Network Vision/LTE - New York City Market

[Paynefanbro]

On 11/2/2023 at 9:23 PM, T-MoblieUser207 said:

Some towers got the upgrade to 20 MHz n71. Others (most) are still at 15 MHz, but no B71 live. The changes started happening Oct 31st-Nov 1st.

Spotted some 20MHz n71 in SoHo earlier today but the sites in my neck of the woods in Crown Heights are still at 15MHz, though they have moved up the block. 

— — — — —

eNB 41170 is a gig+ site.

 

[Paynefanbro]

Looks like T-Mobile is doing a new build. They're collocating on a monopole in Far Rockaway at 75-02 Amstel Blvd, Far Rockaway, NY 11692

Also permit finally came through to convert the Sprint site at 421 Smith St, Brooklyn, NY 11231. Permit expires December 31st so it'll likely be converted before year end.

[AirlineFlyer]

23 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

Looks like T-Mobile is doing a new build. They're collocating on a monopole in Far Rockaway at 75-02 Amstel Blvd, Far Rockaway, NY 11692

Also permit finally came through to convert the Sprint site at 421 Smith St, Brooklyn, NY 11231. Permit expires December 31st so it'll likely be converted before year end.

Weird. Isn't T-Mobile already on another monopole like two blocks away?

[Paynefanbro]

16 minutes ago, AirlineFlyer said:

Weird. Isn't T-Mobile already on another monopole like two blocks away?

I believe that site got decommissioned earlier this year but I may be wrong.

Edit: Nope I was right.

Job number: Q08043463-I1

Job Description: 

T-Mobile: Decommission of existing site. Removal of antennas sectors from existing monopole on grade. Removal of equipment cabinets and related equipment platform on grade. All work in compliance with TPPN 5/98. No change in use, egress or occupancy.

[mirskyc]

I believe this site is now fully live and is also a gig+ site eNB 6269. 

[Paynefanbro]

On 11/2/2023 at 9:23 PM, T-MoblieUser207 said:

In n41 news, the border between 100+40 and 40+40 in Manhattan shifted lower. Before it was up in the 150-160 Streets, now towers near 145 are doing 40+40 as well instead of the 100+40 they were doing for months.

Same thing happened in Red Hook. Looks like some of the gNBs in southern Red Hook like the site closest to Ikea and the billboard Sprint conversion next to the BQE went from 100+40 to 40+40. gNB 1325606 which is the site on top of the building that Verizon and AT&T are on in northern Red Hook is still 100+40 though.

NextWave count your days!

 

 

[AirlineFlyer]

Extremely disappointing that T-Mobile still can’t get its service in the Brooklyn LIRR tunnels fully working. Only the small section between Atlantic Terminal and Nostrand Ave is online. The longer stretch from Jamaica to the viaduct is still not online.

Verizon LTE

 

T-Mobile in the working section

[T-MoblieUser207]

On 10/26/2023 at 8:32 AM, Paynefanbro said:

I may be wrong but it looks like T-Mobile has been adding n25 to small cells. The only ting that's weird is that they have split-sector cell numbers. Maybe they're using two antennas in the enclosure pointing in opposite directions?

1. eNB 55743-3 -> gNB 1364396-23/29 (First mapped in 2016 so likely a hardware upgrade as opposed to software)
2. eNB 59686-2/12 -> gNB 1364396-22/25
3. eNB 55743-1 -> gNB 1364396-21 (I'm not too certain about this one)

I passed through Downtown Brooklyn and mapped those cells for a bit, it didn't confirm/deny what you think. I would guess n25 is from eNB 48352, but I'm not 100% about that. It's the closest thing that matches the cell coverage spread, signal strength and split sector setup.

 

15 hours ago, AirlineFlyer said:

Extremely disappointing that T-Mobile still can’t get its service in the Brooklyn LIRR tunnels fully working. Only the small section between Atlantic Terminal and Nostrand Ave is online. The longer stretch from Jamaica to the viaduct is still not online.

Idk if T-Mobile is still doing work, but some days it's working, and some days it's not. I have been taking LIRR from Jamaica to ENY to check on it once a week and so far it's been a 50/50 chance for it being on.

[AirlineFlyer]

On 11/13/2023 at 8:20 AM, T-MoblieUser207 said:

Idk if T-Mobile is still doing work, but some days it's working, and some days it's not. I have been taking LIRR from Jamaica to ENY to check on it once a week and so far it's been a 50/50 chance for it being on.

I reached out to a T-Mobile engineer and received this info:

"I have followed up with the Region team handling this project and they have been working with the vendor on troubleshooting an issue with the vendors equipment which is causing a degradation in service.  The reason for having a signal and then not having a signal is due to locking the specific area in order to make the necessary repairs.  They are working on getting this resolved with the vendor, I apologize for the inconvenience this is causing you and appreciate your patience with this process.  Continue to reach out if the problem continues to persist a week or two from now. "

TL;DR it's broken and they're working on fixing it

[AirlineFlyer]

Spotted a very interesting new built AT&T site in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill today at Myrtle and Vanderbilt. It’s a new four-sector site with C-band where the antenna array is located on one building and the equipment is on another building, using a cable raceway to pass over the top of the sandwiched building. Can’t say I’ve seen this before. 

AT&T must be abandoning eNB 111353 as it’s just two blocks away and hasn’t received any recent upgrades. Verizon is across the street with the works, as it a LinkNYC 5G tower.

T-Mobile eNB 40136 is three blocks away and also hasn’t been upgraded in ages, maybe due to the antenna concealment. Though 40139 is diagonally down the avenue on Willoughby with the works.

[Paynefanbro]

There was a Sprint site in The Bronx that did something similar. They had two sectors one building and the third sector and cabinetry on a shorter building next door. When it was first converted T-Mobile kept the setup but a couple of months later they moved everything over to the taller building.

— — — — —

T-Mobile eNB 40003 was one of those sites that used the mini-antennas but it looks like T-Mobile removed those antennas and put regular macro antennas on the roof when they upgraded it. Coverage is way better as a result. I wish they did that more often.

Before: 

 

After:

[Paynefanbro]

1. Sprint eNB 74174 -> T-Mobile eNB 344184
   Located at 40.75686680299905, -73.97798076463842
    
2. Sprint eNB 7159/7160 -> T-Mobile gNB 1358196
   Located at 40.827328779042936, -73.94314592306812
    
3. Sprint eNB 80362 -> T-Mobile eNB 219106
   Located at 40.8513934685157, -73.94196120231052
    
4. Sprint eNB Unknown -> T-Mobile eNB 331083
   Located at 40.821883380701166, -73.9247178008471
    
5. Sprint eNB 6269 -> T-Mobile gNB 1369590
   Located at 40.76195828718452, -73.92401561055308

[Paynefanbro]

Timing of this photo is crazy with the billboard in the background but I finally found an actual T-Mobile 5G oDAS node. It's an upgrade of a pre-existing T-Mobile small cell on the same pole.

The small cell pictured is gNB 1360771-304. 

 

A couple more 5G nodes:

1. eNB 1370776-302
2. eNB 1352184-302
    

— — — — —

Also spotted a single-sector AT&T site. It's eNB 110641. This is the second one I've seen from them in the city.

 

[Paynefanbro]

The n41 situation is getting frustrating. It seems like 40+40 is making it's way up to Central Brooklyn now. The sites by Brooklyn College switched to 40+40. I've also found Canarsie to be an unusual area. Most sites are still at 100+40 but at Bay View Houses all of the sites are 40+40 and sites on the west side of the neighborhood bordering Old Mill Basin are at 40+40 as well. Only reason I can think of as to why T-Mobile is doing this is mitigating interference from NextWave sites. T-Mobile was likely being extremely liberal with regard to where they deployed 140 MHz in Brooklyn and Manhattan and until NextWave started their own deployments, they got away with it.

— — — — —

n71 is now at 20MHz in Crown Heights.

— — — — —

T-Mobile eNB 40960, 44643, and 41400 are gig+ sites.

— — — — —

Went to Broad Channel over the weekend to see what the NR situation is like. Despite the macro there being pretty new, it wasn't deployed with any n41 antennas and I can't even confirm if n25 is live. However n41 is everywhere and they seem to be coming from the 7 small cells deployed there in the past year. Speeds and range on them are actually pretty impressive. The entire (populated) portion of the island is covered really well by them and speeds are consistently in the 300-400Mbps range with peak speeds over 700Mbps. Kinda amazing considering as recently as last summer they had virtually no coverage on the island save for some coverage reaching over from macros in Howard Beach and the Rockaways. 

 

[Paynefanbro]

I came across something weird this morning where some sectors on some sites in midtown are no longer showing 2600.55 as the frequency but showing 2640 instead. Check out gNB ID 1332294 and gNB ID 1332288. 

Edit: I think it's just something wonky about how the site or maybe my phone is reporting the frequency to Cellmapper. For a while Cellmapper has been reading the 100MHz carrier as 2600.55 but that is not the correct center frequency because T-Mobile controls 2590-2690MHz. At 2600.55 the carrier would only be 20MHz wide. Now that it's reporting 2640, it is showing the correct center frequency of a 100MHz carrier in that range.

[Paynefanbro]

On 12/2/2023 at 11:09 PM, Paynefanbro said:

Only reason I can think of as to why T-Mobile is doing this is mitigating interference from NextWave sites.

Turns out I was right about this.

NextWave touts NYC progress, but other markets delayed

https://www.lightreading.com/private-networks/nextwave-touts-nyc-progress-but-other-markets-delayed

Quote

An official familiar with the company's plans blamed several issues for the delay. First, the company's 2.5GHz network is running into unexpected interference with T-Mobile's 2.5GHz 5G network in some cities. Additionally, the company is suffering from some equipment supply chain troubles.

 

 

[Paynefanbro]

Converted Sites:

1. Sprint eNB 6888 -> T-Mobile gNB 1344050
   Location: 40.708900517652125, -73.9406671394352
    
2. Sprint eNB 6147 -> T-Mobile gNB 1371630
   Location: 40.80216075318654, -73.96408008092577

— — — — —

New Conversion Permits: 

1. Sprint eNB Unknown
   Located at 40.8523016210477, -73.93748813021824
2. Sprint eNB 6156
   Located at: 40.78975335578959, -73.94790522609013

— — — — —

On 10/17/2023 at 8:29 AM, Paynefanbro said:

Sprint eNB 6256

1. Address: 1155 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222
2. Coordinate: 40.73839858377396, -73.95614025871389
3. Notes: This is the infamous Greenpoint Sprint site that should make a world of difference for T-Mobile customers in both Greenpoint and LIC. A permit was initially submitted sometime last year but it got denied. It was recently resubmitted and approved with an expiration date in December 2023 so expect this to finally be converted before year-end.

 

Early Christmas present! North sector points directly across to Long Island City. The site isn't live yet but I'm so glad this finally got converted.

[Paynefanbro]

4xCA live in NYC finally

— — — — —

Decommission permits for the sites at the following addresses came through. These are all sites that were broadcasting the keep PLMN and are on the keep site map. Almost all of them have 12/31/2023 expiration dates with a few having expiration dates in early 2024. Sad to see them go but they probably couldn't get favorable lease rates. Hopefully T-Mobile is considering putting sites on nearby buildings to fill in coverage in some of these areas.

1. 231 Norman Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222

2. 185 Marcy Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211

3. 418 Madison St, Brooklyn, NY 11221

4. 961 Eastern Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11213

5. 88 Wyckoff St, Brooklyn, NY 11201

6. 7119 Shore Rd, Brooklyn, NY 11209 

7. 223 78th St, Brooklyn, NY 11209

8. 2427 E 29th St, Brooklyn, NY 11235

9. 1123 Avenue K, Brooklyn, NY 11230

10. 4701 Snyder Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11203

11. 140 Delancey St, New York, NY 10002

12. 1900 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10035

— — — — —

Found two more conversion permits for sites on the map:

1. 59 Lorimer St, Brooklyn, NY 11206 (Permit expires 04/23/2024)

   1. This site is in southern Williamsburg.

2. 360 Furman St, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (Permit expires 02/09/2024)

   1. This is the stealth site that is just off of the BQE that should fill in a lot of coverage along Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Promenade, and the southwestern section Brooklyn Heights.

— — — — —

I'm in midtown a lot lately and it's super annoying that there still isn't a way to break up 5G gNBs to notate small cells vs macros. It's frustrating that there are so many red dots on the map in that area because there are a dozen or so small cells that I can't pin.

[Paynefanbro]

On 12/16/2023 at 6:41 PM, Paynefanbro said:

Early Christmas present! North sector points directly across to Long Island City. The site isn't live yet but I'm so glad this finally got converted.

This site is live and it is a gig+ site. Massive boost in coverage as anticipated. T-Mobile really struck gold by getting access to this site. I tried mapping every sector of it on n41.

— — — — —

On 12/18/2023 at 4:03 PM, Paynefanbro said:

59 Lorimer St, Brooklyn, NY 11206 (Permit expires 04/23/2024)

This site is converted and live. gNB 1371634

— — — — —

On 12/18/2023 at 4:03 PM, Paynefanbro said:

360 Furman St, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (Permit expires 02/09/2024)

1.  

T-Mobile has removed the sheaths on this in preparation for upgrading it. Now the old Sprint antennas are exposed.

— — — — —

Sprint eNB 6714 located at 102 North End Ave, New York, NY 10282 is currently being converted (finally).

 

[AirlineFlyer]

The Verizon site right outside the Barclay Center has finally been upgraded with C-band. Quite a funky antenna addition on the right there, too.

[Paynefanbro]

More conversions:

Sprint eNB 74668 -> T-Mobile eNB 895023
Located at: 40.8350975054593, -73.91533021361947

— — — — —

Sprint eNB 6856 located at 421 Smith St got converted but isn't live yet. 

 

[Paynefanbro]

On 12/23/2023 at 4:48 PM, Paynefanbro said:

T-Mobile has removed the sheaths on this in preparation for upgrading it. Now the old Sprint antennas are exposed.

I might be wrong but I think this is actually a new antenna and it's live. I drove by the site this evening and it seems like I'm actually picking up n41 from it. I think gNB ID 1345521 and eNB 219025 both map to this site. Is this a passive 8-port antenna? I'm gonna swing by again tomorrow to see if I can figure out what's up with this site.

[wispiANt]

2 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

I might be wrong but I think this is actually a new antenna and it's live. I drove by the site this evening and it seems like I'm actually picking up n41 from it. I think gNB ID 1345521 and eNB 219025 both map to this site. Is this a passive 8-port antenna? I'm gonna swing by again tomorrow to see if I can figure out what's up with this site.

Looks like a passive 4-port (plus two RET ports). Reading the DOBNow filing:
 

Quote

Remove 6 RRHs, install 3 RRHs

I'd guess they've installed two 4460s (4x4 MIMO B2/B66) and a single 8863 (8x8 MIMO B41, split between the two sectors).

[Paynefanbro]

17 hours ago, wispiANt said:

Looks like a passive 4-port (plus two RET ports). Reading the DOBNow filing:

Slightly better pic. It's pretty fast too. Just wish coverage on this site were better.

 

[AirlineFlyer]

On 12/31/2023 at 4:59 PM, Paynefanbro said:

Slightly better pic. It's pretty fast too. Just wish coverage on this site were better.

 

Not seeing very impressive speeds from this site nearby on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade yesterday.