T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion V2

[Deval]

isnt tmobile doing a native foot print expansion everywhere they have spectrum licenses?

 

I was under the impression they are building off existing protection sites.

[joshuam]

I was under the impression they are building off existing protection sites.

They are adding new macro sites in some areas.

[kineticman]

Any T-Mobile users want to give up their free MLB.TV promo to me?  

[danlodish345]

what happened to T4GRU?

[Arysyn]

Any T-Mobile users want to give up their free MLB.TV promo to me?  

 

I'd be glad to help, but despite my having T-Mobile still (unfortunately), I don't have an active T-Mobile device to sign up on. If they didn't require non-wifi T-Mobile connected sign ups only, for instance if they only required a signup through the my-tmobile site, I'd get it for you.

[Arysyn]

what happened to T4GRU?

 

The site still is there. Back when Robert was seeking writers for the site, I was tempted, but I declined as I didn't feel I'd be able to fairly write about T-Mobile. I still don't, but I wouldn't mind helping to give the site a makeover. There are things I could do to really help bring interest in the site, but from a design/forum arrangement effort. I still am not interested in writing, nor would I want to moderate, but the other site creation duties I'd be interested in working on to make it a better site.

[danlodish345]

The site still is there. Back when Robert was seeking writers for the site, I was tempted, but I declined as I didn't feel I'd be able to fairly write about T-Mobile. I still don't, but I wouldn't mind helping to give the site a makeover. There are things I could do to really help bring interest in the site, but from a design/forum arrangement effort. I still am not interested in writing, nor would I want to moderate, but the other site creation duties I'd be interested in working on to make it a better site.

it says the site is gone.....

[Arysyn]

it says the site is gone.....

 

Hmm... I was able to view the site. Perhaps it is the cache hasn't been cleared on my computer since the site was taken down, if it has. I'll check again after I clear it.

[Arysyn]

it says the site is gone.....

 

I cleared the internet cache on my computer, then went back onto Bing, entered in T4GRU, clicked on the link, and its still there. Problem seems to be as it has for awhile, the site looks archived, unlike S4GRU which looks active as it obviously is. Again though, if Robert is interested, I'm willing to help out by using my design/forum creation skills in revitalizing the site. I think I could get the site at least stable, but there still needs to be writers on the site willing to promote T4GRU. My thought though is to change the "T" in T4GRU to mean "Telecom", as the site would work a lot better covering all of the carriers, instead of just T-Mobile. However, I'm willing to give it a try either way.

[danlodish345]

I cleared the internet cache on my computer, then went back onto Bing, entered in T4GRU, clicked on the link, and its still there. Problem seems to be as it has for awhile, the site looks archived, unlike S4GRU which looks active as it obviously is. Again though, if Robert is interested, I'm willing to help out by using my design/forum creation skills in revitalizing the site. I think I could get the site at least stable, but there still needs to be writers on the site willing to promote T4GRU. My thought though is to change the "T" in T4GRU to mean "Telecom", as the site would work a lot better covering all of the carriers, instead of just T-Mobile. However, I'm willing to give it a try either way.

I understand what you are saying

[mardukeme]

it says the site is gone.....

The site was down for a few days, but seems like it is back up now.

[Houston_Texas]

https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news-and-blogs/binge-on-music-freedom-new-services.htm

 

Now over 100 streaming services.

 

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[reedacus25]

It is a decent post, but I don't buy this at all.

They've done nothing of the sort to my knowledge. They still run a protection network here. There haven't been any new permitted sites and literally they don't sell service here. So if you are on a T-Mobile tower you are a visitor to the city or someone who moved here and foolishly kept your T-Mobile service. He mentions having coverage inside Westroads Mall, but that is right next to one of their few sites here. Without digging through permits, based solely on T-Mobile's coverage map I think they have roughly 9 sites on the Nebraska side of the Omaha metro area.

Omaha is a market where they likely could beat Verizon in RootMetrics if they finished deploying band 41.

 

I'm very interested to see if T-Mobile ever makes a move on Omaha. Obviously getting a local exchange is a big first step, but surely that is achievable, especially with the 531 area code overlay. Surely there's a full prefix they can claim in 531 at a reasonable price. I don't even think 402 is fully exhausted yet either.

 

I can say that I'm sure it works in a very narrow scope. I've had polar opposite experiences based on location. In 2007 when the CWS was at Rosenblatt, service was almost non-existent. One device on our account at the time was a Treo 650 and couldn't hold a connection for anything. Totally shot. Nokia 6101b and 6131 I had at the time worked barely outdoors in the grandstand. Pressbox was zilch, and in Doorly Zoo there was no chance of signal.

 

However, now at TD Ameritrade, signal in the area was just fine in 2013. Thats because there's a site I believe on the Creighton building at the corner of Mike Fahey and N 17th.

 

Coverage in the downtown area at street level was very hit or miss, and popping inside was a death trap for pink airwaves. However, it is totally worth noting that T-Mobile, ironically enough, was the only provider with decent data at TD Ameritrade in 2013, and this was pre-LTE. ATT and Verizon had COWs beyond the left field wall, and Sprint didn't have much in the way of NV yet in the area, and nothing in the vicinity of TD Ameritrade, so all of the CSpire roamers clogged up the 1x channels on Sprint, and their phones were bricks. ATT LTE was B17 only, and was clogged up, as was Verizon, yet T-Mobile's DC-HSPA was humming along (GPRS, not even EDGE on the GSM side).

 

Later we went out towards Boys Town for dinner one night, and phones were dead. CSpire (by way of Sprint) saved us in that jam. Outside the 680 perimeter is no mans land for T-Mobile, and inside it is hit or miss or miss or miss. Eppley was also really bad for signal as well, considering the signal was coming from a site in Council bluffs 3 miles away I guess it was pretty good all things considered.

 

My guess is with Sprint having a decent network, plus US Cellular adding a 4th player in the market, they see the market as too crowded to excel in. But the existing customers coming to visit Omaha are the ones who really suffer without a better network to fall back on.

[SkyGuy98]

https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news-and-blogs/binge-on-music-freedom-new-services.htm

 

Now over 100 streaming services.

 

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350 PETAbytes saved is pretty impressive.

[bretton88]

350 PETAbytes saved is pretty impressive.

That is also why the network is congested.

[Arysyn]

That is also why the network is congested.

 

Absolutely! Probably why my mother has had a major increase in dropped calls as well.

 

I want to point another thing out about BingeOn. Reminder though first, I'm completely in agreement with other S4GRU members here not favorable of BingeOn, though I don't mind Music Freedom, because it isn't hindering audio quality as BingeOn is hindering video quality. Plus, audio doesn't congest the networks quite as much.

 

Yet here is something I'm going to point out from the T-Mobile site Houston_Texas linked to :

 

"Detectable video typically streams at DVD quality (480p or better) with Binge On unless video provider opts-out. You may disable Binge On at any time, but will lose benefits.​"

 

In that notice, it does not say how customers will know whether a video provider under those "Binged In" video providers has opted out under certain situations which YouTube made T-Mobile adopt in their policy regarding BingeOn. So, if a customer is watching something using BingeOn while assuming it is part of the program as the video provider is listed, yet what if that particular video stream/service feature is opted out? There doesn't appear to be any sort of mechanism for the customer to know when/where/why that will happen.

 

I recommended this before, and I'll do it again. If T-Mobile is going to continue having BingeOn with these rules and limitations, they have to be 100% clear to their customers at all times. The customer needs to know that if the video provider normally under BingeOn suddenly decides to Binge Out for a particular stream/service feature, those customers will know about it before getting a sudden speed decrease, as T-Mobile doesn't provide overages and extra data options. Instead, a customer's data will just deplete while they are expecting it not to, then the rest of their data suddenly goes down to 2G.

[SkyGuy98]

That is also why the network is congested.

 

No kidding. That's a lot of data saved, but imagine how much data was still used. I think it's kinda cool for T customers to have the binge-on & Music features, even though I think they might violate net neutrality (That's another argument entirely), but yet it encourages their customers to strain the T network. I think Sprint is doing it right, by no throttling or exempting anything for anyone, and allowing us unlimited users to be the only ones really straining the network (Or trying to use it, like where I live which has slow and weak LTE & 3G  ). 

[Arysyn]

Seems about time for T-Mobile to update its subpar voice quality :

 

http://www.tmonews.com/2016/04/t-mobile-confirms-enhanced-voice-services-available-now-on-select-phones/

 

I much prefer Sprint's voice quality over T-Mobile's voice quality, though with this upgrade by T-Mobile, it'll be interesting to see if it helps.

[Fraydog]

Seems about time for T-Mobile to update its subpar voice quality :

 

http://www.tmonews.com/2016/04/t-mobile-confirms-enhanced-voice-services-available-now-on-select-phones/

 

I much prefer Sprint's voice quality over T-Mobile's voice quality, though with this upgrade by T-Mobile, it'll be interesting to see if it helps.

It should be a pretty dramatic increase. EVS is something I have looked forward to for quite a while. This implementation is supposed to put you on EVS and aid voice quality regardless of carrier called through some patent pending magic T-Mobile isn't fully detailing.

 

Ironically, there was a stretch where T-Mobile had the best voice quality, it was when they ran 23 Kbps on VoLTE. They abandoned that when they sought interoperability with AT&T and Verizon.

 

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[EvanA]

It should be a pretty dramatic increase. EVS is something I have looked forward to for quite a while. This implementation is supposed to put you on EVS and aid voice quality regardless of carrier called through some patent pending magic T-Mobile isn't fully detailing.

 

Ironically, there was a stretch where T-Mobile had the best voice quality, it was when they ran 23 Kbps on VoLTE. They abandoned that when they sought interoperability with AT&T and Verizon.

 

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I'm pretty sure T-Mobile is referring to the other benefits of EVS such as improved noise reduction, dead space detection, and error resilience. Improved noise reduction and dead space detection help the voice quality but don't rely on the bandwidth and compression improvements. Those improvements are lost once the audio is transcoded into a lower quality format such as POTS.

[gusherb]

Forum user One Direction has already reported spotting EVS in the T-Mobile LTE speedtest thread over on HoFo.

 

 

[EvanA]

Forum user One Direction has already reported spotting EVS in the T-Mobile LTE speedtest thread over on HoFo.

 

Milan03 over on reddit posted about EVS a month ago

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/491os4/tmobile_testing_evs_next_gen_hd_voice/

[gusherb]

Milan03 over on reddit posted about EVS a month ago

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/491os4/tmobile_testing_evs_next_gen_hd_voice/

Oh. I hardly check over there. Cool to see it announced and already live at the same time. Usually you hear an announcement followed by "coming soon".

[danlodish345]

Milan03 over on reddit posted about EVS a month ago

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/491os4/tmobile_testing_evs_next_gen_hd_voice/

what is EVS?

[Fraydog]

I hate to even address this publicly. Someone is claiming to be me on Fierce comments. It isn't me. I couldn't be paid to comment on there.

 

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