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VZW Equipment spotting


RAvirani

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Hey all,

 

Since we have equipment spotting threads for both T-Mobile and Sprint, I thought it would be a good idea to add a thread regarding how to spot Verizon equipment. I am under the impression that Verizon only uses equipment from two vendors: Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson, so I don't think it would be too hard to set a thread up. If anyone has pictures or more expertise and would be willing to help, that would be great!

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Here are close ups of a 3 sector B13/B4 site. Couldn't really see the RRUs https://goo.gl/photos/4fs3HDHpuhkGqJMW6

 

It's right down the street from my house, on top of a Verizon corp office building. So when they rebuild the site I can get new pics.

 

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

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Here are close ups of a 3 sector B13/B4 site. Couldn't really see the RRUs https://goo.gl/photos/4fs3HDHpuhkGqJMW6

 

It's right down the street from my house, on top of a Verizon corp office building. So when they rebuild the site I can get new pics.

 

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Awesome. I'm going to head out this weekend and grab a few high quality pics of sites in my area as well. Hopefully we can compile a few more and get the thread started.

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Ok so I had a chance to drive around today and get pictures of each of Verizon's common setups in my area. I wasn't able to get good pictures of the RRUs at every site although the antennae are clearly visible. When I have a little more time, I'll head back and try to get close-ups of the RRUs as well as better pictures of the connectors on the antennae.

 

Here's what I got

 

Also, in the images of the tower with a every major providers' equipment, Verizon is second from bottom.

 

EDIT: I moved the images to imgur because Dropbox seemed to be displaying them in low quality

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Wow, some of those have lots of antennas per sector. One of the sites looks like it has 4 of the same antenna per sector. Are those narrow beam / split sector high capacity sites?

 

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Wow, some of those have lots of antennas per sector. One of the sites looks like it has 4 of the same antenna per sector. Are those narrow beam / split sector high capacity sites?

 

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Yeah almost every VZW setup here has 2-4 antennae per sector. There are very few one-antenna-per-sector setups.

 

As for their setups that use four of the same boxy-looking antennae, I'm pretty sure those are just three sectors with high order MIMO on B13/4/2.

 

All VZW macros that have gone up recently seem to be either four of the boxy-looking antennae per sector or two boxy antennae and two skinnier rounded antennae per sector. Here are links to what I mean:

http://i.imgur.com/8JYJ6FI.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/e3Myrsc.jpg

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Here is a 3 panel per sector setup getting mounted to the rack before it gets lifted up on top of the water tower. I believe those are Amphenol panels used on this one:

https://imgur.com/a/ZRbNq

 

Here is the rack mounted on the water tank, I'm guessing AT&T is gonna come out and move its panels to the new outer rack:

https://i.imgur.com/MZ7okIW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/akLAZPT.jpg

 

This is a typical metrocell style setup they use all over my area, always mounted low on a macro tower. Not really sure what their goal is with many of these setups as they seem to be in areas that really needed a full macro instead:

https://i.imgur.com/ZhvGkFK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/f4f1yzY.png

 

This is a standard two panel per sector setup but using JMA panels instead of Amphenol (the photo was taken while the build was still in progress so the RRU's weren't up yet):

https://i.imgur.com/byeVMD6.jpg

 

The 3 panel per sector setups have been the most recent ones in the area, they have many different site variations around though. Some look like AT&T and even TMO so it can be hard to tell sometimes.

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Ok so I had a chance to drive around today and get pictures of each of Verizon's common setups in my area. I wasn't able to get good pictures of the RRUs at every site although the antennae are clearly visible. When I have a little more time, I'll head back and try to get close-ups of the RRUs as well as better pictures of the connectors on the antennae.

 

Here's what I got

 

Also, in the images of the tower with a every major providers' equipment, Verizon is second from bottom.

 

EDIT: I moved the images to imgur because Dropbox seemed to be displaying them in low quality

Are you in a market where Verizon is testing 5G? Those 5G radio units seem to match the press photos Ericsson has put out.

 

https://i.imgur.com/jHbQbUZ.jpg

 

https://www.ericsson.com/research-blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/5G-Radio-Prototype-Build_original.jpg

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Yeah almost every VZW setup here has 2-4 antennae per sector. There are very few one-antenna-per-sector setups.

 

As for their setups that use four of the same boxy-looking antennae, I'm pretty sure those are just three sectors with high order MIMO on B13/4/2.

 

All VZW macros that have gone up recently seem to be either four of the boxy-looking antennae per sector or two boxy antennae and two skinnier rounded antennae per sector. Here are links to what I mean:

http://i.imgur.com/8JYJ6FI.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/e3Myrsc.jpg

In my market, VZW just installed a slightly more rural tower.  Well used to be rural, but subdivisions are invading the cow fields.  They only installed 2 antennas per sector.  Antenna's look the same as to the middle antennas in your second jpg.

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Are you in a market where Verizon is testing 5G? Those 5G radio units seem to match the press photos Ericsson has put out.

 

https://i.imgur.com/jHbQbUZ.jpg

 

https://www.ericsson.com/research-blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/5G-Radio-Prototype-Build_original.jpg

Wow. Didn't think anyone would catch that but yes, actually. There was an Ericsson 5G truck at that very tower a few months back. Sadly the guys there wouldn't tell me anything other than that they were doing 5G testing though.

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It's seeming like VZW is all over the place with their setups...I was hoping we could make a thread in the equipment spotting forum but looking at all of these different setups, I'm not sure how manageable it would be...

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It's seeming like VZW is all over the place with their setups...I was hoping we could make a thread in the equipment spotting forum but looking at all of these different setups, I'm not sure how manageable it would be...

Bingo! You got it! Verizon has at least a dozen different site variations in my market alone. I had to learn how to identify some of the equipment vendors in order to confirm which was Verizon. There are some consistencies that help despite all the variation in panels; the surge protectors they use are all the same from every site I've looked at, they tend to either mount RRU's on a separate pole next to the panel or right behind the panel, on the newer sites the racks are all the same, and the newest sites since 2016 have been using a raised platform with sloped roof instead of the shacks. Another consistency is every site has a generator, usually a Generac or less commonly Kohler.

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Here's some Verizon-only Small Cells deployed by Crown Castle in downtown Boston.


279fcf56925f53882261ca70a51dc3df.jpg

a662ff27a2c53b131608b93d26ce767b.jpg

f669ec4628c8d1e5235df2070315f715.jpg
 

http://boston.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=f3f5d1abe3e74f2485555d10ce58976a

 

We also have other equipment deployed by Extenet, American Tower, and VZW themselves. Will post pictures in a few weeks.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by WiseGuy321
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Here's some Verizon-only Small Cells deployed by Crown Castle in downtown Boston.

 

 

279fcf56925f53882261ca70a51dc3df.jpg

 

a662ff27a2c53b131608b93d26ce767b.jpg

 

f669ec4628c8d1e5235df2070315f715.jpg

 

http://boston.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=f3f5d1abe3e74f2485555d10ce58976a

 

We also have other equipment deployed by Extenet, American Tower, and VZW themselves. Will post pictures in a few weeks.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That really does not look bad. I would think that they  could get approval for this type of install almost everywhere.

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That really does not look bad. I would think that they could get approval for this type of install almost everywhere.

Found another kind nearby

 

3eb892f07054129d78df87c06a2955d9.jpg

 

Strong B4 signal coming from it

 

1691ac6769a7a8a8001c9e5291c168b5.jpg

 

3xCA is active. B2/4/13

 

b12494e4401d7a36c1f8adb960fb2167.jpg

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by WiseGuy321
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  • 3 months later...

Here's some Verizon ODAS equipment in the Porter Ranch area of Los Angeles.  They use Flexwave Prism gear just as Sprint does on their ODAS sites, but of course the antenna panels are different.  Usually Sprint paints theirs brown as well.

 

C3j3T9mm.jpg

 

Because of the modular functionality of the Flexwave Prism, the outputs aren't labeled by frequency, but by internal module bay.

M9mmr7fm.jpg

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  • 2 years later...

I'm reviving an old thread, but I wanted to report on work Verizon has been recently doing in the greater Seattle area.  

Verizon is moving most of the sites in my area towards new setups that utilize two identical antennas per sector.  These antennas each have two low band ports and four mid band ports.  4x4 L750 and 4x4 L850 are broadcasted through the four lowband ports using a diplexer.  A PCS RRH is connected to the four mid band ports on one antenna and an AWS RRH is likewise connected to the other antenna.  These setups are compact and future proof, as PCS and AWS can both be upgraded to 8x8 without touching the antennas (they would only need to add RRHs/diplexers).  

On sites with space/weight limitations (primarily new sites), Verizon has been deploying a single antenna with four low band ports and four mid band ports.  4x4 750 and 4x4 850 are broadcasted through the four lowband ports while 4x4 1900 and 4x4 2100 are broadcasted through the four high band ports.  750/850 and PCS/AWS diplexers are used to do this.

All of the new antennas being deployed are manufactured by Amphenol.  Something interesting I've noticed is that most of these new setups use antennas with a 45 degree beamwidth, even on 3 sector sites.  The antennas' gain figures are impressive, though, so that may effectively cancel any drawbacks that come from using a 45 degree antenna as opposed to a traditional 65 degree antenna.  Here are the antennas Verizon is primarily using, for those interested:

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Nice stuff! Wonder how Amphenol prices compare.  They trying to be a market disruptor?

To go 8x8, does VZW go that route more on an as needed basis?

Also very cool all LTE. I would have figured AT&T or TMobile to be the first. If this stuff is getting a major deployment in your area, would be interesting to know how many 3G sites they are running off of now.  

Edited by red_dog007
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21 minutes ago, red_dog007 said:

Nice stuff! Wonder how Amphenol prices compare.  They trying to be a market disruptor?

I'm not sure but the equipment is definitely nice. These panels have incredible lowband range compared to all of the other equipment deployed in my market. 

22 minutes ago, red_dog007 said:

To go 8x8, does VZW go that route more on an as needed basis?

Yes. I've seen 8x8 deployed by malls, in downtown, etc. 

23 minutes ago, red_dog007 said:

Also very cool all LTE. I would have figured AT&T or TMobile to be the first. If this stuff is getting a major deployment in your area, would be interesting to know how many 3G sites they are running off of now.  

Yup, these setups are LTE-only. Nearly every site in my market has been upgraded to one of these setups or has a permit to be upgraded soon. On occasion, Verizon will leave a legacy antenna through which they broadcast CDMA, although this is definitely the exception, not the rule. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here's some pictures of a Verizon site that just got upgraded. They still have their rope hanging so they might not be done yet. The site has the Louisville International Airport & UPS on one side, and the KY Fair and Expo center on the other side. Very high traffic area. AT&T has two 6 sector sites around here. 

OIP0c7G.jpg

hSwsezJ.jpg

zdwNwgm.jpg

1srRRpJ.jpg

You can see 3 older RRUs ground mounted at the base of the tower.

Gp3SuRu.jpg

 

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On 9/25/2019 at 9:20 PM, mdob07 said:

Here's some pictures of a Verizon site that just got upgraded. They still have their rope hanging so they might not be done yet. The site has the Louisville International Airport & UPS on one side, and the KY Fair and Expo center on the other side. Very high traffic area. AT&T has two 6 sector sites around here. 

OIP0c7G.jpg

hSwsezJ.jpg

zdwNwgm.jpg

1srRRpJ.jpg

You can see 3 older RRUs ground mounted at the base of the tower.

Gp3SuRu.jpg

 

It seems all markets are moving towards these 2x 6/8-port LTE-only setups. And in some cases, like yours, an antenna dedicated to CDMA is left for legacy devices. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/25/2019 at 10:20 PM, mdob07 said:

Here's some pictures of a Verizon site that just got upgraded. They still have their rope hanging so they might not be done yet. The site has the Louisville International Airport & UPS on one side, and the KY Fair and Expo center on the other side. Very high traffic area. AT&T has two 6 sector sites around here. 

OIP0c7G.jpg

I noticed that an additional antenna was added to this site as the last thing the contractors did. I'm not sure if its for 5G, CBRS, or what. Verizon is fairly spectrum constrained here, they're sitting at 90 Mhz deployed right now.

d43T30A.jpg

yXbAbvB.jpg

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