Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[jporter12]

On 3/9/2021 at 11:38 AM, jonathanm1978 said:

I haven't posted in a while.. mainly because I haven't been able to add much to the conversation... but I want to share this [from my note 20 5g]... then I'll switch to my tablet with keyboard so I can type out the things I'm seeing. 

 

 

In my experience with TNX, in an area with really good coverage of both networks, my phone will switch between networks as needed.  At home, I'm in a really small "black hole" of T-Mobile coverage, and in a really good area for Sprint, so it switches to B41, and once indoors (old house with aluminum siding) it goes to B25, or B26.  It uses the 312-250 PLMN on the Sprint tower.  Sometimes it will switch to the 311-490 PLMN, which does not switch seamlessly back to T-Mobile, but it keeps me on the network.  It sounds as though you're in a very sparsely covered area!  

As for Wii calling, I have not had a very positive experience with it.  It seems to come and go, even with higher end networking equipment (Ubiquiti) 

With TNX, the equivalent to ##72786# is popping the sim out and back in.  I have never had to do so, with the exception of error on my part.  

[Cardsfan96]

16 hours ago, jonathanm1978 said:

I tried that...tried *#*#873283#, ##873283##, it's not for the Note 20 5G...

 

The wifi calling, I don't understand...Does wifi calling touch a tower at all..or does it route everything to the wifi connection for the call?  It amazes me that after going to town (where I connect to some very good 600/700mhz 5G signal) I have wifi calling for about 20-30 minutes. Maybe even an hour. Then it just goes away.. Might go away on mine...or my wife...or both...but it just quits...and I get the "no mobile network" error...

SCP shows IWLAN..but then says the provider is AT&T. I'm on my PC so I'll add a SS by editing this post from my cell... 

I would think that if I'm on Wifi calling, it would show the provider as T-mobile...but maybe not. Never paid much attention to it...

I also don't see anything on my account details page about wifi calling, but it has worked for me since I got the two note 20's (3 days ago)...so I know it's capable of using wifi calling. Just something about being out of service area and trying to use it.  I'm leaning towards going back to Sprint SIM on at least one of the two phones (either me or my wife)... just to have a working phone. I'm not sure Tmobile can solve this network connectivity issue quickly/easily..if at all for me in this area..unless they do turn up the 600 power so that it stretches another 3-4 miles towards me..

Dreaming/wishful thinking I suppose..but I hate to switch both SIMs back to Sprint and miss out of the possible upgrades that might happen around me.  Seems as though they are moving rather quickly towards getting the network combined.

You won’t miss out on network upgrades going back to a sprint sim.

[RedSpark]

Check out that merger synergy figure. Wow.

[JDP121]

Two technicians I didn’t see at the mall behind my apartment complex on the tower. Of course I was in a hurry to get home to relax. I’m hoping maybe it’s two techs prepping the foundation to the Shentel/T-MO stuff. Especially since both have racks on this tower. Hopefully they will add a new rack with combined network structure and new equipment and then get rid of the old Shentel and T-MOBILE racks. 

[jonathanm1978]

Seems as though my FirstNet order went through. I am bad about going thru nearly the entire order process on stuff and closing the web page at the end...just so happens that I hit Submit order and closed the page on Firstnet...but it went thru anyway...

So I will have a firstnet phone in a couple of days.

[Paynefanbro]

Lots of cool information here:

• They set a goal for themselves of having 60% of Sprint's traffic moved to T-Mobile's network by year end.
• They're decommissioning 7-8k macros sites this year and 35k by the end of next year, effectively completing the decommissioning of Sprint's network a year earlier than they had anticipated.
• They have already begun adding T-Mobile 5G-ready equipment to Sprint keep sites including 600MHz, AWS, PCS, and BRS/EBS equipment. 
• Neville said they realize the value of adding all bands to a site in one climb as opposed to making multiple trips and there is a ton of cost savings in that. (confirming what some of us have been seeing with T-Mobile often upgrading everything at a macro at the same time).
• Claimed C-band will require about 1.5x the site density of BRS/EBS and 2x the site density of AWS/PCS and as a result it's ideally positioned for urban areas, not rural so AT&T and Verizon will have to massively densify their networks.
• C-band will be use to augment their current mid-band 5G spectrum, boosting speeds in urban areas and still maintaining their spectrum lead. (They'll have about 48Mhz more sub-6GHz spectrum than Verizon nationwide on average)
• Average speeds expected to climb up to 400Mbps this year as they upgrade markets to 80-100MHz carriers. Even faster as they expand beyond 100MHz post-Sprint shutdown.
• Better range on BRS/EBS coming soon thanks to 5G carrier aggregation, devices that can take advantage of that are already available.
• Officially rated fast 5G network in the U.S. by Ookla
• 97% of Americans covered by "Extended Range" 5G the end of 2022 and 90% of Americans covered by "Ultra Capacity" 5G by the ends of 2023.

Webcast for anyone who wants to watch!

[Paynefanbro]

I still don't like how T-Mobile is combining mmWave and mid-band together when they talk about it. Especially as Verizon said during their analyst day that their goal is to get to the point where about half of their data traffic in urban areas is on mmWave. T-Mobile will have to invest heavily to compete with that.

[JDP121]

22 hours ago, JDP121 said:

Two technicians I didn’t see at the mall behind my apartment complex on the tower. Of course I was in a hurry to get home to relax. I’m hoping maybe it’s two techs prepping the foundation to the Shentel/T-MO stuff. Especially since both have racks on this tower. Hopefully they will add a new rack with combined network structure and new equipment and then get rid of the old Shentel and T-MOBILE racks. 

In a way I’m kinda right. Stopped at the tower behind my apartment at the mall. Their is new rack being built. Not sure for who yet. But hoping it’s the foundation for both T-MOBILE/Shentel to have a combined rack. Crossing my fingers. 

[iansltx]

10 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

I still don't like how T-Mobile is combining mmWave and mid-band together when they talk about it. Especially as Verizon said during their analyst day that their goal is to get to the point where about half of their data traffic in urban areas is on mmWave. T-Mobile will have to invest heavily to compete with that.

VZW didn't say when they would meet that mmW traffic % number though. Given that they didn't specify a date, "after 2025" seems like a pretty good guess. I don't expect them to invest much in mmW beyond this year for awhile.

Also, VZW is likewise combining mid-band and mmW into a single marketing term. TMo is calling it Ultra Capacity, VZW is calling it UW. Yes, their 60 MHz of C-Band will be branded the same as hundreds of MHz of mmW.

[Trip]

33 minutes ago, JDP121 said:

In a way I’m kinda right. Stopped at the tower behind my apartment at the mall. Their is new rack being built. Not sure for who yet. But hoping it’s the foundation for both T-MOBILE/Shentel to have a combined rack. Crossing my fingers. 

If that's the tower I think it is, I looked up the permit and while I think it's B202001495ATWR, the permitting site isn't descriptive enough to be able to tell you anything specific about it.  I will say that every other carrier is already on that tower (minus Dish, who wouldn't be building yet) and I'm not sure why T-Mobile would want to move down the tower from the spot Shentel is in now (it's the second rack from the top if I'm not mistaken, the one with the wide gray rectangular antenna).

- Trip

[JDP121]

12 minutes ago, Trip said:

If that's the tower I think it is, I looked up the permit and while I think it's B202001495ATWR, the permitting site isn't descriptive enough to be able to tell you anything specific about it.  I will say that every other carrier is already on that tower (minus Dish, who wouldn't be building yet) and I'm not sure why T-Mobile would want to move down the tower from the spot Shentel is in now (it's the second rack from the top if I'm not mistaken, the one with the wide gray rectangular antenna).

- Trip

Yeah I thought T-Mobile was the second rack down but wasn’t 100%. Only other thing I may be able to think about is Dish adding a rack for Boost. But not definite. You have a link for the permit Trip?

[Paynefanbro]

2 hours ago, iansltx said:

VZW didn't say when they would meet that mmW traffic % number though. Given that they didn't specify a date, "after 2025" seems like a pretty good guess. I don't expect them to invest much in mmW beyond this year for awhile.

Also, VZW is likewise combining mid-band and mmW into a single marketing term. TMo is calling it Ultra Capacity, VZW is calling it UW. Yes, their 60 MHz of C-Band will be branded the same as hundreds of MHz of mmW.

The branding sucks regardless of who it is. However, at least Verizon isn’t afraid of explicitly talking about mmWave. T-Mobile pretty much has never done so, often falling back to the excuse of “It’s good for small pockets of urban areas” but never giving any update on its deployment. 

[iansltx]

1 minute ago, Paynefanbro said:

The branding sucks regardless of who it is. However, at least Verizon isn’t afraid of explicitly talking about mmWave. T-Mobile pretty much has never done so, often falling back to the excuse of “It’s good for small pockets of urban areas” but never giving any update on its deployment. 

Probably because they don't feel a need to deploy it outside airports and stadiums, as they have mid-band available now and that's ideal for 99.9% of cases. The companies talking mmW are the ones that don't have 40+ MHz bid-band channels right now. AT&T mentioned mid-band, but only in the context of (parts of) airports, stadiums, and their own stores. AKA little enough not to matter. mmW isn't a priority.on AT&T even though they aren't in a great spot spectrum wise otherwise.

[iansltx]

Did some cell site surveying this evening. Two sites within 1000'  of each other, one Sprint + AT&T (FirstNet but no B5), one TMo + VZW. By every indication, the Sprint one will go away.

IInteresting thing is, I'm pretty sure the TMo/VZW site has three different fiber providers to it now. Spectrum has been there since they were TWC; saw TWC Business branding on equipment. Then followed utility locator flags to the road nearby to find new-looking fiber vaults for both Fiberlight and Verizon. Betting T-Mobile is using Fiberlight, while VZW is using their own glass. Which makes me think this site will be one of the first to get C-Band from VZW. No CBRS on it right now though.

 

[Paynefanbro]

29 minutes ago, iansltx said:

Probably because they don't feel a need to deploy it outside airports and stadiums, as they have mid-band available now and that's ideal for 99.9% of cases. The companies talking mmW are the ones that don't have 40+ MHz bid-band channels right now. AT&T mentioned mid-band, but only in the context of (parts of) airports, stadiums, and their own stores. AKA little enough not to matter. mmW isn't a priority.on AT&T even though they aren't in a great spot spectrum wise otherwise.

I completely understand why other carriers were emphasizing mmWave but I'd honestly be content if we even had evidence of T-Mobile actively deploying in airports and stadiums like they say the spectrum is so good for. The one time I saw them make an announcement saying that they were doing anything to that effect was for the Super Bowl when they did a mmWave DAS at Raymond James Stadium and Tampa International Airport.

I hope when the mid-band deployment is substantially complete that they decide to deploy mmWave heavily in urban areas. 

[Trip]

5 hours ago, JDP121 said:

Yeah I thought T-Mobile was the second rack down but wasn’t 100%. Only other thing I may be able to think about is Dish adding a rack for Boost. But not definite. You have a link for the permit Trip?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the second rack from the top is Shentel.  The normal looking panel is the Network Vision panel (800+PCS) while the gray rectangular one is some type of high-capacity 2.5 GHz panel that I've seen them use in very congested areas.  It doesn't follow the standard GCI pattern.

I'm having a hard time deciding which rack is T-Mobile, which is unusual for a site that is, in fact, upgraded to include 600 MHz.  The panel that looks most like a 600/700 panel is the biggest panel on the bottom rack (left side of each face) with the right panel looking like it could be an AWS/PCS panel, so I'm going to say that's my educated guess.

The other three racks with panels are Verizon (700/850/AWS/PCS), AT&T (700/750/AWS/PCS/2300), and US Cellular (700/850), but I can't tell you which is which. 

As far as the permit goes, I can't link to it as the site doesn't work in a way that allows obvious external links.  But the permit site is here:  http://countyviewweb.albemarle.org/Web_view_building_Web_view_building_BuildingApplicationSummary.aspx

Paste B202001495ATWR into the search field and you should be able to figure out how to open the information on that permit, however incomplete the public-facing side is.

- Trip

[Paynefanbro]

7 hours ago, Trip said:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the second rack from the top is Shentel.  The normal looking panel is the Network Vision panel (800+PCS) while the gray rectangular one is some type of high-capacity 2.5 GHz panel that I've seen them use in very congested areas.  It doesn't follow the standard GCI pattern.

I'm having a hard time deciding which rack is T-Mobile, which is unusual for a site that is, in fact, upgraded to include 600 MHz.  The panel that looks most like a 600/700 panel is the biggest panel on the bottom rack (left side of each face) with the right panel looking like it could be an AWS/PCS panel, so I'm going to say that's my educated guess.

The other three racks with panels are Verizon (700/850/AWS/PCS), AT&T (700/750/AWS/PCS/2300), and US Cellular (700/850), but I can't tell you which is which. 

As far as the permit goes, I can't link to it as the site doesn't work in a way that allows obvious external links.  But the permit site is here:  http://countyviewweb.albemarle.org/Web_view_building_Web_view_building_BuildingApplicationSummary.aspx

Paste B202001495ATWR into the search field and you should be able to figure out how to open the information on that permit, however incomplete the public-facing side is.

- Trip

My guess is the same as yours. The bottom rack looks like it has an Ericsson AIR antenna for AWS/PCS and a larger antenna for low band LTE and 5G. 

[JDP121]

20 hours ago, Trip said:

If that's the tower I think it is, I looked up the permit and while I think it's B202001495ATWR, the permitting site isn't descriptive enough to be able to tell you anything specific about it.  I will say that every other carrier is already on that tower (minus Dish, who wouldn't be building yet) and I'm not sure why T-Mobile would want to move down the tower from the spot Shentel is in now (it's the second rack from the top if I'm not mistaken, the one with the wide gray rectangular antenna).

- Trip

Yeah it’s the one at Fashion Square Mall. Another update they did put up some antennas on the rack while I was at work today. 
 

 Pic 1

Pic 2

[dkyeager]

19 minutes ago, JDP121 said:

Yeah it’s the one at Fashion Square Mall. Another update they did put up some antennas on the rack while I was at work today. 
 

 Pic 1

Pic 2

Until the deal is closed, Shentel may continue to do work, just as Sprint and nTelos did.

[JDP121]

3 hours ago, dkyeager said:

Until the deal is closed, Shentel may continue to do work, just as Sprint and nTelos did.

Unfortunately this late in the game I’m sure Shentel wouldn’t waste money on a new rack for Sprint costumers seeing how the deal should be closing between now and the end of Q2 when the deal will be closing. Would be a total waste of money and assets tbh. Just my opinion. 

[dkyeager]

6 hours ago, JDP121 said:

Unfortunately this late in the game I’m sure Shentel wouldn’t waste money on a new rack for Sprint costumers seeing how the deal should be closing between now and the end of Q2 when the deal will be closing. Would be a total waste of money and assets tbh. Just my opinion. 

These last minute upgrades are driven by a different kind of logic. Typically loan covenants, contractual obligations, and professional pride to finish up projects. Also until the deal is closed it does not exist. Not saying it applies in this case, but don't rule it out overall until the deal closes.

[RedSpark]

Sprint got the "Can you hear me now?" Verizon guy.... (I think we've heard the last of him since the Merger, but maybe he could come back as a T-Mobile guy?)

Intel just got the "I'm a Mac" guy....

Only a matter of time before we see the T-Mobile girl (Carly Foulkes) show up in a Verizon commercial.

No loyalty in this business.....

[jporter12]

37 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Sprint got the "Can you hear me now?" Verizon guy.... (I think we've heard the last of him since the Merger, but maybe he could come back as a T-Mobile guy?)

Intel just got the "I'm a Mac" guy....

Only a matter of time before we see the T-Mobile girl (Carly Foulkes) show up in a Verizon commercial.

No loyalty in this business.....

Maybe we can get Lily from AT&T to come over to T-Mobile?  

[JonnygATL]

I personally think they've all got it wrong.  100% #teamchromebook over here! 

[Luuminator]

I live in metro Detroit and it feels like I am now being throttled with my sprint SIM card. Twitch won’t play anymore unless I am connected to WiFi, I keep getting connection issues using my bank app, and Amazon . Those are other apps that won’t run properly. My wife and 17 year old are also having issues with different apps/web. All our iPhones are up to date and have been restarted. Just curious if anyone else is also having issues