T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion

[Deval]

T-Mobile has gone advertising crazy here in Los Angeles for their $40 Unlimited Plan.  It's almost impossible to look anywhere without seeing magenta on billboards, buses, buildings -- basically all OOH advertising.

 

Has T-Mobile been as aggressive elsewhere?

 

What $40 unlimited plan?

[Deval]

Over the summer I was at a pretty large L station in the Chicago Loop that was completely magenta, on 2 stories and down each corridor. In your face T-Mobile girl smirking at you as you ride up/down the escalator. If you could imagine a T-Mobile themed haunted house, that would be it.

 

It was so magenta it burned my eyes.

 

 

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Over the summer, T-Mobile wrapped an entire 7 train with magenta print and ads, both inside and outside.

 

I almost threw up riding the train. Half expected Legere to jump out of the conductor's station and take selfies.

[lou99/maximus1987]

What $40 unlimited plan?

 

The 1GB unlimited plan limited to 8mbps.

Cricket has 2.5GB for $35 limited to 8mbps.

[Deval]

The 1GB unlimited plan limited to 8mbps.

Cricket has 2.5GB for $35 limited to 8mbps.

 

Interesting, I see only the $50 version of the same plan online. 

[lou99/maximus1987]

Interesting, I see only the $50 version of the same plan online. 

 

It's under the prepaid section.

They have a few versions of prepaid:

* $40, 50, 60 for 1GB, 3GB, 5GB limited to 8mbps

* Prepaid versions of simple choice

* Pay as you go

[kg4icg]

And for $45 under Boost you get unlimited calls and text and 5gb of data with no cap on speed with tri band lte devices on hand.

[bigmachine]

What $40 unlimited plan?

 

I should have been more specific.  The ads are for the new Simply Prepaid Unlimited Talk, Text and 3G data with a small allocation of LTE data.

 

The advertising here in the San Fernando Valley is prolific.

[Deval]

I should have been more specific.  The ads are for the new Simply Prepaid Unlimited Talk, Text and 3G data with a small allocation of LTE data.

 

The advertising here in the San Fernando Valley is prolific.

 

They are advertising prepaid?

[bigmachine]

They are advertising prepaid?

 

Apparently.  Maybe L.A. is a test market.  That was the impetus for my original posting.  I was trying to figure out if this was a regional or nationwide blast.

 

There are also a lot of Metro PCS billboards around here too.

[Fraydog]

They've been masterful with their online ad placement.

 

 

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STL looks like one giant Magenta billboard. Saw them for the first time ever in the Metro East. Mom was like "hey want to spend that much on your network?" yesterday. I laughed. 

[Fraydog]

I don't see many Tmo online ads. Targeted advertisements to me are typically Verizon and Sprint.

 

It's almost always T-Mobile online ads here. I suspect they're targeted off geolocation as part of St. Louis being a perceived expansion market for them. 

[Fraydog]

 

T-Mo's little brother across the pond EE is using these puppies for network expansion. I wonder if this will also show up on T-Mobile's grid?

 

 

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[Conan Kudo]

At Deutsche Telekom's 2015 Capital Markets Day event, T-Mobile detailed the full scope of the coverage expansion that is expected to finish this year in the presentation PDF.

[lou99/maximus1987]

At Deutsche Telekom's 2015 Capital Markets Day event, T-Mobile detailed the full scope of the coverage expansion that is expected to finish this year in the presentation PDF.

Awesome! Too bad no 2g shutdown announced

 

 

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[maxsilver]

At Deutsche Telekom's 2015 Capital Markets Day event, T-Mobile detailed the full scope of the coverage expansion that is expected to finish this year in the presentation PDF

I'm glad about the expanded coverage (and the map for Michigan looks perfect.  Its not Verizon-level coverage by any means, but it's close enough that 98% of people here will have zero problems).

 

 

But Page 23 is concerning. Based on the Dallas example provided, it looks like they're planning to increase "coverage" using low-band, but do so by removing rural sites, and un-densifying the network.  (In the photo TMO provided, 35 / 35-W / 35-E from Hillsboro heading north. "Mid-band only" shows 7 cell sites. "LTE + Low band" shows only 4. Similar patterns are visible on all the freeways heading into the city).

 

 

I really hope that's just an artifact of band scoping (all 7 sites will remain, but not all necessarily run low-band) or just mid-network upgrade weirdness in the photo.

 

But if it's not -- if the removal of sites shown in their photo is an accurate reflection of their strategy -- that's a huge mistake.

[Volaris]

I'm glad about the expanded coverage (and the map for Michigan looks perfect.  Its not Verizon-level coverage by any means, but it's close enough that 98% of people here will have zero problems).

 

 

But Page 23 is concerning. Based on the Dallas example provided, it looks like they're planning to increase "coverage" using low-band, but do so by removing rural sites, and un-densifying the network.  (In the photo TMO provided, 35 / 35-W / 35-E from Hillsboro heading north. "Mid-band only" shows 7 cell sites. "LTE + Low band" shows only 4. Similar patterns are visible on all the freeways heading into the city).

 

 

I really hope that's just an artifact of band scoping (all 7 sites will remain, but not all necessarily run low-band) or just mid-network upgrade weirdness in the photo.

 

But if it's not -- if the removal of sites shown in their photo is an accurate reflection of their strategy -- that's a huge mistake.

Highly doubt they'll be removed. There's tens of millions of T-Mobile phones out there that don't support 700MHz / band 12 LTE. 

 

In rural / low population areas, it may not make sense to upgrade every single tower. In rural California, I've seen some T-Mobile towers on rural highways about 1 mile apart... would be overkill to have 700MHz on both and likely cause too much interference. 

[S4GRU]

South Dakota expansion? Is it time to dust off my Tmo SIM card again?

[danlodish345]

South Dakota expansion? Is it time to dust off my Tmo SIM card again?

it maybe time to do so

[bigsnake49]

Well at the same conference, Legere kept mentioning Dish. The only problem that I see is that Dish is going to want to pay a minimum for its spectrum to be hosted and would want an arm and a leg for T-Mobile to rent capacity on that spectrum. Probably why Sprint has not been in the picture. Sprint does not need to rent capacity from Dish. They have plenty!

[bigmachine]

I walked up to my office in Burbank this morning to see a crew for TMO installing 700Mhz panels. It's cool to see the gear up close.

[Fraydog]

Well at the same conference, Legere kept mentioning Dish. The only problem that I see is that Dish is going to want to pay a minimum for its spectrum to be hosted and would want an arm and a leg for T-Mobile to rent capacity on that spectrum. Probably why Sprint has not been in the picture. Sprint does not need to rent capacity from Dish. They have plenty!

Any relationship with Sprint would be Sprint hosting Dish spectrum.

 

 

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[reedacus25]

I'm glad about the expanded coverage (and the map for Michigan looks perfect. Its not Verizon-level coverage by any means, but it's close enough that 98% of people here will have zero problems).

 

 

But Page 23 is concerning. Based on the Dallas example provided, it looks like they're planning to increase "coverage" using low-band, but do so by removing rural sites, and un-densifying the network. (In the photo TMO provided, 35 / 35-W / 35-E from Hillsboro heading north. "Mid-band only" shows 7 cell sites. "LTE + Low band" shows only 4. Similar patterns are visible on all the freeways heading into the city).

 

 

I really hope that's just an artifact of band scoping (all 7 sites will remain, but not all necessarily run low-band) or just mid-network upgrade weirdness in the photo.

 

But if it's not -- if the removal of sites shown in their photo is an accurate reflection of their strategy -- that's a huge mistake.

I too was concerned about this but I also agree that I believe this too be the idea of a quick and dirty overlay. Don't overlap, hit the bare minimum of sites necessary and keep it spread out to keep the gain knob real high.

 

Big expansion is Louisiana and Mississippi around Natchez and Alexandria, covering up a good amount of roaming from the old Centennial footprint.

 

Will be very interesting to see how it plays out. T-Mobile doesn't have the 700 in MS like it does in west Louisiana. Just excited to see progress.

[EvanA]

At Deutsche Telekom's 2015 Capital Markets Day event, T-Mobile detailed the full scope of the coverage expansion that is expected to finish this year in the presentation PDF.

I'm still skeptical that this will all be native built expansion by T-Mobile. I'm betting they will have some native roaming agreements to meet the 300mil goal.

[lou99/maximus1987]

I'm still skeptical that this will all be native built expansion by T-Mobile. I'm betting they will have some native roaming agreements to meet the 300mil goal.

 

With which carrier?

[EvanA]

With which carrier?

Probably multiple like Sprint's RRPP. T-Mobile is a member of the CCA