AT&T LTE and Network Discussion

[Trip]

Per some requests, we're going to try out an AT&T discussion thread along the same lines as the T-Mobile discussion thread.  We're going to see how it goes.

Enjoy!

- Trip

[Trip]

Sector IDs (per my own experience and reports):

01-06 850 MHz (CLR)

08-0D 1.9 GHz (PCS)

0F-14 700 MHz (lower 700)

16-1B 2.1/1.7 GHz (AWS)

95-9A 2.3 GHz (WCS)

D7-DC 700 MHz (upper 700--some areas)

DD-E2 700 MHz (upper 700--some areas)

As of this writing, I'm going from memory and will try to add more information from my logs later in the day.

- Trip

[Thomas L.]

AT&T Band 5 is live in the San Diego area, I have a phone from China that only supports Band 5 in the US and can get LTE.

[Trip]

I think a new site in Prince William County, VA has Band 5.  I hope to check on Friday.

- Trip

[mdob07]

Around here in Louisville, KY band 5 is being added as part of the network upgrades adding bands 14 and and 66. There is pretty good coverage of b5/b14/b66 across the city now.

[mdob07]

25 minutes ago, Trip said:

I think a new site in Prince William County, VA has Band 5.  I hope to check on Friday.

- Trip

Do you have a picture of the new site by chance? I found a new site over in Jeffersonville, IN awhile back that was only one antenna panel per sector, vs the usual 3 to 4 per sector on everything else around here. The single antenna panel was very similar to Sprint's Hexadecaport antenna they started deploying. Last time I was over there it was only broadcasting bands 4/12 though.

[RAvirani]

Up in Seattle, AT&T has 10x10 B12, 5 MHz B29, 5x5 B5, 20x20 B2 and 10x10 B30 live on pretty much every site—even wooden utility poles. B14 is slowly starting to pop up but their deployment is definitely still in its early stages.

[RAvirani]

In Champaign, IL, AT&T has the densest network although they have been really sloppy about getting all of their spectrum on air on every site. Some sites are L700/L800/L1900, others have AWS and/or WCS LTE live too but lack CLR LTE, etc.

Overall AT&T’s network reliability is second to probably only Sprint for it seems the equipment AT&T is using has considerably poorer range/propagation than the equipment Sprint is using. When broadcasted from the same location at the same elevation and angle, AT&T L700 drops out when Sprint L800 is at -112 to -114 RSRP. That being said, AT&T devices do hold onto LTE for dear life when it is available. Their qRxLevMin on lowband LTE is set to -124 dBm, and if I ever drop to WCDMA/HSPA, my iPhone always jumps back to LTE in 15-20 seconds.

T-Mobile lacks lowband spectrum in the Champaign market which immediately disqualifies them (for indoor coverage is challenging) and Verizon’s site density is awful. 

[though]

AT&T roaming was live in Estes Park, CO when I was there in July.

[though]

Delete
 

[danlodish345]

 

I'm actually switching to AT&T I think next week. Tired of TMobile.

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[jakeuten]

AT&T widened their AWS from a 10x10 MHz channel (EARFCN 2100/66586) to a 20x20 MHz channel (EARFCN 2050/66536) after what I would guess is acquiring the A block license from Nsight in Duluth, MN. This happened Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Edited November 16, 2018 by jakeuten

[Tengen31]

AT&T widened their AWS from a 10x10 MHz channel (EARFCN 2100/66586) to a 20x20 MHz channel (EARFCN 2050/66536) after what I would guess is acquiring the A block license from Nsight in Duluth, MN. This happened Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Is that the only 20x20 in Duluth? TMobile is 10x10 B2 and 4x4. Looks like they're also deploying B71 not sure what the current BW is. Vzw is 15x15 B4, 5x5 B2 10x10 B13 and also got 10x10 66 not sure if they deployed that yet

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[belusnecropolis]

At our location we have 10MHz band 30, 10 and 5MHz^2 band 4, 15MHz band 2, 10MHz band 12 active on the network; I see firstnet in the network scan but won't have a band 14 enabled radio for a month or so. We have a two routers with detailed logging enabled, one is stationary and one is mobile. How should we best contribute data to this thread?

[danlodish345]

At our location we have 10MHz band 30, 10 and 5MHz^2 band 4, 15MHz band 2, 10MHz band 12 active on the network; I see firstnet in the network scan but won't have a band 14 enabled radio for a month or so. We have a two routers with detailed logging enabled, one is stationary and one is mobile. How should we best contribute data to this thread?

AT&T has a second 5 megahertz PCS carrier where I live. They also have 10 megahertz of band 12 deployed 10 megahertz of band 29 and 10 megahertz a band 30 deployed where I live. The only Spectrum that's not the point on LTE is band 5 which is relegated to HSPA.

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[belusnecropolis]

2 minutes ago, danlodish345 said:

AT&T has a second 5 megahertz PCS carrier where I live. They also have 10 megahertz of band 12 deployed 10 megahertz of band 29 and 10 megahertz a band 30 deployed where I live. The only Spectrum that's not the point on LTE is band 5 which is relegated to HSPA.

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H1900 5MHz here, everything else is LTE. No band 5 license in our area.

[danlodish345]

H1900 5MHz here, everything else is LTE. No band 5 license in our area.

Well here it is deployed on the secondary 5 megahertz carrier so they don't have a contiguous PCS license for this area.

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[belusnecropolis]

Our area is actually sold under an old Cingular affiliate, Horry Telephone Cooperative. We have a pair of Corporate stores in town for wireless subscribers and whatever media ATT bought last week. HTC is the fiber and backbone provider for our area.

They were slow to roll out HSPA here, so ATT made a big push a couple years ago in the area to update base stations. It seems to have worked out; updating to bands 2/30 in an overlay went smooth right after the 2g shutdown. It looks like those will be touched again with band 14, and 30 will now be coming to most sites. Bands 4/12 are active on every site.

Have you seen any ATT small cells? I haven't yet outside of COWs. 

10 minutes ago, danlodish345 said:

Well here it is deployed on the secondary 5 megahertz carrier so they don't have a contiguous PCS license for this area.

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[danlodish345]

Our area is actually sold under an old Cingular affiliate, Horry Telephone Cooperative. We have a pair of Corporate stores in town for wireless subscribers and whatever media ATT bought last week. HTC is the fiber and backbone provider for our area.

They were slow to roll out HSPA here, so ATT made a big push a couple years ago in the area to update base stations. It seems to have worked out; updating to bands 2/30 in an overlay went smooth right after the 2g shutdown. It looks like those will be touched again with band 14, and 30 will now be coming to most sites. Bands 4/12 are active on every site.

Have you seen any ATT small cells? I haven't yet outside of COWs. 
 

Where I live there is no densification. So the only carry that's densified here is Verizon. But then all the carriers in my town lack densification due to township bureaucracy and red tape.

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[jakeuten]

14 hours ago, Tengen31 said:

Is that the only 20x20 in Duluth? TMobile is 10x10 B2 and 4x4. Looks like they're also deploying B71 not sure what the current BW is. Vzw is 15x15 B4, 5x5 B2 10x10 B13 and also got 10x10 66 not sure if they deployed that yet

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Yeah it is. T-Mobile’s widest channel is 10 MHz (AWS and PCS), Verizon has 15 MHz B4, but can go 20 MHz once they decide to attach the G block AWS-3 to it, and they also have J block (a 10 MHz block). Not used to seeing uploads this high so far north!

[danlodish345]

Yeah it is. T-Mobile’s widest channel is 10 MHz (AWS and PCS), Verizon has 15 MHz B4, but can go 20 MHz once they decide to attach the G block AWS-3 to it, and they also have J block (a 10 MHz block). Not used to seeing uploads this high so far north!

T-Mobile's why is channel where I live is a 20 megahertz band 4 carrier.

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[Trip]

Here's AT&T Band 5 in Prince William County:  https://imgur.com/a/A6x70Xe

I tried locking to Band 5 in other places a few times along the way and did not see any additional Band 5.  This site also has Band 14, on top of the displayed 17/2/4/30.  I wonder if it has Band 66 as well.  (Didn't think to check.)

Couldn't get a good look at the antenna as it was getting dark and it was cloudy and I was on I-66.  Sorry.

- Trip

[mdob07]

I'm seeing a lot of sites in Louisville and Lexington KY being converted from the traditional 3 sector to 4 or 6 sector sites. 

4 Sector site, The sector on the right side has the new dual zone antennas while the sector on the left still has the original setup. This site had just received the network upgrades to add bands 5, 14, and 66 about a month or two before this conversion. 

https://imgur.com/ltLptgE

This site in Lexington has just been converted to a 6 sector site. New antenna panels all the way around. This site also has about 4 or 5 unique GCIs broadcasting from it across all 6 sectors. Bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 14, 30, and 66 are all live.

https://imgur.com/E44vtkw

https://imgur.com/CHAXehv

https://imgur.com/cogHGCX

https://imgur.com/lT4WC4Z

https://imgur.com/0Z1bPMS

https://imgur.com/esPi5Hj

[mdob07]

I've also came across a handful of B2/B46 small cells around Louisville. 

https://imgur.com/htH521Q

https://imgur.com/uMUDgnx

https://imgur.com/yhkVwX5

https://imgur.com/s8i5rCu

https://imgur.com/adtPOQh

[mdob07]

AT&T currently has 160 mhz of deployed spectrum in Louisville, KY.

Band 2: 20x20 (08-0D) + 5x5 (B5-BA)

Band 4: 10x10 (16-1B) + 5x5 (AB-B0)

Band 5: 5x5 (01-06)

Band 12: 10x10 (0F-14)

Band 14: 10x10 (BF-C4)

Band 30: 5x5 (95-9A) (was 10x10 but was reduced a few months ago, I never found out why)

Band 66: 10x10 (I've still only seen true B66 in CA SCC, haven't picked up any GCI info for it yet for here.)

 

South of Louisville Band 2 changes to the following due to Bluegrass Cellular owning 5mhz in the middle of the 20x20 carrier.

10x10 (08-0D), 5x5 (B5-BA), and 5x5 (D3-D8)