Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[iansltx]

30 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

Neville Ray revealed a lot about his plans for the combined network going forward.

 

Yeah, no need to deal with small cells if you can avoid it. Without 2.5, it's tougher because the spectrum you've got is finite, particularly when 600/700/800 have to be run in "provide as much coverage as you can" mode. With 2.5, you can just throw spectrum at the problem...and propagation on 2.5 isn't bad at all, to the point that throwing it toward the top of a larger macro tower actually makes sense. Whereas you'd never do that with mmWave.

I'm biased here because most of the places I go are dense enough for 2.5, depending on how high up you put the radios, but not dense enough to make sense for small cells, but there are plenty of places like that.

Meanwhile, when you *do* get into urban cores, you can throw LAA and a denser 2.5 network at the problem, and statistically enough people will have mmWave-capable phones (in a few years) to meaningfully offload from the macro network. So things work out nicely.

[dkyeager]

On 6/18/2020 at 9:36 AM, bigsnake49 said:

Why has it taken T-Mobile so long to implement something like Google Fi that selects the best network/band among T-Mobile, Sprint and USCC? I mean they only had 2 years?

Because they plan to dump most Sprint sites (most of which are co-sites). They need to get to being one network, one accounting system etc as soon as possible since those areas are where the synergy is.  Failing to do so quickly will crush their capex, since it is paid for from profits rather than a sugar daddy or smoke and mirrors. You want everyone focused on achieving a few simple objectives.

[jreuschl]

Is T-Mobile making all of B71 5G also or can that be used for LTE?

[dkyeager]

2 minutes ago, jreuschl said:

Is T-Mobile making all of B71 5G also or can that be used for LTE?

The spectrum is split between 4g and g5 LTE.

[jamesinclair]

I know its been asked and answered, but I cant find it, so here I go...

Sony is releasing a new phone I'm very interested. Like all Sony phones, it doesn't support CDMA.

https://www.sony.com/electronics/smartphones/xperia-1m2

https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_1_ii-10096.php

LTE bands:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 46, 66

I'd be interested in buying it around Black Friday, as its way too pricey at launch. Is it likely that I will be able to add a non-CDMA phone to my Sprint plan by November?

[bigsnake49]

45 minutes ago, dkyeager said:

Because they plan to dump most Sprint sites (most of which are co-sites). They need to get to being one network, one accounting system etc as soon as possible since those areas are where the synergy is.  Failing to do so quickly will crush their capex, since it is paid for from profits rather than a sugar daddy or smoke and mirrors. You want everyone focused on achieving a few simple objectives.

Still going to take them 2 years. Capex is not going to kill them if all they're doing is adding band 41 to 65,000 sites, what's going to kill them is adding 10-15000 new sites and rebuilding Sprint sites as T-mobile sites.

[RedSpark]

https://www.lightreading.com/5g/hottges-prepares-to-pull-t-mobiles-strings-in-the-us/d/d-id/761848

Quote

 

According to a Reuters report from DT's annual general meeting Friday, Höttges said Deutsche Telekom has the right of first refusal on SoftBank's sale under the companies' four-year shareholder pact.

"We assume they [DT] will buy at least 7% of the [SoftBank] shares outstanding to take their stake [in T-Mobile] above 50%, with the balance being sold to the public," wrote the Wall Street analysts at New Street Research in a recent note to investors. DT currently owns 43% of T-Mobile US.

 

Sounds logical.

[dkyeager]

7 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

Still going to take them 2 years. Capex is not going to kill them if all they're doing is adding band 41 to 65,000 sites, what's going to kill them is adding 10-15000 new sites and rebuilding Sprint sites as T-mobile sites.

With the Fed basically throwing money at public firms perhaps this needs to be all rethought.  I wonder what percentage of T-Mobile customers are currently being carried due to Covid-19?  If this level is relatively small, perhaps they should be borrowing lots at this time to speed up the process significantly.  However they should not become error prone.  properly done, they have a very good window of opportunity.

[chamb]

8 hours ago, dkyeager said:

With the Fed basically throwing money at public firms perhaps this needs to be all rethought.  I wonder what percentage of T-Mobile customers are currently being carried due to Covid-19?  If this level is relatively small, perhaps they should be borrowing lots at this time to speed up the process significantly.  However they should not become error prone.  properly done, they have a very good window of opportunity.

They seem to be totally intent on killing Sprint band 41 and activating T-Mobile 5G on band 41. This does need to be done, but I seem to see quite a few people complaining about the result being bad. Some people need to actually turn off 5G on their new phones and use 4G.  So, if this is true, they are not getting it right at least in some places.

   They do need to somehow get band 2/25 straightened out. In many cases,Sprint has loads of band 25 that T-Mobile has not touched.

This is a massive job and I have some doubts that they will do it and not cause lots of issues.

in my area(Shentel) T-Mobile is nowhere close to being up to Shentel's standards.   Shentel's Sprint service works very very good. T-Mobile is a disaster here.  If T-Mobile has service like this in other parts of the country, we are using the wrong network for the base network. 

[bigsnake49]

44 minutes ago, chamb said:

They seem to be totally intent on killing Sprint band 41 and activating T-Mobile 5G on band 41. This does need to be done, but I seem to see quite a few people complaining about the result being bad. Some people need to actually turn off 5G on their new phones and use 4G.  So, if this is true, they are not getting it right at least in some places.

   They do need to somehow get band 2/25 straightened out. In many cases,Sprint has loads of band 25 that T-Mobile has not touched.

This is a massive job and I have some doubts that they will do it and not cause lots of issues.

in my area(Shentel) T-Mobile is nowhere close to being up to Shentel's standards.   Shentel's Sprint service works very very good. T-Mobile is a disaster here.  If T-Mobile has service like this in other parts of the country, we are using the wrong network for the base network. 

I have also noticed that they have not done anything with band 2/25. It is a problem that they have to solve pretty soon. But for T-mobile/Sprint colocated sites, if they're going to visit sites for adding NR41 panels and RRHs they might as well move the Sprint equipment over. What I am afraid they will run into is incompatibilities between enodeBs and RRHs from different vendors. So they probably have to add additional band 2/25 RRHs that are compatible to whatever enodeB T-Mobile is using. They can add Sprint band 25 spectrum to T-Mobile's 2/25 up to 20Mhz per RRH due to power limitations. Then they have to add another RRH for whatever spectrum is is left. This is going to be one giant mess and will take money and time. They will have to prioritize what will get done first. They have elected to prioritize adding NR 41 to all T-mobile sites and probably the Sprint sites they're going to keep.

Edited June 20, 2020 by bigsnake49

[RedSpark]

Is Paul coming over too?

 

[Bennyjet29]

Is Paul coming over too?
 

Paul coming over would be another blow to Verizon as I am sure they thought he would disappear with Sprint. Him and the lady at AT&T seem to be the best spokespersons in the telecom industry.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[S4GRU]

On 6/19/2020 at 1:33 PM, dkyeager said:

The spectrum is split between 4g and g5 LTE.

What is this g5 LTE you speak of?  

Robert

[Grabber5.0]

What is this g5 LTE you speak of?  

Robert

LOL

 

Wait, my G5 has LTE [emoji1787]

 

[dkyeager]

18 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

I have also noticed that they have not done anything with band 2/25. It is a problem that they have to solve pretty soon. But for T-mobile/Sprint colocated sites, if they're going to visit sites for adding NR41 panels and RRHs they might as well move the Sprint equipment over. What I am afraid they will run into is incompatibilities between enodeBs and RRHs from different vendors. So they probably have to add additional band 2/25 RRHs that are compatible to whatever enodeB T-Mobile is using. They can add Sprint band 25 spectrum to T-Mobile's 2/25 up to 20Mhz per RRH due to power limitations. Then they have to add another RRH for whatever spectrum is is left. This is going to be one giant mess and will take money and time. They will have to prioritize what will get done first. They have elected to prioritize adding NR 41 to all T-mobile sites and probably the Sprint sites they're going to keep.

I have been seeing band 25 from a local Sprint site on my T-Mobile MVNO phone occasionally for the last few weeks in the same way as I do band 71 sites before they become public.

[dewbertdc]

6 hours ago, dkyeager said:

I have been seeing band 25 from a local Sprint site on my T-Mobile MVNO phone occasionally for the last few weeks in the same way as I do band 71 sites before they become public.

I’ve seen a few Band 25 neighbor cells registering on my T-Mobile iPhone, but I can’t tell if that’s just MFBI on Band 2 or something else. Is there an easy way to tell?

[bigsnake49]

41 minutes ago, dewbertdc said:

I’ve seen a few Band 25 neighbor cells registering on my T-Mobile iPhone, but I can’t tell if that’s just MFBI on Band 2 or something else. Is there an easy way to tell?

I think it is MFBI.

[dkyeager]

5 hours ago, dewbertdc said:

I’ve seen a few Band 25 neighbor cells registering on my T-Mobile iPhone, but I can’t tell if that’s just MFBI on Band 2 or something else. Is there an easy way to tell?

 

4 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

I think it is MFBI.

I have a Sprint phone and 3 Tello (Sprint) as well. Definitely from two nearby Sprint sites base on known PCIs plus earfcn. Locking onto b25 on my T-Mobile network phone gets nothing. 

Edit:  My T-Mobile normal is b71 from 1 of 3 nearby sites. A fourth T-Mobile site is getting b71 but not public yet. All of the T-Mobile sites are Sprint Co-Sites.  Inside that perimeter lies 4 Sprint Sites. These two b25 neighbors are the center most.

[ingenium]

I have a Sprint phone and 3 Tello (Sprint) as well. Definitely from two nearby Sprint sites base on known PCIs plus earfcn. Locking onto b25 on my T-Mobile network phone gets nothing. 
Edit:  My T-Mobile normal is b71 from 1 of 3 nearby sites. A fourth T-Mobile site is getting b71 but not public yet. All of the T-Mobile sites are Sprint Co-Sites.  Inside that perimeter lies 4 Sprint Sites. These two b25 neighbors are the center most.

If it's showing a true B25 neighbor and not bad data, then it's because the T-Mobile network is asking the phone to scan that earfcn and report the PCIs, earfcn, and signal strength back. So it would suggest that T-Mobile is planning to start using it at some point.

If you look at signaling messages in NSG, you can watch it happen every second or two. It's how the network does handoffs basically.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[JonnygATL]

All of this is so flipping cool.  I haven't been this excited since Sprint first started rolling out LTE here in Atlanta in June 2012. I feel like a kid in a candy store! #nerdtruth

[RedSpark]

15 hours ago, JonnygATL said:

All of this is so flipping cool.  I haven't been this excited since Sprint first started rolling out LTE here in Atlanta in June 2012. I feel like a kid in a candy store! #nerdtruth

Capex with competent management is an amazing thing isn't it? 😎

I'm actually proud to be part of T-Mobile now because we're going to have the best network in the USA.

[jroepcke51]

Well something happen in ABQ this weekend. Noted some trouble data wise, but this morning at my house both my wife's iphone 8 plus and my XS Max were on Tmobile. On my run it was connected who time. I live in North Albuquerque Acres.

 

Went to work downtown and I noted it switched back to Band 41. Up at my house there is no band 41 (at least usable), so perhaps that is how they are bring on Sprint folks.

[dkyeager]

https://www.thetechie.de/2020/06/t-mobile-initiates-4-billion-bond-sale.html?m=1

The layoffs make sense to lower the bond costs.

[dkyeager]

17 hours ago, ingenium said:

If it's showing a true B25 neighbor and not bad data, then it's because the T-Mobile network is asking the phone to scan that earfcn and report the PCIs, earfcn, and signal strength back. So it would suggest that T-Mobile is planning to start using it at some point.

If you look at signaling messages in NSG, you can watch it happen every second or two. It's how the network does handoffs basically.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 

Not gifted yet to be able to access those details

[JimBob]

Former Sprint CEO and current Softbank COO Marcelo Claure will personally purchase an additional $500 Million worth of shares in T-Mobile with a loan from SoftBank as SoftBank prepares to sell $20 billion in T-Mobile shares to raise needed cash.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sprints-old-boss-adds-500-million-stake-in-t-mobilewith-help-from-softbank-11592870334