Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[stlman314]

25 minutes ago, jamesinclair said:

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

Think of B71 like B26 but better personally. I can be in the basement of my home on B71 and still pull 30+ down. The closest tower is about almost a mile away.

[clbowens]

21 minutes ago, jamesinclair said:

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

Yeah, B71 will be really important when they give B26 over to Dish.

[bigsnake49]

21 minutes ago, stlman314 said:

Think of B71 one like B26 but better personally. I can be in the basement of my home on B71 and still pull 30+ down. The closest tower is about almost a mile away.

T-Mobile has a lot more N71/B71 than the measly 7MHz/3Mhz in border regions of B26

[RedSpark]

11 minutes ago, clbowens said:

Yeah, B71 will be really important when they give B26 over to Dish.

Is Band 26 still in the process of being rebanded?

[bigsnake49]

3 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Is Band 26 still in the process of being rebanded?

A few very limited areas.

[iansltx]

5 hours ago, jamesinclair said:

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

In some areas T-Mobile has access to more band 71 spectrum than Sprint had B25...and B71 goes further than B26...and it's the band where T-Mobile's nationwide 5G is deployed (usually all but 5 MHz of band 71 is used for 5G). Without B71, low-band with TMo is *at best* 5 MHz of B12 LTE, and some areas don't even have that because other carriers own all the B12 licenses.

[mikejeep]

On 9/20/2020 at 6:08 AM, Trip said:

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.

I've been looking for someone else to notice this.. all summer, the Sprint B41 GCI's in my area have been slowly transitioning to new 000xxxxx ones that don't seem to correlate to anything. B25/B26 hasn't changed at all. Do we know if this is a temporary "work in progress" sort of thing, or permanent?

[Paynefanbro]

T-Mobile responded to complaints by Verizon and AT&T that they shouldn't be allowed to bid on C-band or lease more 600MHz spectrum.

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/real_competition_blog

Quote

We are now witnessing the spectacle of two of the biggest companies in the world asking the FCC to constrict T-Mobile’s ability to compete on a level playing field for important spectrum, under a regulatory tool known as the “spectrum screen.”

While these industry incumbents claim this is to protect competition from one company having too much spectrum, this rings hollow as evidenced by their immediate efforts to block T-Mobile from leasing unused 600 MHz spectrum from a company called Columbia Capital...In the category of “you can’t make this stuff up” – AT&T had won at auction the spectrum that Columbia Capital is now leasing to T-Mobile and – guess what – AT&T decided it didn’t want it and sold it to Columbia. Verizon, the ringleader in opposing this lease, never bothered to even show up and bid for any 600 MHz spectrum. In short, we have AT&T and Verizon seeking to block T-Mobile from using spectrum that AT&T decided to jettison, and Verizon had no interest in pursuing.

The main event, however, is the upcoming C-band spectrum auction...Citing the “spectrum screen”, AT&T and Verizon would like to keep T-Mobile out of the bidding or at least put a damper on our ability to aggressively bid against them in this important auction, so that they can run the table unchecked...The “spectrum screen” pre-dates, and therefore ignores, certain 5G spectrum where Verizon already dominates. In fact, Verizon holds massive spectrum (far more than T-Mobile’s entire portfolio of low, mid-, and high-band spectrum) in the “millimeter wave” bands, which are the cornerstone of their 5G strategy and which are not subject to the “spectrum screen”.

In other words, Verizon, as the holder of the most spectrum in the U.S. marketplace by far, which they gained through their own financial dominance, has the anti-competitive instincts and sheer audacity to complain that a much smaller T-Mobile has too much. After holding massive spectrum advantages over T-Mobile and others for decades, Verizon and AT&T just can’t stand the idea of anyone else being ahead of them or having a fair shot in an auction where they plan to use their financial might to do what they have always done – dominate.

 

[Cardsfan96]

On 9/21/2020 at 9:58 AM, stlman314 said:

Where at?

Wentzville.

[stlman314]

7 hours ago, Cardsfan96 said:

Wentzville.

Was it near the Schnucks on Wentzville Parkway? If so my wife works out there and she connected to it on Friday but couldn't get a connection yesterday.

[RedSpark]

Was exploring the support section of Sprint's Website (https://www.sprint.com/en/support/device.html) to see if there's anything new.....

.... and here's something new I noticed: T-Mobile Network Experience

https://www.sprint.com/en/support/solutions/device/t-mobile-network-experience.html

Quote

 

Eligible Sprint customers can now take advantage of the full T-Mobile network with a simple SIM swap. Your Sprint account remains the same, with the same price plan and billing experience, but now you’ll have access to the T-Mobile network.

With the T-Mobile Network Experience:

• Your device will show the T-Mobile network and you’ll get the full T-Mobile Network experience.
• You’ll get access to T-Mobile’s free Scam Shield app, with exciting services like free Scam ID, Scam Block, and free Caller ID!
• You even keep your current plan and billing through Sprint!

 

•  

Any takers?

[Cardsfan96]

3 hours ago, stlman314 said:

Was it near the Schnucks on Wentzville Parkway? If so my wife works out there and she connected to it on Friday but couldn't get a connection yesterday.

I first noticed it at Wentzville Parkway and West Pearce. It shows up as an unconfirmed site on cell mapper. 

[jporter12]

26 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Was exploring the support section of Sprint's Website (https://www.sprint.com/en/support/device.html) to see if there's anything new.....

.... and here's something new I noticed: T-Mobile Network Experience

https://www.sprint.com/en/support/solutions/device/t-mobile-network-experience.html

•  

Any takers?

Then there's this when you click "Who's Eligible":

Quote

Stop by a participating store in Kansas City and Seattle to determine if you’re eligible. We recommend you give them a call first, to make sure the T-Mobile Network Experience is available.

 

[PedroDaGr8]

13 minutes ago, jporter12 said:

Then there's this when you click "Who's Eligible":

 

Does anyone know if that is Seattle Seattle or Metro Seattle?

[jporter12]

1 minute ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

Does anyone know if that is Seattle Seattle or Metro Seattle?

Best bet would be to call and see.  Might be a better idea to go to a former Sprint store, IMHO.

[stlman314]

2 hours ago, Cardsfan96 said:

I first noticed it at Wentzville Parkway and West Pearce. It shows up as an unconfirmed site on cell mapper. 

That's around the same area my wife saw it. Like I said she didn't connect to it yesterday. I couldn't connect to the one my phone hit the other day. That was at Manchester and Vandeventer  area.

[Cardsfan96]

51 minutes ago, stlman314 said:

That's around the same area my wife saw it. Like I said she didn't connect to it yesterday. I couldn't connect to the one my phone hit the other day. That was at Manchester and Vandeventer  area.

I didn’t connect to it right away either. I’m not sure if I needed to but it seemed like it connected right after I toggled airplane mode.

[stlman314]

6 minutes ago, Cardsfan96 said:

I didn’t connect to it right away either. I’m not sure if I needed to but it seemed like it connected right after I toggled airplane mode.

Cool. I'll have to try that by my site. I think they have been doing work in our area cause 5G was giving me too many problems yesterday. And not in just one area. I drive Uber/Lyft on the side and was having issues where I was forced to just turn 5G off yesterday until I finish driving.

[Cardsfan96]

2 hours ago, stlman314 said:

Cool. I'll have to try that by my site. I think they have been doing work in our area cause 5G was giving me too many problems yesterday. And not in just one area. I drive Uber/Lyft on the side and was having issues where I was forced to just turn 5G off yesterday until I finish driving.

I’m actually on a sprint line with the ROAMAHOME soc with an iPhone XS. So I wouldn’t know on the 5g side of things.

[bigsnake49]

6 hours ago, jporter12 said:

Then there's this when you click "Who's Eligible":

 

This is part of the TMX test program to allow people to migrate to the T-Mobile Network with a T-Mobile Sim but tay on the same Sprint plan. It is limited to Seattle and KC which just happen to be the HQs of T-Mobile and Sprint respectively.

[Trip]

20 hours ago, mikejeep said:

I've been looking for someone else to notice this.. all summer, the Sprint B41 GCI's in my area have been slowly transitioning to new 000xxxxx ones that don't seem to correlate to anything. B25/B26 hasn't changed at all. Do we know if this is a temporary "work in progress" sort of thing, or permanent?

I first noticed some changes right around the time of the merger, when some of the sites in Richmond got shuffled up from 21xxx to DBxxx.  Later, when in Baltimore, I noticed that some sites that had been 02xxx or 03xxx now had 00xxx IDs, quite a few of them, actually.  I'm guessing the distinction is where there's a conflict with T-Mobile GCIs, though I've not chased down each one to know for sure.  I imagine that as the Sprint network is decommissioned, they will just fade away.

- Trip

[clbowens]

8 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Was exploring the support section of Sprint's Website (https://www.sprint.com/en/support/device.html) to see if there's anything new.....

.... and here's something new I noticed: T-Mobile Network Experience

https://www.sprint.com/en/support/solutions/device/t-mobile-network-experience.html

•  

Any takers?

Since this is the case, what happens when TMobile completely shuts the Sprint network.  Will all customers with Sprint phones have to get a new SIM to keep using their phone?

[bigsnake49]

3 hours ago, clbowens said:

Since this is the case, what happens when TMobile completely shuts the Sprint network.  Will all customers with Sprint phones have to get a new SIM to keep using their phone?

Probably so.

[Dkoellerwx]

6 hours ago, clbowens said:

Since this is the case, what happens when TMobile completely shuts the Sprint network.  Will all customers with Sprint phones have to get a new SIM to keep using their phone?

 

2 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

Probably so.

I don't think so. Some, like the S20 series, A71 and the LG V60 should be able to just receive updates that make the T-Mobile network the home network. Others could require a new SIM, and even older devices may not be compatible at all.

[Trip]

Yesterday I got an "Update complete" notice and now I note my G8X seems to be preferring the T-Mobile network, or at least, I haven't been able to convince it through toggling Airplane Mode to switch back to Sprint so far.  I wanted to try toggling VoLTE but it's now grayed out and forced on.  Anyone else having similar behavior?

- Trip