Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[Brad The Beast]

Speaking of these offers, I wonder if they're going to be targeted or for everyone? 

[Tengen31]

So, I was thinking about switching to T-Mobile before the merger goes through. When I checked my phones compatibility(LG V40) it says that extended LTE and VOLTE will not work. Does that mean some of us will be getting new phones post merger?

I don't know why it would say that. The Sprint model has Bands 2,4,5,12,13,17,25,26,41,71

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[derrph]

Speaking of these offers, I wonder if they're going to be targeted or for everyone? 

I would like to assume everyone but I could really see very aggressive offers for those who are no longer in a device IB or lease. I could also see the big two get in on it with promos as well to pluck Sprint customers as well.


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[ingenium]

So, I was thinking about switching to T-Mobile before the merger goes through. When I checked my phones compatibility(LG V40) it says that extended LTE and VOLTE will not work. Does that mean some of us will be getting new phones post merger?

It likely just needs a software update to enable it. Extended LTE I'm guessing is B71, which it probably doesn't support. VoLTE is 100% software though.

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[ingenium]

I have couple questions. When will Magic Boxes no longer be able to use B41 as backhaul? And when will they allow roaming to use the best connection whether T-Mobile or Sprint?
 

"Roaming" will be whenever they enable MOCN. Could be as early as the closing date if they're ready. We've seen signs that they're preparing for it now and making the necessary configuration changes. T-Mobile towers will appear as native, with the Sprint PLMN. And vice versa. They'll do some behind the scenes "magic" to basically merge the RAN / radio layer, but keep the backend cores separate.

As for MBs, my guess is we'll have a while. It depends when they need to refarm the MB earfcn for 5G. In which case they'd probably move the MB to a macro earfcn and use B2/B25 for backhaul.

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[ingenium]

Sprint changed the default QCI from 9 to 6. Matching T-mobile's. Another sign of prep for MOCN I think.

I've also been roaming on T-Mobile at home all day. Going back and forth between Sprint and T-Mobile macros, despite having an Airave and MB at home... Haven't connected to either all day. 3xCA on T-Mobile, but shit performance.

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[mdob07]

Sprint changed the default QCI from 9 to 6. Matching T-mobile's. Another sign of prep for MOCN I think.

I've also been roaming on T-Mobile at home all day. Going back and forth between Sprint and T-Mobile macros, despite having an Airave and MB at home... Haven't connected to either all day. 3xCA on T-Mobile, but shit performance.

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I noticed my phone sitting on T-mobile this morning. Took a full reboot to get back on Sprint, airplane mode cycle wouldn't do it. Speeds seem to be limited to around 5mbps on T-Mobile for me since they first enabled roaming.

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[BlueAngel]

My service is being really weird today, lost service then was on 3G and now back on LTE for the time being. PLM is 312 - 530.

[bigsnake49]

Nothing weird or even interesting is happening to my service. Same ole shitty service inside my condo, great service outside of it. MB working fine.

 

[ingenium]

My issue seems to be tied to one tower (MMIMO equipment). About once a year it has a similar issue, where it randomly prevents UE attachments. I get handed off to it (or switch earfcns on B41), and get kicked off Sprint's network and start roaming. Airplane mode tries to connect to the same tower, and triggers it again. Nearby towers are fine.

I was able to confirm that T-mobile roaming is indeed throttled to 5 Mbps. Well, 4.9 Mbps to be exact. Normally with Sprint roaming, such as with AT&T, Sprint is doing the throttling at their gateway, because they're paying per megabyte. But in this case, it's T-Mobile that's setting the throttle. Also, Sprint roaming is QCI 7 instead of 6, so it's at a lower QoS priority than T-Mobile customers.

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[RedSpark]

Curious how quickly T-Mobile management will act on things.

[bigsnake49]

Holy crap, go Nokia:

Nokia touted a new lab achievement over Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum that boosted 5G capacity by up to four times through a software upgrade.

 

The test included a software upgrade of E-UTRAN New Radio – Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) and Multi-User-MIMO (MU-MIMO) using Sprint’s mid-band 5G spectrum and Nokia’s AirScale solution to deliver 3 Gbps total downlink cell throughput, in what Nokia called a first.

It showcased Nokia’s AirScale Dual Mode Massive MIMO for 5G and LTE, using a single radio unit for both LTE and 5G. The test also tapped commercial hotspot devices. Nokia said once its service is commercially available operators will be able to “vastly increase” network capacity through software updates to the base station, without the need to invest in more spectrum or require site visits to swap out hardware or transport.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/nokia-notches-5g-capacity-boost-via-software-upgrade

[cyclone]

This software upgrade is only usable on sites already using the stated Nokia equipment? Are Ericsson and other markets going to need to be swapped out or pushed to find a similar software update?

[bigsnake49]

T-Mobile has asked the FCC for a temporary authority to use Sprint's 2.5 GHz spectrum in advance of the merger close. They want to use it for 5G NR.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/t-mobile-seeks-ok-to-use-2-5-ghz-philadelphia

[BlueAngel]

4 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

T-Mobile has asked the FCC for a temporary authority to use Sprint's 2.5 GHz spectrum in advance of the merger close. They want to use it for 5G NR.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/t-mobile-seeks-ok-to-use-2-5-ghz-philadelphia

That's awesome.

[reedacus25]

On 3/18/2020 at 5:39 AM, Trip said:

I'm looking at the MLS data for the past few days and it looks like the TACs may have changed in some areas where T-Mobile's TAC values begin with 3 or 4.  For example, in Columbia, SC, it looks like one of T-Mobile's TAC values is 31598.  It looks like any Sprint data collected from that area since at least 3/16 now has a TAC value of 31598, rather than the older 4353 value.

- Trip

I am late to the party, but noticed today that Sprint's TAC in the New Orleans metro was matching T-Mobile's.

T-Mobile has played with the TACs a number of times over the years in the southeast LA markets, and after splitting the New Orleans metro in two, they re-numbered again within 3-5 months, which I thought odd.

Also, being that you mentioned anything with a 3xxxx TAC being possible, the 3xxxx TAC range is used in the "South" region.

1xxxx is the "West" region.

2xxxx is the "East" region.

4xxxx is the "Central" region.

5xxxx are femto.

On 3/18/2020 at 11:51 AM, pokefan02 said:

I can confirm tac has changed in the Louisiana market in Southwest LA

I'm curious if things are changing in Lake Charles, as LC falls under the Houston market. I know the UMTS sites were at 32093, and the GSM sites were at 32247. 

The NOMO (New Orleans/Mobile)/Houston boundary is super weird, because it is one of the few that doesn't follow MTA boundaries, because Alexandria should be part of Houston, and its part of NOMO (after being part of nobody for the longest).

Iowa is a NOMO site, but the two sites north on US-165 are Houston, as is Kinder and sites on US-190 west of Kinder,  but Oberlin and Ragley are NOMO. Its a super weird boundary.

I know NOMO has re-TAC'd all of their UMTS sites to the new TAC schema, so that would be all the way to Pensacola/Destin, and up to about Hattiesburg.

I haven't seen or figured out what they'll do with the GSM (no UMTS) sites yet.

[Trip]

I've seen the T-Mobile TACs change a number of times around here, too.  I actually strongly dislike the T-Mobile TAC setup, which looks like a trainwreck to me, just like their GCIs and PCIs.  I would be willing to go through the trouble of recompiling my entire database for T-Mobile if they would fix their GCIs, PCIs, and TACs to fit some kind of sane and sensible pattern.  I fear that will not be the case.

- Trip

[dro1984]

I'm sure the T-Mobile trial for 2.5G is to double check their plan to quickly lay it down and convert towers over.   A "Test Run" if you will... 

[pokefan02]

Lake Charles area has TAC 32122 and 32247. There may be others. I haven't checked the entire area yet 

[reedacus25]

3 hours ago, Trip said:

I've seen the T-Mobile TACs change a number of times around here, too.  I actually strongly dislike the T-Mobile TAC setup, which looks like a trainwreck to me, just like their GCIs and PCIs.  I would be willing to go through the trouble of recompiling my entire database for T-Mobile if they would fix their GCIs, PCIs, and TACs to fit some kind of sane and sensible pattern.  I fear that will not be the case.

- Trip

The lack of structured PCIs bothers me to no end, but as I have heard, at least in the Nokia markets, they're just letting the OSS assign PCI based on *science*.

The eNB was ever so slightly structured, until they exhausted their original eNB pool.

Central was eNB 20000-39999, East was 40000-59999, South was 60000-79999, and West was 80000-99999.

Then, especially with Nokia Flexi basebands, you have to start adding 1-3 more eNB, exhausted the eNB pools in those schemas. I know South has a large number of 10000-19999 eNB, as well as 100000+. Oh, and the Nokia Flexi small cells, one eNB for L2100, another eNB for L1900. So 2 eNB burned for each small cell. So it went to hell quickly.

And then with the AirScale baseband swap in, mostly occurring with 600 overlays, they're now able to collapse the LTE layer down into a single eNB, and now a bunch of wasted eNB they are unlikely to recycle (which would be horrific for mapping apps).

The TACs had some semblance of structure at some point, where you could more or less identify the market based on the second and third digits, and fourth and fifth were individual tracking areas within the same engineering market. But of course, they didn't adhere to their own standards.

It's reminiscent of the TMO site ID structure, which will vary based on whether it was Omnipoint, Voicestream, Powertel, Aerial, et al, who all had different site ID structures, and they just merged them all together.

[ingenium]

This discussion just made me wonder if Sprint GCIs will have to change when MOCN is deployed. That would be a mess for mapping and tracking...

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[RAvirani]

5 hours ago, reedacus25 said:

The lack of structured PCIs bothers me to no end, but as I have heard, at least in the Nokia markets, they're just letting the OSS assign PCI based on *science*.

I really wish they would re-TAC and re-PCI the entire network as part of integration, although I know there's almost no chance they will.

[chamb]

3 hours ago, RAvirani said:

I really wish they would re-TAC and re-PCI the entire network as part of integration, although I know there's almost no chance they will.

I just have that "GUT" feeling that it is not going to be as easy as they think to combine the TMobile and Sprint sites. I hope they do not cause issues due to mistakes when they attempt this.  I just see some problems jumping up.

[dro1984]

I don't.    Compared to the way Sprint did things, T-Mobile's track record of integrating networks is much much better.     

[chamb]

You could be right, however, most of us members on S4GRU have used Sprint for years.  We were not users of T-Mobile.  Do we really know how many screw-ups they had combining other networks?  We were not there using it.