T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion

[lou99/maximus1987]

Illinois is getting a ton of USCC adds so no, it isn't just the home base getting adds. I never paid much mind to people who would, if given the same spectrum, would say T-Mobile would rocket to NUMBER 1. I'll just add that Illinois - a state with high population - is near the bottom on T-Mobile EDGE to LTE site conversion.

280 mil lte mid 2015, 300 mil EoY 2015.

265 mil lte early jan 2015.

 

They're gonna convert all edge to lte probably a lot earlier than eoy15.

I don't know if weather has anything to do with it: maybe they're doing Southern states first?

[EvanA]

280 mil lte mid 2015, 300 mil EoY 2015.

265 mil lte early jan 2015.

 

They're gonna convert all edge to lte probably a lot earlier than eoy15.

I don't know if weather has anything to do with it: maybe they're doing Southern states first?

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

I can tell you there will still be plenty of EDGE only areas due to circumstances outside of T-Mobile's control

[Fraydog]

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

I can tell you there will still be plenty of EDGE only areas due to circumstances outside of T-Mobile's control

I don't think it will be 100% LTE either for the simple reason that T-Mobile has to deal with CenturyLink and Frontier which is all over the place in rural, and is a major pain to deal with.

 

A lot of the areas I see upgraded are areas where there is AAV or where AT&T is the landline carrier. Ironic that a non-wireless landline is dragging its feet more than AT&T that one would think would have incentive to drag their feet. Then again, AT&T has far more fiber even in the rural parts of their footprint, especially after Project VIP.

[lou99/maximus1987]

Microwave?

[Fraydog]

Microwave?

I haven't seen a lot of that yet in the T-Mo rural installs. Mostly AT&T fiber for now. Frontier areas are mostly untouched.

 

Downstate IL has another major problem as well - T-Mo has the old Dotson/Humm era "we don't care" site density, and most of the 700 MHz spectrum is controlled by USCC (who is out of most of IL now but still has 700 MHz spectrum in areas they do not operate).

[lou99/maximus1987]

I haven't seen a lot of that yet in the T-Mo rural installs. Mostly AT&T fiber for now. Frontier areas are mostly untouched.

 

Downstate IL has another major problem as well - T-Mo has the old Dotson/Humm era "we don't care" site density, and most of the 700 MHz spectrum is controlled by USCC (who is out of most of IL now but still has 700 MHz spectrum in areas they do not operate).

It will be interesting to see what happens to USC and Cspire 700a. it seems like they are top entities for most sq mi of 700a that TMO doesn't control. Do you think USC wants to sell its swath??

[Fraydog]

It would have to be areas where USCC doesn't operate because they would be nuts to sell where they operate. Some licenses could be partitioned. But why should USCC sell for cheap? Get the maximum value here.

[lou99/maximus1987]

It would have to be areas where USCC doesn't operate because they would be nuts to sell where they operate. Some licenses could be partitioned. But why should USCC sell for cheap? Get the maximum value here.

I don't understand why USC doesn't split itself up and sell.

[jackskellington6]

You're full of shit in that B25 + B26 just doubles the speed hyperbole. Every network has slow speeds in some areas. Hell, I'll grab a T-Mobile phone and head to my cousin's house in Jersey where they only have EDGE, and take speedtests and share.

 

Let's bring this thread back on topic, before the mod's close it.

 

With T-Mo promising their EDGE network to be overlaid with LTE, the question I have is, how much PCS do they have to actually do so? If they are limited to 10mhz, how will they deploy LTE and keep voice?

Try getting a speed test to even start on Edge. On T-Mobile, in an area where Edge is the only option, it means voice and SMS only. No data throughput whatsoever. On a side note, I wonder how T-Mobile got back haul so quick for White Rock, Los Alamos, and Taos, NM, given that these were previously Edge only sites and CenturyLink is the provider here. They also managed to get Espanola with Windstream which is even worse (at least their DSL is.)

[EvanA]

Try getting a speed test to even start on Edge. On T-Mobile, in an area where Edge is the only option, it means voice and SMS only. No data throughput whatsoever. On a side note, I wonder how T-Mobile got back haul so quick for White Rock, Los Alamos, and Taos, NM, given that these were previously Edge only sites and CenturyLink is the provider here. They also managed to get Espanola with Windstream which is even worse (at least their DSL is.)

They probably were co-located with other carriers that already had LTE, so the backhaul was already on site.

[Fraydog]

Try getting a speed test to even start on Edge. On T-Mobile, in an area where Edge is the only option, it means voice and SMS only. No data throughput whatsoever. On a side note, I wonder how T-Mobile got back haul so quick for White Rock, Los Alamos, and Taos, NM, given that these were previously Edge only sites and CenturyLink is the provider here. They also managed to get Espanola with Windstream which is even worse (at least their DSL is.)

I complained to T-Mobile about that when I started my SIM card test experiment. It was "fixed" - if you would define fixed as .14 Mbps.

 

My theory is that I was literally the only one in town that had T-Mobile for any length of time to complain.

 

T-Mobile isn't co-located with anyone here. They are co-located with VZW in Perryville. Other sites, I would have to check.

[lou99/maximus1987]

http://www.spectrumgateway.com/t-mobile-spectrum-holdings

 

Type in county and it'll tell you how much spectrum tmus has

 

Chester in Randolph county IL has 5fdd + 10fdd in pcs. They only need 5fdd for gsm/edge/gprs, maybe less, for voice.

[MarkyD311]

I haven't seen a lot of that yet in the T-Mo rural installs. Mostly AT&T fiber for now. Frontier areas are mostly untouched.

 

Downstate IL has another major problem as well - T-Mo has the old Dotson/Humm era "we don't care" site density, and most of the 700 MHz spectrum is controlled by USCC (who is out of most of IL now but still has 700 MHz spectrum in areas they do not operate).

 

I can only speak specifically to Oklahoma, but they started hitting the microwave rural installs heavy last week. If they don't have AAV/AT&T available to the site in the immediate future, they're using microwave. In Oklahoma and NW Arkansas alone they're doing about 300 sites on microwave backhaul, fed by 1gbps donor sites. I can only assume they have the same strategy elsewhere, as there's no way they'll meet their goal without it (especially in CenturyLink/Frontier areas). By the end of March, I expect to see all highways in Oklahoma covered in LTE, with lots of the areas in between trickling in as well. 

[lou99/maximus1987]

I can only speak specifically to Oklahoma, but they started hitting the microwave rural installs heavy last week. If they don't have AAV/AT&T available to the site in the immediate future, they're using microwave. In Oklahoma and NW Arkansas alone they're doing about 300 sites on microwave backhaul, fed by 1gbps donor sites. I can only assume they have the same strategy elsewhere, as there's no way they'll meet their goal without it (especially in CenturyLink/Frontier areas). By the end of March, I expect to see all highways in Oklahoma covered in LTE, with lots of the areas in between trickling in as well.

How many sites max and avg have you seen fed by 1gbps donor site?

[MarkyD311]

How many sites max and avg have you seen fed by 1gbps donor site?

 

They're just getting started. I don't think they have any of the microwave-fed sites in OK online yet, but they should start turning them up in the next few weeks. I don't have exact numbers on how many sites will be fed by each donor site. 

[S4GRU]

Try getting a speed test to even start on Edge. On T-Mobile, in an area where Edge is the only option, it means voice and SMS only. No data throughput whatsoever. On a side note, I wonder how T-Mobile got back haul so quick for White Rock, Los Alamos, and Taos, NM, given that these were previously Edge only sites and CenturyLink is the provider here. They also managed to get Espanola with Windstream which is even worse (at least their DSL is.)

 

They installed the backhaul at the Tmo Espanola site in February 2013.  I watched them do it.  And it still took over a year for that site to go live.  The backhaul was not provided by Windstream but fiber by REDInet.  REDInet also has fiber in Los Alamos, White Rock and Taos.  They may have provided the fiber connections for Tmo in those areas too.

[jackskellington6]

They installed the backhaul at the Tmo Espanola site in February 2013. I watched them do it. And it still took over a year for that site to go live. The backhaul was not provided by Windstream but fiber by REDInet. REDInet also has fiber in Los Alamos, White Rock and Taos. They may have provided the fiber connections for Tmo in those areas too.

That is what I dumped Windstream for, Black Mesa Wireless, a reseller of REDInet using Ubiquiti equipment. Having 10 up/10 down is amazing. I would be lucky to get 1.5 Mbps down on Windstream DSL.

[danlodish345]

Try getting a speed test to even start on Edge. On T-Mobile, in an area where Edge is the only option, it means voice and SMS only. No data throughput whatsoever. On a side note, I wonder how T-Mobile got back haul so quick for White Rock, Los Alamos, and Taos, NM, given that these were previously Edge only sites and CenturyLink is the provider here. They also managed to get Espanola with Windstream which is even worse (at least their DSL is.)

doesnt tmobile have nationwide AWS SPECTRUM if so why dont they build their native foot print nationwide

[Paynefanbro]

doesnt tmobile have nationwide AWS SPECTRUM if so why dont they build their native foot print nationwide

 

Technically it is nationwide. That said, to deploy to 100% of the country is infinitely times easier said than done.

[danlodish345]

Technically it is nationwide. That said, to deploy to 100% of the country is infinitely times easier said than done.

is it because its high band spectrum ?

[WiWavelength]

is it because its high band spectrum ?

 

Yeah, that is the only reason.  Lower band spectrum will solve everything for T-Mobile.  It will paint the entire country magenta.

 

AJ

[WiWavelength]

...to deploy to 100% of the country is infinitely times easier said than done.

 

 

AJ

[danlodish345]

 

AJ

hmm and high band spectrum needs more infrastructure to have the same coverage area ....as low band

[MacinJosh]

doesnt tmobile have nationwide AWS SPECTRUM if so why dont they build their native foot print nationwide

Not even the duopoly covers 100% of the land mass of the United States. In some rural areas, it's not feasible. Interstates, yes; US Highways, most likely; state highways, maybe; county and other rural roads, no.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk 3.1.1

[WiWavelength]

Not even the duopoly covers 100% of the land mass of the United States. In some rural areas, it's not feasible. Interstates, yes; US Highways, most likely; state highways, maybe; county and other rural roads, no.

 

Disregard holding nearly 100 percent coverage footprint.  Actually building nearly 100 percent coverage footprint from scratch is the issue.  Now, who or what has ever done that?  danlodish345, care to answer that question?

 

AJ