T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion V2

[greenbastard]

14 minutes ago, red_dog007 said:

TMobile appears to be shutting down 3G in a few months.  I wonder if this was more an emergency decision.  Possibly seeing speeds tank as they bring in more Sprint customers. It's the fastest way to get more spectrum for LTE.

It makes sense. WCDMA seems to be mostly unused nowadays in my area. With the Sprint merger now complete, T-Mobile could go from a 10x10 carrier to 20x20 on PCS (which would complement their 20x20 B4 carrier). 

With more and more B41 coming online in Houston, T-Mobile may soon have the best 4G network and the only decent 5G network for the foreseeable future. It will definitely wipe AT&T's spectrum advantage.

[CAL7]

21 minutes ago, greenbastard said:

With more and more B41 coming online in Houston, T-Mobile may soon have the best 4G network ....

Are you seeing B41 LTE upgrades now? I have a beautiful Sprint tower just 500 yards from my back window but Sprint has been uninterested in putting B41 on it. With the announcements from T-Mobile that they are going to use B41 for 5G, I had given up hope that "my tower" would ever see B41 LTE.

Edited July 27, 2020 by CAL7

[greenbastard]

19 minutes ago, CAL7 said:

Are you seeing B41 LTE upgrades now? I have a beautiful Sprint tower just 500 yards from my back window but Sprint has been uninterested in putting B41 on it. With the announcements from T-Mobile that they are going to use B41 for 5G, I had given up hope that "my tower" would ever see B41 LTE.

Sprint probably had a clearwire tower nearby. It's rare for them to leave a tower without any B41 unless it is a tower in rural America.

It also isn't guaranteed that all Sprint's towers will get converted.

[RAvirani]

2 hours ago, red_dog007 said:

TMobile appears to be shutting down 3G in a few months.  I wonder if this was more an emergency decision.  Possibly seeing speeds tank as they bring in more Sprint customers. It's the fastest way to get more spectrum for LTE.

I wonder what the plan is for EDGE-only sites. I don't imagine they'd be turning EDGE down given the fact it can be thrown into an LTE guard band...

[RedSpark]

Something to look forward to on iOS 14 for tracking T-Mobile's network progress: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/07/27/ios-14-redesigned-field-test-mode/

[RAvirani]

50 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Something to look forward to on iOS 14 for tracking T-Mobile's network progress: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/07/27/ios-14-redesigned-field-test-mode/

That field test mode is only on Intel phones. Qualcomm phones have the same field test application as before. 

[RedSpark]

24 minutes ago, RAvirani said:

That field test mode is only on Intel phones. Qualcomm phones have the same field test application as before. 

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. This is a substantial interface update for iOS 14. Are you saying it will be limited to Intel devices only? What about the iPhone 5G coming this Fall (most likely) which will likely have a Qualcomm Modem (and potentially a Qualcomm RF Front End, unless Apple goes with a different design):

https://www.pcmag.com/news/qualcomm-president-were-driving-hard-toward-the-5g-iphone

https://www.fastcompany.com/90464429/apple-5g-iphone

[RAvirani]

9 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. This is a substantial interface update for iOS 14. Are you saying it will be limited to Intel devices only? What about the iPhone 5G coming this Fall (most likely) which will likely have a Qualcomm Modem (and potentially a Qualcomm RF Front End, unless Apple goes with a different design):

https://www.pcmag.com/news/qualcomm-president-were-driving-hard-toward-the-5g-iphone

https://www.fastcompany.com/90464429/apple-5g-iphone

I have Qualcomm and Intel devices both running iOS 14, and the new interface is only available on Intel devices as of now. 

Perhaps an update to the Qualcomm field test application (with NR reporting) will accompany the new iPhone this fall. But as of now, Qualcomm devices running iOS 14 have the same interface as before. 

[ingenium]

I wonder what the plan is for EDGE-only sites. I don't imagine they'd be turning EDGE down given the fact it can be thrown into an LTE guard band...

I heard they originally planned to shut down EDGE at the end of this year, and 3G at the end of next year, before moving it up. Having EDGE and GSM I think still ties up resources on the site (maybe port power limitations). I heard that they basically turn it off unless a UE requests it, in which case the carrier is turned on. But I don't know how they can turn it off and still be available, unless it's some low power mode or something.

I'm guessing that they don't plan to enable it on the DSS capable equipment, so it'll realistically probably be shut off as they upgrade sites.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[mdob07]

I found a pretty cool looking high capacity T-Mobile site in downtown Louisville, looks like it has at least 9 sectors across B2 and B4/66.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.2591959,-85.7509151,3a,34.5y,42.44h,97.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHs_imwR3nQkikZdtXp7Hfg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en

https://www.cellmapper.net/map?MCC=310&MNC=260&type=LTE&latitude=38.25948364842094&longitude=-85.75111121744557&zoom=19.76557502675257&showTowers=true&showTowerLabels=true&clusterEnabled=false&tilesEnabled=true&showOrphans=false&showNoFrequencyOnly=false&showFrequencyOnly=false&showBandwidthOnly=false&DateFilterType=None&showHex=true&showVerifiedOnly=false&showUnverifiedOnly=false&showLTECAOnly=false&showENDCOnly=false&showBand=0&showSectorColours=true

[Dkoellerwx]

51 minutes ago, mdob07 said:

I found a pretty cool looking high capacity T-Mobile site in downtown Louisville, looks like it has at least 9 sectors across B2 and B4/66.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.2591959,-85.7509151,3a,34.5y,42.44h,97.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHs_imwR3nQkikZdtXp7Hfg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en

 

Those square-ish antennas are T-Mobile? Nice tornado siren to haha.

[mdob07]

12 minutes ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Those square-ish antennas are T-Mobile? Nice tornado siren to haha.

I believe so, I have a -54 RSRP for strongest in my log right next to that structure. Thats right on the water front and next to the KFC Yum Center so I can see why they need the capacity. They also have those huge panels around Churchill Downs as well. 

[mdob07]

22 hours ago, mdob07 said:

I found a pretty cool looking high capacity T-Mobile site in downtown Louisville, looks like it has at least 9 sectors across B2 and B4/66.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.2591959,-85.7509151,3a,34.5y,42.44h,97.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHs_imwR3nQkikZdtXp7Hfg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en

https://www.cellmapper.net/map?MCC=310&MNC=260&type=LTE&latitude=38.25948364842094&longitude=-85.75111121744557&zoom=19.76557502675257&showTowers=true&showTowerLabels=true&clusterEnabled=false&tilesEnabled=true&showOrphans=false&showNoFrequencyOnly=false&showFrequencyOnly=false&showBandwidthOnly=false&DateFilterType=None&showHex=true&showVerifiedOnly=false&showUnverifiedOnly=false&showLTECAOnly=false&showENDCOnly=false&showBand=0&showSectorColours=true

I thought the site looked a little different than what the street view shot showed, looks like the site was reconfigured a little when they added 600MHz. I was able to get a picture when I drove by it again today. It was broadcasting N71.

 

[Paynefanbro]

Does anyone know why pretty much all of the T-Mobile sites along U.S. Route 113 are Band 2 and Band 12 only? All of the sites are monopoles with at least 2 other carriers on them and each carrier has installed multiple antennas so it can't be a weight limit thing.

Take a look at these sites that I hit today. 

 

[Trip]

That's pretty typical outside of the cities, as far as I have seen.  Pre-existing sites that had Band 2 gear got converted to LTE and some of them (not all) got Band 12 added.  They've added Band 4 when capacity needs demand it, but that's about it.

- Trip

[grumpwagon]

Hi, I'm considering moving a 5 line family plan over to T-Mobile, and I had a question about 5g coverage (not any future mmWave stuff, but the current nationwide deployment). If I have a phone that is compatible with all bands, including 600mhz, but isn't 5g capable, am I giving up any coverage? I know I'm giving up some theoretical speed, but I don't care, I just want to know if every tower that has 5g, also has 4g on similar wireless bands (so similar range and such). Thanks!

[Flompholph]

Grumpwagon no one can really answer that question we can only give opinions. My opinion tmobile  is still trash where I live/play. Even with great b41 coverage they will push you on tmobile fake 5g B2 lte that doesn't work. They also turned off lte roaming on a us cellular tower when that is the only tower that has usable service. Maybe things will change but I live/play in an area where tmobile never cared not sure why that will change now.

Best to ask locals(people in city blocks traveled) was tmobile good in your neighborhood for your friends.

[grumpwagon]

Oh, yeah, I didn't mean coverage compared to what I have now, I mean T-Mobile 4g coverage vs T-Mobile 5g coverage. Is T-Mobile's 4g everywhere there is T-Mobile 5g?

Edited August 3, 2020 by grumpwagon

[Dkoellerwx]

2 hours ago, grumpwagon said:

Oh, yeah, I didn't mean coverage compared to what I have now, I mean T-Mobile 4g coverage vs T-Mobile 5g coverage. Is T-Mobile's 4g everywhere there is T-Mobile 5g?

Best I can tell, yes anywhere there is 5G, there is also 4G. Some areas the spectrum is split between 5G and 4G, no neither is extremely fast.

[iansltx]

6 hours ago, grumpwagon said:

Hi, I'm considering moving a 5 line family plan over to T-Mobile, and I had a question about 5g coverage (not any future mmWave stuff, but the current nationwide deployment). If I have a phone that is compatible with all bands, including 600mhz, but isn't 5g capable, am I giving up any coverage? I know I'm giving up some theoretical speed, but I don't care, I just want to know if every tower that has 5g, also has 4g on similar wireless bands (so similar range and such). Thanks!

Any tower with n71 also has B71 LTE, though the reverse isn't true.

B71 LTE is the longest range tech T-Mobile has, so from a coverage perspective a 4G phone with B71 won't be missing anything. The catch is that in many places the B71 channel is 5 MHz wide, and TMo's B71 deployment is way thinner than Sprint's B26 deployment, so having only 5 MHz hurts more. Though not as bad as having only 5 MHz of PCS.

Now, there are two more factors at play here. First, outside urban areas where Dish etc. grabbed spectrum, T-Mobile has more.to work with, so.performsnce on B71 will be better (unless some rural carrier scooped band 71 up, and some did). Additionally, T-Mobile is touting range improvements for standalone 5G, which launches this quarter, so there is a chance they'll start adding NR-SA n71 cell sites in some rural locations, similar to how they added B71 in some areas they hadn't touched before. In that case your phone wouldn't work.

[jthawks]

So does anyone have experienced band 71 that's basically unusable and band 12 unusable? I've had no luck with either one in month's.  I'm in the Denver area. Just wondering if it's just my area or nation wide.  

[greenbastard]

2 hours ago, jthawks said:

So does anyone have experienced band 71 that's basically unusable and band 12 unusable? I've had no luck with either one in month's.  I'm in the Denver area. Just wondering if it's just my area or nation wide.  

I rarely see B71 or B12. T-Mobile's network is very dense in Houston for me to see those bands. With Sprint, I used to see B26 very often outdoors when I was within the city limits.

Only time I see Band 12/71 is when I'm in East or South Texas. Both Sprint and T-Mobile have terrible tower spacing outside of major interstate corridors. US-59 in East Texas and South Texas has a few noticeable gaps in service, even though coverage maps don't show them. 

[grumpwagon]

What are people using to see which band they're on? CellMapper seems decent, but I haven't tried anything else.

[Paynefanbro]

If you're using a Samsung phone, typing *#0011# in the dialer shows you what bands you're using.

[mdob07]

Haven't found any SA N71 yet in Louisville or southern Indiana. I did use the RAT menu (*#2263#) to force to N71SA but I kept getting this: (Also, the samsung band selector app doesn't seem to work for any NR bands, it does great for LTE though. For example I only enabled B2, B66 LTE and N41 in the app to search for N41 but still kept getting N71. RAT menu works for now. Hopefully they can get that working through the app too since its faster to do it that way. 

Same spot with everything enabled: