Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[Dkoellerwx]

1 minute ago, Jeff68005 said:

When I switched to T-Mobile, the rep replaced my SIMS on both Samsung phone with new  T-Mobile SIMS.

Okay then you should have access to SA-NR, so you can ignore that previous post ha.

[Jeff68005]

1 hour ago, Dkoellerwx said:

I have seen B2+B66+B71 CA, but so far no NR combos that include B71 or B41.

I actually haven't seen any 5G in the last two days, not sure what's going on.

I have been told the tower serving  my house is iffy because it is be worked on.  No completion date.

[Jeff68005]

25 minutes ago, Jeff68005 said:

B71 CA,

what is the CA in T-Mobile 71 CA ?? What does it do that makes it popular with some folks?

[Dkoellerwx]

35 minutes ago, Jeff68005 said:

what is the CA in T-Mobile 71 CA ?? What does it do that makes it popular with some folks?

CA = Carrier aggregation.
Not sure what you mean by the second half of your question.

[Jeff68005]

2 minutes ago, Dkoellerwx said:

CA = Carrier aggregation.
Not sure what you mean by the second half of your question.

Just trying to understand what that does.  What benefit?  Saw it popular on a different blog.

[IrwinshereAgain]

34 minutes ago, Jeff68005 said:

Just trying to understand what that does.  What benefit?  Saw it popular on a different blog.

B71 travels a lot farther than any of the other bands.

[Dkoellerwx]

1 hour ago, Jeff68005 said:

Just trying to understand what that does.  What benefit?  Saw it popular on a different blog.

Haven't had to explain what CA is in a while. 

Carrier aggregation bonds two (or more) LTE channels together so they effectively act as one for downloading data. That's what I indicated when I wrote B2+B66+B71. All three channels bonded together. I don't think CA with B71 is that special, it doesn't act any different than any other LTE band. It is usable farther from the cell site (in good conditions) so that's a benefit to B71, but that doesn't help CA as the other bands need to be within range as we. 

[PedroDaGr8]

[iansltx]

 

[Member21]

So my parents are legacy Sprint customers and both have 2020 iPhone SE's.  They just received the new SIM cards that T-Mobile is pushing legacy Sprint customers to get.  I helped them do the SIM swap and I noticed something very surprising.  Before we did the swap, I was curious if VoLTE was on or off, so I went to:

-Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options > Voice & Data and saw the VoLTE toggle, which was off.

Then, after the SIM swap, the VoLTE toggle was gone!  How could that be?  I though T-Mobile is planning on carrying calls on VoLTE only? 

[PedroDaGr8]

26 minutes ago, Member21 said:

So my parents are legacy Sprint customers and both have 2020 iPhone SE's.  They just received the new SIM cards that T-Mobile is pushing legacy Sprint customers to get.  I helped them do the SIM swap and I noticed something very surprising.  Before we did the swap, I was curious if VoLTE was on or off, so I went to:

-Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options > Voice & Data and saw the VoLTE toggle, which was off.

Then, after the SIM swap, the VoLTE toggle was gone!  How could that be?  I though T-Mobile is planning on carrying calls on VoLTE only? 

If Tmo plan on VoLTE only, there is no need for a toggle. 

[Member21]

19 minutes ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

If Tmo plan on VoLTE only, there is no need for a toggle. 

Got it, thanks (was thinking the toggle might still be there now in order to be able to select it as "on" and avoid using something older for calls like GSM (if that still exists)).  Glad that it is nice and clean by being on with no way to turn it off. 

[jonathanm1978]

I was told by a tech that I called in and talked with (because a trouble ticket was created, and I received a text msg saying "call <this number> in regards to ticket #_______ at your convenience"...)

that my account actually says that Tmobile is NOT recommended because network conditions in my home area aren't the greatest. He told me that he was going to 1)issue a request up to some higher techs/engineers about the power levels of b71 in my area, 2)issue a new ticket about coverage in this area, and 3)switch me back to Tmobile SIM on just my phone, then placed an order for the Tmobile Pebble.

[Jeff68005]

Very interesting.  Back when WiFi calling was failry new for everday Joe, I was getting some WiFi calls from businesses.  Call quality was very iffy..  When it did become available, Sprit was promoting it as a way to reduce loads on their network which was getting overloaded.

I tried it.  It was very flakey to the point I turned it off and never looked back.  I recently switched Sprint to T-Mobile after getting the "you need to swap SIMS" letter.  I did the swap to get better pricing.  I never even looked at that.  On Sprint, I turned off VoLTE since it was linked as a new improved WiiFi calling  and never looked back.  That decision was based on poor WiFi call history in my case.  Lots of the members here were all hot to trot to track availability like a new band width.

When I changed , I never even thought about it.  I have always had less than good quality due to my house is in a small valley as far as the towers around here.  For most things, I set up good WiFi in house and that helped a lot for non-voice needs.  My Sprint plan at the time had data caps.  I eventually changed to a Unlimited plan..

In fact, until your post, I still never gave it a thought.

[jebr]

On 6/24/2021 at 11:17 AM, though said:

US Cellular is a roaming partner for T-Mobile like Sprint? how are the speeds on it when roaming? hard cap or are they good?

I wonder if you can force roam like you mention on Pixel devices? This would be great for me. I am on a Sprint sim and lately instead of roaming on US Cellular (very adequate speeds) it's been roaming on AT&T (horrible speeds)!!!

Yes, T-Mobile does roam with USCC as well, though it's not quite as comprehensive as Sprint - it won't let me force-roam in some parts of northern Iowa, but I've been able to in Wisconsin and some parts of south-central Iowa. Haven't been to Nebraska to test there. Speeds are good - on my Samsung Galaxy A71 5G it'll even roam on USCC 5G (though the indicator still shows 4G LTE.) Looking at the speed tests I did, they were (in Mbps) 63.4/2.12, 12.6/2.38, 72.5/17.1, and 69.0/22.7. Ping times are pretty high (averaging around 100ms) but otherwise it's been pretty good when it's allowed.

T-Mobile also has Viaero as a roaming partner in Nebraska. There was one report on Reddit of that roaming not working with a TNX SIM, though it's possible that there's a phone/settings issue there too. When I went to Colorado a couple months ago I never encountered a Viaero signal so didn't test it.

[Dkoellerwx]

6 hours ago, jebr said:

Haven't been to Nebraska to test there.

All AT&T along I-80 in Nebraska now instead of USCC or Viaero. No idea why when it would make sense to go with one of the actual roaming partners. 

[jamesinclair]

Hey guys.

I have a Galaxy S8 Active and placed an online order for a Galaxy A52 5G

I will be going abroad soon and need Open World. From what Ive read, this plan breaks if you use a Tmobile SIM,

The order says its coming with a Tmobile SIM. Can I just ignore it and pop in my current SIM card?

[Dkoellerwx]

4 minutes ago, jamesinclair said:

I will be going abroad soon and need Open World. From what Ive read, this plan breaks if you use a Tmobile SIM,

The order says its coming with a Tmobile SIM. Can I just ignore it and pop in my current SIM card?

Did you order place the order through a Sprint portal or was it all through T-Mobile? The last upgrade I did a little over a month ago I did through Sprint (S21 Ultra). The order said it was coming with a T-Mobile SIM, but it was actually in a separate envelope and there was a Sprint SIM in the phone. When I made my trip to Iceland at the start of this month, that Sprint SIM still working for global roaming.

[jamesinclair]

1 minute ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Did you order place the order through a Sprint portal or was it all through T-Mobile? The last upgrade I did a little over a month ago I did through Sprint (S21 Ultra). The order said it was coming with a T-Mobile SIM, but it was actually in a separate envelope and there was a Sprint SIM in the phone. When I made my trip to Iceland at the start of this month, that Sprint SIM still working for global roaming.

I ordered through the Sprint website and am still get my ED1500 "contract" subsidy credit

It says a phone and sim card are coming, so we will see what happens tomorrow. I assume if theres a Sprint sim inside the phone, when I pop it open it will clearly be branded as such? That would be the best option for sure.

And if not, can I just use my Galaxy S8 Active sim? My flight is this upcoming weekend so I wont have too much time to get things sorted.

 

 

[Dkoellerwx]

5 minutes ago, jamesinclair said:

It says a phone and sim card are coming, so we will see what happens tomorrow. I assume if theres a Sprint sim inside the phone, when I pop it open it will clearly be branded as such? That would be the best option for sure.

And if not, can I just use my Galaxy S8 Active sim? My flight is this upcoming weekend so I wont have too much time to get things sorted.

If the T-Mobile SIM is in a different package, the SIM inside the phone will be a "Sprint" one and you shouldn't need to do anything except activate it.

If the SIM From the S8 is the proper type, you might be able to use it. But there's a pretty good chance they've change which size SIM is used since that phone came out.

[belusnecropolis]

My T-Mobile plan switched to the MAXXX today on this billing cycle from the 1+ plan. Will I need new sim cards to achieve stand alone NR? I have a ton of routers out there with old sims in them I will be upgrading with RM510 radios for 5G. So I wonder if this is necessary and if so where can I get the new ones for free? The store wants 35 dollars and that is pretty silly. Thanks for any advice  

[BlueAngel]

6 hours ago, belusnecropolis said:

My T-Mobile plan switched to the MAXXX today on this billing cycle from the 1+ plan. Will I need new sim cards to achieve stand alone NR? I have a ton of routers out there with old sims in them I will be upgrading with RM510 radios for 5G. So I wonder if this is necessary and if so where can I get the new ones for free? The store wants 35 dollars and that is pretty silly. Thanks for any advice  

You need the R15 from T-Mobile for SA 5G.

[Cardsfan96]

15 hours ago, jamesinclair said:

I ordered through the Sprint website and am still get my ED1500 "contract" subsidy credit

It says a phone and sim card are coming, so we will see what happens tomorrow. I assume if theres a Sprint sim inside the phone, when I pop it open it will clearly be branded as such? That would be the best option for sure.

And if not, can I just use my Galaxy S8 Active sim? My flight is this upcoming weekend so I wont have too much time to get things sorted.

 

 

Just so you know. Once you TNX on the Everything Data 1500 plan, your video will be capped to 480p. With the sprint sim there is no video cap.

[jamesinclair]

Great, new phone arrived with Sprint sim installed and the Tmobile one in the box, so I will active as is. Charging up now

Anything else I need to double check to ensure it works globally without issue?

[though]

22 hours ago, Dkoellerwx said:

All AT&T along I-80 in Nebraska now instead of USCC or Viaero. No idea why when it would make sense to go with one of the actual roaming partners. 

It's not just I80, it's the entire state from what I have noticed. And it seems to be capped at 256/256kb. VERY slow. Wish USCC was prioritized like it used to be!