T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion V2

[dkyeager]

11 hours ago, danlodish345 said:

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.

As a LG V20 owner (first Sprint phone with VoLTE in its FCC cert but never used), I am well aware that the Vo5G in the S21 may never be used (but their is always hope).

[danlodish345]

On 8/13/2021 at 8:55 PM, dkyeager said:

As a LG V20 owner (first Sprint phone with VoLTE in its FCC cert but never used), I am well aware that the Vo5G in the S21 may never be used (but their is always hope).

One can always hope of course. You never know it could happen.

[Trip]

I found this article to be fascinating.

https://wirelessestimator.com/articles/2021/rf-signage-placement-row-heads-to-nj-court-after-landlord-refuses-t-mobile-site-access/

Building on which T-Mobile is located refusing to allow T-Mobile to upgrade its equipment unless both violates FCC rules and removes required signs, and otherwise does things not required in the lease.

- Trip

 

[dkyeager]

On 12/10/2021 at 8:01 AM, Trip said:

I found this article to be fascinating.

https://wirelessestimator.com/articles/2021/rf-signage-placement-row-heads-to-nj-court-after-landlord-refuses-t-mobile-site-access/

Building on which T-Mobile is located refusing to allow T-Mobile to upgrade its equipment unless both violates FCC rules and removes required signs, and otherwise does things not required in the lease.

- Trip

 

Interesting that they are so far below FCC limits.

[clbowens]

So, I just connected to N71 + N41 SA today.  In my basement, no less.  Speeds weren't too impressive, at 76/11.  But it's a start.  I don't think I've connected to B41 or N41 in my basement before.  Not even when I was with Sprint and they had a B41 site less than a 10th of a mile from me.

In the Parma, OH area.

[mikejeep]

17 hours ago, clbowens said:

So, I just connected to N71 + N41 SA today.  In my basement, no less.  Speeds weren't too impressive, at 76/11.  But it's a start.

I get what you're saying, but how about this for crazy perspective.. we're at a moment in technology history where 76mb/s is not "too impressive" for a mobile device. It's not a start, we have come a long way. Looking back at the device and network capabilities mentioned in early S4GRU posts makes me chuckle.

[clbowens]

I just noticed today that my N71 bandwidth has drop from 15 Mhz to 10 Mhz.

[dkyeager]

2 hours ago, clbowens said:

I just noticed today that my N71 bandwidth has drop from 15 Mhz to 10 Mhz.

Did LTE 71 also drop?

5 for LTE 71, 15 for n71 in Columbus today, which seems lower.

[clbowens]

15 minutes ago, dkyeager said:

Did LTE 71 also drop?

5 for LTE 71, 15 for n71 in Columbus today, which seems lower.

No, LTE here has always been 5 Mhz.  And it is still 5 Mhz.

 

Maybe they are going to give Dish back their leased spectrum?

[dkyeager]

1 hour ago, clbowens said:

No, LTE here has always been 5 Mhz.  And it is still 5 Mhz.

 

Maybe they are going to give Dish back their leased spectrum?

We saw that much earlier in the pandemic.

[PedroDaGr8]

A post over on Reddit notes that when TMobile has been deploying the new Erickson 4460 radios, they are deploying a separate antenna for B25/66 rather than use the mid-band ports on the larger multi-band antenna. 

They are curious why "...when T-Mobile deploys the Ericsson Radio 4460 (capable of B25 + B66), they often connect it to a separate mid-band antenna, and leave the mid-band ports on the low+mid-band array empty.

In this case, they've connected it to a CommScope VV-65A-R1- that one is pretty common, in other cases, I've seen them use a (much older) RFS APX16.

The reason I ask is because both the APX16 and the VV-65A-R1 are seemingly worse than the APXVAARRAPXVAARR24_43-U-NA20 (or APXVAALL24_43-U-NA20 on newer setups) in terms of gain, so there must be something else to this pattern. "

It seems strange to use the Low+Mid and then not use the mid ports (rather than just use discrete low and mid antennas.

Anyone have any ideas?

Link to the Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/t4aosq/what_is_tmobile_doing_with_these_radio_4460s/?sort=confidence

[Paynefanbro]

On 3/1/2022 at 12:51 PM, PedroDaGr8 said:

A post over on Reddit notes that when TMobile has been deploying the new Erickson 4460 radios, they are deploying a separate antenna for B25/66 rather than use the mid-band ports on the larger multi-band antenna. 

They are curious why "...when T-Mobile deploys the Ericsson Radio 4460 (capable of B25 + B66), they often connect it to a separate mid-band antenna, and leave the mid-band ports on the low+mid-band array empty.

In this case, they've connected it to a CommScope VV-65A-R1- that one is pretty common, in other cases, I've seen them use a (much older) RFS APX16.

The reason I ask is because both the APX16 and the VV-65A-R1 are seemingly worse than the APXVAARRAPXVAARR24_43-U-NA20 (or APXVAALL24_43-U-NA20 on newer setups) in terms of gain, so there must be something else to this pattern. "

It seems strange to use the Low+Mid and then not use the mid ports (rather than just use discrete low and mid antennas.

Anyone have any ideas?

Link to the Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/t4aosq/what_is_tmobile_doing_with_these_radio_4460s/?sort=confidence

Not sure honestly. We've been wondering the same thing here in NYC for a while. Our setup is a bit different than other parts of the U.S. but sometimes T-Mobile leaves one of those APX16's behind post-upgrade and other times they remove it completely

On Sprint to T-Mobile conversions here, it's a toss up. Sometimes they don't add a mid-band only antenna at all and other times they'll add an AIR32 or an AIR3246.

[clbowens]

Does anyone know if T-Mobile is still planning to sell B26 to Dish?   Or what the status of that is?  Just curious.

[Paynefanbro]

23 minutes ago, clbowens said:

Does anyone know if T-Mobile is still planning to sell B26 to Dish?   Or what the status of that is?  Just curious.

All evidence points to yes. The antennas that Dish has been deploying are capable of n26 whereas T-Mobile hasn’t deployed any n26 capable equipment. 

[clbowens]

3 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

All evidence points to yes. The antennas that Dish has been deploying are capable of n26 whereas T-Mobile hasn’t deployed any n26 capable equipment. 

Cool, I was wondering about that.

 

[PedroDaGr8]

22 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

Not sure honestly. We've been wondering the same thing here in NYC for a while. Our setup is a bit different than other parts of the U.S. but sometimes T-Mobile leaves one of those APX16's behind post-upgrade and other times they remove it completely

On Sprint to T-Mobile conversions here, it's a toss up. Sometimes they don't add a mid-band only antenna at all and other times they'll add an AIR32 or an AIR3246.

Per Rey:

Quote

From glancing at the spec sheets it looks like the Commscope antenna has a clear leg up over the RFS antenna when it comes to polarization diversity. The cross polarization ratios at boresight are both roughly 18 dB, but the Commscope antenna is 14ish dB over the entire sector while the RFS antenna is closer to 8 dB (keep in mind the dB scale is logarithmic so +6 dB is four times the performance).

This means UEs connected to midband on the RFS antenna will lose transmit diversity very quickly as they move away from the center of the sector; the Commscope antenna will perform much better under these circumstances. If this is an area with a lot of buildings (i.e. diversity loss due to clutter/shadowing is a concern), sacrificing a small bit of gain for much better XPOL is definitely worth it.

Edited March 3, 2022 by RAvirani
Name spelling 😂

[RAvirani]

2 hours ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

Per Rey:

 

 

Oops - just realized I forgot to copy that PM here. My bad!

[clbowens]

It looks like they shut down B26 in my area.  Can't connect to it anymore.  I still connect to Sprint B25 though.

[dkyeager]

Last in the pecking order here in Columbus OH. Quite nice to lock into it in Dublin Oh around St Patrick's day.  Dropped from many sites.

[iansltx]

Swapped SIMs to TNX last night. SIM was present with my number so it was literally a SIM swap. So now I have NR CA, but streaming is down below 2 Mbps 😠

[dkyeager]

3 hours ago, iansltx said:

Swapped SIMs to TNX last night. SIM was present with my number so it was literally a SIM swap. So now I have NR CA, but streaming is down below 2 Mbps 😠

Was on ed1500 and had same issue. T-Mobile is sort of like dealing with the Russians on this. Switched to Sprint Magenta Max. Really would like to be on T-Mobile billing, esim, better phone deals,etc,but...

[clbowens]

T-Mobile updated their coverage map.  So now all of their "partner" coverage LOOKS like native coverage.  But if you click in one of those areas, it will say partner coverage.  It doesn't show the partner strips anymore.

[Paynefanbro]

21 minutes ago, clbowens said:

T-Mobile updated their coverage map.  So now all of their "partner" coverage LOOKS like native coverage.  But if you click in one of those areas, it will say partner coverage.  It doesn't show the partner strips anymore.

I'm still seeing the stripes for partner coverage on my end.

[clbowens]

8 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

I'm still seeing the stripes for partner coverage on my end.

Oh, and now the stripes are back for me.  Interesting...

[red_dog007]

On 3/2/2022 at 4:35 PM, Paynefanbro said:

Not sure honestly. We've been wondering the same thing here in NYC for a while. Our setup is a bit different than other parts of the U.S. but sometimes T-Mobile leaves one of those APX16's behind post-upgrade and other times they remove it completely

On Sprint to T-Mobile conversions here, it's a toss up. Sometimes they don't add a mid-band only antenna at all and other times they'll add an AIR32 or an AIR3246.

Documentation says one thing, but reality can prove the documentation to be completely inaccurate once you actually test the equipment. I run into this pretty regularly at work with software and hardware I utilize.  "hey, it says it can do xyz" and I get a "mumble mumble mumble, yeah we never got that to actually work" or "that configuration actually doesn't exist", or "we are waiting on firmware" or "this functionality costs extra, buy this for $15,000/yr per radio and we will turn it on" blah blah blah.