chamb Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 2 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said: 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. Yep, the FIRST thing that should have been accomplished is making the two networks look like one. Looks like it may be happening now, but it took way too long. If it was possible to do it, then T-Mobile looks very bad in allowing the havoc to start and continue. They had a long time to figure out how to make the two networks interoperate when permission was granted to merge. Putting all the effort into bragging about how quickly they were going to make 5G nationwide before anybody else was a wasted effort. It was simple. Immediately do what was necessary to combine the 4g networks so everybody could access the best signal between the two. Was NOBODY planning on how to do that for a year or more? Yes, customers are leaving and it is easy to understand why. I do not need immediate 5G nationwide service and most people do not. I did not ever think that T-Mobile was going to pull off the merger and not cause the average person some pain. What worries me now is how long the havoc is going to continue. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radem Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 21 minutes ago, chamb said: Yep, the FIRST thing that should have been accomplished is making the two networks look like one. Looks like it may be happening now, but it took way too long. If it was possible to do it, then T-Mobile looks very bad in allowing the havoc to start and continue. They had a long time to figure out how to make the two networks interoperate when permission was granted to merge. Putting all the effort into bragging about how quickly they were going to make 5G nationwide before anybody else was a wasted effort. It was simple. Immediately do what was necessary to combine the 4g networks so everybody could access the best signal between the two. Was NOBODY planning on how to do that for a year or more? Yes, customers are leaving and it is easy to understand why. I do not need immediate 5G nationwide service and most people do not. I did not ever think that T-Mobile was going to pull off the merger and not cause the average person some pain. What worries me now is how long the havoc is going to continue. Network roaming was their first step but roaming is not particularly useful in that it requires a user to lose their home network connection before the roaming connection gets established. In weak signal areas and overloaded network areas, users stay on the poorly performing network. Their second step was moving 5G from Sprint to T-Mobile. This was for bragging rights but lost them some customers when 5G Sprint customers were forcibly moved from the Sprint network to the T-Mobile network in areas where the T-Mobile network did not work well for them and users with certain 5G devices lost 5G altogether. They also started taking away Sprint bandwidth and moving it to T-Mobile causing some Sprint users to experience a worse network experience in certain areas. What should have occurred as the first step as chamb stated, they should have moved as quickly as possible to get the LTE networks to be integrated into a single native network where users did not have to wait to lose their home network before attaching to a "roaming" network. The network would have pushed users back and forth to the antenna and bandwidth that worked best for those users no matter if the antenna was a legacy Sprint or legacy T-Mobile. This should have occurred before they took away any LTE resources from either network and they should have avoided forcing users to move to the T-Mobile network before they were sure they would have the same or better experience. With proper planning this should have occurred within weeks of the merger date. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lockedtight Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 2 hours ago, Trip said: 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 Hopefully once the Shentel purchase has gone through T-Mobile will just throw their antennas and any other equipment needed onto Shentel towers and be done with it. I'd hate to be thrown on T-Mobile's current towers in my area as there are so few in WV and coverage is spotty at best without many more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dewbertdc Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 2 hours ago, radem said: The network would have pushed users back and forth to the antenna and bandwidth that worked best for those users no matter if the antenna was a legacy Sprint or legacy T-Mobile. I am a legacy T-Mobile customer, and can observe that this *seems* to be what's happening now when connected to the 311-490 PLMN. Most T-Mobile and Sprint towers are broadcasting it (Shentel areas seem to be a notable exception), subscribers of both networks can now connect to it, and it will try to balance you across both legacy networks as necessary. I wish I had an Android phone and SCP so I could see better what was going on, but from what I can tell from iPhone field test mode: when I connect to the 311-490 (as of this morning showing as "T-Mobile," not "Sprint") network in the manual network selection screen on my iPhone 11 Pro, Field test mode shows the PLMN as 310-260 when connected to the legacy T-Mobile network and 310-120 on the legacy Sprint network. I was in a CVS this weekend that is directly in the shadow of a tower with Sprint B41, and only a weak B12 T-Mobile (310-260) signal. After a few minutes, my phone popped on to Sprint B41 (310-120) and stayed there, then was back on T-Mobile B66 when I got home. Quote This should have occurred before they took away any LTE resources from either network and they should have avoided forcing users to move to the T-Mobile network before they were sure they would have the same or better experience. With proper planning this should have occurred within weeks of the merger date. Agree with you here. This should have been step 1 before any of the 5G Stuff happened. It really seems like their initial 5G rollout was pretty slap-dash... T-Mobile is even now texting folks who have 5G devices but didn't get an updated 5G-compatible SIM that they need to get a new one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 48 minutes ago, Lockedtight said: Hopefully once the Shentel purchase has gone through T-Mobile will just throw their antennas and any other equipment needed onto Shentel towers and be done with it. I'd hate to be thrown on T-Mobile's current towers in my area as there are so few in WV and coverage is spotty at best without many more. That's what I'm hoping for as well. I'm wary of T-Mobile's rural deployments, and I'm hoping they'll at least take what they're given and not try to cut tower costs... - Trip 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chamb Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 17 minutes ago, Trip said: That's what I'm hoping for as well. I'm wary of T-Mobile's rural deployments, and I'm hoping they'll at least take what they're given and not try to cut tower costs... - Trip Yep, Shentel has established a very very good network. If T-Mobile does not accept that network as the backbone and move their equipment onto the Shentel sites, things are going to go downhill real fast. I have no faith that T-Mobile will do the right thing here. Shentel has the right spacing, T-Mobile has gone the cheap route and only has about 1/2 of the sites needed. Since T-Mobile has a history of being cheap in the Shentel area, I have little faith that they will ever do it right. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 Several interesting articles on my radar this morning. https://www.lightreading.com/4g3gwifi/t-mobiles-mexican-standoff-affects-hundreds-of-cell-sites/d/d-id/763945?_mc=RSS_LR_EDT "T-Mobile said that it has been forced to shut down or power down hundreds of cell sites along the US-Mexico border due to interference from Altán Redes, a private company building a 4G network for the Mexican government." ----- https://www.fiercewireless.com/operators/t-mobile-american-tower-ink-new-15-year-pact "T-Mobile announced a new 15-year master lease agreement (MLA) with American Tower, paving the way for faster 5G deployments." Another source for same news: https://www.lightreading.com/5g/t-mobile-inks-$17b-deal-for-5g-cell-towers/d/d-id/763935?_mc=RSS_LR_EDT ----- https://www.rcrwireless.com/20200915/opinion/kagan-t-mobile-needs-to-update-its-marketing-strategy An op-ed piece talking about how T-Mobile needs to update its marketing strategy. It all sounds well and good, but to me, until the networks are transparent to each other, all the marketing in the world won't help. Poor service can't be overcome by PR. - Trip 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iansltx Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 T-Mobile is leasing another bunch of spectrum from another speculator: Interesting that they were able to come to terms for San Antonio but not Austin, as the firm owns the same block in both PEAs. My bet with both this and the Dish leases is that T-Mobile won't try to renew them when they expire, or at least won't outbid Dish for them. 2.5 years from now they should have n41 online in enough places that n71 will get a fraction of the use it does now, in absolute terms, with n2/25 coming online around then as well (if I had to guess, both PCS CDMA and GSM/H+ will be refarmed directly from those techs to NR without stopping at LTE first unless there's contiguity to be had). The other side of this coin is that I'm betting Dish will try to run on 600-only as long as possible in as many markets as possible, because doing so means fewer tower leases, vs. T-Mobile who can't get away from having mid-band in all but the most rural areas. So a year after Dish builds out in an area 600 will be more valuable to them than to T-Mobile. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmoses Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 looks like a potential fix for OnePlus phones not connecting to B25/B26. I haven't tried it on my phone yet but will as soon as i have time to. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cardsfan96 Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 Experienced T-Mobile B41 LTE for the first time today. Two 20 MHz carriers. Speedtest was 101 down 4.3 up. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bennyjet29 Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 https://www.lightreading.com/5g/is-t-mobile-prepared-for-its-5g-iphone-moment/a/d-id/764024?The million dollar question?! [emoji2375]Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iansltx Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 26 minutes ago, Bennyjet29 said: https://www.lightreading.com/5g/is-t-mobile-prepared-for-its-5g-iphone-moment/a/d-id/764024? The million dollar question?! [emoji2375] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk They have iPhones on their network right now that can't access n71/n41. If anything, they're *more* ready for a 5G iPhone than a 4G one, as they'll have more capacity to work with it. With the Dish et al leases coming online in the coming weeks, low-band-only will be in a decent spot, and of course you have the rather quick mid-band pace going on. I'd expect another milestone announcement around the time the iPhone is released saying that more cities are covered with mid-band. They can decide how much to push for new customers by offering promos, vs. converting their existing customer base over. Seems like network-wise this wouldn't be any more of an event than Verizon migrating everyone on Tracfone's brands to their network (which would equate to a ~6% increase in customer base). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSpark Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 18 hours ago, Bennyjet29 said: https://www.lightreading.com/5g/is-t-mobile-prepared-for-its-5g-iphone-moment/a/d-id/764024? The million dollar question?! [emoji2375] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk The iPhone 5G launch delay actually gives T-Mobile a a few extra weeks to make network upgrades, so this may actually work out for the best. Quote Ray added that T-Mobile has been updating its 5G network with Sprint's 2.5GHz midband spectrum holdings at a rate of almost 100 cell tower sites a day. Given how aggressively T-Mobile is doing tower upgrades for 2.5 GHz, I think they'll address the densest markets first as part of the iPhone 5G launch. They have all the data on where everyone is and what device they currently have (and potential upgrades), for both Sprint and T-Mobile, so I think this will work out just fine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jf15219 Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 On 9/14/2020 at 11:49 PM, 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. 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) Well, I'm sitting here northwest of Pittsburgh near the Ohio border using a v60, and i can tell you that Sprint has coverage where T-Mobile wasn't even trying. One infuriating thing is that this phone isn't currently working properly when it has to use Sprint B26, which is pretty much all the time because it connects to 800 as well when using 1900 and 2500 most of the time. Phone loses its mind: LTE flag on, VoLTE flag on, VoLTE flag off, Roaming flag on, radio resets and we start all over. It gets stuck in this loop sometimes even when returning to T-Mobile coverage. Android Auto connects and disconnects every time the radio resets. It's infuriating, and all I can get Sprint to admit to is an "outage" that's supposed to be fixed by a date that keeps getting pushed back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dewbertdc Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 FYI for anyone with a recent multi-line T-Mobile plan, they're offering another free line for life if you call in or chat via T-Force on Twitter/Facebook/iMessage. I now have five lines of Magenta Plus for $125, all taxes included. (Three free lines, plus a $15 discount match from when I ported one number over from Verizon that had an corporate discount attached to it). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdob07 Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 On 9/15/2020 at 11:48 AM, dewbertdc said: Agree with you here. This should have been step 1 before any of the 5G Stuff happened. It really seems like their initial 5G rollout was pretty slap-dash... T-Mobile is even now texting folks who have 5G devices but didn't get an updated 5G-compatible SIM that they need to get a new one. Hmm, I'm betting this is why I keep getting a "ROAMING NOT ALLOWED" in the service menu when I try to force SA N71. I had an issue trying to activate both my S20+ and Tab S6 when I switched to T-Mobile in April. Long story short they fixed the issue by giving me new SIM cards for both at a local store. My current SIM does not say R15 on it, it just says TM9263. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSpark Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 Another one: https://www.fiercewireless.com/financial/softbank-to-sell-majority-stake-brightstar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingenium Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 Well, I'm sitting here northwest of Pittsburgh near the Ohio border using a v60, and i can tell you that Sprint has coverage where T-Mobile wasn't even trying. One infuriating thing is that this phone isn't currently working properly when it has to use Sprint B26, which is pretty much all the time because it connects to 800 as well when using 1900 and 2500 most of the time. Phone loses its mind: LTE flag on, VoLTE flag on, VoLTE flag off, Roaming flag on, radio resets and we start all over. It gets stuck in this loop sometimes even when returning to T-Mobile coverage. Android Auto connects and disconnects every time the radio resets. It's infuriating, and all I can get Sprint to admit to is an "outage" that's supposed to be fixed by a date that keeps getting pushed back.Yup, in western PA and northeast Ohio, Sprint coverage blows away T-Mobile's. T-mobile seems to have built a barebones network just to claim coverage. In the Youngstown area I'd estimate that Sprint has 2x as many towers as T-mobile. Pittsburgh also has better site density and site placement. The only places I know where T-mobile has better coverage are along 376 between the 76-376 interchange near Beaver Falls and 224, and on the route northeast of Pittsburgh going up to I-80, where there is a 20 minute stretch of no Sprint service but T-mobile does.T-mobile built their network in this area to cover highways and major roads, but once you get off those, Sprint wins. Hopefully they keep most of the sites.Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDP121 Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 So if anyone is wondering about the TMO and Shentel Deal. I got some what of an update today. Had an interesting day today not long before I went into work and when I was working. Saw a Technician out for Shentel using a Sprint truck looking at a a telephone line. I’m assuming they may be looking at putting up on the pole at some point. But stopped and talked a few minutes and asked what’s going on with the TMO and Shentel negations and alls he knew is that they didn’t take TMO up on the first offer they did for Shentel. And at work one of the Sprint Store workers came in and since the ones here work for Shentel I asked the same question. He said that Shentel had declined the first offer and that they are trying to negotiate a deal. He seemed like they will come to a good deal soon he hopes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesinclair Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 Hey guys, I have a couple of questions. I recently took the train for the first time since March. This was my daily commute, and it would pass through 2 Sprint dead zones. Well, 99% dead - sometimes I would grab a signal but not enough to even open a simple web page or email. I knew exactly where I was on my commute based on this. I was hoping with Tmobile, that issue would be solved. Instead I got this image. Does it means that Tmobile is even worse in that specific location than Sprint? Also, I am interested in purchasing this phone when it comes out in December. Will I be able to use it on my Sprint account? https://www.sony.com/electronics/smartphones/xperia-5m2/specifications Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trip Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 I'm not sure it tells you anything about T-Mobile. You're not roaming at that moment; that's still the Sprint network. The oddball GCI is because for Sprint sites where the GCI had a value already used by T-Mobile's existing sites, they very quickly shoved the Sprint GCIs off to other values that T-Mobile doesn't use instead. T-Mobile doesn't really follow very many patterns. - Trip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iansltx Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 21 hours ago, jamesinclair said: Also, I am interested in purchasing this phone when it comes out in December. Will I be able to use it on my Sprint account? https://www.sony.com/electronics/smartphones/xperia-5m2/specifications That phone doesn't have band 71. Picking it up for Sprint/TMo would be a bad idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stlman314 Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 On 9/17/2020 at 4:59 PM, Cardsfan96 said: Experienced T-Mobile B41 LTE for the first time today. Two 20 MHz carriers. Speedtest was 101 down 4.3 up. Where at? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdob07 Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 On 9/13/2020 at 12:25 AM, mdob07 said: 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. Today I confirmed I'm able to connect to our Magicbox now with my T-Mobile phone. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesinclair Posted September 22, 2020 Share Posted September 22, 2020 On 9/20/2020 at 4:22 PM, iansltx said: That phone doesn't have band 71. Picking it up for Sprint/TMo would be a bad idea. How important is band 71? I sort of checked out on all this tmobile stuff, and still see the world through the lens of 25/26/41 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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