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Here in the Columbus Ohio market, we're slowly getting n41 rolled out to us.  I was watching a tower that has the antennas on it, and yesterday I was able to connect to n41.  I had B66 @ 20 MHz, and n41 @ 60 MHz.  Pulled down 360 Mb/s.  This was a drive-by, I didn't stop, and didn't try to force SA (I swapped my sim last week for the TNX.) I know there are a couple other towers with n41 active, and I've spotted at least 1 other with the antennas.  I'm also suspecting a couple towers that haven't gotten B71 to get a gull overhaul with n41, just due to their location.

Overall, I'd say that I get NR about 75% of the places I go, maybe more.

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5 hours ago, jporter12 said:

Here in the Columbus Ohio market, we're slowly getting n41 rolled out to us.  I was watching a tower that has the antennas on it, and yesterday I was able to connect to n41.  I had B66 @ 20 MHz, and n41 @ 60 MHz.  Pulled down 360 Mb/s.  This was a drive-by, I didn't stop, and didn't try to force SA (I swapped my sim last week for the TNX.) I know there are a couple other towers with n41 active, and I've spotted at least 1 other with the antennas.  I'm also suspecting a couple towers that haven't gotten B71 to get a gull overhaul with n41, just due to their location.

Overall, I'd say that I get NR about 75% of the places I go, maybe more.

My phone is always on NSA it will only connect to SA briefly and then go on NSA and stay on it.

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I have a few questions about the TNX sim. First if I switch to the TNX sim I assume I’ll lose US Cellular 1x and 3g roaming I rely on sometimes in an area that has weak/ spotty T-Mobile LTE outside? Also is the ED 1500 sprint plan even eligible for TNX yet?

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3 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

My phone is always on NSA it will only connect to SA briefly and then go on NSA and stay on it.

If I use the band selector app, it can sometimes make it go to SA.  Also, in areas that I would see LTE B71, it will go SA on n71.  I have had it stay on SA quite a bit when when using the band selector. 

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38 minutes ago, jporter12 said:

If I use the band selector app, it can sometimes make it go to SA.  Also, in areas that I would see LTE B71, it will go SA on n71.  I have had it stay on SA quite a bit when when using the band selector. 

Yeah, I'm guessing SA isn't as widespread as reported?

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5 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

Yeah, I'm guessing SA isn't as widespread as reported?

Or TMo doesn't want you to use it unless absolutely necessary because doing so loses you the extra bandwidth provided by PCS and AWS.

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58 minutes ago, iansltx said:

Or TMo doesn't want you to use it unless absolutely necessary because doing so loses you the extra bandwidth provided by PCS and AWS.

I'm curious how regular T-Mobile users are experiencing SA. I'm thinking it's just not on every tower so I'm just getting kicked off idk. It's just weird, SA is enabled usually after toggling airplane if defaults to SA, but eventually just goes back to NSA.

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10 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

I'm curious how regular T-Mobile users are experiencing SA. I'm thinking it's just not on every tower so I'm just getting kicked off idk. It's just weird, SA is enabled usually after toggling airplane if defaults to SA, but eventually just goes back to NSA.

If it's working as intended then it really shouldn't be used much at all. You should only connect to it in areas where there is only low band signal or mid-band is extremely weak. The band priority is supposed to be:

  1. n260/261 + LTE
  2. NSA n41 + LTE
  3. NSA n71 + LTE
  4. Band 2/4/66
  5. SA n71
  6. Band 71
  7. Band 12/5

Standalone n41 is starting to be spotted in some parts of the country. I would guess that would be just below NSA n41 + LTE in the priority list.

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On 10/14/2020 at 8:58 AM, jporter12 said:

Here in the Columbus Ohio market, we're slowly getting n41 rolled out to us.  I was watching a tower that has the antennas on it, and yesterday I was able to connect to n41.  I had B66 @ 20 MHz, and n41 @ 60 MHz.  Pulled down 360 Mb/s.  This was a drive-by, I didn't stop, and didn't try to force SA (I swapped my sim last week for the TNX.) I know there are a couple other towers with n41 active, and I've spotted at least 1 other with the antennas.  I'm also suspecting a couple towers that haven't gotten B71 to get a gull overhaul with n41, just due to their location.

Overall, I'd say that I get NR about 75% of the places I go, maybe more.

Yeh I was in Columbus last month picking up 5G in Reynoldsburg/Pickerington and Westerville 

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11 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

If it's working as intended then it really shouldn't be used much at all. You should only connect to it in areas where there is only low band signal or mid-band is extremely weak. The band priority is supposed to be:

  1. n260/261 + LTE
  2. NSA n41 + LTE
  3. NSA n71 + LTE
  4. Band 2/4/66
  5. SA n71
  6. Band 71
  7. Band 12

Standalone n41 is starting to be spotted in some parts of the country. I would guess that would be just below NSA n41 + LTE in the priority list.

Well there we have it.

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1 hour ago, Paynefanbro said:

Standalone n41 is starting to be spotted in some parts of the country. I would guess that would be just below NSA n41 + LTE in the priority list.

I would think SA N41 would only connect naturally as a handoff from SA N71, and only briefly before the phone switches back to NSA.

I would guess the reason for SA N41 to start going live is for the next generation X60 devices which may prefer to stay in SA mode all the time, aggregating together N71+N41 (and N2/25/66 if T-Mobile deploys DSS).

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3 hours ago, Yuhfhrh said:

I would think SA N41 would only connect naturally as a handoff from SA N71, and only briefly before the phone switches back to NSA.

I would guess the reason for SA N41 to start going live is for the next generation X60 devices which may prefer to stay in SA mode all the time, aggregating together N71+N41 (and N2/25/66 if T-Mobile deploys DSS).

X60 and DImensity 1000C phones, to be precise. Remember that TMo's Velvet variant is what they used to demo NR CA.

WOuldn't be surprised if priority ends up being right behind mmWave, as that would pull data use away from LTE, allowing T-Mobile to more quickly deploy n2 or n66 without even bothering with DSS.

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So the Magic Box is now no longer a thing:

When you think about how much money was spent on Magic Boxes that are now all going in the dumpster (vs. the Capex that would have been necessary for Sprint to not require them at all) and then you combine that with how much money Masa poured into everything but Sprint (ARM, Uber, WeWork, etc.) which yielded substantially negative returns on his investment, it shows the extent of the managerial incompetence that put Sprint in this position where a merger was necessary to save the company... from him.

T-Mobile isn't even bothering to take the units back to ensure they are recycled properly. Many of these units will wind up being improperly disposed of, not to mention that there will be no cost recovery for any components of the recycled units by T-Mobile. What an absolute disgrace on all fronts. I expected better from T-Mobile.... Maybe I shouldn't.

EDIT: Looks like the Airave is a goner as well....

Edited by RedSpark
Added Airave info
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13 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

So the Magic Box is now no longer a thing:

EDIT: Looks like the Airave is a goner as well....

I wonder if T-Mobile will continue to offer the CellSpot? We have both a MB and CellSpot in our office building, its the only way we get any signal. For some reason our building's exterior walls are 10-12 inches of concrete and rebar (I found out the hard way when we installed some new outdoor cameras recently).

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3 hours ago, RedSpark said:

So the Magic Box is now no longer a thing:

When you think about how much money was spent on Magic Boxes that are now all going in the dumpster (vs. the Capex that would have been necessary for Sprint to not require them at all) and then you combine that with how much money Masa poured into everything but Sprint (ARM, Uber, WeWork, etc.) which yielded substantially negative returns on his investment, it shows the extent of the managerial incompetence that put Sprint in this position where a merger was necessary to save the company... from him.

T-Mobile isn't even bothering to take the units back to ensure they are recycled properly. Many of these units will wind up being improperly disposed of, not to mention that there will be no cost recovery for any components of the recycled units by T-Mobile. What an absolute disgrace on all fronts. I expected better from T-Mobile.... Maybe I shouldn't.

EDIT: Looks like the Airave is a goner as well....

Still have mine, haven't had it powered on in about two weeks. Granted it's not under my account so I haven't ever cared for it, made service at my house worse. I'll gladly send it back and recycle it.

Edited by BlueAngel
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5 hours ago, RedSpark said:

So the Magic Box is now no longer a thing:

When you think about how much money was spent on Magic Boxes that are now all going in the dumpster (vs. the Capex that would have been necessary for Sprint to not require them at all) and then you combine that with how much money Masa poured into everything but Sprint (ARM, Uber, WeWork, etc.) which yielded substantially negative returns on his investment, it shows the extent of the managerial incompetence that put Sprint in this position where a merger was necessary to save the company... from him.

T-Mobile isn't even bothering to take the units back to ensure they are recycled properly. Many of these units will wind up being improperly disposed of, not to mention that there will be no cost recovery for any components of the recycled units by T-Mobile. What an absolute disgrace on all fronts. I expected better from T-Mobile.... Maybe I shouldn't.

EDIT: Looks like the Airave is a goner as well....

As far as I am aware this is only going out to a select few, mainly those that are still on the first generation or maybe second generation MBs and haven't used them in a while. Those that have the third or "Gold" version like I do or have continued to use their MBs will continue to be able to keep them, at least for the time being.

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37 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

My Gold version MB is still going strong, using B41 as backhaul since T-Mobile has done no work to move us Sprint subs over to their admittedly superior local network. Where is my TNX SIM card T-mobile?

If you have service that works well, you might want to think twice before you make any move.  Many people that get moved to TM by request or involuntary have issues.  Unless you are sure TM is better in your area, I would hesitate to move to TM.

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51 minutes ago, chamb said:

If you have service that works well, you might want to think twice before you make any move.  Many people that get moved to TM by request or involuntary have issues.  Unless you are sure TM is better in your area, I would hesitate to move to TM.

TM is much better in this area. They were neck and neck (with TM slightly ahead) 5 years ago until Sprint started replacing macro sites with mini macros. What a disaster!

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