Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[bar5rab]

Menifee/Murrieta area

[ZERO_COOL]

2 hours ago, bar5rab said:

Menifee/Murrieta area

Thanks. Now thats surprising since I lived in Elsinore since 2009 and saw no expansion.. hell the tower off railroad canyon by the walmart is still only b25. I know Menifee area was also bad for sprint especially between Ynez and right before you get to the 215.

[greenbastard]

12 hours ago, Trip said:

You say this like it's a bad thing, but Shentel does it too and that's the best part of the Sprint network that I've experienced--and I'd argue that some of Sprint's problem has been that it doesn't do this.  Not prioritizing the deployment is how you end up with Band 41 on towers surrounded by corn fields and cow pastures in Fauquier County, but a Band 25 GMO serving multiple shopping centers in Alexandria. 

This is so true. The most frustrating thing about being a Sprint customer was seeing their lack of common sense when it came to deploying new technology. In Houston, they refused to upgrade old clearwire equipment for better performing 8t8r equipment and never bothered to do 4x4 MIMO on B25 (which was needed since they only owned the D, E, and G blocks here).

Yet every tower in rural Southern Louisiana seemed to have 4x4 mimo enabled and 8t8r equipment.

[bmoses]

I was able to connect to sprint B41 this morning in central iowa!

https://imgur.com/a/qVCtoeu

I tried B25 and B26 but I couldn't get on either of those. I'm not close to the B41 towers so was a weak signal but I was bouncing between 3 different ones. Data worked but was very slow because of that.

[dewbertdc]

Looks like we’ve got Sprint network access in Washington, DC now as well...

 

[OhioCalling]

I know that a company is applying for Zoning approval to construct a new tower in Van Wert County within Van Wert City Limits. I have no knowledge as to what cellular company is having the tower built but sure hope it is the New T-Mobile. Their signal here is weak and needs to be improved.  They previously had a large retail store in our shopping center but it lasted less than year as the poor service couldn't retain customers. Sprints signal was better but spotty if you wanted other than 3G. Their last close to successful store here was when they split the Radio Shack store and we all no ow that worked out. I know the people applying for the zoning is being secretive as to the cellular company. Verizon just installed a new monopole behind the city building last year so it isn't theirs. I am hopeful and optimistic that the New T-Mobile is building the new tower.

[dewbertdc]

There’s some weird stuff happening here. VoLTE is working just fine, but I’ll also occasionally see that I’m on T-Mobile bands with the 310-260 PLMN in field test mode when my phone is showing the Sprint alpha tag.  Also I’m seeing B71 at my house for the first time ever.

I’m also noticing that force selecting Sprint shows a ton more neighbor cells (both T-Mobile and Sprint) than being on T-Mobile.

Will keep an eye on it... progress!!

[Bennyjet29]

https://www.pcmag.com/fastest-mobile-networks/2020

 

I have been looking forward to this article and the results are disappointing. However, we knew the transition from 4G to 5G would take several of years to complete.

 

 

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[Trip]

Interesting.  A network you barely ever connect to wins the prize for best network.  I suppose if you never leave the urban core or, like, go inside buildings.

- Trip

 

[Tengen31]

Interesting.  A network you barely ever connect to wins the prize for best network.  I suppose if you never leave the urban core or, like, go inside buildings.

- Trip

 

It's because vzws LTE is faster, on average,than TMobiles 5G

 

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[Trip]

Ah, I see, I misread.  I thought it was best 5G network.  😳

- Trip

 

[mikejeep]

Interesting.  A network you barely ever connect to wins the prize for best network.  I suppose if you never leave the urban core or, like, go inside buildings.

 

*Fastest network. The text of the article seems to make it clear that, nationally, T-Mobile 5G wins in coverage, Verizon 5G wins in speed (when you can find it), and AT&T 5G is useless at the moment.

 

Interesting enough, AT&T was deemed the overall winner in Boston.

 

I believe that T-Mobile will be better positioned next year once it finishes shuffling its Sprint assets. But I think the author was fair in evaluating the network as it stands today, not where it might be in the future.

 

[Bennyjet29]

https://www.rootmetrics.com/en-US/home

In other news, RootMetrics has officially moved on from Sprint in their “2nd Half 2020” reports. New T-Mobile seems to be holding its own in some cities but other cities reflect the congestion/slow speeds from moving over Sprint customers.


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[iansltx]

In some of these areas (e.g. Austin) Dish is dropping to 5 MHz of band 71 until they call back the lease. This is great as far as I'm concerned, because T-Mobile can immediately put the extra 5 MHz to use, and Dish will still have some band 71 to let them hit their buildout obligation.

In my market in particular (and San Antonio is the same way), the license won't be contiguous with T-Mobile's existing spectrum, but it won't matter; they have 15x15 contiguous and can move their LTE carrier from B up to F, allowing them to widen NR to 15x15.

I think that the Boost reason is largely irrelevant, as effectively all Boost customers are on 4G phones, and T-Mobile is going to throw this extra spectrum at 5G. This is a low-band capacity play for T-Mobile plain and simple, a quick way to get another up to 45 Mbps of capacity on the NR band that's actually widely built out.

[mdob07]

Looks like I'm now able to roam onto the Sprint network in Louisville. No CA on this test and I had my phone locked to only B41.

 

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[RedSpark]

Things just keep getting more interesting for SoftBank Post-Merger:

https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-to-acquire-arm-for-40-billion-creating-worlds-premier-computing-company-for-the-age-of-ai

[bigsnake49]

Some decent info in this reddit thread:

 

[shaferz]

5 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

Some decent info in this reddit thread:

 

Some? Yes.  Unfortunately nothing firm.  There are still plenty of us out there who are on the Sprint network getting spectacular service where the is little to no Tmobile network coverage.  As of two weeks ago, Tmobile customers here went from a very slight signal to no signal all over town.  Looking at some posts in that reddit thread makes it sound like upgrades for legacy Sprint customers to an iphone 12 will possibly push them over to Tmobile being the home network.  If that's the case, I predict a LOT of infuriated customers - me included.  I'll stick with my iphone 11 pro just to keep Sprint as the preferred network. 

[iansltx]

1 hour ago, shaferz said:

Some? Yes.  Unfortunately nothing firm.  There are still plenty of us out there who are on the Sprint network getting spectacular service where the is little to no Tmobile network coverage.  As of two weeks ago, Tmobile customers here went from a very slight signal to no signal all over town.  Looking at some posts in that reddit thread makes it sound like upgrades for legacy Sprint customers to an iphone 12 will possibly push them over to Tmobile being the home network.  If that's the case, I predict a LOT of infuriated customers - me included.  I'll stick with my iphone 11 pro just to keep Sprint as the preferred network. 

T-Mobile-to-Sprint connectivity is live to the point of treating both networks as one from the sound of it (vs. waiting for a service drop to switch to the other). Betting they have the kinks ironed out on that by the time the iPhone 12 gets released, so the network experience on those devices with a T-Mobile primary network will be fine.

[greenbastard]

4 hours ago, shaferz said:

 If that's the case, I predict a LOT of infuriated customers

Probably not many. T-Mobile has an overall better network. There are WAY more Sprint weak spots than there are T-Mobile weak spots.

Also, all T-Mobile iPhone users will soon be able to roam on Sprint towers. Most of the west coast and southern T-Mobile users can already use the Sprint network (so far most compatibility issues that have been found are exclusive to android devices)

[RAvirani]

32 minutes ago, greenbastard said:

Probably not many. T-Mobile has an overall better network. There are WAY more Sprint weak spots than there are T-Mobile weak spots.

That's a very region-dependent claim. The number of times I see T-Mobile EDGE per week would strongly suggest otherwise in the greater Seattle area. 

[greenbastard]

2 hours ago, RAvirani said:

That's a very region-dependent claim. 

3 hours ago, greenbastard said:

Probably not many. T-Mobile has an overall better network. 

 

 I didn't make a region based claim. I made an overall claim. T-Mobile is just the better network. Both networks have bad areas across the country. Sprint just happens to have more of them.

[belusnecropolis]

14 minutes ago, greenbastard said:

 I didn't make a region based claim. I made an overall claim. T-Mobile is just the better network. Both networks have bad areas across the country. Sprint just happens to have more of them.

My local site has Sprint with powervision PCS A-F SISO antenna on it still.

[bigsnake49]

11 hours ago, iansltx said:

T-Mobile-to-Sprint connectivity is live to the point of treating both networks as one from the sound of it (vs. waiting for a service drop to switch to the other). Betting they have the kinks ironed out on that by the time the iPhone 12 gets released, so the network experience on those devices with a T-Mobile primary network will be fine.

From the sound of it, the TMX program that they are just now implementing is a response to a lot of Sprint customers leaving. I have been a proponent of taking care of the 4G customers first and worry about 5G later. You have to secure your customer base first. I am not sure that iPhone 12 will be the savior people are portraying. It might be an added incentive for people to leave while T-Mobile's network is in flux. 

[Trip]

If a customer is on Sprint because it works best for them (as I am), and shunting them to T-Mobile changes that (it would for me, in a vastly negative direction), it doesn't matter which network is "overall" better.  I don't think you can translate your experience or even a statement about which is better overall into a general statement about whether or not there would be a lot of complaints.  Even in areas where T-Mobile is better, Sprint is on different towers.  People who have reception in their homes, workplaces, or other frequently visited areas today could lose that just because the exact tower location is different.

Here in DC, I agree in general that T-Mobile has the denser network with more consistent coverage.  Yet, without hesitation, I can take you to places where Sprint has better service than T-Mobile (just as I can take you to places where T-Mobile is better than Sprint).  There's a community nearby that has somehow managed to fight off all the cell towers.  Sprint has strand-mount gear installed, and T-Mobile has... nothing.  Guess which network is better.  There's a Trader Joe's sitting in a basement unit of a shopping center.  Sprint is on a nearby building and works (barely), while T-Mobile is not and has no service.  Large portions of the Shentel region that I regularly visit have reliable Sprint service and T-Mobile has very poor service.

But I do agree that we should see the networks start to look transparent to each other at some point.  There's no reason not to do so, and it would make this issue go away, at least on the large scale.  As integration happens going forward, some people could lose out, but it would be tower-by-tower and not a wholesale change-over of the network all at once.

- Trip