Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[Paynefanbro]

T-Mobile and GCI Wireless entered into a domestic 5G roaming agreement like they did with LTE. This makes the T-Mobile the first carrier to offer 5G in all 50 states. 

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/tmobile-5g-in-alaska-through-gci-partnership

[swintec]

2 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

T-Mobile and GCI Wireless entered into a domestic 5G roaming agreement like they did with LTE. This makes the T-Mobile the first carrier to offer 5G in all 50 states. 

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/tmobile-5g-in-alaska-through-gci-partnership

Wait, chicken and the egg here but maybe GCI was the first to offer 5G nationwide?

[JimBob]

Is T-Mobile Stock a Buy?

"The recent tie-up has given the combined company hidden growth potential, which could make T-Mobile a potential home run stock with less risk than many other investment options."

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/06/07/is-t-mobile-stock-a-buy.aspx

[JonnygATL]

I see from the June 2nd coverage map update that 5G coverage has been removed in Atlanta. Unsurprising but still nostalgically sad. 

[greenbastard]

6 hours ago, JonnygATL said:

I see from the June 2nd coverage map update that 5G coverage has been removed in Atlanta. Unsurprising but still nostalgically sad. 

5G coverage maps are actually gone from the Sprint site. I wonder if T-Mobile has started installing panels in Sprint's original 5G markets?

[Bennyjet29]

Is T-Mobile Stock a Buy?
"The recent tie-up has given the combined company hidden growth potential, which could make T-Mobile a potential home run stock with less risk than many other investment options."
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/06/07/is-t-mobile-stock-a-buy.aspx

I am a small investor myself and do have 1 share of T-Mobile, which was formerly 10 shares of Sprint. Yes, telecom stocks will see exponential growth, but you are better off investing in the actual 5G tech stocks aka Qualcomm, Resonant, Gilat, Commware, Nokia, etc... Those stocks will see massive gains once Apple officially unveils on the iPhone 12 5G lineup on 09-22-20. [emoji389][emoji1605]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JonnygATL]

4 hours ago, greenbastard said:

5G coverage maps are actually gone from the Sprint site. I wonder if T-Mobile has started installing panels in Sprint's original 5G markets?

I would be hard pressed to imagine they haven't, given their outstanding track record.

[dro1984]

Lots of new panels going on former Sprint towers and also M.Mimo going on a lot of known T-Mobile sites around here.    Coverage isn't any different yet, but it does look like tower work is happening.   Band 41 is still up and running.  Really hard to connect to it anymore, but it shows up.   Mostly everything LTE for me is handled with Sprint's old band 25.

[dkyeager]

6 minutes ago, dro1984 said:

Band 41 is still up and running.  Really hard to connect to it anymore, but it shows up.   

Has the number of Band 41 carriers been reduced?

Any pictures of the Massive MIMO equipment on T-Mobile only sites?

[jporter12]

3 minutes ago, dkyeager said:

Has the number of Band 41 carriers been reduced?

Any pictures of the Massive MIMO equipment on T-Mobile only sites?

How has B41 been for you in Columbus?  I'm on a S20U, therefore T-Mobile service, and the only place I see B41 is at home, where I get a strong B41, until I get a mile or so down the road and I hit T-Mobile.  I live in a small "black hole" of T-mobile weak coverage.  I haven't taken my S10+ out that is still getting Sprint service to see how it compares to before. 

When I do latch on to B41 with my S20U, it's usually 3X 20Mhz CA.

[dkyeager]

2 minutes ago, jporter12 said:

How has B41 been for you in Columbus?  I'm on a S20U, therefore T-Mobile service, and the only place I see B41 is at home, where I get a strong B41, until I get a mile or so down the road and I hit T-Mobile.  I live in a small "black hole" of T-mobile weak coverage.  I haven't taken my S10+ out that is still getting Sprint service to see how it compares to before. 

When I do latch on to B41 with my S20U, it's usually 3X 20Mhz CA.

 Band 41 remains the same currently in the traditional Columbus metro, but go to the new edges and we have seen new 15Mhz b41 for 20+20+15 by UPdownLoAD on Sprint and possibly b25 plus b41 and b41.

T-Mobile seems to be on a roll in pushing out band 71 from the City center and is now pushing past the beltway. N71 reported by imex99.

[jporter12]

32 minutes ago, dkyeager said:

 Band 41 remains the same currently in the traditional Columbus metro, but go to the new edges and we have seen new 15Mhz b41 for 20+20+15 by UPdownLoAD on Sprint and possibly b25 plus b41 and b41.

T-Mobile seems to be on a roll in pushing out band 71 from the City center and is now pushing past the beltway. N71 reported by imex99.

We certainly have N71 out here (I'm in the same area as UPdownLoAD), I think it's on both of the closest towers.  I have definitely seen B25+B41, up to x4 on Sprint recently (before I was on T-Mo service) but it's a notoriously bad tower, maybe a backhaul issue.

One thing I have noticed about CA is that Sprint seems to connect it whenever possible, where T-Mo seems to only add CA as needed, actively data transferring.

[dkyeager]

3 hours ago, jporter12 said:

One thing I have noticed about CA is that Sprint seems to connect it whenever possible, where T-Mo seems to only add CA as needed, actively data transferring.

Agree. T-Mobile CA can just be a few seconds.  Many T-Mobile macro sites just have two bands. A much less dense network in our urban areas but more current tech (QAM etc).

[dewbertdc]

This Redditor seems to have found some 2.5 panels added to a site in Chicago.

 

[RedSpark]

Neat!

[Dkoellerwx]

2 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Neat!

Any idea who this would be offered to? Seems pretty vague. 

[dewbertdc]

22 minutes ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Any idea who this would be offered to? Seems pretty vague. 

Probably only folks who have a VoLTE capable handset with all of the T-Mobile bands, perhaps whose primary usage is in an area where there’s extra capacity on the T-Mobile network. 
 

There’s a method to their madness to minimize any negative experiences for existing T-Mobile customers and folks who are being migrated from Sprint, it’s probably just not obvious to those of us who don’t have inside knowledge. 

[dkyeager]

1 hour ago, dewbertdc said:

Probably only folks who have a VoLTE capable handset with all of the T-Mobile bands, perhaps whose primary usage is in an area where there’s extra capacity on the T-Mobile network. 
 

There’s a method to their madness to minimize any negative experiences for existing T-Mobile customers and folks who are being migrated from Sprint, it’s probably just not obvious to those of us who don’t have inside knowledge. 

I hope they have started to use their data for this. Plenty of Samsung S20 users had netter Sprint service and non-existent T-Mobile service in some cases.

[iansltx]

3 hours ago, dkyeager said:

I hope they have started to use their data for this. Plenty of Samsung S20 users had netter Sprint service and non-existent T-Mobile service in some cases.

Yeah, at my place B41 beats T-Mobile speed-wise, and forcing my phone to B26 allows it to maintain signal better ~3/4 mi west of here. It's not that B66/B2 are *bad* per se, but they aren't anything to write home about here.

What's funny is, as the top-tier Sprint customers get new phones, or get the SOC enabled, Sprint's network will just get faster, so until we get n41 there'll be more and more incentive to stay on legacy Sprint LTE.

[dkyeager]

7 hours ago, iansltx said:

Yeah, at my place B41 beats T-Mobile speed-wise, and forcing my phone to B26 allows it to maintain signal better ~3/4 mi west of here. It's not that B66/B2 are *bad* per se, but they aren't anything to write home about here.

What's funny is, as the top-tier Sprint customers get new phones, or get the SOC enabled, Sprint's network will just get faster, so until we get n41 there'll be more and more incentive to stay on legacy Sprint LTE.

B26 will definitely get better. B41 spectrum will likely be shrunk by moving to n41 once they get rolling on more site work. B25 is likely most vulnerable to spectrum being moved to T-Mobile b2 or n2 or n25 (which has more bandwidth per carrier).

FCC put in almost no Sprint customer oriented network restrictions into the merger so we either accept or move to another carrier. Even that is being rushed by pushing people over before sites have been converted thus limiting customer rational judgement.  Accept or pick new carrier since T-Mobile can do what it wants.

 

[iansltx]

2 hours ago, dkyeager said:

B26 will definitely get better. B41 spectrum will likely be shrunk by moving to n41 once they get rolling on more site work. B25 is likely most vulnerable to spectrum being moved to T-Mobile b2 or n2 or n25 (which has more bandwidth per carrier).

FCC put in almost no Sprint customer oriented network restrictions into the merger so we either accept or move to another carrier. Even that is being rushed by pushing people over before sites have been converted thus limiting customer rational judgement.  Accept or pick new carrier since T-Mobile can do what it wants

 

As long as T-Mobile pulls stuff over to NR I'm fine with Sprint losing B41 and even B25 (the G block isn't going anywhere) in favor of T-Mobile NR. That's why I bought a 5G phone. I doubt there'll be an extended period where they take spectrum from one (other than the 5G shutdown) to push to the other.

[bigsnake49]

I will keep repeating myself, I hope they prioritize the integration of the LTE network over the deployment of 5G. There are not a lot of S20 customers right now and probably close to 120M of LTE customers. Give your current customers a reason to stay by optimizing access to both networks for customers.

Edited June 12, 2020 by bigsnake49

[ingenium]

One thing I have noticed about CA is that Sprint seems to connect it whenever possible, where T-Mo seems to only add CA as needed, actively data transferring.

That's the case with almost all providers other than Sprint. AT&T does the same thing. Though on my Pixel 4, even with modest data usage (basically background usage with the screen on), it keeps at least 2-3x CA (capable of 4 or 5x CA). On a PCIe LTE modem that I have that's capable of 2xCA, it only does CA when there is data flow, and only if using B12 as the PCC (tower only has 2+12). If B2 is the PCC, it will never add B12 as an SCC. In that case I think it's to keep B12 open.

CA uses up resource blocks. On other providers, they're often spectrum constrained (Sprint isn't on B41), so it makes sense to not needlessly tie up resource blocks.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[RedSpark]

34 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

I will keep repeating myself, I hope they prioritize the integration of the LTE network over the deployment of 5G. There are not a lot of S20 customers right now and probably close to 120M of LTE customers. Give your current customers a reason to stay by optimizing access to both networks for customers.

True. However, the number of 5G customers is going to ramp up substantially once the iPhone 5G is released this fall so they need to be ready for that when it drops.

[jporter12]

59 minutes ago, ingenium said:

 

 

That's the case with almost all providers other than Sprint. AT&T does the same thing. Though on my Pixel 4, even with modest data usage (basically background usage with the screen on), it keeps at least 2-3x CA (capable of 4 or 5x CA). On a PCIe LTE modem that I have that's capable of 2xCA, it only does CA when there is data flow, and only if using B12 as the PCC (tower only has 2+12). If B2 is the PCC, it will never add B12 as an SCC. In that case I think it's to keep B12 open.

CA uses up resource blocks. On other providers, they're often spectrum constrained (Sprint isn't on B41), so it makes sense to not needlessly tie up resource blocks.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 

 

Thanks for that explanation, that makes a lot more sense of why they do it!  
I HAVE been noticing that n71 has been staying connected a LOT more this past week or so.