Network Vision/LTE - New York City Market

[Paynefanbro]

T-Mobile finally got a permit to decommission their old Band 66 site at 1 Carlton Ave across the street from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It hasn't been active for a few months now so it's no surprise really.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/mKapEnxkPdJuRLC96

Curious to see if they'll join move to another building or if they're content with just not having a site in that area.

— — — — —

For the folks that travel on the Grand Central Parkway, T-Mobile finally upgraded the site on top of Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, finally filling in that gap of weaker n41 coverage on the highway. I was wondering when they would get to this one. Really felt like it was never going to happen.

— — — — —

T-Mobile's only site on City Island also got upgraded just in time for the spring crowds. I haven't actually seen the site or been there to map but I was in Sands Point last weekend and noticed that I connected to a new Band 12 eNB that shared PCIs with the City Island site in an area where I used to connect to that weird old split sector Band 66 antenna. 

[Paynefanbro]

New AT&T speed record for me. I encountered an AT&T site with upgraded backhaul in Crown Heights. I'm certain I can hit 1Gbps on this site off-peak. 

[Paynefanbro]

On 3/15/2024 at 7:53 PM, Paynefanbro said:

T-Mobile's only site on City Island also got upgraded just in time for the spring crowds. I haven't actually seen the site or been there to map but I was in Sands Point last weekend and noticed that I connected to a new Band 12 eNB that shared PCIs with the City Island site in an area where I used to connect to that weird old split sector Band 66 antenna. 

Following up on this. I just went up to City Island and it looks like T-Mobile is giving them the Broad Channel treatment by adding a bunch of small cells throughout the island. I mapped three new ones today bringing them to a total of seven small cells. It's still not a replacement for actual macros though. They need to join Verizon and AT&T in adding at least one more site closer to the north end of the island.

Also snapped a pic of the upgraded site. Gone is the old split sector antenna they had on the east facing sector.

— — — — —

I mapped a recently upgraded site in Cobble Hill earlier and noticed that the gNB IDs for n41 and n25/71 are separated by two. Maybe it's a sneak peak into the numbering scheme going forward? gNB ID 1089448 is n41 and 1089450 is n25/71. Maybe n66 or n77 will be given 1089449.

[Paynefanbro]

There's a permit for a new 47 story building at 205 Montague St in Downtown Brooklyn. The problem is that  T-Mobile eNB 48352 is on the building next door and this new building will block two out of 3 sectors of the site. For reference, the new building will be roughly as tall as 16 Court St which is right across the street.

This site is the primary site covering Cadman Plaza so I wonder what the plan is. Will they just try to change sector placement, move to a different building, or will this just speed up the conversion of the Sprint site at 25 Monroe Place?

[dkyeager]

I believe Verizon has 160Mhz of n77 licenses in NYC, which have been available since last summer.  Have any of you seen more than 100Mhz? Does SCP report it correctly in terms of band and nr-arfcn? Of course ideally it would be SA lol.

[Paynefanbro]

On 3/29/2024 at 7:52 PM, dkyeager said:

I believe Verizon has 160Mhz of n77 licenses in NYC, which have been available since last summer.  Have any of you seen more than 100Mhz? Does SCP report it correctly in terms of band and nr-arfcn? Of course ideally it would be SA lol.

Yeah they definitely have 160MHz live but no idea if SCP reports properly. I only have Cellmapper on my Android device and only map AT&T and T-Mobile at the moment. Also no standalone on Verizon here. 

[Paynefanbro]

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

 

 

[Paynefanbro]

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.

1. eNB 44076 
   1. Located at 40.72513188568983, -73.95130108843207
2. eNB 44110
   1. Located at 40.78671665921442, -73.97831748836762
3. eNB 47002
   1. Located at 40.71818871096234, -73.97553242675835
4. eNB 48023
   1. Located at 40.70014576627346, -73.95511802661758
5. eNB 129912/130917
   1. Located at 40.71727220756978, -73.95652417532955
6. eNB 875917
   1. Located at 40.72274052431834, -73.84403351784677
7. eNB 49849
   1. Located at 40.72181611705532, -73.86627810663067

 

 

[AirlineFlyer]

On 4/20/2024 at 11:31 PM, Paynefanbro said:

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 112039/119039. 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.
— — — — — 

Did you mean a different site? eNB ID 112039 has been around for years. Streetview even has it with C-band back in 2022 - https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7303042,-73.9610924,3a,24.1y,18.03h,109.66t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s2ossx06yU56AYOzREdcK-g!2e0!5s20220201T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3D2ossx06yU56AYOzREdcK-g%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D18.027734930682684%26pitch%3D-19.664180274382204%26thumbfov%3D90!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu

Meanwhile, Verizon's eNB 84484 in Fort Greene has been updated to include C-band and CBRS, but not mmWave. I've seen this a few times now on updated Verizon sites where it's just the CBRS antenna on its own, not in a shroud and without mmWave. Odd.

[Paynefanbro]

2 hours ago, AirlineFlyer said:

Did you mean a different site? eNB ID 112039 has been around for years. Streetview even has it with C-band back in 2022

Good catch! I meant 115932/119932. Edited my original post

2 hours ago, AirlineFlyer said:

Meanwhile, Verizon's eNB 84484 in Fort Greene has been updated to include C-band and CBRS, but not mmWave. I've seen this a few times now on updated Verizon sites where it's just the CBRS antenna on its own, not in a shroud and without mmWave. Odd.

I've noticed the same thing lately and have just assumed that they're skipping it now because they're finally able to deploy mmWave small cells.

[Paynefanbro]

Unable to confirm if it's really off but I noticed this morning that I'm no longer connecting to Band 41 on my home site. Switching my phone to LTE-only pretty much always put me on Band 41 since it was the least used band on T-Mobile's network. Now I'm only able to connect to Band 2/66. Not complaining because it means speeds are faster on LTE and maybe 150MHz n41 is around the corner.

Edit: Still offline on my site as far as I can tell but other sites in my neighborhood definitely still have it live.

[dkyeager]

4 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

Unable to confirm if it's really off but I noticed this morning that I'm no longer connecting to Band 41 on my home site. Switching my phone to LTE-only pretty much always put me on Band 41 since it was the least used band on T-Mobile's network. Now I'm only able to connect to Band 2/66. Not complaining because it means speeds are faster on LTE and maybe 150MHz n41 is around the corner.

Was true in my market. Likely means a higher percentage of 5g phones in your market.

[Paynefanbro]

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:

[AirlineFlyer]

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?

[dkyeager]

Looks like a great place for for FWA. Many apartment dwellers only have one overpriced choice.

[AirlineFlyer]

32 minutes ago, dkyeager said:

Looks like a great place for for FWA. Many apartment dwellers only have one overpriced choice.

Maybe. The taller buildings on one side of the street all have Fios access and the NYCHA buildings are surrounded by Verizon macros that have mmWave. I don’t think this site will add much coverage. It’d be better off inside the complex itself.

[Paynefanbro]

Spotted a small cell that's using the multi-tenant 5G oDAS design. The top canister is noticeably taller than normal in person. The franchisee listed for it is Crown Castle Solutions and it's near 285 Driggs in Greenpoint if anyone wants to test. Didn't map T-Mobile on it so I'm assuming Verizon only for now or maybe it's just offline.

— — — — —

T-Mobile eNB 42290 is now a gig+ site.

 — — — — —

T-Mobile eNB 875826, 48053, and 41163 are also gig+ sites but I don't want to fill the thread up with screenshots.

[AirlineFlyer]

9 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

Spotted a small cell that's using the multi-tenant 5G oDAS design. The top canister is noticeably taller than normal in person. The franchisee listed for it is Crown Castle Solutions and it's near 285 Driggs in Greenpoint if anyone wants to test. Didn't map T-Mobile on it so I'm assuming Verizon only for now or maybe it's just offline.

Good lord that thing is an absolute unit 

[Paynefanbro]

Just came across a permit for a new T-Mobile site at 61 Jackson St in Manhattan. It's replacing eNB 41150 which is a fully upgraded two sector site covering the FDR.

Also saw a permit for a new site at 200 W 55th St, New York, NY 10019, replacing T-Mobile eNB 41188.

T-Mobile eNB 43737 is being decommissioned and replaced with a Sprint conversion across the street at 47-35 Junction Blvd, Flushing, NY 11368.

— — — — —

Sprint conversion permits I missed:

1. 1084 Home St, Bronx, NY 10459
2. 203 W 133rd St, New York, NY 10030
3. 925 E 14th St, Brooklyn, NY 11230

 

 

[AirlineFlyer]

5 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

Just came across a permit for a new T-Mobile site at 61 Jackson St in Manhattan. It's replacing eNB 41150 which is a fully upgraded two sector site covering the FDR. 

I wonder if T-Mobile will carry over the mmWave and LAA equipment from the outgoing site.

[Paynefanbro]

T-Mobile giving up 400MHz of n260 to AT&T in order to gain 300MHz of n258 in NYC.

Before:

• 400MHz n258
• 400MHz n260,
• 50+50MHz n261
• 500MHz n262

After: 

• 200+500MHz n258
• 50+50MHz n261
• 500MHz n262

It's net loss of 100MHz however they now control the entire 24GHz band which is the "lowest" of the mmWave bands. It should have better propagation characteristics than other mmWave bands and at 700MHz it'll be capable of 3-4Gbps throughput. Hopefully this is the impetus for T-Mobile to start deploying mmWave in NYC again. Don't know if it's just me but for the past 2-3 months I basically stopped mapping new 5G small cells on T-Mobile in NYC. I'm definitely reaching but maybe they're going to start again soon with mmWave + midband (fingers crossed)

[dkyeager]

1 hour ago, Paynefanbro said:

After: 

• 700MHz n258

Iirc, n258 is 200+500

[Paynefanbro]

6 hours ago, dkyeager said:

Iirc, n258 is 200+500

Yup, you’re correct! Fortunately it’s all in one band so the modem will only see it as seven 100MHz n258 carriers if/when it gets deployed. Before the swap they'd have to aggregate multiple mmWave bands to do that and I'm not certain multi-band mmWave aggregation is possible with current handsets.

[Paynefanbro]

On 5/13/2024 at 12:06 PM, Paynefanbro said:

Just came across a permit for a new T-Mobile site at 61 Jackson St in Manhattan. It's replacing eNB 41150 which is a fully upgraded two sector site covering the FDR.

This site is built but not live. No mmWave or LAA but there is any empty fourth mount, probably for C-band or mmWave at some point down the line. eNB 41150 is still live.

On 5/13/2024 at 12:06 PM, Paynefanbro said:

Also saw a permit for a new site at 200 W 55th St, New York, NY 10019, replacing T-Mobile eNB 41188.

eNB 41188 is decommissioned but as far as I can tell the site at 200 West 55th is not built yet.

On 5/13/2024 at 12:06 PM, Paynefanbro said:

T-Mobile eNB 43737 is being decommissioned and replaced with a Sprint conversion across the street at 47-35 Junction Blvd, Flushing, NY 11368.

This site is live gNB 1346302.

On 5/13/2024 at 12:06 PM, Paynefanbro said:

• 1084 Home St, Bronx, NY 10459

This site is live gNB 1092074

On 5/13/2024 at 12:06 PM, Paynefanbro said:

• 203 W 133rd St, New York, NY 10030

This site is live gNB 1371671

On 5/13/2024 at 12:06 PM, Paynefanbro said:

• 925 E 14th St, Brooklyn, NY 11230

This site is live gNB 1371860

— — — — —

1. Sprint eNB 6156 -> T-Mobile gNB 1349260
2. Sprint eNB Unknown -> T-Mobile gNB 1325016
3. Sprint eNB Unknown -> T-Mobile gNB 1090262
   1. This site doesn't have a permit submitted for its conversion but I mapped it recently.

— — — — —

Bonus T-Mobile 5G small cell, gNB 1348688 in Queens: