Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[BlueAngel]

13 minutes ago, jporter12 said:

Unless something has changed, NO. SA 5G requires the T-Mobile R15 sim, even for T-Mobile customers, from what i've seen.

Correct, no 5G SA without an R15 sim.

[cyclone]

Are these the chips provided under TNX? Are iPhone's given access? I have a 12 Pro and haven't seen SA 5G or even N41 in San Antonio or along the way from here to Dallas when I traveled for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The iPhone Field Test Mode now has a section called Radio Access Technology in which is a field called kCTCellMonitorDeploymentType. Mine is currently populated with "5G NSA (1)" and I am connected to band 66

[Paynefanbro]

19 minutes ago, cyclone said:

Are these the chips provided under TNX? Are iPhone's given access? I have a 12 Pro and haven't seen SA 5G or even N41 in San Antonio or along the way from here to Dallas when I traveled for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The iPhone Field Test Mode now has a section called Radio Access Technology in which is a field called kCTCellMonitorDeploymentType. Mine is currently populated with "5G NSA (1)" and I am connected to band 66

Apple hasn’t pushed the update to iPhones in the U.S. to allow standalone 5G. So far they’ve only released that update in China. 

[IrwinshereAgain]

My S20 FE 5G just got the uodate to Android 11.  It appears to include SA on the FE version now.

[comintel]

16 hours ago, superbluepsd said:

If I order an S21 thru Sprint which comes with 260R070-TMO sim will it be allowed on TMO 5G SA?   I see some reports of Sprint users not being allowed on TMO SA

Yes.

The R15 sim is no longer required according to numerous posts on the TMobile subreddit.

The reason it was required originally was that the formal 5G spec requires that the sim use encryption for 5G SA.   But T-Mobile has now modified its network equipment to accept sims lacking that encryption as well.

References to R15 being required have been removed from the T-Mobile web site.

Edited January 21, 2021 by comintel

[dkyeager]

19 hours ago, greenbastard said:

The fine print actually gave Sprint the ability to throttle those legacy plans. People kept saying there was also no deprioritization, but the wording was there to implement one at any given moment.

Ever since Sprint got rid of 2 year upgrade options, that plan has not been worth it. Anyone still holding on to that plan is just throwing money away. T-Mobile will likely not honor something that was never promised. They've done this in the past when they changed the unlimited roaming in Mexico and Canada to 5 GB.

If you still have that plan, I recommend dumping it.

A carrier can always modify your plan.  Not worth it for an individual consumer to go after them.  More honest carriers will give you 30 days after a change.

The context of my quote above was in terms of video.  I am playing 1440p60 on my LG V20 on the "Sprint" network right now and also get 75Mbps on Netflix fast while using the Sprint network in a poor location inside my house.  With unlimited VPN and 300MB of roaming and 50GB hotspot I am not in a hurry to change.  If I saw T-Mobile actually adding equipment to Sprint standalone sites near me I would likely feel different.  Otherwise it is a pure calculation of what is best for me as I define it.  If T-Mobile does not add any equipment to the three standalone Sprint sites near my home I will move to AT&T based on current data.  What ranking a carrier has does not really matter to me.  What matters is who is best where I need it and what are the details as compared to how I use it.

[mdob07]

8 hours ago, jporter12 said:

Unless something has changed, NO. SA 5G requires the T-Mobile R15 sim, even for T-Mobile customers, from what i've seen.

 

8 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

Correct, no 5G SA without an R15 sim.

 

4 hours ago, comintel said:

Yes.

The R15 sim is no longer required according to numerous posts on the TMobile subreddit.

The reason it was required originally was that the formal 5G spec requires that the sim use encryption for 5G SA.   But T-Mobile has now modified its network equipment to accept sims lacking that encryption as well.

References to R15 being required have been removed from the T-Mobile web site.

Correct, R15 SIM is no longer required. SA 5G is working fine now on my T-Mobile S20+ with a TM9263 SIM card. I did have trouble with SA when it first rolled out up until about 6 weeks ago, but since then its been working flawlessly. My phone actually prefers SA 5G over LTE and at least 50% of the time that's what its on. 

[BlueAngel]

44 minutes ago, mdob07 said:

 

 

Correct, R15 SIM is no longer required. SA 5G is working fine now on my T-Mobile S20+ with a TM9263 SIM card. I did have trouble with SA when it first rolled out up until about 6 weeks ago, but since then its been working flawlessly. My phone actually prefers SA 5G over LTE and at least 50% of the time that's what its on. 

Yeah I stand corrected. 😆

[sunmybun]

On 1/19/2021 at 11:55 PM, greenbastard said:

The fine print actually gave Sprint the ability to throttle those legacy plans. People kept saying there was also no deprioritization, but the wording was there to implement one at any given moment.

Ever since Sprint got rid of 2 year upgrade options, that plan has not been worth it. Anyone still holding on to that plan is just throwing money away. T-Mobile will likely not honor something that was never promised. They've done this in the past when they changed the unlimited roaming in Mexico and Canada to 5 GB.

If you still have that plan, I recommend dumping it.

I still have the ed1500 under a corporate-liable account. I still get the 2 year subsidy for all my lines.
I am keeping this plan forever until they kick us out of it lol.

I shouldnt be throttled or be deprioritized but it is happening on two of my tnx lines.
I am probably gonna try to talk to both sprint ant tmobile about this.

if anyone in a similar situation as me, lets figure this out

[JonnygATL]

So I'm getting "Clearwire" notifications on SCP since upgrading to the latest update as far as provider goes when the bands are clearly tmo (2 and 4, usually...with a smattering of 41).  All of these indicated T-Mobile prior to last update. Why the odd discrepancy?  Anyone? Bueller?  Anyone?

 

[mikejeep]

17 hours ago, JonnygATL said:

So I'm getting "Clearwire" notifications on SCP since upgrading to the latest update as far as provider goes when the bands are clearly tmo (2 and 4, usually...with a smattering of 41).  All of these indicated T-Mobile prior to last update. Why the odd discrepancy?  Anyone? Bueller?  Anyone?

You are seeing Clearwire on the latest update from a few days ago, or the one before that? There was a bug in 4.64 but should be fixed in 4.65..

[Cardsfan96]

On 1/19/2021 at 10:55 PM, greenbastard said:

The fine print actually gave Sprint the ability to throttle those legacy plans. People kept saying there was also no deprioritization, but the wording was there to implement one at any given moment.

Ever since Sprint got rid of 2 year upgrade options, that plan has not been worth it. Anyone still holding on to that plan is just throwing money away. T-Mobile will likely not honor something that was never promised. They've done this in the past when they changed the unlimited roaming in Mexico and Canada to 5 GB.

If you still have that plan, I recommend dumping it.

Show me an alternative that I can get unthrottled speeds or even 1080 streaming on 6 lines for the same or lower price. 

Edited January 24, 2021 by Cardsfan96

[Cardsfan96]

On 1/20/2021 at 11:22 PM, mdob07 said:

 

 

Correct, R15 SIM is no longer required. SA 5G is working fine now on my T-Mobile S20+ with a TM9263 SIM card. I did have trouble with SA when it first rolled out up until about 6 weeks ago, but since then its been working flawlessly. My phone actually prefers SA 5G over LTE and at least 50% of the time that's what its on. 

Although an r15 may not be required, I bet TNX is stil going to be the only way a sprint customer can get SA 5g.

[superbluepsd]

Well they shipped me an R15 sim with my S21 order so there should be no problem with TMO 5G SA.   

[JonnygATL]

9 hours ago, mikejeep said:

You are seeing Clearwire on the latest update from a few days ago, or the one before that? There was a bug in 4.64 but should be fixed in 4.65..

You are correct. I updated again without realizing you'd issued one and - voilá - problem quite resolved.  Thank you. 

[aliensporebomb]

Strange.  

I'm running an iPhone 12 and received a message from Sprint/TMobile in email regarding "It's time to upgrade to a bigger and better network at no extra cost" claiming I get access to a wider network resource allotment or the like.  

I supposedly will still pay bills and do other admin work via sprint.com and the mysprint app.

I live 900 feet from a Sprint B41 tower and it's been fine but is this something I should pursue or is it something to be avoided?  

 

[though]

30 minutes ago, aliensporebomb said:

Strange.  

I'm running an iPhone 12 and received a message from Sprint/TMobile in email regarding "It's time to upgrade to a bigger and better network at no extra cost" claiming I get access to a wider network resource allotment or the like.  

I supposedly will still pay bills and do other admin work via sprint.com and the mysprint app.

I live 900 feet from a Sprint B41 tower and it's been fine but is this something I should pursue or is it something to be avoided?  

 

If it were me I would stay right where you are unless you are unsatisfied with your service.

[aliensporebomb]

Thanks so much!

[Paynefanbro]

T-Mobile is bragging that testing from umlaut and OpenSignal show that they're the fastest 5G network in the U.S. with highest availability. Of note, T-Mobiles “Ultra Capacity 5G" was available in 79% of all of the samples taken in their NYC test, though they didn't cover much of the city.

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/fastest-largest-5g-network

Opensignal Report: https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2021/01/usa/mobile-network-experience-5g

umlaut Report: https://www.umlaut.com/en/benchmarking/usa

[Cardsfan96]

1 hour ago, Paynefanbro said:

T-Mobile is bragging that testing from umlaut and OpenSignal show that they're the fastest 5G network in the U.S. with highest availability. Of note, T-Mobiles “Ultra Capacity 5G" was available in 79% of all of the samples taken in their NYC test, though they didn't cover much of the city.

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/fastest-largest-5g-network

Opensignal Report: https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2021/01/usa/mobile-network-experience-5g

umlaut Report: https://www.umlaut.com/en/benchmarking/usa

If they would ease their video throttle they could have won the video categories as well. Their video throttle is the most aggressive of all three carriers and it shows.

[aliensporebomb]

So great, they have speed but they throttle video content more than the other carriers.  Sounds wonderful!  NOT.

[greenbastard]

56 minutes ago, Cardsfan96 said:

Their video throttle is the most aggressive of all three carriers and it shows.

Doesn't Verizon throttle their "HD" feature to 720p?

[iansltx]

2 hours ago, greenbastard said:

Doesn't Verizon throttle their "HD" feature to 720p?

VZW doesn't have a throttle on mmW. Most of their plans state 720p but I'm not sure what the speed cap is.

[Cardsfan96]

17 hours ago, greenbastard said:

Doesn't Verizon throttle their "HD" feature to 720p?

It depends what plan add ins they had for their Verizon line they tested with. You can pay extra for full hd and get up to 40 mbps for video on Verizon. AT&T doesn’t throttle video much at all on the elite plan.

[jreuschl]

So I just got my S21 Sprint from Samsung.  Stick with ROMAHOME or go full TNX?  Any advantages?