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

[PedroDaGr8]

Looks like both AT&T and Dish are going in at Evergreen Hospital at Totem Lake. Considering Verizon and T-Mobile are already there, that will put all four carriers on the same building. This also means that outside of the Motel 6 location, AT&T and T-Mobile will have essentially an identical foot print in the area. 

[PedroDaGr8]

Carillon Point south of Kirkland has been upgraded to gig+

[S4GRU]

Look what I found in Port Townsend this afternoon!  n66 baby!!!  NR AWS FTW!

Not as fast as n25 or n41

Robert

 

 

 

 

[PedroDaGr8]

2 hours ago, S4GRU said:

Look what I found in Port Townsend this afternoon!  n66 baby!!!  NR AWS FTW!

Not as fast as n25 or n41

Robert

 

 

 

 

Holy shit! That's awesome! Not live in metro Seattle yet.

[iansltx]

2 hours ago, S4GRU said:

Look what I found in Port Townsend this afternoon!  n66 baby!!!  NR AWS FTW!

Not as fast as n25 or n41

Robert

 

So, that's 10x10? I recall n66 being seen in some places super early on, but the times I've checked I've seen none of it.

I doubt I'll see it here for awhile, as I figure T-Mobile would rather run 15x15 n25 and leave AWS for LTE than have at most 10x10 anywhere. But AWS NR can definitely perform well (looking at you, Dish).

[S4GRU]

16 minutes ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

Holy shit! That's awesome! Not live in metro Seattle yet.

2 hours ago, S4GRU said:

Look what I found in Port Townsend this afternoon!  n66 baby!!!  NR AWS FTW!

Not as fast as n19 or n41

Robert

 

I just did some driving around after dinner. If I get on n71, I cannot connect to n66 for the life of me. I can only get handed into n66 from n25, as far as I can tell.  Only on this one site in Port Townsend that I can see.  But there's not a lot of n25 around here to test for hand in. 

Robert

[chamb]

10 hours ago, S4GRU said:

I just did some driving around after dinner. If I get on n71, I cannot connect to n66 for the life of me. I can only get handed into n66 from n25, as far as I can tell.  Only on this one site in Port Townsend that I can see.  But there's not a lot of n25 around here to test for hand in. 

Robert

Now the next question - will the n66 aggregate with anything??  Like n25 or n41 or n71?  You might have to have some data running and be OFF Wi-Fi while you enter the 0011 menu to see it.

My n25 will aggregate in almost  any combination with the other nr bands.  Will the n66 do it?  I even see a 15 x15 n25 aggregate with a n41 channel and another 10 x 10 n25 channel.

I am in Central Pennsylvania in the old Shentel area with a S-22.

[S4GRU]

On 7/7/2023 at 5:51 AM, chamb said:

Now the next question - will the n66 aggregate with anything??  Like n25 or n41 or n71?  You might have to have some data running and be OFF Wi-Fi while you enter the 0011 menu to see it.

My n25 will aggregate in almost  any combination with the other nr bands.  Will the n66 do it?  I even see a 15 x15 n25 aggregate with a n41 channel and another 10 x 10 n25 channel.

I am in Central Pennsylvania in the old Shentel area with a S-22.

Not that I noticed. 

[S4GRU]

OK. So the n66 site I picked up in Port Townsend is a 4 sector site.  I was able to connect to n66 on only two of the 4 sectors. It never appeared in Neighbor lists (at least when I was looking).  Could only get moved over from n25.  Also, I could not get n41 when in SA mode on this site.  I also never connected to n66 in NSA mode.  I found a new site in Port Townsend on top of Manresa Castle. A Sprint Retain site that I was not expecting. 

I left Port Townsend after breakfast and headed over to Sequim (pronounced Skwim, one syllable), Port Angeles (which is most often just called P.A.) and out to the end of the Ediz Hook and did lots of mapping.  Stopped to pick some berries with my wife.  Checked out some sites, verified some site names.  Never did I ever catch another whiff of n66 anywhere out in this region.

I later drove home the long way, down by Crescent Lake, through Forks (think Twilight) and along the Olympic Coast down to Aberdeen/Hoqiuam back home to Olympia. Never saw n66.  But I am glad to lay down the first NR trails on the SignalCheck map in Clallam County and around the backside of the Olympic Peninsula. 

Fun short trip.  Love filling in the map.  I wasn't able to get over to Neah Bay and Cape Flattery.  I really wanted to. Next time!

Robert

 

[PedroDaGr8]

Went out to Red Top Mountain this weekend, which had me driving through Snoqualmie Pass. Spotted a new eNB 429402 which doesn't follow the usual T-Mobile eNB formatting for the PNW.

[PedroDaGr8]

Looks like the site on Sparc apartments in Bellevue is live. That is another weird site in a REALLY dense and already well-covered area. 

[PedroDaGr8]

Some random LTE/NR site pairs appeared recently on CellMapper by the waterfront in downtown Seattle:

eNB 380915 Cell 5/15 (2/66) --> gNB 1883233 Cell 305 (n41)
eNB 380916 Cell 3/13 (2/66) --> gNB 1881902 Cell 303 (n41)

Unfortunately, nothing shows up on StreetView yet but based on the NYC thread, these are likely new small cells which include n41.

[RAvirani]

On 8/8/2023 at 3:42 PM, PedroDaGr8 said:

Looks like the site on Sparc apartments in Bellevue is live. That is another weird site in a REALLY dense and already well-covered area. 

I believe that site is aimed to provide indoor coverage for the new large buildings in the Spring District. It would be nice to see an alpha sector delete on SE02405 to keep noise low, though…

[PedroDaGr8]

The old Sprint mMIMO site in Brook Trails Estates (off Avondale south of Cottage Lake) has been converted (eNB 375718/gNB1872606). This fills a huge TMO coverage hole that used to exist in that area. Unlike the two nearby towers which both lack n41, this has the full suite of bands. AT&T and Verizon both are also located at this site (part of a power substation)

[RAvirani]

25 minutes ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

The old Sprint mMIMO site in Bridle Estates (Cottage Lake area) has been converted. This fills a huge TMO coverage hole that used to exist in that area. Unlike the two nearby towers, it has the full suite of bands. 

Which site are you referring to?

[PedroDaGr8]

2 hours ago, RAvirani said:

Which site are you referring to?

I must have been updating my post when you responded. The new T-Mobile site is eNB 375718/gNB 1872606. This site used to be a Sprint Nokia B41-only site with the eNBs 748630/748632/748633.

[RAvirani]

12 minutes ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

I must have been updating my post when you responded. The new T-Mobile site is eNB 375718/gNB 1872606. This site used to be a Sprint Nokia B41-only site with the eNBs 748630/748632/748633.

Ah yes—that one is long overdue. 

[PedroDaGr8]

TMO filed a permit to upgrade one of the few remaining non-upgraded TMO sites in the Kirkland area (the monopole site in Kingsgate). At this point, the only ones I can think of that aren't upgraded and don't have  a permit are:

• the NE 104th St site that overlooks Forbes Creek area - that one is likely going to be obsoleted by the new tower going in at the Pines Apartment building
• the McAulliffe park site 

 

[PedroDaGr8]

This is a permit I do NOT understand: https://permitsearch.mybuildingpermit.com/PermitDetails/23 126540 LJ/Bellevue

This area in Bellevue is already REALLY well covered by multiple sites on either side of the 405. Unless they are planning on decommissioning a bunch, adding this one really makes no sense. 

[PedroDaGr8]

The UW Bothell site (northwest corner of the 522/405 interchange) went live just before Thanksgiving. 

[S4GRU]

I drove the length of Whidbey Island on Black Friday and finally mapped all the NR sites.  It has been driving me nuts that I would pick up sites from the Olympic Peninsula that I thought were on Whidbey, but not sure.  All plotted on SCP map.  I was hoping to do Camano Island too, but ran out of time.  I did drive through Stanwood though.

In 2024, I want to map all the San Juan Islands. So many weird sites appear from the mainland that I believe are from the San Juans.  I would like to pin point these sites once and for all. 

Robert

[PedroDaGr8]

The island sites have always intrigued me, so many sites floating out in the sound. I just don't h ad out there enough to map those. 

[RAvirani]

Those sites are from T-Mobile’s partnership with Rock Island Communications. 

They use T-Mobile’s spectrum to provide fixed wireless home internet (and avoid upgrading their wireline network). In exchange, T-Mobile gets a super dense network on the islands. Win-win. 

[xmx1024]

18 hours ago, RAvirani said:

Those sites are from T-Mobile’s partnership with Rock Island Communications. 

They use T-Mobile’s spectrum to provide fixed wireless home internet (and avoid upgrading their wireline network). In exchange, T-Mobile gets a super dense network on the islands. Win-win. 

Do you have more info about these sites? That’s a pretty cool partnership.

[PedroDaGr8]

Over three years after the Sprint site was turned off and over two years after the TMO conversion was complete, the Cedar Park Christian School site, SW of the 405/522 interchange, has finally gone live. At this point it only serves that immediate area because the four other local sites have the interstate well covered.

 

Also, with respect to that permit for Bellevue that didn't make sense, I saw that TMO has filed a permit in Bellevue to decommission one of the nearby sites (SE03310A, eNB 81750/99542). That makes a tad more sense but they could still easily decommission two others in that area and still have great coverage.