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

[S4GRU]

Found 3x3 B26 live in Puyallup tonight! It's happening!

 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[WiWavelength]

I’m with you in that I agree all south facing sectors should go straight to 5x5 B26.

 

Yes, because omnidirectional antennas on handsets never radiate north.

 

AJ

[S4GRU]

Yes, because omnidirectional antennas on handsets never radiate north.

 

AJ

 

Yes, but the signal from handsets is much, much weaker.  And the precedent does exist.  We have seen broadcast on sectors facing away from borders before.

[JThorson]

Happy to hear b26 is slowly making its way into northern WA but I hope we will start seeing it in Seattle soon.   

[S4GRU]

Happy to hear b26 is slowly making its way into northern WA but I hope we will start seeing it in Seattle soon. 

 

Supposedly a site live at Richmond Beach over in North Seattle/Shoreline.  

 

Robert

[oversight]

Supposedly a site live at Richmond Beach over in North Seattle/Shoreline.

 

Robert

Nice to see that it's finally starting to happen in wwa.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[WiWavelength]

Yes, but the signal from handsets is much, much weaker.  And the precedent does exist.  We have seen broadcast on sectors facing away from borders before.

 

Dozens or hundreds of handsets transmitting at up to 200 mW are not necessarily "much, much weaker" signal.  And unlike for base station antennas, HAAT (height above average terrain) for handsets is entirely unpredictable -- skyscrapers, mountaintops, airplanes, etc.

 

AJ

[S4GRU]

Dozens or hundreds of handsets transmitting at up to 200 mW are not necessarily "much, much weaker" signal.  And unlike for base station antennas, HAAT (height above average terrain) for handsets is entirely unpredictable -- skyscrapers, mountaintops, airplanes, etc.

 

AJ

 

I am not convinced.  But it does not matter.  It's going to be 3x3.  Just a matter of where the 3x3/5x5 dividing line will be.

[WiWavelength]

I am not convinced.  But it does not matter.  It's going to be 3x3.  Just a matter of where the 3x3/5x5 dividing line will be.

 

You do not need to be convinced.  But, bar none, the uplink is a risk.  In some situations, uplink will radiate across the border enough to create interference.  Whether that interference will be frequent or detrimental is questionable.  Still, if 3 MHz FDD were the free and clear solution, then it would be deployed on more sectors, including north facing sectors.

 

AJ

[JThorson]

Supposedly a site live at Richmond Beach over in North Seattle/Shoreline.  

 

Robert

 

I will check out your rumor in the next few days Robert and let you know   

[S4GRU]

I will check out your rumor in the next few days Robert and let you know 

 

Just keep in mind that I could not get on B26 until I went in and band locked B41 and B25 off.  B25 and B41 is pretty dense in the Seattle area.  Hopefully you have the ability to band lock.

 

Robert

[Tengen31]

Just keep in mind that I could not get on B26 until I went in and band locked B41 and B25 off. B25 and B41 is pretty dense in the Seattle area. Hopefully you have the ability to band lock.

 

Robert

I'm Seattle why would anyone wanna be on B26When The others would be faster? B25 is 10x10 possible 15x15 in the future.

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[S4GRU]

I'm Seattle why would anyone wanna be on B26When The others would be faster? B25 is 10x10 possible 15x15 in the future.

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

Because deep in buildings, some between site locations and in rural areas, B26 will be helpful.  But no, it is not required for capacity.  It will be really useful for VoLTE.

[Tengen31]

Because deep in buildings, some between site locations and in rural areas, B26 will be helpful. But no, it is not required for capacity. It will be really useful for VoLTE.

Yeah when it inside buildings phones should just connected to it not have to force it?

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[S4GRU]

Yeah when it inside buildings phones should just connected to it not have to force it?

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

Yes.  I was talking about forcing it only for the purposes of locating for tracking purposes.  He's going out there to confirm B26 is live.  I was letting him know he may need to force it to find it initially.

 

Robert

[JThorson]

Yeah, I'll go into ##data# and disable b41 at least and make b26 priority. How exactly do I lock it for b26?

[dkyeager]

A few phones allow you to disable b25 with the MSL and ##data# but for most it disables all LTE. Network Signal Guru will allow you to disable B25, but it requires root and seems to favor king root (gasp). It also does not work on all phones or all firmware versions.

 

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

[JThorson]

A few phones allow you to disable b25 with the MSL and ##data# but for most it disables all LTE. Network Signal Guru will allow you to disable B25, but it requires root and seems to favor king root (gasp). It also does not work on all phones or all firmware versions.

 

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

Ok, with that there is a chance I won't be able to lock my phone down completely. I have the S7e stock. I can try and lower the priority and see if that makes any difference.

[dkyeager]

Ok, with that there is a chance I won't be able to lock my phone down completely. I have the S7e stock. I can try and lower the priority and see if that makes any difference.

In other markets there is another way to increase your odds. Load your phone with a 1x800 prl which will then look to b26 LTE 800 for LTE. Update prl when done testing. This assumes a market has 1x800 before b26 LTE 800. With VoLTE beginning, they could choose not to do 1x800 in West Washington.

 

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

[JThorson]

So I saw this in Tukwila.... very weak but still there

[S4GRU]

36 minutes ago, JThorson said:

So I saw this in Tukwila.... very weak but still there

It's on the Doubletree Hotel roof, just south of Southcenter Mall.  I found that site a few weeks ago.  It's shown on the B26 update map.  Thanks for the report.

[RAvirani]

Good news: the VZW/Sprint spectrum swap in the Seattle market has finally happened. Now Verizon is running a single 10x10 PCS LTE carrier and Sprint has enough contiguous spectrum to turn PCS LTE up to 15 MHz FDD. 

On an unrelated note, Verizon turned 5x5 B5 LTE on market wide this week, squeezing all of their CDMA into just 5 MHz FDD. 

[RAvirani]

Here's a quick summary of the competitive landscape post spectrum swaps in the greater Seattle area:

AT&T:
- 10x10 B12/17
- 5 MHz B29
- 5x5 B5
- 20x20 B2
- 10x10 B30

Verizon:
- 10x10 B13
- 5x5 B5
- 20x20 B4
- 10x10 B2/25 (MFBI is live across the market)

Sprint:
- 3x3 B26
- 10x10 (soon to be 15x15) B25
- 60MHz B41

T-Mobile:
- 5x5 B12
- 20x20 B4
-10x10 B2

[Rawvega]

1 hour ago, RAvirani said:

Here's a quick summary of the competitive landscape post spectrum swaps in the greater Seattle area:

Verizon:
- 10x10 B13
- 5x5 B5
- 20x20 B4
- 10x10 B2/25 (MFBI is live across the market)

That's interesting. Out of curiosity, why is VZW broadcasting B25 LTE via MFBI?

[dkyeager]

2 hours ago, RAvirani said:

Here's a quick summary of the competitive landscape post spectrum swaps in the greater Seattle area:

AT&T:
- 10x10 B12/17
- 5 MHz B29
- 5x5 B5
- 20x20 B2
- 10x10 B30

Verizon:
- 10x10 B13
- 5x5 B5
- 20x20 B4
- 10x10 B2/25 (MFBI is live across the market)

Sprint:
- 3x3 B26
- 10x10 (soon to be 15x15) B25
- 60MHz B41

T-Mobile:
- 5x5 B12
- 20x20 B4
-10x10 B2

I did not realize that other carriers used so much 5x5.  B26 is not as out of place as I thought, even at 3x3.