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T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion


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The difference for a T-mobile LTE subscriber will be immense dropping from LTE to edge whereas Sprint at least has 3g on the rurals and LTE coming soon.

 

But, but, but what about that great "4G" HSPA+ fallback that all the tech bloggers are writing about?

 

;)

 

AJ

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The biggest problem with T-mobile is not the speed of their LTE deployment (which should be faster than Sprint in metro areas as they don't have to wait on backhaul) but is the fact that their LTE will only overlay their HSPA+ footprint. The majority of their network outside metro areas are still Edge / 2g. The difference for a T-mobile LTE subscriber will be immense dropping from LTE to edge whereas Sprint at least has 3g on the rurals and LTE coming soon.

 

Two months ago, I completely agreed with this. However, I've been watching Tmo HSPA+ speeds drop drastically here in New Mexico. Most likely from adding back unlimited data.

 

There will be a stark difference between LTE and HSPA+ at peak times. Especially in the beginning.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

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Adding to that, even sprints lte 1900 will penetrate better than tmobiles lte on aws I would guess. Then again, tmobile has the greatest site density at least in metropolitan Detroit, compared to any other carrier by far. So that may make up for it. As for rural areas though, completely different story. Tmobile is an urban carrier and that's what they seem to be focused on. Att and verizon are really the only options for rural customers, tmobile isnt planning on overlaying their current edge network, but even if they do, there is no sub ghz spectrum for adequate coverage. One day sprint may be a 3rd option for rural customers with smr. But more towers will be needed to fill In the gaps.

 

By my experiences, Tmo HSPA+ on AWS has noticeably less indoor signal strength than Sprint EVDO on PCS. But it's pretty similar to Sprint LTE on 1900.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

 

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T-mobile uses a mix of 5x5 and 10x10 depending on location and availability of spectrum (AJ can answer this for you).

 

Sprint is using 5x5 for both LTE 1900 and LTE 800 with probably 20 for Clearwire's TDD-LTE.

 

T-mobile uses two vendors iirc. Ericsson and Nokia Siemens. Their ericsson panels are called AIR and it's basically an all in one solution. The NSN panels do have RRU's and I've been seeing them be called TMU's. Looks to be 1 TMU per panel installation in the permit records that I've been looking through.

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T-mobile uses a mix of 5x5 and 10x10 depending on location and availability of spectrum (AJ can answer this for you).

 

Sprint is using 5x5 for both LTE 1900 and LTE 800 with probably 20 for Clearwire's TDD-LTE.

 

T-mobile uses two vendors iirc. Ericsson and Nokia Siemens. Their ericsson panels are called AIR and it's basically an all in one solution. The NSN panels do have RRU's and I've been seeing them be called TMU's. Looks to be 1 TMU per panel installation in the permit records that I've been looking through.

 

would u say there is a benifit speed wise with tmo all in one pannel vs sprint 2 rru per pannel? my guess is sprints is got more range cause of the 2 rrus vs tmo

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T-Mobile can fire up a bunch of Flexi's and get really good AWS LTE in the cities. That's not so easy to do in rural areas. They need to get in line for the 5x5 700 Upper D block if/when it gets auctioned up.

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T-Mobile can fire up a bunch of Flexi's and get really good AWS LTE in the cities. That's not so easy to do in rural areas. They need to get in line for the 5x5 700 Upper D block if/when it gets auctioned up.

 

The Upper 700 MHz D block was deeded to Public Safety about a year ago. It will never be auctioned now.

 

AJ

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We are doing 30+ T-mobile LTE sites per week in Minneapolis.. installed and integrated.. they then get cell barred & blocked ..

 

I've been seeing applications for 5-10 t-mobile modernization sites in Sacramento every 2 weeks now since last november. These NSN panels are definitely LTE capable and blocked as PCS HSPA/+ still does not cover most of my city yet.

 

Funny thing is, there's this church bell structure on my secondary route home that I pass by all the time. Only recently did I find out it was a stealth site that was getting modernized.

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They better get on the ball. I believe our group of site watchers have only found on TMobile site being upgraded in BR/NOLA. Hell I find it hard to find any TMobile site at all. DOH! ;)

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There a reason why sprint is number 3 an maybe soon to be number 2? Tmobile is 4th because they have bad coverage in certain areas an they dont have a true 4g net work. I read. That hspa is really a 3g network on crack

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Ouch...T-Mobile is going to have LTE ready in 2 cities (Phoenix and Las Vegas) where Sprint currently does NOT have any LTE. That has gotta sting especially in Phoenix where those customers feel burned for not ever getting Wimax and tired of waiting so long just to get LTE as well. I can definitely see some Sprint customers defect to T-Mobile for LTE for this reason. Phoenix is starting to pick up some NV sites which hopefully should turn into LTE soon.

 

I am curious however to see how much LTE coverage T-Mobile will have in its initial rollout in all these 7 launch cities.

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I think T-Mobile missed out having STL not be a launch market. Sprint has a bigger market share there than Phoenix or Las Vegas. Yet, no NV love. I am kind of baffled by this.

 

T-Mobile could have flown in and started stealing customers here. I think they are impaired in that quest because their entire market there has no corporate locations, as they're all run by Wireless Vision and are almost all universally awful.

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Two months ago, I completely agreed with this. However, I've been watching Tmo HSPA+ speeds drop drastically here in New Mexico. Most likely from adding back unlimited data.

 

There will be a stark difference between LTE and HSPA+ at peak times. Especially in the beginning.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

Strangely enough, I've only noticed a marginal drop in T-mobile's HSPA+ network over the past six months in NYC and on Long Island. It went from averaging around 16/2 during peak hours to 14/1.5. Although allegedly, someone on a capped w/ tethering data plan will see download speeds of around 20mbit because unlimited data plans have a slightly lower traffic priority.

Edited by gangrene
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I think T-Mobile missed out having STL not be a launch market. Sprint has a bigger market share there than Phoenix or Las Vegas. Yet, no NV love. I am kind of baffled by this.

 

T-Mobile could have flown in and started stealing customers here. I think they are impaired in that quest because their entire market there has no corporate locations, as they're all run by Wireless Vision and are almost all universally awful.

 

Did you see the first NV site accepted in St. Louis the other day? It's starting! :tu:

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

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Strangely enough, I've only noticed a marginal drop in T-mobile's HSPA+ network over the past six months in NYC and on Long Island. It went from averaging around 16/2 during peak hours to 14/1.5. Although allegedly, someone on a capped w/ tethering data plan will see download speeds of around 20mbit because unlimited data plans have a slightly lower traffic priority.

 

I think Tmo only has one carrier deployed in our area. There are some sites that I think are dual carrier in Santa Fe and ABQ, because these will reach 23-25Mbps at off peak times. I'm sure NYC has better density and more carriers per site than NM.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

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Did you see the first NV site accepted in St. Louis the other day? It's starting! :tu:

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

 

About time. STL has a very large Sprint presence and I'm shocked it is a 3rd round market. *cough*San Antonio*cough*

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About time. STL has a very large Sprint presence and I'm shocked it is a 3rd round market. *cough*San Antonio*cough*

 

Now, now, Ryan, you know better than to grumble and moan about market order. Some markets necessarily had to come last.

 

AJ

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Now, now, Ryan, you know better than to grumble and moan about market order. Some markets necessarily had to come last.

 

AJ

 

Does the Premier Section have market data? I can recall a set of tables that newyork4me posted on HoFo that stated that STL was one of the larger Sprint markets out there.

 

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1766584-Number-of-VZW-subscribers-(and-other-carriers)-per-market

 

I can't vouch for how accurate the data is however.

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