AT&T LTE and Network Discussion

[ingenium]

For the three or so years we have been hearing them speak of band 30, then one touch upgrades and now Firstnet there sure is a lot of that exact 2/12 only combo on their network in large swaths. Slow rollouts are not exclusive to Sprint.

I think they do it based on demand and usage. The att sites with that config seem to not be congested. Meanwhile, on higher usage sites (for example ones in Pittsburgh), they have absolutely everything deployed. It's kind of a smart move. B2 and 12 provide good coverage, and if the capacity isn't needed, why spend money on it and provide the backhaul?

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[Brad The Beast]

Did a test at 3:30 in the morning. 102Mbps down, 12.4Mbps up, 95ms ping. 

[red_dog007]

AT&T is at 50 million now covered in 5G.

[jakeuten]

On 1/26/2020 at 9:55 PM, Brad The Beast said:

Here's a test I just did. Network is clearly not congested so I don't know why I'm being deprioritized. 

First and foremost, there are 0 signs of deprioritization in that speedtest. None.

Secondly, your pings will always be high in North Dakota. Their core is in Chicago, which is about 550 miles away (I'm assuming you're in Fargo, which could be way off base). T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon all have a network core in Minneapolis.

Thirdly, I visited Fargo in December. AT&T's performance was nothing short of fantastic. I averaged about 75 down and 20 up across the region, with about 250 tests run, all over the place. The kicker was my ping was about 90ms on average. If/when AT&T adds a core in Minneapolis, things will change for ping performance there. I think they are opposed because they don't own any wireline infrastructure down there. Here in Duluth, my pings average about 35 ms... with a 35 ms jitter. So 70ms. Hope this helps.

[Brad The Beast]

36 minutes ago, jakeuten said:

Secondly, your pings will always be high in North Dakota. Their core is in Chicago, which is about 550 miles away (I'm assuming you're in Fargo, which could be way off base).

Pings of 110+ to Chicago is not even remotely close to normal or acceptable. 

[jakeuten]

Just now, Brad The Beast said:

Pings of 110+ to Chicago is not even remotely close to normal or acceptable. 

I agree, but that's how it is. You're at the very edge of the PGW and SGW.

[Brad The Beast]

3 minutes ago, jakeuten said:

I agree, but that's how it is. You're at the very edge of the PGW and SGW.

Well that's garbage but whatever. It's better than T-Mobile. 

[jakeuten]

14 minutes ago, Brad The Beast said:

Well that's garbage but whatever. It's better than T-Mobile. 

Which part of ND do you live in? Fargo? If so they've got a boat load of spectrum out that way. Pretty much identical to what we have in Duluth.

B2: 10x10 MHz

B4: 20x20 MHz

B5: 12.5x12.5 MHz

B12: 10x10 MHz

B14: 10x10 MHz

B30: 10x10 MHz

B66: 10x10 MHz

Haven't seen any evidence of 29 being deployed out that way but we've got some sites with B29.

[Brad The Beast]

1 minute ago, jakeuten said:

Which part of ND do you live in? Fargo?

GFK. Speeds are wildly inconsistent. I can test in one spot and get 4Mbps down. I can test 60 seconds later in the same spot and pull 50-60Mbps down. 

[Brad The Beast]

Found this AT&T relay site. Thought it was quite interesting. https://www.google.com/maps/@46.8760889,-97.2574935,3a,31.7y,0.45h,98.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sXZQozc6oKv1CbrsfHXo-CQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[jakeuten]

On 2/12/2020 at 11:28 AM, Brad The Beast said:

Found this AT&T relay site. Thought it was quite interesting. https://www.google.com/maps/@46.8760889,-97.2574935,3a,31.7y,0.45h,98.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sXZQozc6oKv1CbrsfHXo-CQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

That's a long lines tower, unless you've seen new equipment added to it.

[Brad The Beast]

2 hours ago, jakeuten said:

That's a long lines tower, unless you've seen new equipment added to it.

Drove by it Tuesday. Equipment looked the same. 

[superbluepsd]

Wow that long lines site still has all the original equipment still installed and in good condition.   Almost every long lines site in Oregon has at least had the horns removed if not all the equipment removed.   

[shaferz]

35 minutes ago, superbluepsd said:

Wow that long lines site still has all the original equipment still installed and in good condition.   Almost every long lines site in Oregon has at least had the horns removed if not all the equipment removed.   

There is still at least one up near Peoria (https://goo.gl/maps/okjmqNo83tFa9GNg8) that still has some equipment up.  Pretty wild.  I looked up info on the setups a few years back... there is a lot of reading folks can do online to read about the history.  

 

 

[superbluepsd]

7 minutes ago, shaferz said:

That site still has a lot of equipment on it also.    I also did some extensive reading on long lines microwave a few years back.   Here is some info if anyone is interested..  https://long-lines.net/places-routes/

 

 

[radem]

https://hackaday.com/2017/07/10/horns-across-america-the-att-long-lines-network/

[mdob07]

Here are some screenshots from my N5 testing today. It wasn't nearly as widespread in Louisville as I would have thought given how many sites are upgraded and theoretically should have N5 live. I also noticed that I held onto the same N5 carrier from one tower to another tower, so it must not be like LTE where you can only aggregate carriers from the same tower together. The 3rd screenshots at 6:36 were from the next tower south, but it still showed PCI 43 for the NR N5 carrier. And the 5Ge indicator is back for the southern tower. I thought maybe it was just stale data at first but the levels keep fluctuating and Cellmapper keep showing NR connection as well.

[mdob07]

Found some 5G+ on my S20 Ultra today. I'll go back another day and do some actual testing, I saw this driving by on the interstate and grabbed a quick screenshot.

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[Brad The Beast]

So what's happening to HSPA on b5 in areas where n5 is deployed? Is it being retired?

[Tengen31]

So what's happening to HSPA on b5 in areas where n5 is deployed? Is it being retired?

No it's still there B5 it's being taken off LTE until DSS is ready

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[Brad The Beast]

4 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

No it's still there B5 it's being taken off LTE until DSS is ready

So it'll be UMTS/HSPA and NR on 850MHz? 

[Tengen31]

So it'll be UMTS/HSPA and NR on 850MHz? 

Yes

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[Brad The Beast]

2 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

Yes

Excellent, thanks!

[jakeuten]

DSS requires a 10x10 MHz channel, so it will be 5x5 NR and 5x5 UMTS until the UMTS shutdown in 2022. Who knows if they'll bother to deploy DSS at that point, with 2 5G iPhone releases happening by that point.

[1dante]

Idk if this is the right thread for this, but my phone was paid off and unlocked last week. In an area where i usually get 1x, Sprint 3G, or extended network, I now see AT&T LTE at the top of the status bar.