Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[Cardsfan96]

On 8/6/2021 at 8:38 PM, Yuhfhrh said:

Any plan that specifically doesn't mention 1080p (~6mbps) or 1080p+ (unthrottled) is throttled down to to 480p (~2.5mbps) right now on TNX. This may be something T-Mobile tries to force down Sprint customer's throats, even though it's inconsistent with how they've treated their own customers with legacy plans before video streaming limits.

 

I’m hearing they are intending to fix it.

[Member21]

On 8/2/2021 at 12:43 PM, swintec said:

This infuriates me to no end, i dont necessarily have no signal but it jumps on bands that are absolutely useless and stays there.  why hold a -121 signal reading on band 2 with 5G when n71 is there? Also goes through fits of seemingly no data access despite the phone showing no problems (usually when on n71).

So I had an even worse user experience today at my parents' townhouse style condo, where I haven't been since before I got my S21 with the T-Mobile SIM.  They both have 2020 2nd Gen. iPhone SE's w/ the T-Mobile SIM, which stay parked on B71 (600).  My S21 (with roaming turned off) has no service about 90% of the time, and then gets service from B71 or n71 about 10% of the time.  It's crazy how the S21 5G will not stay on B71 or n71 and yet the non-5G iPhone SE's have no issue staying on B71 and that the network decides that the 5G phones need to constantly hop from band to band, even if that means going to no service.  Hope they are actively fixing this on the back end.  

[The_Chemist]

14 minutes ago, Member21 said:

So I had an even worse user experience today at my parents' townhouse style condo, where I haven't been since before I got my S21 with the T-Mobile SIM.  They both have 2020 2nd Gen. iPhone SE's w/ the T-Mobile SIM, which stay parked on B71 (600).  My S21 (with roaming turned off) has no service about 90% of the time, and then gets service from B71 or n71 about 10% of the time.  It's crazy how the S21 5G will not stay on B71 or n71 and yet the non-5G iPhone SE's have no issue staying on B71 and that the network decides that the 5G phones need to constantly hop from band to band, even if that means going to no service.  Hope they are actively fixing this on the back end.  

Yeah, it's all messed up. I came home from grocery shopping this morning. I was still in the car in my driveway and called the neighbor across the street. I picked up an item for them. The entire trip home I was streaming Spotify. No issues there. 

The phone call was all garbled to the point I had to hang up and call back on my Verizon phone. 

It turns out when I checked the band with Signal Check Pro afterwards, that I was on HSPA. 

After an airplane mode cycle, I latched onto 5G N71. What the heck wax the deal with connecting to HSPA?  I was using my Note 20 Ultra 5G phone. 

This same thing has happened to my girlfriend with her S21 5G.

Very frustrating. 

 

[BlueAngel]

6 hours ago, Member21 said:

So I had an even worse user experience today at my parents' townhouse style condo, where I haven't been since before I got my S21 with the T-Mobile SIM.  They both have 2020 2nd Gen. iPhone SE's w/ the T-Mobile SIM, which stay parked on B71 (600).  My S21 (with roaming turned off) has no service about 90% of the time, and then gets service from B71 or n71 about 10% of the time.  It's crazy how the S21 5G will not stay on B71 or n71 and yet the non-5G iPhone SE's have no issue staying on B71 and that the network decides that the 5G phones need to constantly hop from band to band, even if that means going to no service.  Hope they are actively fixing this on the back end.  

In the meantime you can disable 5G and have it only connect to LTE it should help a lot.

[RedSpark]

18 hours ago, The_Chemist said:

Yeah, it's all messed up. I came home from grocery shopping this morning. I was still in the car in my driveway and called the neighbor across the street. I picked up an item for them. The entire trip home I was streaming Spotify. No issues there. 

The phone call was all garbled to the point I had to hang up and call back on my Verizon phone. 

It turns out when I checked the band with Signal Check Pro afterwards, that I was on HSPA. 

After an airplane mode cycle, I latched onto 5G N71. What the heck wax the deal with connecting to HSPA?  I was using my Note 20 Ultra 5G phone. 

This same thing has happened to my girlfriend with her S21 5G.

Very frustrating. 

 

T-Mobile is doing a very heavy lift right now. It's essentially doing Network Vision 2.0 to integrate Sprint's network into T-Mobile's, but somehow keep both networks running at the same time. It's obviously causing problems along the way.

Given that Sprint's LTE network will be shutdown by June 30, 2022, we're likely going to see this kind of stuff continue until then (and perhaps for some time after) until everything is integrated and optimized.

 

[bill875]

It's interesting that the S21 Family of devices seem to be so problematic for customers on Sprint/T-Mobile.  Do we know if these devices specifically have a bad radio?  My sister and wife, both have an S21+ have issues with calls.  My sister has a T-Mobile SIM and my wife has a Sprint SIM and both experience calls dropping or sound dropping out for seconds at a time on a regular basis.  It is to the point that they want to get rid of Sprint/T-Mobile and dump the S21+ ASAP.

[RedSpark]

4 minutes ago, bill875 said:

It's interesting that the S21 Family of devices seem to be so problematic for customers on Sprint/T-Mobile.  Do we know if these devices specifically have a bad radio?  My sister and wife, both have an S21+ have issues with calls.  My sister has a T-Mobile SIM and my wife has a Sprint SIM and both experience calls dropping or sound dropping out for seconds at a time on a regular basis.  It is to the point that they want to get rid of Sprint/T-Mobile and dump the S21+ ASAP.

Perhaps a Carrier Update would fix this?

[The_Chemist]

25 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

T-Mobile is doing a very heavy lift right now. It's essentially doing Network Vision 2.0 to integrate Sprint's network into T-Mobile's, but somehow keep both networks running at the same time. It's obviously causing problems along the way.

Given that Sprint's LTE network will be shutdown by June 30, 2022, we're likely going to see this kind of stuff continue until then (and perhaps for some time after) until everything is integrated and optimized.

 

Yes, this is to be expected. I was speaking to the engineer that runs all the T-Mobile cell towers in most of my State (PA).  He's got quite a big territory. 

The engineer tweaked the towers around my house, so I would have minimal problems in the meantime. 

I'm very please with the attention that I was given by T-Mobile. You definitely would not get that from AT&T or Verizon!

[Dkoellerwx]

6 hours ago, bill875 said:

It's interesting that the S21 Family of devices seem to be so problematic for customers on Sprint/T-Mobile.  Do we know if these devices specifically have a bad radio?  My sister and wife, both have an S21+ have issues with calls.  My sister has a T-Mobile SIM and my wife has a Sprint SIM and both experience calls dropping or sound dropping out for seconds at a time on a regular basis.  It is to the point that they want to get rid of Sprint/T-Mobile and dump the S21+ ASAP.

No complaints with my S21 Ultra. Works as expected throughout my travels so far (Kansas City, Omaha, Des Moines, Denver, Chicago, New York, Iceland). 

[floorguy]

7 hours ago, bill875 said:

It's interesting that the S21 Family of devices seem to be so problematic for customers on Sprint/T-Mobile.  Do we know if these devices specifically have a bad radio?  My sister and wife, both have an S21+ have issues with calls.  My sister has a T-Mobile SIM and my wife has a Sprint SIM and both experience calls dropping or sound dropping out for seconds at a time on a regular basis.  It is to the point that they want to get rid of Sprint/T-Mobile and dump the S21+ ASAP.

My S-20 ultra had a bad radio... It took sometime to verify it... but it was jumping in & out of signal, and bands and all manner of crap.. Took a few months to figure it out, because it was intermittent.

So its a possibility, but doubtful across a large swath

[The_Chemist]

2 hours ago, floorguy said:

My S-20 ultra had a bad radio... It took sometime to verify it... but it was jumping in & out of signal, and bands and all manner of crap.. Took a few months to figure it out, because it was intermittent.

So its a possibility, but doubtful across a large swath

My girlfriend's S21, does that, my S21 Ultra , does it and my Note 20 Ultra 5G does it. 

I'm thinking it's more of the T-Mobile system rether than all of these phones. 

Sure would be nice to hear from owners of Motorola and LG devices to see if they get the infamous "No Connection" and band jumping that so many of us with Samsung devices are experiencing. 

All the phones that I mentioned above are factory unlocked non-carrier versions. 

Actually, I just remembered, I have a T-Mobile LG V20, which of course is not 5G, but when I put my T-Mobile SIM in it, the V20 jumped bands and also got the "No Connection" message.

It's got to be growing pains of the T-Mobile system causing these sorts of issues. 

Hopefully in a year or so things will start to settle down as T-Mobile takes over the Sprint sites and converts them. 

T-Mobile tends to work rather rapidly on these sorts of things...

[jreuschl]

It must not be all S21s.  The only issue I've seen is a few times recently is it hasn't always grabbed N41 when available, but after being in the area for a bit it did.  This is at a strong 500-700 mbps tower too.

Maybe I'm just lucky.  I survived the S10 bad radio fiasco!

 

Just noticed a Reddit post that someone had to disable N71 so that their S20 would connect to..  mmwave!?!

[notsrealinc]

On 8/8/2021 at 3:42 PM, Cardsfan96 said:

I’ve heard from a decent source that legacy plans at least Everything Data will be fixed to get hd instead of sd like it currently is on TNX. It will have the same video experience as unlimited plus.

I'll be floored if they fix this. It's been an issue since last December and IDK why if they fix it that it took this long. That is pretty much the only thing stopping me from going to a T-Mo SIM.

The fact that a Sprint SIM was still unrestricted I guess was a sign. 

[Dkoellerwx]

2 hours ago, The_Chemist said:

Actually, I just remembered, I have a T-Mobile LG V20, which of course is not 5G, but when I put my T-Mobile SIM in it, the V20 jumped bands and also got the "No Connection" message.

Is this maybe a regional vendor issue? I have not seen this problem on any of my devices (S20 FE, S21, S21 Ultra) on Nokia equipment in the Midwest. 

[comintel]

8 hours ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Is this maybe a regional vendor issue? I have not seen this problem on any of my devices (S20 FE, S21, S21 Ultra) on Nokia equipment in the Midwest. 

Quite possibly. I have had the problem of continuous band hopping and signal drops on my S20 from the beginning.  I am in Raleigh NC .  I do not know what equipment manufacturer is used here but I would guess you may know.

[Paynefanbro]

T-Mobile Is Launching Fiber Optic Home Internet, Starting In NYC

https://tmo.report/2021/08/t-mobile-is-launching-fiber-optic-home-internet-starting-in-nyc/

Looks like they're reselling fiber from another company called Pilot Fiber. I wouldn't be surprised if T-Mobile considered a possible acquisition and using it as a jumping off point to build out their own network here so that they can use themselves for backhaul similar to Verizon here.

[RedSpark]

24 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

T-Mobile Is Launching Fiber Optic Home Internet, Starting In NYC

https://tmo.report/2021/08/t-mobile-is-launching-fiber-optic-home-internet-starting-in-nyc/

Looks like they're reselling fiber from another company called Pilot Fiber. I wouldn't be surprised if T-Mobile considered a possible acquisition and using it as a jumping off point to build out their own network here so that they can use themselves for backhaul similar to Verizon here.

Hopefully this comes to the DC Area at some point.... because Fios still isn't available for me in D.C.

Google Fiber never showed up either.

Verizon offers 7.1 - 15 Mbps D/L speed DSL.

So I have a choice of Xfinity or RCN.

T-Mobile should consider striking a deal with RCN for access to fiber network, which serves Boston, Chicago, Washington DC Metro Area, NYC, Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia.

[though]

2 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Hopefully this comes to the DC Area at some point.... because Fios still isn't available for me in D.C.

Google Fiber never showed up either.

Verizon offers 7.1 - 15 Mbps D/L speed DSL.

So I have a choice of Xfinity or RCN.

(or Starlink?)

[RedSpark]

3 minutes ago, though said:

(or Starlink?)

Not the best fit for DC:

But it's an amazing technology....

[though]

1 minute ago, RedSpark said:

Not the best fit for DC:

But it's an amazing technology....

yep worth a try though if possible!

[RedSpark]

48 minutes ago, though said:

yep worth a try though if possible!

I'm all for competition! I forgot to mention that I received a mailer for T-Mobile's 5G Internet service the other day. Unfortunately it wouldn't work well for the kind of work I need to do remotely, but I'm glad it's here as another option for people.

Given the undelivered promises from Google Fiber and Verizon Fios here, other companies will hopefully continue to fill the gap with additional competitive service offerings.

[though]

26 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

I forgot to mention that I received a mailer for T-Mobile's 5G Internet service the other day. Unfortunately it wouldn't work well for the kind of work I need to do remotely, but I'm glad it's here as another option for people.

Why won't T-Mobile's service work for you out of curiosity?

[dewbertdc]

1 hour ago, RedSpark said:

Hopefully this comes to the DC Area at some point.... because Fios still isn't available for me in D.C.

Google Fiber never showed up either.

Verizon offers 7.1 - 15 Mbps D/L speed DSL.

So I have a choice of Xfinity or RCN.

T-Mobile should consider striking a deal with RCN for access to fiber network, which serves Boston, Chicago, Washington DC Metro Area, NYC, Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia.

RCN is owned by a telecom holding company that also owns some other regional broadband providers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astound_Broadband

It would be interesting if T-Mobile bought them.  T-Mobile has already shown they're not interested in being a video provider with their ditching of T-Vision in favor of YouTubeTV/Philo; I could see them shutting down the video service and just running a pure-play broadband/voice network.

I was a happy RCN internet-only customer here in DC until Fios came to the neighborhood.  Can't beat $39.99 for 300Mbps symmetrical service.

[RedSpark]

26 minutes ago, though said:

Why won't T-Mobile's service work for you out of curiosity?

Speeds are too low for the sizes of files/documents I work with and need to manipulate.

[RedSpark]

15 minutes ago, dewbertdc said:

RCN is owned by a telecom holding company that also owns some other regional broadband providers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astound_Broadband

It would be interesting if T-Mobile bought them.  T-Mobile has already shown they're not interested in being a video provider with their ditching of T-Vision in favor of YouTubeTV/Philo; I could see them shutting down the video service and just running a pure-play broadband/voice network.

I was a happy RCN internet-only customer here in DC until Fios came to the neighborhood.  Can't beat $39.99 for 300Mbps symmetrical service.

Neat! I wasn't aware of that. Acquiring RCN would be a very interesting play for T-Mobile to make. They'd get a substantial foothold in some major markets and as well as an already built out wireline network that they could use to leverage their wireless assets.