T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion

[rp3]

I find it disturbing that T-mobile is beating Sprint to the punch on in its LTE deployment of Long Island despite the months-long lead time Sprint has had in NYC and adjacent areas.

 

I am not going to get into a sprint vs whoever pissing match but same goes in south Florida. T-mobile permits are pulled, approved and work is completed quick.

Sprint permits are pulled approved and then just sit for months and months.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[z250kid]

I am not going to get into a sprint vs whoever pissing match but same goes in south Florida. T-mobile permits are pulled, approved and work is completed quick.

Sprint permits are pulled approved and then just sit for months and months.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

I find it disturbing that T-mobile is beating Sprint to the punch on in its LTE deployment of Long Island despite the months-long lead time Sprint has had in NYC and adjacent areas. 

 

 

 

Like Ct also.hahaha also there is one tower by me that is tmobile only and its there 2g network and it has fiber! That's why they are so quick to upgrade.  No need to wait for back haul

[Deval]

I find it disturbing that T-mobile is beating Sprint to the punch on in its LTE deployment of Long Island despite the months-long lead time Sprint has had in NYC and adjacent areas. 

 

Seriously?

 

T-Mobile already had the backhaul in place to upgrade their 10 towers for the market. Of course they could get the work done faster. They aren't doing a full retrofit like Sprint is.

[WiWavelength]

I find it disturbing that T-mobile is beating Sprint to the punch on in its LTE deployment of Long Island despite the months-long lead time Sprint has had in NYC and adjacent areas. 

 

And Sprint has already deployed LTE in many markets where T-Mobile has not deployed LTE, has not even deployed W-CDMA, has only deployed GSM.  So, suck on that.

 

AJ

[compuwizz]

Slightly off topic but still relevant.

 

My personal experience has been that T-Mobile's EDGE is actually able to provide a data connection most of the time when I fall back onto it versus when I fall back onto Sprint's 1X. Here in Vegas I lose Sprint 3G and end up with the 1X circle on my iPhone. Even though 1X is considered 3G, bytes rarely seem to flow over the air on it here.

[S4GRU]

Slightly off topic but still relevant.

 

My personal experience has been that T-Mobile's EDGE is actually able to provide a data connection most of the time when I fall back onto it versus when I fall back onto Sprint's 1X. Here in Vegas I lose Sprint 3G and end up with the 1X circle on my iPhone. Even though 1X is considered 3G, bytes rarely seem to flow over the air on it here.

 

It is true that Tmo EDGE is much less burdened than Sprint 1x. Since voice usage on TMo EDGE is going down drastically every month. However, most of the time when I fall off Tmo 4Gs, I'm in an area where Sprint 3G is running 1-2.5Mbps. So the difference between Sprint 3G on highway and rural areas and Tmo EDGE is ten fold plus.

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[Moropo]

Slightly off topic but still relevant.

 

My personal experience has been that T-Mobile's EDGE is actually able to provide a data connection most of the time when I fall back onto it versus when I fall back onto Sprint's 1X. Here in Vegas I lose Sprint 3G and end up with the 1X circle on my iPhone. Even though 1X is considered 3G, bytes rarely seem to flow over the air on it here.

 

It's good that you mention this because I have the same inquiry. I never had T-Mobile to do a comparison like you are doing but I do know that whenever I'm in 1xRTT (I know because of SignalCheck Pro app) it always means no data. Not even a simple text-based website goes thru. Everything times out.

 

I always wondered why 1x = no data when supposedly it was slow data.

 

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[WiWavelength]

I always wondered why 1x = no data when supposedly it was slow data.

 

On CDMA1X, voice gets priority over data.

 

All of the old people and Cubans in Miami must talk too much.

 

 

AJ

[Moropo]

On CDMA1X, voice gets priority over data.

 

All of the old people and Cubans in Miami must talk too much.

 

 

AJ

Got it.

 

[Boosted20V]

In all seriousness though, I have been on Sprint 1X sites that will hit ~125k/s and be OK for browsing. Most of their towers though, are simply more saturated than T-MO's rural sites.

[lordsutch]

Sprint's always been a more desirable carrier for rural customers than T-Mobile due to roaming availability (I don't think T-Mobile offered AMPS roaming at all, and even today on postpaid T-Mobile offers less roaming capability than Sprint, particularly on the data front), so it's not surprising the rural towers would be more heavily loaded on the Sprint side despite similar native coverage.

[eljayyy91]

Only time I've really noticed my 1x data completely time out is while roamin... its really slow but useable. And here in wi tmobile might as well not exist with how bad their coverage is with 80% of it being roaming its kinda sad.

[maximus1987/lou99]

Only time I've really noticed my 1x data completely time out is while roamin... its really slow but useable. And here in wi tmobile might as well not exist with how bad their coverage is with 80% of it being roaming its kinda sad.

 

They don't have any sub-1 GHz anywhere. No one can afford to build 10x - or whatever the factor is - as many towers as ATT to match what sub-1 GHz spectrum can do.

[eljayyy91]

They don't have any sub-1 GHz anywhere. No one can afford to build 10x - or whatever the factor is - as many towers as ATT to match what sub-1 GHz spectrum can do.

Sprint did a decent job with pcs...

[digiblur]

They don't have any sub-1 GHz anywhere. No one can afford to build 10x - or whatever the factor is - as many towers as ATT to match what sub-1 GHz spectrum can do.

Sprint did a decent job with pcs...

I beg to differ. But to be fair their affiliate did it but they let it go on.

[eljayyy91]

Hmm compare even the coverage maps. In wisconsin tmobile has native hspa in doesn't reach any central part of the state. Sprint has 3g everywhere mosty they have 3g and up here I really don't experience the bogging down because so few people up here I think.

Edited June 28, 2013 by eljayyy91

[Deval]

Hmm compare even the coverage maps. In wisconsin tmobile has native hspa in doesn't reach any central part of the state. Sprint has 3g everywhere mosty they have 3g and up here I really don't experience the bogging down because so few people up here I think.

 

I agree with you on that, although, driving back from Portage to Madison (was there for my friend's wedding), once you start going down some of those roads, you lose coverage for miles.

[eljayyy91]

Yep here some places have huge holes where there is no service at all even with att lol

[wyattwalter]

T-Mobile covers California better than Sprint.. but I'm not sure what is better- EDGE on T-Mo or 1X roaming on Sprint.

[S4GRU]

T-Mobile covers California better than Sprint.. but I'm not sure what is better- EDGE on T-Mo or 1X roaming on Sprint.

 

There isn't much difference. But at least on Sprint you can modify your PRL and have 3G roaming in almost all of California. With Tmo, you're stuck on EDGE or have no service.

 

Robert from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[lynyrd65]

Slightly off topic but still relevant.

 

 

 

My personal experience has been that T-Mobile's EDGE is actually able to provide a data connection most of the time when I fall back onto it versus when I fall back onto Sprint's 1X. Here in Vegas I lose Sprint 3G and end up with the 1X circle on my iPhone. Even though 1X is considered 3G, bytes rarely seem to flow over the air on it here.

 

 

It is true that Tmo EDGE is much less burdened than Sprint 1x. Since voice usage on TMo EDGE is going down drastically every month. However, most of the time when I fall off Tmo 4Gs, I'm in an area where Sprint 3G is running 1-2.5Mbps. So the difference between Sprint 3G on highway and rural areas and Tmo EDGE is ten fold plus.

 

 

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

 

 

Not in Oklahoma.

 

I'm lucky to get 50kbps on T-Mobile's EDGE network here. Streaming or browsing the web usually fail or time out.

 

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[maximus1987/lou99]

Slightly off topic but still relevant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My personal experience has been that T-Mobile's EDGE is actually able to provide a data connection most of the time when I fall back onto it versus when I fall back onto Sprint's 1X. Here in Vegas I lose Sprint 3G and end up with the 1X circle on my iPhone. Even though 1X is considered 3G, bytes rarely seem to flow over the air on it here.

 

 

 

 

It is true that Tmo EDGE is much less burdened than Sprint 1x. Since voice usage on TMo EDGE is going down drastically every month. However, most of the time when I fall off Tmo 4Gs, I'm in an area where Sprint 3G is running 1-2.5Mbps. So the difference between Sprint 3G on highway and rural areas and Tmo EDGE is ten fold plus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert from Note 2 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not in Oklahoma.

 

 

 

I'm lucky to get 50kbps on T-Mobile's EDGE network here. Streaming or browsing the web usually fail or time out.

 

 

 

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

 

 

The vendors will install LTE Release 10-capable equipment at 37,000 cell sites across T-Mobile's HSPA+ network footprint as part of the carrier's effort to increase signal quality and improve network performance this year.

 

Read more: T-Mobile: 95% of our backhaul is fiber - FierceBroadbandWireless http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/t-mobile-95-our-backhaul-fiber/2012-08-01#ixzz2XW7kSM00

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[Boosted20V]

The vendors will install LTE Release 10-capable equipment at 37,000 cell sites across T-Mobile's HSPA+ network footprint as part of the carrier's effort to increase signal quality and improve network performance this year.

 

Read more: T-Mobile: 95% of our backhaul is fiber - FierceBroadbandWireless http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/t-mobile-95-our-backhaul-fiber/2012-08-01#ixzz2XW7kSM00

Subscribe at FierceBroadbandWireless

 

Not so. It specifically states:

 

"T-Mobile has enhanced backhaul covering 100 percent of our 4G network, 95 percent of which is fiber backhaul,"

 

So they are only stating that of their 4G network, 95% is backhauled by fiber. T-Mo is the tale of 2 networks. A great one in cities with fiber and a sad one in rural areas with T1s.

[maximus1987/lou99]

 

 

The vendors will install LTE Release 10-capable equipment at 37,000 cell sites across T-Mobile's HSPA+ network footprint as part of the carrier's effort to increase signal quality and improve network performance this year.

 

 

Read more: T-Mobile: 95% of our backhaul is fiber - FierceBroadbandWireless http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/t-mobile-95-our-backhaul-fiber/2012-08-01#ixzz2XW7kSM00

 

Subscribe at FierceBroadbandWireless

 

 

Not so. It specifically states:

 

"T-Mobile has enhanced backhaul covering 100 percent of our 4G network, 95 percent of which is fiber backhaul,"

 

 

So they are only stating that of their 4G network, 95% is backhauled by fiber. T-Mo is the tale of 2 networks. A great one in cities with fiber and a sad one in rural areas with T1s.

And it also specifically dated they're gonna upgrade all 37k sites.

 

The backhaul description is of their network TODAY not their network forever.

 

 

If they're never gonna upgrade rural backhaul, what's the point of installing LTE equipment everywhere?

[Boosted20V]

And it also specifically dated they're gonna upgrade all 37k sites.

 

The backhaul description is of their network TODAY not their network forever.

 

 

If they're never gonna upgrade rural backhaul, what's the point of installing LTE equipment everywhere?

 

You're missing a key fact that their network consists of 51K towers. The 37K IS a subset:

 

http://gigaom.com/2012/09/28/t-mobile-sheds-its-towers-in-exchange-for-a-2-4b-infusion/

 

Check out the article, it specifically states the total number of towers T-Mo operates.