Network Vision/LTE - New York City Market

[Paynefanbro]

I'm finding Band 71 roaming in some areas. In my own neighborhood in Brooklyn, I'm not seeing it but in the Bronx I'm roaming on it without issue. It also seems like given the option to roam on Band 71 or Band 12, it'll choose Band 12  every time and not even aggregate it like it'll aggregate every other band in T-Mobile's portfolio. 

[mirskyc]

Has anyone with a 5G phone found that speeds are faster when they turn off 5G. Here is a speed test from the same location, time, and server. LTE was blazing fast and 5G was slow and very unstable. 

 

 

[Paynefanbro]

7 hours ago, mirskyc said:

Has anyone with a 5G phone found that speeds are faster when they turn off 5G. Here is a speed test from the same location, time, and server. LTE was blazing fast and 5G was slow and very unstable. 

Yeah I have noticed that happen sometimes. I don't know what causes it though.

[nexgencpu]

8 hours ago, mirskyc said:

Has anyone with a 5G phone found that speeds are faster when they turn off 5G. Here is a speed test from the same location, time, and server. LTE was blazing fast and 5G was slow and very unstable. 

 

 

I have a feeling this happens when EN-DC does not run. That's my best guess since NR is only 40Mhz vs 60 on LTE, but when combined, NR does exhibit better peak and overall speeds. 

[Paynefanbro]

Having access to T-Mobile's network has allowed me to do a fair comparison of T-Mobile and Sprint over the past few days. Here's what I've realized.

1. Sprint's download speeds are faster than T-Mobile's download speeds nearly 100% of the time while I am outdoors.
2. T-Mobile's macro network is way more dense than Sprint here and the difference really shows itself in having better signal and speeds while indoors. 
3. Sprint should have been aggregating Band 41, Band 25, and band 26 for years now, much like T-Mobile is aggregating every band at their disposal. This would have lead to increased speeds indoors and a better network experience for all.
4. T-Mobile's upload speeds are incredibly fast. In my house, I can get upwards of 50Mbps up.

 

[Paynefanbro]

Quote

As you can see in these comparative maps, though, T-Mobile's New York mid-band coverage will not initially match what we had with Sprint. That's because of tricky facts involving cell siting and the current "non-standalone" 5G networks. All 5G networks right now need to be "hung" on a 4G network—they use the 4G network to establish their connections. Sprint's 2.5GHz 5G locations are the same as Sprint's 2.5GHz 4G locations. They're often even the same antenna panels. But T-Mobile is moving to hang the 2.5GHz 5G on T-Mobile's own existing 4G system, which means while it's reusing Sprint's airwaves, it needs to set up new antennas at existing T-Mobile sites.

From: https://www.pcmag.com/news/t-mobile-sprint-begin-to-merge-networks

[Paynefanbro]

My only question is, what does this mean for current T-Mobile and Sprint users? It looks like because these are NSA deployments of n41, T-Mobile users won't get access to Sprint n41 deployment but Sprint users will get access to T-Mobile's n41 deployment. That sucks.

Edit: Sprint users with newer 5G devices will lose access to Sprint n41 in the near term but will get access to T-Mobile n41 where it's deployed instead.

[transitwatch889]

2 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

Edit: Sprint users with newer 5G devices will lose access to Sprint n41 in the near term but will get access to T-Mobile n41 where it's deployed instead.

Err pause.... For real? I question that being a better situation 🤔 

[Paynefanbro]

3 minutes ago, transitwatch889 said:

Err pause.... For real? I question that being a better situation 🤔 

Likewise but we'll just have to hope and trust that T-Mobile will deploy n41 quickly. At least we'll still have access to Band 41 LTE (for now).

[nexgencpu]

Color me impressed.

 

 

[JacobSDN1]

What will happen to devices like the Sprint Drive (LTE Bands: 2, 4, 5, 12, 25, 26), and other hotspot devices?

[Paynefanbro]

On 4/24/2020 at 5:03 AM, JacobSDN1 said:

What will happen to devices like the Sprint Drive (LTE Bands: 2, 4, 5, 12, 25, 26), and other hotspot devices?

No one really knows honestly. Until T-Mobile shuts down the Sprint network completely, they'll presumably keep working on Sprint's network. T-Mobile sells the SyncUP Drive which is the same exact thing as the Sprint Drive though so they may offer that to customers instead. They also have only one mobile hotspot for sale on their site called the T9 which supports Band 25, 26, and 41.

[Paynefanbro]

I have a couple of thoughts about T-Mobile and their network in NYC:

1. T-Mobile's 5G coverage maps are super generous with regard to 600MHz. Unless T-Mobile hasn't activated 600MHz roaming on all of their sites just yet, what I'm seeing is that in my neighborhood 600MHz isn't nearly as densely deployed as their other bands. I have zero 600MHz LTE signal in my home and outdoors along the main shopping corridor in my neighborhood I connected to a super weak Band 71 signal (-117dbm). It's 20x20 LTE so I was still able to get 9 down and 13 up but it's not a comforting sign for those who own S20 devices and are going to lose access to Sprint's n41 on Tuesday. 
    
2. I'm really hoping that T-Mobile leases the Band 71 spectrum that it's temporarily borrowing from Dish, Comcast, etc. after the pandemic is over. Wide carriers of low-band would be great for the millions of customers they're going to be adding to their network and in my testing, performance at the cell edge is still usable.
    
3. It looks like T-Mobile hasn't expanded their mmWave coverage beyond the work that they completed last year if we compare their most recently published map of NYC to their mmWave maps released last June. I know that they said mmWave is only suitable to be deployed in dense urban areas but I didn't expect T-Mobile to pretty much only deploy in Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. 

[transitwatch889]

As anticipated in NR71 is much lower because of spectrum they are using. It's cute to have the 5G symbol there but speed wise..... Only 10mhz allotted. 

[mirskyc]

My unlocked S20 is now connecting to T-Mobile Bands by default. Still says 5G but account to the debug screen I am not connect to any NR signal. So now I actually don't have 5G at home since before I could connect to a NR41 signal,. 

 

Not even connecting to B71, I am currently using CA with 66, 2 and 12.

[nexgencpu]

2 hours ago, mirskyc said:

My unlocked S20 is now connecting to T-Mobile Bands by default. Still says 5G but account to the debug screen I am not connect to any NR signal. So now I actually don't have 5G at home since before I could connect to a NR41 signal,. 

 

Not even connecting to B71, I am currently using CA with 66, 2 and 12.

 

 

Same here, except I never had n41 here in the Bronx. My LTE speeds were 5-40mbs now it's sub 5mbs slow ass "5G" and no B or N 71

[ingenium]

My unlocked S20 is now connecting to T-Mobile Bands by default. Still says 5G but account to the debug screen I am not connect to any NR signal. So now I actually don't have 5G at home since before I could connect to a NR41 signal,. 
 
Not even connecting to B71, I am currently using CA with 66, 2 and 12.

N71 can't use b71 as the anchor band. It can only use B2 or B66. ENDC is only enabled on those bands, and whenever you're connected to them the device will say 5G even if you aren't connected to run NR carrier.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[mirskyc]

17 minutes ago, ingenium said:

N71 can't use b71 as the anchor band. It can only use B2 or B66. ENDC is only enabled on those bands, and whenever you're connected to them the device will say 5G even if you aren't connected to run NR carrier.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 

Interesting. I know this tower has 5G N71 and B71. I got my phone to connect to B71 and then the phone me says LTE which makes sense. I put a T-Mobile SIM in the phone and it connects to N71. I wonder if this is due to N71 not being enabled on the unlocked S20 with the ACCT update. 

[Paynefanbro]

1 minute ago, mirskyc said:

Interesting. I know this tower has 5G N71 and B71. I got my phone to connect to B71 and then the phone me says LTE which makes sense. I put a T-Mobile SIM in the phone and it connects to N71. I wonder if this is due to N71 not being enabled on the unlocked S20 with the ACCT update. 

Precisely. In the next update for unlocked S20 devices, n71, n260, and n261 should be enabled.

[mirskyc]

39 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

Precisely. In the next update for unlocked S20 devices, n71, n260, and n261 should be enabled.

Hopefully this update doesn't take long. It seems like everyone here has the unlocked model. Im curious about the experience someone with a Sprint Model is having. 

[nexgencpu]

15 minutes ago, mirskyc said:

Hopefully this update doesn't take long. It seems like everyone here has the unlocked model. Im curious about the experience someone with a Sprint Model is having. 

I'm on Sprint branded model. No B/N71 live here yet..

[nexgencpu]

41 minutes ago, mirskyc said:

Hopefully this update doesn't take long. It seems like everyone here has the unlocked model. Im curious about the experience someone with a Sprint Model is having. 

Well lookie what I found..

https://imgur.com/gallery/ZQ3AWyr

[mirskyc]

35 minutes ago, nexgencpu said:

Well lookie what I found..

https://imgur.com/gallery/ZQ3AWyr

Connected to a different tower or it finally just connected?

[nexgencpu]

5 hours ago, mirskyc said:

Connected to a different tower or it finally just connected?

I will do more investigating and keep you posted. It seems to have connected for just a min then switched back to no N71.

[transitwatch889]

I mentioned this is the s20 thread. But considering  how overloaded T-Mobile's network actually is the chances are relatively  high they would keep a lot of sprint sites for capacity  expansion  purposes no? NYC is not a good representation of the face they want to put on. Those smalls cells Sprint invested in def made a difference  as well. 

Even when I was on Google  fi i would force the network to Sprint in most cases.