T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion V2

[mdob07]

I found this interesting upgrade last week. I thought this site had B12 before but I didn't log it on Cellmapper if it did so not 100% sure, but the site is now mid-band only with B2, B41, B66, N41. T-Mo is very dense here so low-band is probably not needed.

Before:

Now:

T-Mobile's network in this small area: (T-Mobile in red, Sprint keep sites in green)

[Dkoellerwx]

1 hour ago, mdob07 said:

I found this interesting upgrade last week. I thought this site had B12 before but I didn't log it on Cellmapper if it did so not 100% sure, but the site is now mid-band only with B2, B41, B66, N41. T-Mo is very dense here so low-band is probably not needed.

Before:

Now:

 

T-Mobile's network in this small area: (T-Mobile in red, Sprint keep sites in green)

 

Not 100%, but fairly certain those antennas don't support B12, so likely never had low band.

[RAvirani]

6 hours ago, mdob07 said:

I found this interesting upgrade last week. I thought this site had B12 before but I didn't log it on Cellmapper if it did so not 100% sure, but the site is now mid-band only with B2, B41, B66, N41. T-Mo is very dense here so low-band is probably not needed.

Before:

Now:

5 hours ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Not 100%, but fairly certain those antennas don't support B12, so likely never had low band.

The old antennas are Nokia FASB RAS antennas which do support 2x2 L700. They also have two midband antenna arrays at 4x4 each. 

It looks like the site did indeed lose lowband for some reason. 

[Yuhfhrh]

Makes sense to me for some sites to be mid band only if the density is really high. 

[RAvirani]

Interestingly enough, today I came across a site in Seattle where they did the same thing. Previously, Commscope FFHH-65B-R3 panels were live with quadband; now there's only 1900/2100/2500.

My knee jerk reaction is that I don't like this deployment. It makes optimizing handoffs sloppy and complicated.

I  shot an email to the Seattle network team asking what the logic is - let's see what they say. 

[mdob07]

3 hours ago, RAvirani said:

Interestingly enough, today I came across a site in Seattle where they did the same thing. Previously, Commscope FFHH-65B-R3 panels were live with quadband; now there's only 1900/2100/2500.

My knee jerk reaction is that I don't like this deployment. It makes optimizing handoffs sloppy and complicated.

I  shot an email to the Seattle network team asking what the logic is - let's see what they say. 

So I wonder if this Sprint keep site conversion is the same setup just with different antenna. There's only 1 Nokia radio, so its either 600/700 only or 1900/2100 only + 2500. It wouldn't make sense to be 600/700 with 2500 without SA N41 because it would only be able to do B41 LTE without 1900/2100 to serve as anchor for NSA N41. The Sprint B25 radio was retained and is connected to the antenna and is currently the only technology broadcasting. This is also a very dense area for T-Mobile. 

[RAvirani]

6 minutes ago, mdob07 said:

So I wonder if this Sprint keep site conversion is the same setup just with different antenna. There's only 1 Nokia radio, so its either 600/700 only or 1900/2100 only + 2500. It wouldn't make sense to be 600/700 with 2500 without SA N41 because it would only be able to do B41 LTE without 1900/2100 to serve as anchor for NSA N41. The Sprint B25 radio was retained and is connected to the antenna and is currently the only technology broadcasting. This is also a very dense area for T-Mobile. 

Are there ground mounted radios? There are 8 jumpers to the Commscope antenna, so 4xLowband/4xMidband should be deployed or coming soon...

[mdob07]

On 5/14/2021 at 7:31 PM, RAvirani said:

Are there ground mounted radios? There are 8 jumpers to the Commscope antenna, so 4xLowband/4xMidband should be deployed or coming soon...

I don't think so, I can see 4 jumpers coming from the Nokia radio and the other four are from the Sprint RRUS31. 

[mdob07]

On 5/14/2021 at 3:29 PM, RAvirani said:

I  shot an email to the Seattle network team asking what the logic is - let's see what they say. 

Have you gotten a response yet? I'm curious to see what they say as well. 

[mdob07]

I've found a couple more recently tagged Sprint keep sites that are really close to existing T-Mobile sites. It'll be interesting to see when these get converted if they get everything or mid-band frequencies only. 

[jthawks]

I'm sure it's in here some where but this seems the easiest way to find out.

Does anyone have pictures of. 5g nr radio band 71? I know the 5g nr band 41 here in Colorado are a tiny square shape. I totally forgot what the band 71 looked like.  Thank you. 

[PedroDaGr8]

40 minutes ago, jthawks said:

I'm sure it's in here some where but this seems the easiest way to find out.

Does anyone have pictures of. 5g nr radio band 71? I know the 5g nr band 41 here in Colorado are a tiny square shape. I totally forgot what the band 71 looked like.  Thank you. 

Nokia AHLOA is a common B12/B71/n71 radio.

FCC files for the AHLOA, it also has external photos: https://fccid.io/VBNAHLOA-01

You can also see it on the back of this antenna I think: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6JBAT6bdega4C1Ue9

[Jeff68005]

11 hours ago, jthawks said:

I'm sure it's in here some where but this seems the easiest way to find out. 

Does anyone have pictures of. 5g nr radio band 71? I know the 5g nr band 41 here in Colorado are a tiny square shape. I totally forgot what the band 71 looked like.  Thank you. 

More specifically, which box on the tower am I looking for??   I am just outside Omaha looking at what I believe to be Samsung equipment

[Dkoellerwx]

2 hours ago, Jeff68005 said:

More specifically, which box on the tower am I looking for??   I am just outside Omaha looking at what I believe to be Samsung equipment

They are deploying Nokia equipment in this market.

The large antenna on the bottom is the one they are deploying in the Omaha metro for n71.  It also broadcasts B2 and B66. It's also possible for it to be used for n25 and n66 when they start using that. Or they may put up separate antennas depending on the amount of traffic.

[Dkoellerwx]

2 hours ago, Jeff68005 said:

Southwest of OM03XC021  about So 36th St and Lynwood.  on South 36th St west side of South 36th.  See drawing attached.

I failed to find a listing.  It has been there a long time, so somebody should have cataloged it. 

It's on our map.

[jthawks]

On 6/26/2021 at 9:54 AM, PedroDaGr8 said:

Nokia AHLOA is a common B12/B71/n71 radio.

FCC files for the AHLOA, it also has external photos: https://fccid.io/VBNAHLOA-01

You can also see it on the back of this antenna I think: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6JBAT6bdega4C1Ue9

So in your pic, the one in the middle is n 41 right?  

[PedroDaGr8]

1 hour ago, jthawks said:

So in your pic, the one in the middle is n 41 right?  

Correct. That is a Nokia AAHF (if I remember correctly) which does B41/N41 for a total combined bandwidth of 120MHz

[clbowens]

I've been seeing them "test" SA 5G here on N71 here lately.  It comes and goes.

I'm on a Sprint Galaxy S21, now with a T-Mobile SIM.  In the Cleveland, OH area.

[clbowens]

When on wifi, i've been connection to Sprint B26 (in my basement) a lot lately, which is weird to me.  I usually connect to T-Mobile B71 or B12.

[reedacus25]

 

On 5/14/2021 at 6:24 PM, mdob07 said:

So I wonder if this Sprint keep site conversion is the same setup just with different antenna. There's only 1 Nokia radio, so its either 600/700 only or 1900/2100 only + 2500. It wouldn't make sense to be 600/700 with 2500 without SA N41 because it would only be able to do B41 LTE without 1900/2100 to serve as anchor for NSA N41. The Sprint B25 radio was retained and is connected to the antenna and is currently the only technology broadcasting. This is also a very dense area for T-Mobile. 

I expect this to be the majority of retain sites in Nokia territory.

FFV4-65C-R3-V1 (DoDeca)

AHFIG radio right behind for G1900+L1900+L2100. (ports 5-8)

[OPTIONAL] Legacy RRUS31 on the other 4 mid-ports (ports 1-4)

Ports 9-12 low-band unpopulated.

Nokia AEHC for 2500.

I have not seen a single retain site with lowband currently, but I have seen them with just 4 of 12 ports populated for 21/19.

[clbowens]

Does anyone know of a way to tell my phone to only do SA 5G?

[stlman314]

On 8/4/2021 at 1:30 PM, clbowens said:

Does anyone know of a way to tell my phone to only do SA 5G?

Download the Samsung Band Selector App from the Play Store. You can force your phone to connect to bands available in your area.

[clbowens]

9 hours ago, stlman314 said:

Download the Samsung Band Selector App from the Play Store. You can force your phone to connect to bands available in your area.

I was actually able to get to that with whatever is built into the system already, thru the SCP app.  I forced it to all N bands (41, 71, 66).  I locked onto SA N71, I had data, but phone calls failed.

[dkyeager]

18 hours ago, clbowens said:

I was actually able to get to that with whatever is built into the system already, thru the SCP app.  I forced it to all N bands (41, 71, 66).  I locked onto SA N71, I had data, but phone calls failed.

Others have also tried this with their S21s. No luck yet on Vo5g.

[danlodish345]

On 8/7/2021 at 2:48 AM, dkyeager said:

Others have also tried this with their S21s. No luck yet on Vo5g.

Volte will be the back bone for phone calls and basic Data coverage for the foreseeable future. And 5G will be for now at least super fast coverage where it's available. So I don't see really any need for voice and data to be on 5G anytime soon.