Next group of rumored cities to launch Tmobile LTE

[ericdabbs]

Looks like Tmobile is picking up the pace on deploying its LTE network. It seems to be hitting a lot of high pop cities which Sprint has currently deployed or partially deployed. Honolulu, Cleveland, Cincinatti, Columbus being listed is a blow to Sprint customers since those are cities that Sprint has not begin NV or have any LTE. Tmobile can make Sprint a run for its money and make them a viable competitor. The lack of sufficient backhaul for LTE in place at all Sprint legacy sites is really hurting their deployment schedule.

 

• Atlanta – Sandy Springs, Marietta, San Antonio
  
• Austin – Round Rock, San Marcos (May Launch)
  
• Part of the Carolinas – Charlotte, Rock Hill
  
• Chicago – Joliet, Naperville
  
• Cincinnati – Dayton
  
• Cleveland
  
• Connecticut – Bridgeport, Stamford, Norwalk
  
• Columbus – Mentor
  
• Dallas – Fort Worth, Arlington
  
• Denver – Aurora, Broomfield
  
• Detroit – Warren
  
• Honolulu – Maui (May Launch)
  
• Long Island, New York and New Jersey – specific areas unknown
  
• Los Angeles – Pasadena, West Covina, West LA, Metro LA, Burbank, Beverly Hills
  
• Oklahoma City
  
• Orlando
  
• Miami – Fort Lauderdale
  
• Minneapolis – St Paul, Bloomington (May Launch)
  
• New England – Boston, Cambridge
  
• Philadelphia – Camden, Wilmington (May Launch)
  
• Sacramento – Arden, Arcade, Roseville, Fresno
  
• San Diego -Carlsbad, San Marcos
  
• San Francisco – Oakland
  
• Seattle – Tacoma, Bellevue
  
• Tampa
  
• Tulsa – (May Launch)
  
• Phoenix – Tucson (May Launch)
  

http://www.tmonews.c...r-may-and-june/

[S4GRU]

WHAT???? NO SANTA FE??? That's it. I'm gone! I'm going to Sprint!

 

 

Robert

[S4GRU]

Columbus being listed is a blow to Sprint customers since those are cities that Sprint has not begin NV or have any LTE. Tmobile can make Sprint a run for its money and make them a viable competitor. The lack of sufficient backhaul for LTE in place at all Sprint legacy sites is really hurting their deployment schedule.

 

It's not a blow. T-Mobile service will end at the City Limits. Sprint is starting in Columbus now and it will be over the entire market. Sprint kicks Tmo's ass in Columbus, and will for years to come. Sprint's entire network strategy is going to really start paying off by the end of summer. When you look at even the AT&T map, you can see the abrupt edges at the cities.

 

The fact that Sprint is going network wide is really going to help them compete. Especially with Tmo. And Sprint is starting to deploy LTE 800 in a few weeks. Tmo has no low frequency spectrum. And that is a darn near requirement for LTE with it's fragile airlink.

 

AWS LTE is going to be even spottier than AWS HSPA+ is. Tmo LTE is going to be very spotty.

 

Robert

[Fraydog]

What's T-Mobile got that can complete with SMR 800 and TD-LTE. To quote Katt Williams, "I'll wait."

[lilotimz]

Sounds about right for Sacramento. They've been modernizing sites here since last october. Shame Sprint is last here but meh. At least I'll get service inside concrete / brick buildings....

[ericdabbs]

It's not a blow. T-Mobile service will end at the City Limits. Sprint is starting in Columbus now and it will be over the entire market. Sprint kicks Tmo's ass in Columbus, and will for years to come. Sprint's entire network strategy is going to really start paying off by the end of summer. When you look at even the AT&T map, you can see the abrupt edges at the cities.

 

The fact that Sprint is going network wide is really going to help them compete. Especially with Tmo. And Sprint is starting to deploy LTE 800 in a few weeks. Tmo has no low frequency spectrum. And that is a darn near requirement for LTE with it's fragile airlink.

 

AWS LTE is going to be even spottier than AWS HSPA+ is. Tmo LTE is going to be very spotty.

 

Robert

 

What I have noticed is the majority of Ohio cities like Cleveland, Cincinatti, Columbus, etc are in the Samsung NV region but they use Motorola legacy hardware. I wonder if Sprint is going to do anything similar to speed up deployment in these cities like Chicago so that customer service does not suffer like it did initially in Chicago due to the call handoff situation between NV and legacy hardware.

[S4GRU]

 

What I have noticed is the majority of Ohio cities like Cleveland, Cincinatti, Columbus, etc are in the Samsung NV region but they use Motorola legacy hardware. I wonder if Sprint is going to do anything similar to speed up deployment in these cities like Chicago so that customer service does not suffer like it did initially in Chicago due to the call handoff situation between NV and legacy hardware.

 

Yes, I believe so. I believe that's a factor why they're starting when they are. When they can do a larger faster deployment all at once.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

 

[danielholt]

What's T-Mobile got that can complete with SMR 800 and TD-LTE.

 

Carrier aggrigation... LTE-Advanced...

[Fraydog]

 

Carrier aggrigation... LTE-Advanced...

 

Sprint can do those things as well. Sprint just has tons more spectrum. I don't hold anything against T-Mobile. They just aren't a suitable option in lots of places. Maybe when they modernize their entire network, not just urban sites, and win 600 MHz spectrum, they'll be a suitable option.

[JeffDTD]

If hspa+ (which is present in all these places and synonymous to the lte that will be deployed) hasnt caused mass exodus of customers flocking to tmobile, why would LTE? I know we love to wage war on feauxG, but outside of marketing hype, the end user experience is much the same

[irev210]

If hspa+ (which is present in all these places and synonymous to the lte that will be deployed) hasnt caused mass exodus of customers flocking to tmobile, why would LTE? I know we love to wage war on feauxG, but outside of marketing hype, the end user experience is much the same

 

Agreed. DC-HSPA+ moving to LTE isn't going to change the user experience much - outside of lower latency and more total spectrum deployed.

[Fraydog]

If hspa+ (which is present in all these places and synonymous to the lte that will be deployed) hasnt caused mass exodus of customers flocking to tmobile, why would LTE? I know we love to wage war on feauxG, but outside of marketing hype, the end user experience is much the same

 

We know why T-Mobile suffers, and it doesn't have as much to do with HSPA+ as much as it does have to do with lack of coverage, not just rural, but in cities and suburbs as well. They fell a year behind on tower density due to the AT&T debacle and it shows.

[lynyrd65]

• Tulsa – (May Launch)
  

 

My sister who now has my T-Mobile line would care but......

 

their HSPA+ is almost as fast as their LTE (I think they cap it at 20mbps and HSPA+ gets very close to that most of the time)........

[S4GRU]

 

My sister who now has my T-Mobile line would care but......

 

their HSPA+ is almost as fast as their LTE (I think they cap it at 20mbps and HSPA+ gets very close to that most of the time)........

 

I've had 21-26Mbps on Tmo HSPA+ in Santa Fe before. Probably DC.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

 

[lilotimz]

I'm seeing them starting to cap speeds at ~15 mbps and ~18-20 mbps depending on which APN you're using. DC-HSPA ofcourse. Hsupa on PCS 1900 is around 2-4 mbps from what I can tell with my cousins int'l HTC one.

[avb]

When Tmobile announces a launched market, how much of the market do they actually cover? Reading user impressions from Tmobile users, it seems they're excited when they can pick up an LTE signal, but it doesn't seem like there's solid coverage in any of the launched cities yet.

[lilotimz]

When Tmobile announces a launched market, how much of the market do they actually cover? Reading user impressions from Tmobile users, it seems they're excited when they can pick up an LTE signal, but it doesn't seem like there's solid coverage in any of the launched cities yet.

 

Typically about 40-50% range I'd assume. Enough to get some semblance of LTE over the a good part of an area and then filling them in over time.

[S4GRU]

 

My Tmo speeds at peak times have been going down and down since they reinstituted unlimited. Granted this is in the busiest commercial area in Santa Fe on a Friday night, but this is darn low for HSPA+ with a full -75dBm signal. Back in November, this area was typically 6-8Mbps at peak times. And just two months ago it was 3-5Mbps. LTE will bring some relief by adding another data carrier. But I'm getting more bearish on unlimited. It just destroys networks. The number of abusers are just too high.

 

Robert via Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[iansltx]

To be fair, T-Mobile's CEO isn't doing its network any favors by specifically saying, more or less "Come at me, bro" to heavy users. And by offering a reference point price-wise to unlimited at 4.5GB, you're effectively guaranteeing that your average $70 per month customer (less if they're multi-line) is hitting 5GB per month. And, let's face it, for all the whiz-bang-ness that is DC-HSPA+, it's about half as efficient as LTE, less so on the upload side.

 

Here in Austin, we're less than a month from T-Mobile LTE getting deployed (I have a source outside TmoNews), and their network consistently performs better on the download side than Verizon LTE, as long as you've got reception of something better than EDGE. Heck, uploads aren't too far off either; in the Sprint store at 360 and 183 in Austin today I hit 7/3 for Verizon, ~22/1.5 for T-Mobile and couldn't quite get a solid LTE signal from Sprint yet (I'll bet said solid signal is less than three weeks away, at which point I'll see 15/5 or so). But...and this is a big caveat...I spent multiple hours in EDGE-land because H+ building penetration isn't all that it's cracked up to be. And EDGE on T-Mobile is pitifully slow when you've got indoor coverage issues in places where people are likely to be checking their phones.

 

When LTE goes live, I'm reflashing the baseband on my Nexus 4 back to the version that allows AWS LTE, since I'm sure latency will be slightly lower (I've seen 22ms on H+ before though!) and upload speeds higher than DC-H+. But I fully expect my phone to be waffling between LTE and H+ (and in some cases EDGE) more than a Denny's chef on a Saturday mid-morning.

 

As an aside, T-Mobile has plenty of spectrum in PCS and AWS with the MetroPCS merger...in some cases they have as much AWS alone as Sprint has PCS A-G...plus T-Mobile has PCS on top of that. But, as AJ has said, T-Mobile has made the questionable decision of putting the more fragile airlink on the more fragile spectrum (at least for now...give them three years and watch 'em put LTE on PCS), with no low-frequency backup. Reasonably good in urban environments, and lightning-fast when they get 20x20 online, but T-Mobile needs 600MHz spectrum more than anyone at this point, and that's one thing that MetroPCS won't give them. But maybe they can just focus on cities and roam on Sprint for rural coverage...nah, that'll never happen until the two merge down the line.

[Fraydog]

It would be nice for some sort of Platinum Band type solution to pop up for both T-Mobile and Sprint like what SoftBank got in Japan, but there's literally no chance of that happening. I'm just waiting for the FCC to screw up the 600 MHz auction. For those hoping that band is going TD-LTE, I wouldn't hold your breath. Supposedly Qualcomm is running interference for the carriers by claiming GLONASS interference.

 

After reading up on the issue I'm convinced Stephen Bye should have endorsed T-Mobile's 5x5 prices of FD-LTE band plan.

[Fraydog]

 

Here in Austin, we're less than a month from T-Mobile LTE getting deployed (I have a source outside TmoNews), and their network consistently performs better on the download side than Verizon LTE, as long as you've got reception of something better than EDGE. Heck, uploads aren't too far off either; in the Sprint store at 360 and 183 in Austin today I hit 7/3 for Verizon, ~22/1.5 for T-Mobile and couldn't quite get a solid LTE signal from Sprint yet (I'll bet said solid signal is less than three weeks away, at which point I'll see 15/5 or so). But...and this is a big caveat...I spent multiple hours in EDGE-land because H+ building penetration isn't all that it's cracked up to be. And EDGE on T-Mobile is pitifully slow when you've got indoor coverage issues in places where people are likely to be checking their phones.

 

 

The good news is the Ericsson T-Mobile AIR areas are all doing better on building penetration. The Nokia areas, I have no clue on. I almost wonder if the whole NSN "put Flexis at the top of the tower" is a good idea, but I'll not go too much into that. I'm hoping more vendors come up with a product like AIR. I know NSN has one in development, but not in release yet.

[SGT516]

When Tmobile announces a launched market, how much of the market do they actually cover?

 

Well if it's anything like their "Nationwide 4G" claim, apparently not too much.

[milan03]

Well if it's anything like their "Nationwide 4G" claim, apparently not too much.

I don't think that's a public number. Only thanks to Robert we have a privilege to see Sprint's numbers but it most cases they aren't amazing either.

[HawaiiD]

It's not a blow. T-Mobile service will end at the City Limits. Sprint is starting in Columbus now and it will be over the entire market. Sprint kicks Tmo's ass in Columbus, and will for years to come. Sprint's entire network strategy is going to really start paying off by the end of summer. When you look at even the AT&T map, you can see the abrupt edges at the cities.

 

The fact that Sprint is going network wide is really going to help them compete. Especially with Tmo. And Sprint is starting to deploy LTE 800 in a few weeks. Tmo has no low frequency spectrum. And that is a darn near requirement for LTE with it's fragile airlink.

 

AWS LTE is going to be even spottier than AWS HSPA+ is. Tmo LTE is going to be very spotty.

 

Robert

 

Robert,

From what I see at my work place and at my sisters home,

Tmo is really good on Oahu especially in Honolulu.

Thats why I have been on the fence on moving on

to Tmo.

 

Also,we are phasing out our Nextels at

work because Nextel will be gone after next month.Even on the Iden PTT 800 SMR frequencly

we lose signal when I am in our central plant or any undergorund location at work.I always have to come out of the

central plant to call someone.

The Verizon PTT 3G(casio phones) we are testing now works great everywhere including our central plant.

My Sprint Evo loses signal there too. 3G,4G Wimax nada maybe 1x here and there.There my phone roams on Verizon.

People say AWS is not as good as 800 SMR etc,etc. However,I seen Verizon LTE(700mhz) signal,At&T LTE(700mhz) signal, and Tmo HSPA+(AWS) in our central plant.

 

I don't know why but the other 3 carriers except Sprint work just fine there.

maybe is the tower spacing in Honolulu?

 

I'm sure Sprint will be much better after NV is completed here.

But from a personal experience unless Sprint will be adding more towers or boosting their signals in around

Waikiki/Metro Honolulu? I just wonder about how the signals will improve with Sprint here even with 800MHZ

CDMA/LTE.

[WiWavelength]

The Verizon PTT 3G(casio phones) we are testing now works great everywhere including our central plant.

My Sprint Evo loses signal there too. 3G,4G Wimax nada maybe 1x here and there.There my phone roams on Verizon.

People say AWS is not as good as 800 SMR etc,etc. However,I seen Verizon LTE(700mhz) signal,At&T LTE(700mhz) signal, and Tmo HSPA+(AWS) in our central plant.

 

That is nothing more than coincidence due to site distance. The other operators simply have at least one closer site -- possibly, all three are collocated on the same site. In other locations, the shoe will be on the other foot, as Sprint has the closer site. And that is just one of the vagaries of wireless service.

 

AJ