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

[PedroDaGr8]

On 7/15/2022 at 10:01 PM, Dkoellerwx said:

Some of the early keep conversions here changed GCI's randomly in the last couple months. The first several conversions were 07Bxxx until they changed to using 01C/D/E which better fit the numbering system for the rest of their sites in the area. Not clear why they made that change or why they are going back and changing the first round of conversions.

This wasn't even a first round conversion, it was relatively recent. The 5***** was far more common for Sprint conversions. That being said, recently, there are no standards. The eNBs are all over the place. 

On a related note, at least one tower is still broadcasting B25. Interestingly, it is no longer the PCS G-block. It's now centered at 1882.5/1962.5. This frees up the G-block for n25. 

 

 

[PedroDaGr8]

Looks like the Gregg's Bicycle site in downtown Bellevue is getting additional antennas:

https://permitsearch.mybuildingpermit.com/PermitDetails/22 114313 CD/Bellevue

Considering that site has the full suite of T-Mobile bands including mmWave (2/12/41/66/71/261), this might mean they are planning on adding n258 to that site. Unfortunately, Bellevue tends to be pretty scant in their permit details so this is only conjecture. 

[falconhand]

Just noticed a coverage map update today... Seems like the map is no longer showing coverage from a whole list of rural towers here. Map bug? Or actual decommissions? Unless the leases were hideously expensive, I can't see them removing a whole bunch of rural sites while maintaining they are going after a rural expansion. 

eNBs missing (so far):

95590, 93818, 91494, 89575, 96559, 175558, 96463, 

[Rickie546]

3 hours ago, falconhand said:

Just noticed a coverage map update today... Seems like the map is no longer showing coverage from a whole list of rural towers here. Map bug? Or actual decommissions? Unless the leases were hideously expensive, I can't see them removing a whole bunch of rural sites while maintaining they are going after a rural expansion. 

eNBs missing (so far):

95590, 93818, 91494, 89575, 96559, 175558, 96463, 

Where this at??

[falconhand]

1 hour ago, Rickie546 said:

Where this at??

Western Washington, mostly up Highway 101 between Aberdeen and Port Angeles, and Highway 3 between Shelton and Belfair. 

 

Very strange. Hoping it's just a bug with the map. 

Edited July 19, 2022 by falconhand

[Dkoellerwx]

4 minutes ago, falconhand said:

Western Washington, mostly up Highway 101 between Aberdeen and Port Angeles, and Highway 3 between Shelton and Belfair. 

 

Very strange. Hoping it's just a bug with the map. 

They removed a rural Sprint conversion here in Nebraska on this update. Definitely hope it's a bug. Very odd thing to happen.

[S4GRU]

5 hours ago, falconhand said:

Western Washington, mostly up Highway 101 between Aberdeen and Port Angeles, and Highway 3 between Shelton and Belfair. 

 

Very strange. Hoping it's just a bug with the map. 

I can confirm the Mason County/Hwy 3 coverage is indeed still there.

Robert

[PedroDaGr8]

On 7/14/2022 at 9:47 PM, PedroDaGr8 said:

And, wow. It's getting the full suite of bands as well. They were in the process of putting n41 on the tower. I couldn't snap a good pic but everyone knows what the looks like.

This tower (the colo by the Cross Kirkland Corridor) is already live, while the Motel 6 site across the 405 is not. My guess is the Motel 6 site needs a backhaul upgrade. That site was B25/B26 only when it was Sprint, so I doubt it had much backhaul. 

[PedroDaGr8]

n41-SA appears to have gone live across the eastside (and likely all of metro Seattle). Pretty much every tower that supports n41 can now do n41-SA.

This finally allowed me to confirm the second n41 channel is 40MHz centered at 2570MHz. 

[PedroDaGr8]

As an aside, I wonder if they are testing VoNR here. Since I have an S22U instead of an S21, my phone isn't setup for VoNR.  Maybe someone with an S21 in the area can chime in. 

[falconhand]

51 minutes ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

As an aside, I wonder if they are testing VoNR here. Since I have an S22U instead of an S21, my phone isn't setup for VoNR.  Maybe someone with an S21 in the area can chime in. 

I can check both n41 SA and VoNR out in Kitsap today. 

[falconhand]

I have also noticed several sites that were prevously 500k range eNB Sprint conversions get moved over to 887xxx range eNBs. Some of these sites had sub-100mbps backhaul before (and thus unusable speeds), and were upgraded to gigabit (netting the typical 650-750mbps speeds). Good to see forward motion on improving the rather dismal backhaul situation, hopefully they continue to expand gigabit and gig+ backhaul. 

[PedroDaGr8]

10 minutes ago, falconhand said:

I have also noticed several sites that were prevously 500k range eNB Sprint conversions get moved over to 887xxx range eNBs. Some of these sites had sub-100mbps backhaul before (and thus unusable speeds), and were upgraded to gigabit (netting the typical 650-750mbps speeds). Good to see forward motion on improving the rather dismal backhaul situation, hopefully they continue to expand gigabit and gig+ backhaul. 

I wonder if that is the difference between 5xxxxx sites and 8xxxxx sites. Also, I really hope they start rolling out more Gig+ sites. I can only think of one or two on the entire eastside. Most sites around me at least have gig backhaul but so far I have never crossed the gig barrier when doing a speed test. 

 

16 minutes ago, falconhand said:

I can check both n41 SA and VoNR out in Kitsap today. 

Excellent! Look forward to your report. 

[falconhand]

Just now, PedroDaGr8 said:

Most sites around me at least have gig backhaul but so far I have never crossed the gig barrier when doing a speed test. 

 

 

I did encounter a site that cracked 1Gbps along SR520 on my way to Redmond, I believe it was 84088 but I could be mistaken as I was moving on the highway. The other two Gig+ sites I've seen is the Gregg's site in Bellevue, and the site on McMahon Hall at UW Seattle. 

[PedroDaGr8]

3 minutes ago, falconhand said:

I did encounter a site that cracked 1Gbps along SR520 on my way to Redmond, I believe it was 84088 but I could be mistaken as I was moving on the highway. The other two Gig+ sites I've seen is the Gregg's site in Bellevue, and the site on McMahon Hall at UW Seattle. 

Hmm, I haven't tried that particular one yet. I will test it the next time I am down in that area. For whatever reason, I can never break 1gig at the Gregg's bicycle site even though I know it is gig+. I can get close (850 range) but never cross it.

[falconhand]

Just now, PedroDaGr8 said:

Hmm, I haven't tried that particular one yet. I will test it the next time I am down in that area. For whatever reason, I can never break 1gig at the Gregg's bicycle site even though I know it is gig+. I can get close (850 range) but never cross it.

Oh that's strange. I've visited the Greggs site a couple times and pulled north of 1200mbps each time (Only if I get on n41, mmWave maxes out around 700 on 1cc.) 

[PedroDaGr8]

3 minutes ago, falconhand said:

Oh that's strange. I've visited the Greggs site a couple times and pulled north of 1200mbps each time (Only if I get on n41, mmWave maxes out around 700 on 1cc.) 

I am often down in that area during the middle of the day on the weekend (when the area is PACKED)  I will have to make some time to drive down there sometime when it is less crowded and test.

[RAvirani]

3 hours ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

Hmm, I haven't tried that particular one yet. I will test it the next time I am down in that area. For whatever reason, I can never break 1gig at the Gregg's bicycle site even though I know it is gig+. I can get close (850 range) but never cross it.

I’ve actually pulled two gigs on that site. 1.6 more recently. 

https://imgur.com/a/1t7cVVg

I’ve pulled multi-gig at the site on the 148th street exit off 520 as well. 

[falconhand]

N41 SA confirmed out in Kitsap County, no luck on VoNR unfortunately. 

[PedroDaGr8]

14 hours ago, falconhand said:

N41 SA confirmed out in Kitsap County, no luck on VoNR unfortunately. 

Good to know, all the same!

[S4GRU]

I have not been able to connect to SA n41 here in Mason or Thurston County.  I was thinking maybe it wasn't on here yet. But I drove up to Tacoma yesterday and couldn't connect to n41 SA there either. 

It may be my LG V60.  I put it in NR SA Only mode and select n41 band only.  It won't connect.  It will connect to n71 SA all day long.  I wonder if I should just leave the band on auto?  I will try that today. 

It will connect to NSA n41 no problem through B2 or B66 LTE.  Even selecting n41 only band.  But never stand alone on anything.

But I suppose it's possible the whole South Sound is just not n41 SA live yet.

Robert

[PedroDaGr8]

On 8/1/2022 at 6:45 AM, S4GRU said:

I have not been able to connect to SA n41 here in Mason or Thurston County.  I was thinking maybe it wasn't on here yet. But I drove up to Tacoma yesterday and couldn't connect to n41 SA there either. 

It may be my LG V60.  I put it in NR SA Only mode and select n41 band only.  It won't connect.  It will connect to n71 SA all day long.  I wonder if I should just leave the band on auto?  I will try that today. 

It will connect to NSA n41 no problem through B2 or B66 LTE.  Even selecting n41 only band.  But never stand alone on anything.

But I suppose it's possible the whole South Sound is just not n41 SA live yet.

Robert

From my understanding, Tacoma, Thurston County, King County, and Kitsap are all different FCC markets. As such, it is entirely possible that Tacoma and Thurston haven't gone live yet. NYC just went live a couple days ago, so they might slowly be rolling it out, market by market. 

 

A bunch more Eastside upgrade permitting notes:

• I saw workers again at the Kirkland Motel 6 site yesterday. They were clearly doing something on the backside of the antennas. 
• The Carillon Point site in the Houghton-area of Finally Kirkland went live with n41 week or so ago. They also removed all of the Sprint equipment. 
• T-Mobile just applied for a permit to upgrade the Market St. Kirkland monopole (eNB 82969). The description sounds like it will be getting n41.
• It looks like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Dish have all filed permits to upgrade the Rose Hill/Bridle Trails tower (eNB 84743), or in the case of Dish, add on to the tower. My guess  is Crown Castle will wait for all permits to process before upgrading the tower. 
• T-Mobile also looks like they will be upgrading the I-405 tower by Bridle Trails (eNB 84784) and the I-405 tower up by Kingsgate (eNB 84646)
• Upgrade the NE 132nd St. Finn Hill tower (eNB 84669)  and decommission the Sprint tower right by it
• The permit to upgrade the water tower at St. Edwards park was just issued.
• Found a permit to upgrade the Finn Hill NE 122 Pl tower but they aren't adding n41 to the tower. Seems like a very strange decision. 

 

Honestly, at this point, there are only a handful of sites remaining in Kirkland which don't have upgrade plans in place:

• The 111th/140th pole in Kirkland (eNB 88175)
• The McAuliffe Park pole in the Totem Lake area (eNB 84699)
• The Queensgate Church monopole (eNB 84650)
• The Northwest University roof-top site (eNB 85286)

A common feature of these sites is that they have all been more or less rendered redundant by nearby upgrades like the Forbes Creek site upgrade (eNB  84858/886536) or the 7th Day Adventist Church site upgrade (eNB 84764).

[PedroDaGr8]

Also, the tower at the intersection of Avondale and Woodinville-Duvall is FINALLY live. Turns out, they killed off the old eNB and it now has yet another strange eNB pair for the area: 350338/350334

[S4GRU]

I have Friday off from work.  I think I will head up into Kitsap or South King Co and try my luck with SA 41 up there.  Just want to rule out a device issue.

Robert

[PedroDaGr8]

On 8/3/2022 at 9:09 PM, S4GRU said:

I have Friday off from work.  I think I will head up into Kitsap or South King Co and try my luck with SA 41 up there.  Just want to rule out a device issue.

Robert

Any updates on this? 

Also, the Woodinville National Glass site had its eNB changed to 3xxxxx (same style as the site at the end of Avondale Rd.)  It also had its gNB changed to one which matches the rest of the T-Mobile gNBs.