Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[swintec]

19 hours ago, Dkoellerwx said:

5G has been available from the start on TNA. All my devices are on T-Mobile 5G, n71, n41 with n66 showing as available once it's deployed.

i guess maybe i forgot what TNA is.  When tmobile first took over is TNA what they put all capable devices on, which made the devices prefer tmobile over sprint network?

If so, yes, i had "5G" from the start but it required the anchor band.  I never saw n71 (5G-BR 600 in signal check).  You have seen n71 from the start, with no anchor band needed?

As soon as i made the switch to TNX at the store and got in my car to play around, I started seeing n71 with no anchor band needed so unless they enabled n71 in the 10 minutes i was in the store swapping, i did not have this on TNA.

I remembered something else that came with TNX....SMS messages now show Sent >> Delivered in Textra where as before they only showed Sent which has made me wonder what is happening on the network level that tmobile knows this and why sprint could never do it.  I do not have RCS.

[BlueAngel]

2 hours ago, swintec said:

i guess maybe i forgot what TNA is.  When tmobile first took over is TNA what they put all capable devices on, which made the devices prefer tmobile over sprint network?

If so, yes, i had "5G" from the start but it required the anchor band.  I never saw n71 (5G-BR 600 in signal check).  You have seen n71 from the start, with no anchor band needed?

As soon as i made the switch to TNX at the store and got in my car to play around, I started seeing n71 with no anchor band needed so unless they enabled n71 in the 10 minutes i was in the store swapping, i did not have this on TNA.

I remembered something else that came with TNX....SMS messages now show Sent >> Delivered in Textra where as before they only showed Sent which has made me wonder what is happening on the network level that tmobile knows this and why sprint could never do it.  I do not have RCS.

So you had SA after switching.

[Dkoellerwx]

2 hours ago, swintec said:

If so, yes, i had "5G" from the start but it required the anchor band.  I never saw n71 (5G-BR 600 in signal check).  You have seen n71 from the start, with no anchor band needed?

That's stand alone 5G, or SA 5G, which yes is something TNA doesn't have. But there's not currently a major benefit for SA 5G unless you consistently spend a lot of time on a fringe B71 signal where SA n71 would make a difference. I have no use for that at the present, n71 is much more usable with the anchor 20x20 AWS band here.

2 hours ago, swintec said:

I remembered something else that came with TNX....SMS messages now show Sent >> Delivered in Textra where as before they only showed Sent which has made me wonder what is happening on the network level that tmobile knows this and why sprint could never do it.  I do not have RCS.

Not sure why that would be... RCS has been enabled on Sprint devices for a long time... and I still see sent/delivered/read/typing messages even though I'm on TNA.

[Trip]

Ah ha!  I've been puzzled about why T-Mobile would be rushing to shut off CDMA when 1X 800 uses spectrum that T-Mobile literally will not be using otherwise, and the answer is, apparently, that it isn't:

https://insidetowers.com/cell-tower-news-dish-concerns-over-t-mobile-cdma-sunsets-get-lawmakers-attention/

"The carrier assured Schatz and 12 other senators it plans to shutter its 3G CDMA network by January 1, 2021, but has no date certain for its 2G CDMA shutoff."  (Emphasis mine.)

That makes much more sense, and would be consistent with turning of EV-DO in PCS and possibly also CDMA in PCS, while leaving 1X 800 in place.

- Trip

[jonathanm1978]

While Tmobile is doing hardly anything near me...I can't say much for AT&T either. 

I have been assigned as the administrator for firstnet for my FD...so I am able to order prod/services for the station and members...and I'm here to tell yall..AT&T isn't doing much better with the B14 rollout.

My station, according to the map that AT&T gives me access to (basically it's a map of all the towers in the USA with a dot on each tower's location), is 3.5 miles from 1 tower to the east, and 5.9 miles from another tower towards the southwest. With towers that close, and the Microtik SXT LTE on the roof of the station...I can barely get a -95 on B14 and B2....

I even changed out the modem in the 'Tik to a Quectel EC25-AF and it still doesn't do much better.

 

And Tmobile advertises discounts for first responders...i found out because I clicked a Facebook ad showing a discount...

They called me and said I needed to verify with paperwork..and to physically take the paperwork to the nearest store -- so I did. I printed out my AL Fire College certification for Firefighter II...

The manager of the store told me that there was nothing he could do because I am still considered a "Sprint" customer, and unless I paid off all my devices and started over, the discount wouldn't apply to me.

WHAT?!?!?

So yeah... not the best thing to hear. 

[RedSpark]

1 hour ago, jonathanm1978 said:

While Tmobile is doing hardly anything near me...I can't say much for AT&T either. 

I have been assigned as the administrator for firstnet for my FD...so I am able to order prod/services for the station and members...and I'm here to tell yall..AT&T isn't doing much better with the B14 rollout.

My station, according to the map that AT&T gives me access to (basically it's a map of all the towers in the USA with a dot on each tower's location), is 3.5 miles from 1 tower to the east, and 5.9 miles from another tower towards the southwest. With towers that close, and the Microtik SXT LTE on the roof of the station...I can barely get a -95 on B14 and B2....

I even changed out the modem in the 'Tik to a Quectel EC25-AF and it still doesn't do much better.

 

And Tmobile advertises discounts for first responders...i found out because I clicked a Facebook ad showing a discount...

They called me and said I needed to verify with paperwork..and to physically take the paperwork to the nearest store -- so I did. I printed out my AL Fire College certification for Firefighter II...

The manager of the store told me that there was nothing he could do because I am still considered a "Sprint" customer, and unless I paid off all my devices and started over, the discount wouldn't apply to me.

WHAT?!?!?

So yeah... not the best thing to hear. 

That's interesting. At some point in the merger process when the the Sprint brand is "no more", they'll have to migrate all the Sprint customers to become T-Mobile customers and account for the current billing status of each account/line so that it's a seamless transition. We switched our lines to TNX, so I guess that's a predicate step for it. Hopefully they can do this while the "plane is in the air" and not require what that manager told you.

Edited May 14, 2021 by RedSpark
Clarity

[jonathanm1978]

17 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

That's interesting. At some point in the merger process when the the Sprint brand is "no more", they'll have to migrate all the Sprint customers to become T-Mobile customers and account for the current billing status of each account/line so that it's a seamless transition. We switched our lines to TNX, so I guess that's a predicate step for it. Hopefully they can do this while the "plane is in the air" and not require what that manager told you.

I definitely don't want to pay 4 phones (probably $2500+) off just so I can turn around and put those same phones right back on as a Tmobile customer, just to get...what..maybe $20-$30 a month in savings?

I am sure if they wanted to really give a discount, they could.

[RedSpark]

2 minutes ago, jonathanm1978 said:

I definitely don't want to pay 4 phones (probably $2500+) off just so I can turn around and put those same phones right back on as a Tmobile customer, just to get...what..maybe $20-$30 a month in savings?

I am sure if they wanted to really give a discount, they could.

I agree. I'm sure that T-Mobile will eventually communicate how Sprint customers will eventually be migrated over without having to do that. Ultimately the Sprint brand will be shut down so that will have to happen. This affects millions of customers so they'll need to come up with a simple, inexpensive and non-disruptive solution.

[swintec]

20 hours ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Not sure why that would be... RCS has been enabled on Sprint devices for a long time... and I still see sent/delivered/read/typing messages even though I'm on TNA.

thats the thing, I do not have RCS.  Textra (and third party sms apps) do not have the ability for it anyways. When TNX was enabled, I started seeing Sent >> Delivered for SMS..i dont get read/ typing indicators so this is different than RCS. i have just casually wondered what is going on on the network level for this to happen.

[Grabber5.0]

1 hour ago, swintec said:

thats the thing, I do not have RCS.  Textra (and third party sms apps) do not have the ability for it anyways. When TNX was enabled, I started seeing Sent >> Delivered for SMS..i dont get read/ typing indicators so this is different than RCS. i have just casually wondered what is going on on the network level for this to happen.

I vaguely remember reading years ago that some networks had the ability to tell you when an SMS was delivered.

[Dkoellerwx]

3 hours ago, swintec said:

i have just casually wondered what is going on on the network level for this to happen.

I remember that Textra could ask for a delivered notice. Not sure exactly how that works. Haven't used it in a long time though, Android Messages works fine for me plus get the benefit of RCS.

[iansltx]

In Denver over the weekend and there's a significant amount of n41 here at either 60 or 80 MHz. Catch is, they have 5 MHz channels on B2 and B66 that get aggregsted rather often, and it seems like backhaul could be better (have seen sub 100 Mbps with good signal on 60 MHz in some cases). Also saw B25 (PCS-G) aggregated with B41 (2 CA) for the first time ever, as 312-250; indoors it was either that or 10 MHz n71 plus 2 or 66, while outdoors I could get n41.

Been swapping out my Visible SIM every so often but have seen neither mmW nor CBRS yet...nor LTE wider than 10 MHz. n5 is rather easy to find, but apparently T-Mobile at 15x15 B2 is better than what VZW can do. Was quite surprised VZW didn't have CBRS or mmW even at Union Station. Will see what's available on VZW at the airport tomorrow morning.

[Dkoellerwx]

3 hours ago, iansltx said:

In Denver over the weekend and there's a significant amount of n41 here at either 60 or 80 MHz. Catch is, they have 5 MHz channels on B2 and B66 that get aggregsted rather often

I noticed that when I was there in March. Was on an 80Mhz n41 channel but the anchor bands sucked. On the other hand, also recorded my fasted ever speed at 700Mbps on the neighboring site near Evans and Monaco.

3 hours ago, iansltx said:

Also saw B25 (PCS-G) aggregated with B41 (2 CA) for the first time ever, as 312-250

B25 + 41 + 41 cropping up here in Omaha on the Sprint keep sites. Had never seen that either until now.

[iansltx]

1 hour ago, Dkoellerwx said:

I noticed that when I was there in March. Was on an 80Mhz n41 channel but the anchor bands sucked. On the other hand, also recorded my fasted ever speed at 700Mbps on the neighboring site near Evans and Monaco.

B25 + 41 + 41 cropping up here in Omaha on the Sprint keep sites. Had never seen that either until now.

Spent way too long on a Twitter Space earlier this afternoon and it seems Samsung equipment in particular can do 25+41 or even 25+26 CA.

In any event, plenty of n41 around here, as well as 2CA TMo B41. Definitely a few spots where those bands are missing in Louisville, but the setup is drastically better than VZW at least, where they're working with 40x40 total as far as I can tell.

[Dkoellerwx]

3 hours ago, iansltx said:

Spent way too long on a Twitter Space earlier this afternoon and it seems Samsung equipment in particular can do 25+41 or even 25+26 CA.

Yeah I've seen B25+26 active as well on the keep sites. 

[jreuschl]

I just did TNX in Milwaukee area and so far the places that I had Sprint over T-Mobile due to lack of closer tower I'm still on Sprint, which is good.

One thing I noticed is I'm getting N71 NSA (NOT SA) and I was NOT before.  I didn't know that TNX was required for that?  Or was it just a fluke?  I almost thought N41 was added to a couple of towers then realized it was N71 that I hadn't seen before. 

[BlueAngel]

1 hour ago, jreuschl said:

I just did TNX in Milwaukee area and so far the places that I had Sprint over T-Mobile due to lack of closer tower I'm still on Sprint, which is good.

One thing I noticed is I'm getting N71 NSA (NOT SA) and I was NOT before.  I didn't know that TNX was required for that?  Or was it just a fluke?  I almost thought N41 was added to a couple of towers then realized it was N71 that I hadn't seen before. 

Maybe you have it backwards? You have 5G SA now because without TNX you can't access it. 

[jreuschl]

42 minutes ago, BlueAngel said:

Maybe you have it backwards? You have 5G SA now because without TNX you can't access it. 

SignalCheck is showing Both LTE B2 and 5G-NR.  Network info is showing Band 2 and NR_BAND: n71

Before I would only get B2/66 in these areas.  I would only get 5G-NR on N41.

[Dkoellerwx]

5 hours ago, jreuschl said:

SignalCheck is showing Both LTE B2 and 5G-NR.  Network info is showing Band 2 and NR_BAND: n71

Before I would only get B2/66 in these areas.  I would only get 5G-NR on N41.

Maybe it was just added? Or for some reason the network is pushing you to n71 instead of n41. TNA vs TNX shouldn't make a difference for NSA 5G. 

[BlueAngel]

T-Mobile is god damn awful, so they never switched me back to unlimited freedom v24 instead some basic bs T-Mobile unlimited plan with dvd quality streaming and no hotspot wtf. They straight up lied to me, I'm to the point of just canceling my lines and going elsewhere this is not how you run a company. And the god damn foreigners I am talking to don't understand or speak proper English...

[BlueAngel]

Finally got connected to a Canadian, very helpful and understood what I was saying! Sprint Unlimited Freedom no longer exists, they can't put me back on it. So I am back on the taxes included plan with a $20 a month credit. Love how they just put me on the most basic plan to make the bill appear normal but it's obviously not video streaming looks like hot garbage if I am not on my VPN. Once my lease is up I may be jumping ship, we shall see.

Edited May 17, 2021 by BlueAngel

[floorguy]

On 5/14/2021 at 8:45 AM, jonathanm1978 said:

I definitely don't want to pay 4 phones (probably $2500+) off just so I can turn around and put those same phones right back on as a Tmobile customer, just to get...what..maybe $20-$30 a month in savings?

I am sure if they wanted to really give a discount, they could.

THIS ^^^^^^^^^^

Is the biggest hang up they will have moving "groups" over.. They either need to transfer over the phones some how... Allow you to turn them in without penalty, or some other way.

I think its horse crap its a hang up and as big of deal as it is.

As a business, I have 11 lines out there, 6 of which are in a lease right now you really think I am interested in paying all those off??  

Also when its tmo towers causing issues, and I have to talk to a sprint CS rep. REALLY????   

There are many things that are stupid on the backside, of this whole thing, more than I thought there would be.

But the end, will be soooooooo nice

[floorguy]

2 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

Finally got connected to a Canadian, very helpful and understood what I was saying! Sprint Unlimited Freedom no longer exists, they can't put me back on it. So I am back on the taxes included plan with a $20 a month credit. Love how they just put me on the most basic plan to make the bill appear normal but it's obviously not video streaming looks like hot garbage if I am not on my VPN. Once my lease is up I may be jumping ship, we shall see.

is yours a business setup or individual lines

 

[BlueAngel]

1 minute ago, floorguy said:

is yours a business setup or individual lines

 

Individual lines, such a frustrating experience today. 

[floorguy]

1 minute ago, BlueAngel said:

Individual lines, such a frustrating experience today. 

Let me reach out to my business guy (lost my dedicated guy, which is stupid)  He is in a group of 50, but I have his email and he can call out, or we email back and forth... Ill see if he has a individual contact person