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Verizon tries to prevent T-Mobile from getting more 600 MHz spectrum
Verizon says the FCC should not allow T-Mobile access to additional 600 MHz spectrum to “dramatically expand” its lead “in many of the country’s largest markets without subjecting these arrangements to the same rigorous competitive analysis the Commission normally applies to transactions that exceed the spectrum screen.”
Is this vzws way of saying they actually want some 600 for themselves?

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1 hour ago, Tengen31 said:

Is this vzws way of saying they actually want some 600 for themselves?

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I don't think Verizon wants any 600MHz at all. Rather they're concerned about a growing spectrum gap between T-Mobile and themselves which I think is a fair critique.

T-Mobile has been very vocal about being interested in purchasing more spectrum in upcoming mid-band and mmWave auctions as well as leasing 600MHz in markets where they had very little. If I were Verizon I'd think it was unfair too considering T-Mobile already has a massive spectrum advantage over every other carrier in the U.S. by far. 

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I don't think Verizon wants any 600MHz at all. Rather they're concerned about a growing spectrum gap between T-Mobile and themselves which I think is a fair critique.
T-Mobile has been very vocal about being interested in purchasing more spectrum in upcoming mid-band and mmWave auctions as well as leasing 600MHz in markets where they had very little. If I were Verizon I'd think it was unfair too considering T-Mobile already has a massive spectrum advantage over every other carrier in the U.S. by far. 

Let’s get what you already have out there first.


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52 minutes ago, derrph said:


Let’s get what you already have out there first.


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The 600 they're talking about is already out there. Channel 51 loaned it for COVID reasons, and TMo wants to convert that loan to a lease. WIth how broad TMo's n71 is, they can turn up additional n71 spectrum with the flip of a switch. Though, again, *not* having access to the spectrum just means n71 speeds will get slower in the affected areas as bandwidth decreases. I saw that here when TMo went from 30x30 of band 71 to 15x15. Oh, and if Channel 51 can't lease to T-Mobile, that basically lets Dish take their sweet time building out their own network, asking Channel 51 for cheap leases on the spectrum at a later date, while TMo customers get crappy speeds due to congestion.

Someone on Twitter brought up that what Verizon really wants here is TMo to divest PCS or AWS in order to get the leases. This is an inconvenient time to divest PCS because not enough Sprint customers have been migrated, but TMo could probably sell some AWS-3 and not feel it too badly. I'd expect TMo would want to divest AWS rather than PCS not only because they have more of it deployed, but also because there would be at least three bidders in the divestiture (AT&T, VZW, Dish) rather than just two (DIsh isn't going to touch PCS).

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1 hour ago, Paynefanbro said:

I don't think Verizon wants any 600MHz at all. Rather they're concerned about a growing spectrum gap between T-Mobile and themselves which I think is a fair critique.

That's funny considering Verizon went all in on the 700 Mhz auction when they already owned Cellular licenses in most of the country. They gobbled up the upper C Block and several A and B blocks in 2008 (which are now owned by T-Mobile and At&t). Where was the concern then?

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I don’t understand why everyone is now all of a sudden against T-Mobile leasing more 600 MHz. We are talking about spectrum that will sit unused providing no benefit for anyone. It doesn’t make any sense for anyone else to put it to use other thank T-Mobile. Also we all know that T-Mobile really doesn’t really have an advantage in low band compared to the others and after the upcoming c-band auction, AT&T and Verizon will likely close that total spectrum gap.

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So I've now spotted T-Mobile Band 41 LTE on several sites in the Alexandria/Fairfax County, VA area, and I expect to see more area tomorrow.  It appears to be on at least half a dozen that I've seen, though I'm not able to do a precise count right at the moment.

Spectrum usage now appears to be something like this:

2518.4 MHz - small cell/strand mount
2538.2 MHz - T-Mobile LTE second carrier (I've not seen any small cell second carrier operations, so I assume that's been turned off)
2558.0 MHz - T-Mobile LTE first carrier
2640.4 MHz - Sprint LTE first carrier
2660.2 MHz - Sprint LTE second carrier
2680.0 MHz - Sprint LTE third carrier

My assumption, then, is that some portion of the remainder, if not all of it, is in use for 5G-NR on those sites.

- Trip

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My guess, Verizon is having whatever is the opposite of "buyer's remorse".  Maybe regretting that they decided to sit it out on the 600 MHz "Incentive Auction", that they laughed at T-mobile for bidding in.

I'll drop a couple links below, no big breaking news in them, they are all many years old, but offer insight into how things were playing out years ago, like this:

https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/home-banner/verizon-exec-takes-aim-at-t-mobile-over-600mhz-sale

Of course, Verizon may have thought they could work some deals with Dish, until the T-Mobile/Sprint merger left Dish entwined so closely with New T-Mobile.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/why-verizon-didn-t-buy-any-600-mhz-spectrum-and-what-it-means-for-big-red

Ah, the taste of sour grapes.

Maybe it seemed like fun to laugh at T-Mobile's 600 MHz idea's, until they saw it in action... 

https://www.rcrwireless.com/20130917/carriers/cca-fall-2013-t-mobile-us-looks-to-keep-pressure-on-with-un-carrier-strategy-courts-rural-partners

...and realized Neville Ray might be smarter than they thought.

It might even be that those comparison 5G coverage maps already make Verizon look silly!

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Just something from my local TV news that might be of interest here.

https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/kent/5g-internet-antennas-being-installed-in-east-gr-not-everyone-happy-about-it

 

****  Ya know, you people are all wanting this 5G stuff, but if you took the time to learn about it, you would realize it causes Corona-Virus, which will lead Bill Gates to administer a vaccine right through your Windows 10 computer, that will indoctrinate you into a baby eating zombie cult. 

/sarcasm

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On 8/29/2020 at 12:05 PM, gr8nuguy said:

  Fremont, ne, where TMobile had 0 native coverage before. This is from my house, I'll drive later to confirm tower location

 

0NSC5rn.jpg

Found location as above note wasn't right

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Some folks over in the T-Mobile subreddit are reporting that they can now connect to Sprint LTE if they force B41/B26 on their devices  Reportedly forcing B25 in an area with both networks will just make their device camp on T-Mo’s native B2 (MFBI to B25), which makes sense.

https://m.imgur.com/a/eE99oVH

I have an iPhone, so can’t test this myself. 

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I've had my T-Mobile phone locked on Band 41 for several days now, in order to track down T-Mobile Band 41.  I've seen it show my home site in SCP, but always with No Service; presumably its final attempt to make a connection before giving up, and then the stale data lingers.

I hope this is a sign they're planning to make both networks native to each other.  Because there's really no reason not to, and I'm not sure why they would have gone through the trouble of changing a bunch of Sprint GCIs (most notably in Baltimore, from what I've observed first-hand, but I've seen it in other markets as well) to not conflict with T-Mobile ones if they weren't going to do that.

- Trip

 

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58 minutes ago, Trip said:

I've had my T-Mobile phone locked on Band 41 for several days now, in order to track down T-Mobile Band 41.  I've seen it show my home site in SCP, but always with No Service; presumably its final attempt to make a connection before giving up, and then the stale data lingers.

I hope this is a sign they're planning to make both networks native to each other.  Because there's really no reason not to, and I'm not sure why they would have gone through the trouble of changing a bunch of Sprint GCIs (most notably in Baltimore, from what I've observed first-hand, but I've seen it in other markets as well) to not conflict with T-Mobile ones if they weren't going to do that.

- Trip

 

Their 2018-era FCC merger filings indicated that they were going to unify the RANs with MOCN as part of the transition, so hopefully that is still the plan.  If the rumors of network integration being "complete" by the end of this month are true, we'll know soon enough.

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T-Mo just issued a press release touting its N41 deployment.  Here's the list of cities/towns they've deployed to so far:

California

  • Citrus
  • La Puente
  • Los Angeles
  • Paramount
  • San Fernando
  • Willowbrook

District of Columbia

  • Washington D.C.

Florida  

  • Azalea Park
  • Holiday
  • Progress Village
  • Westchase

Georgia  

  • Atlanta
  • Gainesville
  • Mableton
  • North Atlanta
  • Winder

Illinois  

  • Bellwood
  • Calumet City
  • Chicago
  • Chicago Heights
  • Glendale Heights
  • Hanover Park
  • Ingalls Park
  • Northlake

Indiana  

  • Merrillville

Maryland  

  • Towson

Massachusetts  

  • Holbrook
  • Waltham

Michigan  

  • Bangor
  • Decatur

Minnesota  

  • Maplewood

Missouri  

  • Jennings

New Jersey  

  • Camden
  • Cliffside Park
  • Fort Lee
  • Hasbrouck Heights
  • North Arlington
  • Palisades Park
  • Paterson
  • Roselle
  • Totowa

New York  

  • Copiague
  • East Williston
  • Freeport
  • Garden City
  • Garden City Park
  • Harbor Isle
  • Hempstead
  • Island Park
  • Lindenhurst
  • Long Beach
  • Malverne Park Oaks
  • Middle Island
  • Mineola
  • New York
  • Plainview
  • West Hempstead
  • Williston Park

North Carolina  

  • Clemmons
  • Kernersville
  • Pineville
  • Stallings
  • Statesville
  • Winston-Salem

Oregon  

  • Aloha
  • Newberg
  • Sherwood

Pennsylvania  

  • Braddock
  • Colwyn
  • Darby
  • East Lansdowne
  • Kerrtown
  • Meadville
  • Philadelphia
  • Rankin
  • Yeadon

Texas  

  • Dallas
  • Houston
  • Nassau Bay

Virginia  

  • Bailey's Crossroads
  • Bull Run
  • Highland Springs
  • Lake Barcroft
  • Newport News
  • Sudley
  • Tysons Corner

Washington   

  • Geneva
  • Oak Harbor
  • Snohomish

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/5g-speeds-supercharged-for-millions-more-people

 

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Bull Run?  Sudley?  Hm, I was on 66 near there on Monday and only saw one site there on Band 41 LTE, closer to Centreville.  Maybe they don't have as much spectrum there and aren't running Band 41 LTE?

I was near, but not in, the Lake Barcroft/Bailey's area less than half an hour ago and definitely saw some neighbor cells on Band 41.  I had a very faint connection to Band 41, probably from somewhere over there. 

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22 hours ago, Bennyjet29 said:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/3-reasons-t-mobile-isnt-yet-dominating-5g

This helps explain why the merging of Sprint and T-Mobile networks is taking so long. emoji2375.png


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Maybe a dumb question 
I upgraded to the Note 20 Ultra assuming that the antennas would be tmobile. The phone still shows "Sprint by Tmobile". 
In the article it references million of Sprint customers needing to shift to T-Mobile 5G. Is the Note 20 Ultra future proof or am I still technically on Sprint's dying network and need to switch to a more compatible device in the near future? 

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On 8/20/2020 at 1:11 AM, javon23 said:

So I received the Note 20 Ultra today, Haven't left my house today. There is 5g in my area. 

5G icon with all bars shows up on my phone but I have no connection. 
On the Speedtest app it can't find a server. 
So I been using wifi instead. 

Update. All is well now. 

Just now from my home. 

20200902-111056.jpg

Screenshot-20200902-111211-Signal-Check-

20200902-111549.jpg

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4 hours ago, Trip said:

I've had my T-Mobile phone locked on Band 41 for several days now, in order to track down T-Mobile Band 41.  I've seen it show my home site in SCP, but always with No Service; presumably its final attempt to make a connection before giving up, and then the stale data lingers.

- Trip

 

My OP6t doesn't even scan for B41.

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5 hours ago, dewbertdc said:

Some folks over in the T-Mobile subreddit are reporting that they can now connect to Sprint LTE if they force B41/B26 on their devices  Reportedly forcing B25 in an area with both networks will just make their device camp on T-Mo’s native B2 (MFBI to B25), which makes sense.

https://m.imgur.com/a/eE99oVH

I have an iPhone, so can’t test this myself. 

I can confirm that I'm able to connect to Sprint Band 41 and Band 26 by forcing those bands. However, because I'm using an unlocked Android phone T-Mobile won't allow me to use domestic roaming data. I can only make calls. 

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