Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[RedSpark]

Amazing progress by T-Mobile:

So glad to see T-Mobile charging ahead against Red and Blue.....

[floorguy]

On 11/17/2020 at 4:26 PM, BlueAngel said:

Why don't you get TNX on your S20 Ultra?

Pretty sure I am.. The Ultra has been on the Tmo network since I bought it.. which as I am reading about, thats what TNX is right??  

My moms phone, the LG G6,  has a better connection (band 41) and faster speed at this location, Then my Ultra does (band 2 on Tmo)

I have been running into these issues all over... It is mostly fine when on Band 66, or 71, but it drops to 2 or 12.. and it SUCKS.

So I am guessing I am on the TNX?? Right?  because it only sits on TMO sites

[floorguy]

On 11/17/2020 at 4:26 PM, BlueAngel said:

Why don't you get TNX on your S20 Ultra?

Ii do however have a sprint SIM, vs TMO sim

[BlueAngel]

24 minutes ago, floorguy said:

Pretty sure I am.. The Ultra has been on the Tmo network since I bought it.. which as I am reading about, thats what TNX is right??  

My moms phone, the LG G6,  has a better connection (band 41) and faster speed at this location, Then my Ultra does (band 2 on Tmo)

I have been running into these issues all over... It is mostly fine when on Band 66, or 71, but it drops to 2 or 12.. and it SUCKS.

So I am guessing I am on the TNX?? Right?  because it only sits on TMO sites

If you don't have a T-Mobile SIM card you only have the romahome service, and if you have TNX your phone will show the T-Mobile logo at boot up etc.

[floorguy]

2 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

If you don't have a T-Mobile SIM card you only have the romahome service, and if you have TNX your phone will show the T-Mobile logo at boot up etc.

but whats the difference??  I am already parked on Tmo all the time.  Does it magically make it better??

 

[Grabber5.0]

On 11/19/2020 at 1:16 PM, floorguy said:

but whats the difference??  I am already parked on Tmo all the time.  Does it magically make it better??

 

The main difference is non-LTE will be TMO 3G instead of Sprint, and TMO roaming partners instead of Sprint roaming partners. It's possible network prioritization is different also.

[stlman314]

1 hour ago, floorguy said:

but whats the difference??  I am already parked on Tmo all the time.  Does it magically make it better??

 

I do know that with the S20 Ultra you will get SA 5G. I know someone with it and it has helped in some areas for him where service is slow sometimes

[comintel]

5 hours ago, floorguy said:

Pretty sure I am.. The Ultra has been on the Tmo network since I bought it.. which as I am reading about, thats what TNX is right??  

My moms phone, the LG G6,  has a better connection (band 41) and faster speed at this location, Then my Ultra does (band 2 on Tmo)

I have been running into these issues all over... It is mostly fine when on Band 66, or 71, but it drops to 2 or 12.. and it SUCKS.

So I am guessing I am on the TNX?? Right?  because it only sits on TMO sites

It is TNA (aka ROAMAHOME) which keeps you exclusively on T Mobile unless there is NO TMobile signal whatsoever. (which is rare).

TNX (a TMobile sim) can be even worse because it keeps you exclusively on T Mobile EVEN WHEN there is no TMobile signal whatsoever (with the possible exceptions of areas where there are unified PLMN's).

So in my opinion what you want for now is to get TNA REMOVED (and barred from coming back automatically)!  I suggest call and ask for it!

Edited November 19, 2020 by comintel

[BlueAngel]

TNX gives you access to 5G SA which can make a huge difference.

[jasonsteele]

Seems like one B41 20 MHz carrier from my Sprint keep site is being used as anchor band for NSA.

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/XeyBty3

[RAvirani]

3 hours ago, jasonsteele said:

Seems like one B41 20 MHz carrier from my Sprint keep site is being used as anchor band for NSA.

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/XeyBty3

Your field test info looks about 11 minutes older than your screenshot - I think that might have been cached data. 

[Trip]

On 11/1/2020 at 7:30 AM, Trip said:

3) Sprint keep sites seem to be less common than I would have thought.  I've tracked the number of 312250 PLMN sites and I count 10 so far.  One was a site I did not expect, while the others were expected or, at least, unsurprising after plotting on a map.  I've specifically driven up to three more I did expect to be kept which either are not keep sites or have not yet added 312250; I don't know if they're still rolling it out or not to know the answer with certainty.  In all three cases, I suspect outdoor coverage would be okay without them, but I'm less sure about indoor coverage, and in at least one case, Sprint is the only carrier at that site.  (312250 is not yet deployed in the Shentel region, where I would expect to see many more.)

 

Follow-up to this post.  One of the sites I had driven up to suddenly showed up as a 312250 site this morning even though it did not when I first checked.  So perhaps they are rolling it out in stages after all?

- Trip

[jasonsteele]

10 hours ago, RAvirani said:

Your field test info looks about 11 minutes older than your screenshot - I think that might have been cached data. 

Good eye, I didn't catch that. If you look again, the date is also 14 days off. Darn, I thought I had discovered some cool stuff.

[mdob07]

2 hours ago, Trip said:

Follow-up to this post.  One of the sites I had driven up to suddenly showed up as a 312250 site this morning even though it did not when I first checked.  So perhaps they are rolling it out in stages after all?

- Trip

I'm hoping so, I've found several 312250 sites around here but some that I would have thought would be kept haven't been broadcasting it. Ill keep checking those sites. 

[cyclone]

15 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

TNX gives you access to 5G SA which can make a huge difference.

Still waiting on an iPhone update to enable this?

[Trip]

30 minutes ago, mdob07 said:

I'm hoping so, I've found several 312250 sites around here but some that I would have thought would be kept haven't been broadcasting it. Ill keep checking those sites. 

Could it be simpler than this?  Could 312250 be real-world testing--see which non-overlapping sites actually end up with substantial amounts of traffic on them to identify holes that these sites could fill?

The thought just occurred to me, though if that were the case, then I'd expect to see 312250 everywhere at once, I suppose, with sites gradually filtered out rather than added in.

- Trip

[Cardsfan96]

1 hour ago, jasonsteele said:

Good eye, I didn't catch that. If you look again, the date is also 14 days off. Darn, I thought I had discovered some cool stuff.

Field test mode currently on the new iPhones is horrible. Can hardly ever get it to refresh in real time and is way more limited.

[mmark27]

19 hours ago, comintel said:

It is TNA (aka ROAMAHOME) which keeps you exclusively on T Mobile unless there is NO TMobile signal whatsoever. (which is rare).

TNX (a TMobile sim) can be even worse because it keeps you exclusively on T Mobile EVEN WHEN there is no TMobile signal whatsoever (with the possible exceptions of areas where there are unified PLMN's).

So in my opinion what you want for now is to get TNA REMOVED (and barred from coming back automatically)!  I suggest call and ask for it!

I'm trying to understand this TNX deal as I got the email saying we should get new SIMs. We have Sprint phones and Sprint SIMs right now and are part of the ROAMAHOME as I understand it. Should we get the new SIMs? When I travel outside of Madison, WI I tend to roam quite a bit, some on USCC, will that not happen? 

[comintel]

If you go to TNX, roaming will be only whatever arrangements TMobile has for roaming, no longer Sprint roaming arrangements.  Usually Sprint roaming arrangement are better but I myself do not know about that specific area.  Others may. 

 You could try one phone only on TNX at first if you want to try bbn it.

[mmark27]

3 minutes ago, comintel said:

If you go to TNX, roaming will be only whatever arrangements TMobile has for roaming, no longer Sprint roaming arrangements.  Usually Sprint roaming arrangement are better but I myself do not know about that specific area.  Others may. 

 You could try one phone only on TNX at first if you want to try bbn it.

But the future is just the TNX, right? As Sprint towers are sunset and converted? So we'll have to do this eventually. 

[comintel]

Just now, mmark27 said:

But the future is just the TNX, right? As Sprint towers are sunset and converted? So we'll have to do this eventually. 

Absolutely correct and that is the reason I myself am on TNX even though there is no usable TMobile signal right at my house whereas Sprint has a great signal there.

I expect rapid improvement as they shift resources to the TMobile side.

[mmark27]

3 minutes ago, comintel said:

Absolutely correct and that is the reason I myself am on TNX even though there is no usable TMobile signal right at my house whereas Sprint has a great signal there.

I expect rapid improvement as they shift resources to the TMobile side.

Right, my area was far better for Sprint than T-mobile, but now when I'm connected to a Sprint tower, the LTE is unusable. So they're in the process of conversion here, I'm guessing. Might as well bite the bullet now. Thank you for the help!

[iansltx]

3 hours ago, comintel said:

If you go to TNX, roaming will be only whatever arrangements TMobile has for roaming, no longer Sprint roaming arrangements.  Usually Sprint roaming arrangement are better but I myself do not know about that specific area.  Others may. 

 You could try one phone only on TNX at first if you want to try bbn it.

Any idea of what T-Mobile's AT&T roaming agreement looks like? The Sprint one is apparently area limited at 256 kbps. While that's not great, it's better than nothing...or 1x.

[comintel]

16 minutes ago, iansltx said:

Any idea of what T-Mobile's AT&T roaming agreement looks like? The Sprint one is apparently area limited at 256 kbps. While that's not great, it's better than nothing...or 1x.

Hopefully someone knows and will post.

[greenbastard]

17 hours ago, iansltx said:

Any idea of what T-Mobile's AT&T roaming agreement looks like? The Sprint one is apparently area limited at 256 kbps. While that's not great, it's better than nothing...or 1x.

It is a much smaller agreement that keeps getting smaller. Sprint has a larger and more widespread roaming agreement with at&t.

Even if your were to stumble into the rare at&t roaming area, your going to be throttled to 128 kbps.