile-s-5g

Neighbor notes have been available for a long time.. many years. Sorry if my post wasn't clear, I was saying I made improvements to that feature.. fixed some bugs and overhauled how the app looks for notes that may be recorded under a different PLMN (like T-Mobile/Sprint Keep sites/etc). NR sites can be tricky depending on the provider because some use multiple NCIs per site.. and in my area, T-Mobile has changed a lot of them. For T-Mobile, I have not identified a pattern between old and new NCIs, so until you save a note under a new NCI, it's going to be blank. If you long-press on the "Connected to [LTE|NR]" label, it will send diagnostics immediately. There's no ability to add a comment to that report but you can send a few when you're seeing an issue and then send one with a comment referring to the other reports so I know what I'm looking for.

Fish Dance

Not seeing it on my S24, but the AT&T side of my Dish/Project Genesis Edge+ 2023 is pulling AT&T n77 as of this morning (didn't test yesterday), with 200+ Mbps download speeds outdoors despite being a few miles from the nearest cell site. Maybe someone used the eclipse as an excuse to build out here after all (not VZW, to be clear). Hopefully I'll catch the signal on my S24 as well (swapped in my Boost AT&T SIM to check), I want to see whether they have both 3900-3980 MHz and DoD spectrum online...at which point they'll have the same amount of 5G deployed to T-Mobile (10x10 n5 + 120 MHz C-Band vs. 10x10 n25 + 20x20 n71 + 80 MHz n41), albeit in a config that *should* allow for higher peak speeds. AT&T seems to be aware they have C-Band here, as this location is marked as covered by Internet Air. So...think I'll try setting that up for the family. EDIT 2: T-Mobile actually has 100+80 MHz here, so they've deployed more mid-band than AT&T owns. Still nice to see AT&T turning theirs on.

Feel like the performance is snappier with this update. Mine has felt a bit slower a few updates ago.

Worked no problem.

Finally got latest update within the hour. Duplicate GCI updates: Most used s24 ultra: none. S21 ultra #1: 0.3%, s21 ultra #2: 0.1%. Networks: T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T. All have dual sims, but recently disabled second sim given scp issues. All with latest firmware.

April security update is out

Beer Goggles

Safety Dance

My notes are back! As always appreciate your work! If I knew anything at all about how it all worked I'd offer to help haha

Fish School

So, Dish is continuing to build out their network, it seems. Fredericksburg, TX now has n70 strong enough to be usable (100+ Mbps) indoors a few miles outside town, which means that for most of the area they're now the second-fastest network (behind T-Mobile), since neither AT&T nor VZW have C-Band deployed here. I did lose service for a bit earlier this morning, so this coverage may have just come online and is being optimized as a result. But I'll test later with the Edge+ 2023 to see what state things are in.

Hey Mike—I’ve got a lot of professional experience with this sort of stuff. I’d be happy to help. Feel free to shoot me a PM and we can discuss further!

NP. FYI, No sign of beta yet. Being in beta instead of alpha is no problem. Perhaps betas only get it once all alphas have been updated. Edit just got beta a few minutes ago.

N41 here has been expanded from 140Mhz to 180Mhz. Speeds seem the same so they just need to work on backhaul