Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[radem]

2 hours ago, schmidtj said:

Possibly of interest:

SEC Filing regarding the CyberAttack Event:

https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001283699/e2d145e6-b8bb-4bd5-b78a-a9a7858a1ab2.pdf

e2d145e6-b8bb-4bd5-b78a-a9a7858a1ab2.pdf 151.33 kB · 1 download

There is a common misconception in many companies today that their company is not an Information Technology (IT) company.  It does not matter what business you are in, your data and your computer systems are a core part of how your company operates and they are valuable to others who would like to steal that data or prevent your access to your computer systems without paying them money (ransomware) or to use your servers for other processes.  If that data and those computer systems are not treated as if they were a target of others by a company's staff, then they will be sloppy with handling the company's data and the security of the computer systems and bad things will occur. 

Many large companies have an IT security or IT compliance checking department that ensures that all the common security issues are taken care of such as server patching, scheduling penetration testing, verification of user accounts on the computer systems, and verifying that testing systems do not have access to production data.  Hopefully T-Mobile's new consulting partners will help them build this capability if they do not already have it in place.  It appears that information security is a systemic problem in T-Mobile and I wonder how many additional problems have occurred that have not appeared in public so we do not know about them.

[RedSpark]

1 hour ago, twospirits said:

While hiring that company is nice, it should have never gotten to this point in the first place. What is this, like the 3rd time T-Mobile has been hacked. There was no need to keep customer info on their servers like that. Its bad practice as per the NSA general counsel mentioned a while back. While my account wasn't affected, whos to say the next time (and there will be a next time) that it won't be.

But as usual, all they get is a slap on the wrists and the customer has to deal with changing passwords, pins, locking credit cards etc.

Agreed.

I want to hear less about politics from T-Mobile and more about security from them.

[mdob07]

T-Mobile has widened N41 to 100MHz now in the Louisville, KY area. Looks like they took the Sprint network down to a single 20MHz B41 carrier at EARFCN 41490 and they've changed the GCI pattern to 31, 32, and 33, this was previously the 3rd carrier using 41, 42, and 43 GCI endings. I noticed a decent speed boost at my house from the increase, I used to get 500-550 down about a mile from the site, now I've hit 700 a couple times. I haven't been about to test next to the site yet to see if backhaul has been increased yet, the best I've ever gotten from this particular site at 80MHz N41 was 730 down sitting right in front of it at 4am.

[jreuschl]

Low 700s seems to be the highest I've seen on a 100Mhz site.  I wonder if the backhaul will ever be increased further.

[Cardsfan96]

17 hours ago, jreuschl said:

Low 700s seems to be the highest I've seen on a 100Mhz site.  I wonder if the backhaul will ever be increased further.

I’ve gotten up to 850 down in STL on n41 100 mhz.

[PedroDaGr8]

2 hours ago, Cardsfan96 said:

I’ve gotten up to 850 down in STL on n41 100 mhz.

That's about my max as well. 

[RAvirani]

NR carrier aggregation (600+2500) will be going live in Chicago this month!

[Grabber5.0]

On 9/4/2021 at 9:50 AM, Cardsfan96 said:

I’ve gotten up to 850 down in STL on n41 100 mhz.

That's impressive. My best speed to date is 674, and a few above 550. I assume there's no way to tell after the fact how much bandwidth was being used? My signal check exported data doesn't seem to show it.

[Dkoellerwx]

On 9/5/2021 at 1:57 PM, Grabber5.0 said:

That's impressive. My best speed to date is 674, and a few above 550. I assume there's no way to tell after the fact how much bandwidth was being used? My signal check exported data doesn't seem to show it.

The only way to see bandwidth reliably is through the engineering screen.

[jporter12]

On 9/3/2021 at 11:33 AM, mdob07 said:

T-Mobile has widened N41 to 100MHz now in the Louisville, KY area. Looks like they took the Sprint network down to a single 20MHz B41 carrier at EARFCN 41490 and they've changed the GCI pattern to 31, 32, and 33, this was previously the 3rd carrier using 41, 42, and 43 GCI endings. I noticed a decent speed boost at my house from the increase, I used to get 500-550 down about a mile from the site, now I've hit 700 a couple times. I haven't been about to test next to the site yet to see if backhaul has been increased yet, the best I've ever gotten from this particular site at 80MHz N41 was 730 down sitting right in front of it at 4am.

That's good to hear, as I'm moving to that area soon.

[Trip]

On 8/4/2021 at 6:23 AM, Trip said:

What's irritating to me is that they've issued conflicting notices.  I've gotten e-mails saying one of the phones on my account needs to be replaced, a paper letter saying all of them do, and then the website says any device that supports VoLTE is fine, which all of the devices do.  So which is it?

I wish T-Mobile were competent.

- Trip

 

I now have a fourth permutation!  I've got an e-mail telling me three of my devices need to be replaced ("IMPACTED DEVICES"), but not mentioning the fourth.  Somehow, my G8X requires replacement, according to this e-mail, but my sister-in-law's G8X does not.

EDIT:  Wow.  Just found this page:  https://www.sprint.com/en/cdma-retirement  Which when logged in, tells me that only my wife's phone needs an upgrade, and says the other three phones are "not affected by these network changes".

Again, I wish T-Mobile were competent.

- Trip

[comintel]

17 hours ago, Trip said:

........

 

Devices are still being moved on and off the list.  Software updates are planned by year end for a number of devices that will make them supported after all.  TNX will be broadened to include some more devices that have VoLTE on T-Mobile but not on Sprint..

 Also I have found that the checker is going off an older list and does not update when you change phones.

So I would strongly suggest wait until the holdays at least.   New models are coming out by then as well.

As to the G8X, one may be factory-unlocked and one branded?

[Trip]

Both G8X phones were purchased from Sprint at the same time and have the same number of remaining installment payments. 

- Trip

 

[comintel]

7 hours ago, Trip said:

Both G8X phones were purchased from Sprint at the same time and have the same number of remaining installment payments. 

- Trip

 

I guess it is a database error in that case - on one or the other.

My "Affected Lines" is wrong too, also for an LG phone.

I am going to ask about it... 

 

[Trip]

I spoke with T-Mobile on Twitter this morning and got yet another answer.  Their answer was that my wife's line is eligible for upgrade today, but that my other phones will all need to be replaced, but will become eligible at a later date as they're not replacing equipment that still has payments due at this time.  This, of course, is not what I've seen mentioned in other places, or in the e-mails I've gotten.  So, go figure.

- Trip

 

[comintel]

4 hours ago, Trip said:

I spoke with T-Mobile on Twitter this morning and got yet another answer.  Their answer was that my wife's line is eligible for upgrade today, but that my other phones will all need to be replaced, but will become eligible at a later date as they're not replacing equipment that still has payments due at this time.  This, of course, is not what I've seen mentioned in other places, or in the e-mails I've gotten.  So, go figure.

- Trip

 

I asked revik2 on reddit and got the following answer (for my situation which is slightly different from yours):

 

Edited September 14, 2021 by comintel

[jreuschl]

Interesting, this shouldn't be iPhone 13 specific in the future.

 

[Paynefanbro]

13 minutes ago, jreuschl said:

Interesting, this shouldn't be iPhone 13 specific in the future

Literally two seconds ago I was saying that this would be a good opportunity for T-Mobile to launch a 5GUC icon in their status bar given that their n41 deployment is pretty mature in some cities. I'm pretty excited about this.

Also worthy of note is that the new iPhones support n258 which means in markets where T-Mobile owns that spectrum, it now makes sense to deploy it. For example, in NYC that's now 400MHz of spectrum that iPhones on T-Mobile have access to that they didn't previously.

[Rickie546]

2 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

Literally two seconds ago I was saying that this would be a good opportunity for T-Mobile to launch a 5GUC icon in their status bar given that their n41 deployment is pretty mature in some cities. I'm pretty excited about this.

Also worthy of note is that the new iPhones support n258 which means in markets where T-Mobile owns that spectrum, it now makes sense to deploy it. For example, in NYC that's now 400MHz of spectrum that iPhones on T-Mobile have access to that they didn't previously.

But yet my S21 has had it for awhile and used it in Tampa Airport this spring. Now on Apple maybe they will use it more. 

[Paynefanbro]

40 minutes ago, Rickie546 said:

But yet my S21 has had it for awhile and used it in Tampa Airport this spring. Now on Apple maybe they will use it more. 

Definitely! Having it across both flagships will definitely incentivize deployment even more.

[cyclone]

16 hours ago, jreuschl said:

Interesting, this shouldn't be iPhone 13 specific in the future.

Went digging through the comments section and this will be available on the iPhone 12 line as well

https://twitter.com/TMobileHelp/status/1437857426363981826?s=20https://twitter.com/TMobileHelp/status/1437857426363981826?s=20

[wispiANt]

18 hours ago, Rickie546 said:

But yet my S21 has had it for awhile and used it in Tampa Airport this spring. Now on Apple maybe they will use it more. 

You sure it was n258, not n260? AFAIK the S21 series doesn't support n258.

[Rickie546]

22 hours ago, thisischuck01 said:

You sure it was n258, not n260? AFAIK the S21 series doesn't support n258.

was n260 but that's mmwave just 39 ghz vs 26 ghz

[wispiANt]

2 hours ago, Rickie546 said:

was n260 but that's mmwave just 39 ghz vs 26 ghz

Yep! But that mmWave spectrum has been deployable for quite a while now - last years iPhone supported n260/n261, and so did the Galaxy series as far back as the S10. The only phone that T-Mobile currently sells that supports n258 is the OnePlus 9 Pro 5G.

Having a mainstream device such as the iPhone supporting n258 will greatly increase T-Mobile's amount of deployable mmWave. Tampa, for example, would go from 600MHz of deployable spectrum to 1000MHz (400MHz n260 + 200MHz n261 + 400 n258). NYC, which is currently only operating with 100MHz of n261, will go from 500MHz of deployable spectrum to 900MHz (400MHz n260 + 100MHz n261 + 400MHz n258). Hopefully, having more deployable spectrum will push them to expand deployment.

[schmidtj]

Not sure if this is old news. Official T-Mobile Network shutdown dates:

• T-Mobile 3G UMTS: July 1, 2022
• T-Mobile 2G GSM: December 2022
• Sprint 2G/3G CDMA: January 1, 2022
• Sprint LTE/5G: June 30, 2022

https://www.tmonews.com/2021/09/t-mobile-unveils-official-network-shutdown-dates/