Network Vision/LTE - West Washington Market (Seattle/Puget Sound Region)

[RAvirani]

2 hours ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

It appears T-Mobile is pushing forward with upgrading the Totem Lake Motel 6 site SMDH. I really hoped they would change their mind and scrap that site.

Permit to replace the hardware:

https://permitsearch.mybuildingpermit.com/PermitDetails/BNR21-09062/Kirkland

Permit to upgrade the site:

https://permitsearch.mybuildingpermit.com/PermitDetails/WIR21-00584/Kirkland

 

Oh boy. Let me see if I can pull the azimuths. 

[PedroDaGr8]

18 hours ago, RAvirani said:

Oh boy. Let me see if I can pull the azimuths. 

I'm interested to see what you figure out. That area and the 85th St. Kirkland exit are getting absurd with tower density.

For others, came across the first Dish permit for the Woodinville area. Looks like they will colo on the AT&T tower.

 

https://aca-prod.accela.com/WOODINVILLE/Cap/CapDetail.aspx?Module=Building&TabName=Building&capID1=BLD21&capID2=00000&capID3=00611&agencyCode=WOODINVILLE&IsToShowInspection=

[PedroDaGr8]

Looks like the National Glass site went live broadcasting 311-490 PLMN and some strange split eNBs: 505921, 506063 for 4G and 4198118 for 5G. I'll investigate it more tomorrow to verify.

[PedroDaGr8]

14 hours ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

Looks like the National Glass site went live broadcasting 311-490 PLMN and some strange split eNBs: 505921, 506063 for 4G and 4198118 for 5G. I'll investigate it more tomorrow to verify.

Confirmed, B2/12/41/66/71 are on 505921 and B41 is on 506063. Have not seen this format of eNB in the Seattle area before. Usually when they split eNBs, it is because they have more than 3 sectors.

[xmx1024]

On 12/9/2021 at 8:28 AM, PedroDaGr8 said:

Confirmed, B2/12/41/66/71 are on 505921 and B41 is on 506063. Have not seen this format of eNB in the Seattle area before. Usually when they split eNBs, it is because they have more than 3 sectors.

Do you know what all is on the monopole behind target at alderwood? I’m here visiting and I don’t recall. I know T-Mobile is on the power pylon right by it. 

[RAvirani]

The top rack is a Sprint KMW 16=port antenna and a Samsung M-MIMO unit.  The bottom is an AT&T Firstnet setup.  The AT&T sector facing the mall has dual split-beam antennas for capacity. The microwave dishes at the bottom are from an abandoned Clearwire setup.  

T-Mobile is set to hop off of the SnoPUD transmission tower and onto the Sprint rack in the "nearish" future.  Dish will be joining in early 2022 as well.  Verizon is also colocating onto that site (I think this is forecasted past Q2 2022 though)...

[xmx1024]

On 12/16/2021 at 4:52 PM, RAvirani said:

The top rack is a Sprint KMW 16=port antenna and a Samsung M-MIMO unit.  The bottom is an AT&T Firstnet setup.  The AT&T sector facing the mall has dual split-beam antennas for capacity. The microwave dishes at the bottom are from an abandoned Clearwire setup.  

T-Mobile is set to hop off of the SnoPUD transmission tower and onto the Sprint rack in the "nearish" future.  Dish will be joining in early 2022 as well.  Verizon is also colocating onto that site (I think this is forecasted past Q2 2022 though)...

That will be a LOADED site. 4 racks! Any plans you know of for it's (almost) sister site near the onramp at Poplar & 196th wrt the sprint rack?

[PedroDaGr8]

On 12/19/2021 at 9:41 PM, xmx1024 said:

That will be a LOADED site. 4 racks! Any plans you know of for it's (almost) sister site near the onramp at Poplar & 196th wrt the sprint rack?

If I remember correctly, that site is broadcasting a Sprint KeepPLMN as well.

[PedroDaGr8]

And just noticed the Woodinville Warehouse District site just went live. Strangely, it is only broadcasting 5G with no 4G signals live yet (band select forces me on towers which are much farther away). I'm guessing those will go live later in the day.

 

Edit: and wow, I can connect to n41-SA despite my phone supposedly not supporting it (it doesn't show in the service menu)

[PedroDaGr8]

Dang I hate the short edit window on this site. The rest of the bands on the site all went live as well. 

[RAvirani]

Looks like the Sprint site at 8th & 405 in downtown Bellevue has been converted. Huge coverage and capacity improvement. 

[PedroDaGr8]

1 hour ago, RAvirani said:

Looks like the Sprint site at 8th & 405 in downtown Bellevue has been converted. Huge coverage and capacity improvement. 

That's a lot of towers in a small area again (4th, 8th, and 12th) but here the capacity makes a bit more sense 

[RAvirani]

2 hours ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

That's a lot of towers in a small area again (4th, 8th, and 12th) but here the capacity makes a bit more sense 

Lots of downtilt here - they’re doing a pretty good job of containing coverage to prevent sector overlap here. 

[xmx1024]

On 12/22/2021 at 9:22 AM, PedroDaGr8 said:

If I remember correctly, that site is broadcasting a Sprint KeepPLMN as well.

Wow, with existing enbs:
99506/84602
DAS (I think) 82539,
84547/881750
84598/97497

PLUS the site on NB i5 onramp near Lowe's and pending migration off the power pylon, alderwood mall area will be blanketed quite well. I wonder if they are investigating n41 only small cells? Must be quite a challenge to coordinate all these low band sites near eachother.

[RAvirani]

On 12/19/2021 at 9:41 PM, xmx1024 said:

Any plans you know of for it's (almost) sister site near the onramp at Poplar & 196th wrt the sprint rack?

Totally missed this. That site is forecasted to be converted Q2 2022.

7 hours ago, xmx1024 said:

Wow, with existing enbs:
99506/84602
DAS (I think) 82539,
84547/881750
84598/97497

PLUS the site on NB i5 onramp near Lowe's and pending migration off the power pylon, alderwood mall area will be blanketed quite well. I wonder if they are investigating n41 only small cells? Must be quite a challenge to coordinate all these low band sites near eachother.

And the site mentioned above.

https://imgur.com/a/5yNA0ny

I’m hoping they do a good job with the optimization here (unlike what we’re seeing in the Totem Lake area).

Lowband RET is separate from midband RET on the antennas they’re deploying, and its range is 2-13 degrees. They can use that and maybe even mechanical tilt to minimize sector overlap. 

No 2500 small cell plans that I’m aware of. 

[PedroDaGr8]

17 hours ago, RAvirani said:

I’m hoping they do a good job with the optimization here (unlike what we’re seeing in the Totem Lake area).

 

Hah!

By the way, do you have any idea why the new Woodinville Warehouse tower is the ONLY tower I have encountered where I can connect to n41-SA?

[PedroDaGr8]

Ok either some glitch in my phone cleared or they activated n41-SA on a bunch of towers for about 10min. I was heading home for lunch, forgetting I had my phone locked on n41 and suddenly  I'm getting it everywhere. Places it never worked before (like home). Now it's back to not working.

Edit: And heading back towards Woodinville it started again but only for some towers. Very strange 

[falconhand]

Hi! 

I have been closely watching the T-Mobile 5G buildout and gradual decommissioning of the Sprint network in the Seattle area. There are a few sites, though, that I cannot see permits on or have had outstanding permits for a very long time, and was curious regarding the conversion timeline to T-Mobile native. 

The main sites I have been avidly watching and waiting for are eNBs 746958 on Green Mountain, 747190 on Key Peninsula, and 745791. 

Edited December 29, 2021 by falconhand

[RAvirani]

13 hours ago, falconhand said:

The main sites I have been avidly watching and waiting for are eNBs 746958 on Green Mountain, 747190 on Key Peninsula, and 745791. 

746958 and 747190 will both be converted. 745791 doesn’t appear to be slated for conversion…I’ll see if I can figure out why. 

[falconhand]

9 hours ago, RAvirani said:

746958 and 747190 will both be converted. 745791 doesn’t appear to be slated for conversion…I’ll see if I can figure out why. 

That's strange. 745791 is in a weak area for T-Mobile, and has been broadcasting 312-250 from the get go. (In fact, it was the site that I discovered the PLMN on in the first place). There's an outstanding permit (screenshot attached), but very limited public information. 

[RAvirani]

Just now, falconhand said:

That's strange. 745791 is in a weak area for T-Mobile, and has been broadcasting 312-250 from the get go. (In fact, it was the site that I discovered the PLMN on in the first place). There's an outstanding permit (screenshot attached), but very limited public information. 

Looks like my info was out of date - checked again this morning and that site is a listed as a conversion site.

Interestingly enough, they’re still showing a candidate at Lund & Bethell (47.51765, -122.63022), although it’s not added into the active program…

[falconhand]

1 minute ago, RAvirani said:

Looks like my info was out of date - checked again this morning and that site is a listed as a conversion site.

Interestingly enough, they’re still showing a candidate at Lund & Bethell (47.51765, -122.63022), although it’s not added into the active program…

Interesting. That's currently a Verizon site, and they just recently changed from a dual rack, quad panel Amphenol setup (two per rack), to dual NHH-65C-R3B on a single rack per sector. No c band installed. That could possibly be intended to make space for another colocation. I suppose T-Mobile may be considering both the sprint retain and a new colocation, though the only reason I could see for that would be densification with Home Internet in mind. 

 

Of course, the density they've been building out here with a combination of new builds, colocations, and Sprint retains is pretty astounding. 

[RAvirani]

1 hour ago, falconhand said:

I suppose T-Mobile may be considering both the sprint retain and a new colocation, though the only reason I could see for that would be densification with Home Internet in mind. 

Let me pull the azimuths/tilts and take a look when I’m home this evening.

[xmx1024]

On 7/13/2021 at 1:27 PM, RAvirani said:

The original post is how I would set the network up if I were building it from scratch.  If I assume T-Mobile's sector alignments and remove the McDonald's site, this is what you would get.

PCS Coverage:

PCS Sectors:

PCS SNR:

It's better, but not great.  Alternatively, if we remove the AT&T colo, we get...

PCS Coverage:

PCS Sectors:

PCS SNR:

 

broken attachments

[RAvirani]

5 hours ago, falconhand said:

I suppose T-Mobile may be considering both the sprint retain and a new colocation, though the only reason I could see for that would be densification with Home Internet in mind. 

4 hours ago, RAvirani said:

Let me pull the azimuths/tilts and take a look when I’m home this evening.

Unlikely:

https://imgur.com/a/bWKGcPB

I don’t have a T-Mobile traffic map to run a Monte-Carlo simulation or anything, but I doubt there’s a capacity need in that area.