T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion V2

[caspar347]

No.  They do have a lot of Ericsson.  I just gave you those states because those are the only ones I know,  I don't think they use Ericsson in New Mexico, either.  I seem to recall only Tmo and Sprint did.  It would have been very confusing tower watching if Tmo, Sprint and AT&T all used Ericsson in that market.  

That's how it is here, Sprint is the only carrier NOT using Ericsson. It helps that VZW doesn't use RRUs though.

[S4GRU]

That's how it is here, Sprint is the only carrier NOT using Ericsson. It helps that VZW doesn't use RRUs though.

 

VZW uses RRU's here for B4 (XLTE).  And they recently started deploying Ericsson AIR panels on new sites.

[caspar347]

VZW uses RRU's here for B4 (XLTE).  And they recently started deploying Ericsson AIR panels on new sites.

Opposite here. Most old VZW sites have AIRs and new macro adds have RRUs. Weird. 

[Deval]

They are doing the correct way which is an overlay. Spint needed LTE 800 for capacity because of the lack of available mid band spectrum

 

That doesn't make sense.

 

If you're designing a network spaced for 700A, which means 1 cell site per X miles, any higher band spectrum you put on top of it would create a gap between sites. 

 

Sprint's PCS network was spaced for 1900 A-F, so G creates smaller islands in scale (a few hundred feet or whatever the difference in signal propagation is from EVDO A-F block vs. LTE G block), compared to 700A sites broadcasting AWS and PCS.

[Deval]

It's very similar to Sprint's B25/B26 rural deployment.  Since Sprint's existing rural network is spaced on CDMA 1900, LTE 1900 is insufficient.  B26 performs more like CDMA 1900 in coverage.  So Sprint's existing rural network is kind of built for B26 LTE spacing.  

 

Tmo is doing the same thing in new rural deployments.  Space sites apart for B12, overlay with B4 or B2 depending on local spectrum availability.  B4/B2 won't quite make it to the next site, and B12 does the carry over.  It's believed that in the new towns and cities as Tmo gains subscribers they will come back and densify their network.

 

In the community I live in for roughly 100,000 people, AT&T has 13 sites and VZW has 12 sites.  Of which, AT&T has deployed LTE on 10 sites, VZW on all 12.  Tmo could come in and deploy B12 coverage and provide equal coverage in the city with approximately 5 well placed sites. If they overlaid with a 10x10 B4 on each site, it should perform equal or better than AT&T or VZW.  And as they gain subscribers, they can start to add additional sites for capacity until they have a completely cohesive B4 network too.  

 

It would work pretty well if they monitored it close and stayed ahead of the demand curve.  But they just closed on the B12 spectrum a week ago.  So what they will end up doing specifically remains to be seen.  Seems virtually impossible to get complete before the end of 2015 starting now.  I will be watching the city permits closely.  I really wonder how many sites they try to do locally.  They may only start with 2 or 3.  *gasp*

 

Sprint has to, at a minimum, do PCS G Block Protection Site(s) here by March 2016.  So they will have some action here too.  Whether they will do a meaningful local development or just the minimum required is unknown.  I'd love this area to be a part of the Sprint NGN expansion.  They do have one local Clearwire WiMax Protection Site.  It is set in a good location to cover almost half the city.

 

That makes sense though. I guess the question becomes more of a cost/benefit analysis of the existing customer base.

[bigsnake49]

That doesn't make sense.

 

If you're designing a network spaced for 700A, which means 1 cell site per X miles, any higher band spectrum you put on top of it would create a gap between sites.

 

Sprint's PCS network was spaced for 1900 A-F, so G creates smaller islands in scale (a few hundred feet or whatever the difference in signal propagation is from EVDO A-F block vs. LTE G block), compared to 700A sites broadcasting AWS and PCS.

The correct way is to density your bread and butter Midband frequency. Then overlay with lower band for coverage/penetration. Sprint did not have another mid band besides G to deploy on so they had to use SMR for both capacity and to hide the fact that their network wS poorly spaced for band 25.

[Deval]

The correct way is to density your bread and butter Midband frequency. Then overlay with lower band for coverage/penetration. Sprint did not have another mid band besides G to deploy on so they had to use SMR for both capacity and to hide the fact that their network wS poorly spaced for band 25.

 

Depending on the market, they have PCS A-F (NYC for example has 15mhz of PCS, and they can carve 5mhz of B block).

[Fraydog]

I know Ericsson has been spotted on VZW setups here even though Southern Illinois was traditionally Alcatel-Lucent. Ericsson AIR panels and all. Robert isn't the only one seeing this.

 

What really interests me is who VZW uses as their second vendor after Ericsson if Alcatel-Lucent is indeed exiting the business regardless of what happens with Nokia. I would bet Samsung would take a more prominent role. Samsung is already working with VZW on small cells and they also had the best vendor performance overall in Network Vision. That might make them a good choice for increased infrastructure work for Verizon.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bigsnake49]

Depending on the market, they have PCS A-F (NYC for example has 15mhz of PCS, and they can carve 5mhz of B block).

They have added a second PCS carrier in very few markets, but the pattern has been to deploy band 26 first collocates with band 25. Eventually they will of course refarm all PCS A-spectrum for LTE.

[Trip]

I haven't seen any new organic coverage to date. Not a single site.

 

I know you're referring locally to your area in Michigan, but I just wanted to report that I've seen evidence of the T-Mobile expansion, in the event nobody else has seen it either.  I was poking at microwave licenses a few weeks ago and found several new ones in Fluvanna County, VA which appear to be on newly constructed towers.  Interestingly, these newly constructed towers seem to be well placed to provide strong service to areas which currently have poor service from Verizon, AT&T, US Cellular, and nTelos.  (Insert joke here about how all Sprint customers in nTelos territory currently have poor service.)

 

Almost as if they're trying to be competitive for those customers which should be easy to pick up.

 

- Trip

[WiWavelength]

I hate Tmo-News, but do open it up every so often.

 

http://www.tmonews.com/2015/06/21gb-soft-cap-quietly-added-to-t-mobiles-unlimited-4g-lte-simple-choice-plans/

 

21GB "soft cap" put on unlimied plans. Kind of interesting...I think T-Mobile is realizing their network is suffering from speed tests and unlimited data.

 

The TmoNews article now has accumulated over 400 comments.  Call it schadenfreude -- an apropos term for a German telecom -- but it is enjoyable to see so many Magentans infighting and scurrying around like the sky is falling, as their "uncarrier" wireless utopia starts to buckle under its own weight.  Fantasy meets reality.

 

And Fabian Cortez is there for damage control, hitting all of the hot words.  "Transparency."  "De-prioritization" is not "throttling" -- even though the effect is much the same for many users.  As others have said, Fabian is a T-Mobile employee.  If not, he is doing it wrong.  Regardless, he is not an acknowledged contributor to the online wireless community.  He has racked up thousands of Disqus comments, but he has not put his name to published articles, maps, FCC filings, etc.  He snipes from the peanut gallery -- he does not contribute.

 

Furthermore, I am pleased that -- in this game of "unlimited" data brinkmanship -- T-Mobile blinked first.  Had Sprint done so, the biased tech press would have skewered Sprint to no end.  But with the T-Mobile precedent now set, Sprint soon can decide what to do with its own unsustainable "unlimited" data, and we can all get on with our more sensible mobile lives.

 

AJ

[Yuhfhrh]

I have a friend complaining about de-prioritization being worse than throttling. I'm going to take my $30 5GB data T-Mobile SIM in my Nexus 5 and compare it to his own N5 to see what's up.

[Arysyn]

The TmoNews article now has accumulated over 400 comments. Call it schadenfreude -- an apropos term for a German telecom -- but it is enjoyable to see so many Magentans infighting and scurrying around like the sky is falling, as their "uncarrier" wireless utopia starts to buckle under its own weight. Fantasy meets reality.

 

And Fabian Cortez is there for damage control, hitting all of the hot words. "Transparency." "De-prioritization" is not "throttling" -- even though the effect is much the same for many users. As others have said, Fabian is a T-Mobile employee. If not, he is doing it wrong. Regardless, he is not an acknowledged contributor to the online wireless community. He has racked up thousands of Disqus comments, but he has not put his name to published articles, maps, FCC filings, etc. He snipes from the peanut gallery -- he does not contribute.

 

Furthermore, I am pleased that -- in this game of "unlimited" data brinkmanship -- T-Mobile blinked first. Had Sprint done so, the biased tech press would have skewered Sprint to no end. But with the T-Mobile precedent now set, Sprint soon can decide what to do with its own unsustainable "unlimited" data, and we can all get on with our more sensible mobile lives.

 

AJ

AJ,

 

I agree with you somewhat on the unlimited issue and would like to know what you think would be a good rate plan of sorts.

 

Also, I must have read several hundred, if not thousands of posts Fabian has posted while I've read through comments sections of various wireless tech sites. I can understand people complaining about a particular carrier they've experienced service issues with, or even complaining about a carrier's business practices they disagree with, but doing so rationally and for a short amount of time on an article relating to their issue.

 

However, most every article I've read on Fierce Wireless, no matter what it is regarding, Fabian almost always posts comments, which isn't necessarily a bad thing since that is what the comments section is for, just not for advertising or threats, etc.

 

Yet, there must be something more serious than the typical issue a customer has with a carrier, or an employee has for being let go from their employer, which must severely be plauging Fabian. While he may be a T-Mobile employee, I really don't think that is all there is to it for his defenses of T-Mobile, because he has such a deep hatred of Sprint. I'm absolutely baffled by how much time he spends bashing Sprint in so many of his comments. It is way beyond trollish, as he takes far more effort at it than what most trolls do.

 

I'm thinking he may have been some former mid-level Sprint employee who got fired for something quite bad. I refrain from saying upper-level employee, as he doesn't seem to know that much of Sprint, but it just appears he had some really good job there he lost for some major reason, which now he's just got some real strong need to bash Sprint. It is very bizarre.

[Fraydog]

I think sometimes it is OK for people to take a break sometimes when obsession climbs over the edge. 

 

I think Fabian crossed that point a long time ago. When he's with his friends, presuming he has any, does he bring this stuff up? I have barely breached any of this with people I know. I think people who see my Twitter know I touch on it some on here, but when it gets to the rubber hitting the road, I let people make their own conclusions. Most of the talk about Sprint and T-Mobile where I live revolves around "oh that's nice they offer deal x, but they don't cover here." For a long time they would be right. If they bring this up in the context of Sprint they'd still be right. Even T-Mobile with LTE here still has some coverage holes, and where I live still has issues with in-building. That said, I think the people I know who resell for Verizon here know how broken, and how messed up the industry is. 

 

Yet, people like Fabian waste most of the breath on Sprint and not the duopoly, which is where the real control of the industry is. Even with all that people like Legere have done to disrupt, the main order of the industry is still the same. With spectrum scarcity, that may as well continue. 

 

What needs to die is the term "unlimited". Unlimited, itself, is another lasting contribution of Dumb and Dumber, who sold "unlimited" as a way to usher people into smartphones when their primary revenue source was from voice services on legacy 2G and sometimes 3G networks. The very data scarcity problem of expecting unlimited was a contribution of the Duopoly, that Sprint and T-Mobile took on to compete. Then when the Duopoly realized what was happening with data, they shifted. They decided to use data as the revenue source seeing the explosive growth in data usage. Hence the transition to first metered individual and eventually shared data plans. Look at the typical shared data plan where if Little Johnny runs over on the shared data bucket, everyone pays. It is a pure source of profit and revenue for the larger carriers. Yet, it's the massive revenue growth caused by the demand that the Duopoly created. They took gasoline, poured it on the fire, then had the gall to charge everyone for firefighting services rendered. Say Johnny sits on the smartphone watching porn and runs over the Verizon Steal Everything or the AT&T MobileSteal buckets. Everyone has to pay the price for that. Yet, this is the very conditions that the duopoly created. Yet, in the minds of some, Sprint is the bad guy for wanting to take unlimited away. 

 

What needs to happen is what is happening in other countries, where "all you can eat" emerges as an alternative separate from unlimited. I want to see more people use more data, but I want there to be limits on the top level users, without charging them an arm and a leg. We all have a duty to ensure that everyone can afford and have access to the mobile Internet. I really don't have an issue with what T-Mobile is doing, but they should consider retiring the term "unlimited" altogether as a false contribution of the Duopoly. If anything, make All You Can Eat an Uncarrier move. Claim you're acting to preserve spectrum, to ensure T-Mobile's networks remain the fastest, and to make sure as many normal people still have access to fast mobile Internet as possible. 

 

If anything, I'm thankful T-Mobile is providing some leadership here, as it also gives Sprint leverage to ditch unlimited. I do think that Sprint should consider leaving All You Can Eat as an option on the table as well. That said, I don't think the eradication of unlimited should be permission to administer overages that take money out of the pockets of hard working people. 

[travismheim]

 

 

If anything, make All You Can Eat an Uncarrier move.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[joshuam]

http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/media-kits/jump-on-demand.htm

 

Tmobile basically leases phones now....hahahahahahahahahahhaha!

 

After all that damn lease bashing Leger did on Twitter too.

[mittenmitten]

http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/media-kits/jump-on-demand.htm

 

Tmobile basically leases phones now....hahahahahahahahahahhaha!

 

After all that damn lease bashing Leger did on Twitter too.

 

I immediately came here to see if people would be talking about it, they are indeed leasing phones now, this is amazing. It's like a perfect storm; 21gb soft cap/deprioritization, iphones are malfunctioning, 'major news' is leasing Legere was ripping on Claure for, this is the best week ever :*)

[Ascertion]

http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/media-kits/jump-on-demand.htm

 

Tmobile basically leases phones now....hahahahahahahahahahhaha!

 

After all that damn lease bashing Leger did on Twitter too.

I wouldn't mind Sprint doing something similar, honestly.  There's times when people are frustrated with their phone or want something new. 

[joshuam]

I wouldn't mind Sprint doing something similar, honestly.  There's times when people are frustrated with their phone or want something new. 

 

I can see Sprint lowering lease prices based on this. It's not a bad deal at all...it's just hugely hilarious because Legere was all over bashing Marcelo for a phone lease.

[S4GRU]

It's actually a really good program in just my quick cursory review. $15 per month and can trade in up to 3x per year for a new device. Insurance just an $8 add on. I pay cash for my devices now and go the unsubsidized route to save money. But something like that could entice me to get off unsubsidized devices.

 

Using Nexus 6 on Tapatalk

[derrph]

Gotta keep the juices flowing at T-Mobile somehow.

 

Now T-Mobile subscribers don't abuse their system and actually upgrade 3 times every year or else they will restrict that in some way.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[caspar347]

http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/media-kits/jump-on-demand.htm

 

Tmobile basically leases phones now....hahahahahahahahahahhaha!

 

After all that damn lease bashing Leger did on Twitter too.

Ha, can't wait to see what Fabian says. He spent so much time explaining to me how leases were terrible back when Sprint announced it.

[joshuam]

Ha, can't wait to see what Fabian says. He spent so much time explaining to me how leases were terrible back when Sprint announced it.

 

 

Here it is!

 

 

Fabian Cortez

Leasing phones now, huh?

[lilotimz]

People you can discuss other websites and people elsewhere.

 

Keep this thread on topic.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

[WiWavelength]

chinese-restaurant-buffet.jpg

 

 

AJ