Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[dkyeager]

I was in Springfield OH today on their main road, US 40. Sprint covered this road very well with a hodgepodge of macro sites and small cells. I notice my phone this time dropped several times for a minute or so. Some drop spots were where small cells helped out. Not impressed with T-Mobile in this case.

[jreuschl]

17 hours ago, dkyeager said:

I was in Springfield OH today on their main road, US 40. Sprint covered this road very well with a hodgepodge of macro sites and small cells. I notice my phone this time dropped several times for a minute or so. Some drop spots were where small cells helped out. Not impressed with T-Mobile in this case.

It seems there are areas that T-Mobile signal is held on to instead of going on a much stronger and not converted Sprint tower. It should be seamless by now until those are converted. I guess if T-Mobile didn't care about thar area before they still do not care.

There's a couple of towns by me in WI that Sprint service was much stronger.

[clbowens]

Standalone N41 spotted in Parma, OH.  100Mhz + 40Mhz

[Dkoellerwx]

A bunch of new conversions hit the map in Nebraska today. 9 in total, really filling in the Norfolk Loop that Sprint covered but T-Mobile didn't, and filling in along I-80. Plus 2 entirely new sites in Plainview, NE and O'Neill, NE were Sprint nor T-Mobile offered service previously. Slowly but surely filling in the Nebraska shaped hole in the coverage map.

[PythonFanPA]

Half joking/half serious post:  Is there an aftermarket for TMo physical SIMs?  If they keep sending us SIM's trying to ram replacement down our throats regarding my wife's A32 5G with this frequency I'd love to cash in at some point ha 🤪

[schmidtj]

Maybe in a museum? When the phone manufacturers follow Apple’s lead and go all eSIM it will be a moot point. At least in the states. 

[dkyeager]

2 hours ago, PythonFanPA said:

Half joking/half serious post:  Is there an aftermarket for TMo physical SIMs?  If they keep sending us SIM's trying to ram replacement down our throats regarding my wife's A32 5G with this frequency I'd love to cash in at some point ha 🤪

E-bay.  The physical sims do have one advantage: they are not tied to your phone, thus you can change phones mostly without your carriers permission (except Sprint billing). Benefits signal hunters, travellers, and thieves.

[PythonFanPA]

Hard to imagine they're actually worth much as easy as they are to get free though.....they keep sending them out unsolicited like nuts.  We just got like a 3rd packet of them less than a month ago and got another email notifying "SIM card is on the way".  

[dkyeager]

1 hour ago, PythonFanPA said:

Hard to imagine they're actually worth much as easy as they are to get free though.....they keep sending them out unsolicited like nuts.  We just got like a 3rd packet of them less than a month ago and got another email notifying "SIM card is on the way".  

Only time I have gotten a free sim from them is when I "purchased" some "free" phones from T-Mobile, unless I go back to when they were a distant 4th carrier.  My four other MVNOs are feast or famine, so I try to keep several hanging around.  I have noticed different versions have different capabilities, and newer is not always better.  They typically force you to upgrade when you need to activate another discount period.  

[the_intern]

Some recent non-urban new builds in Utah, which are a mix of Sprint conversions and new site builds:

• Central
• Cedar City
• Enoch
• Parowan
• Beaver
• Wallsburg

I'm also hearing of future new site builds in places that currently have weak / no signal on all carriers like Fountain Green, Oak City, Woodland, and along Hwy 191 in the canyon north of Helper by the Power Plant. There are also an unbelievable number of Sprint conversions happening in the urban Wasatch Front corridor as well. 

[PythonFanPA]

On 10/4/2022 at 9:27 PM, dkyeager said:

Only time I have gotten a free sim from them is when I "purchased" some "free" phones from T-Mobile, unless I go back to when they were a distant 4th carrier.  My four other MVNOs are feast or famine, so I try to keep several hanging around.  I have noticed different versions have different capabilities, and newer is not always better.  They typically force you to upgrade when you need to activate another discount period.  

 

In my wife's case its because she's still on a Sprint SIM card on the A32 5G, and they're pushing to change over to the T-Mo card hot and heavy...but we're also in former Shentel land so unless/until I hear feedback from her of pointed issues that warrant it (I've told her to monitor and let me know), I'm not switching it over yet.

[Trip]

10 minutes ago, PythonFanPA said:

 

In my wife's case its because she's still on a Sprint SIM card on the A32 5G, and they're pushing to change over to the Tm-Mo card hot and heavy...but we're also in former Shentel land so unless/until I hear feedback from her of pointed issues that warrant it (I've told her to monitor and let me know), I'm not switching it over yet.

As an FYI, the S21FE devices I got from T-Mobile back in June have the T-Mobile SIM and they connect to Sprint sites just fine, even those without 312250.  If I open the service menu, I can see that despite what SCP tells me, I'm actually on 311490.

Naturally, past performance is not an indicator of future results, etc.

And I've been watching new gear fly into place in the parts of the Shentel region I'm most frequently in.  It shouldn't be too terribly long before connecting to Shentel sites isn't really an issue.

EDIT:  And I'd consider taking a few T-Mo SIMs off your hands if you wanted to drop them in the mail.  Can't hurt to have on hand for my phone collection...

- Trip

[Yuhfhrh]

n77 and n25 are live on some sites in Houston. LTE b2 goes from 20x20 to 10x10 on the sites with n25 on, so no DSS. Although the frequency is within n2, there is no MFBI active- n25 only.

[dkyeager]

1 hour ago, Yuhfhrh said:

n77 and n25 are live on some sites in Houston. LTE b2 goes from 20x20 to 10x10 on the sites with n25 on, so no DSS. Although the frequency is within n2, there is no MFBI active- n25 only.

Excellent. What kind of equipment are they using for the n77?

[Yuhfhrh]

3 hours ago, dkyeager said:

Excellent. What kind of equipment are they using for the n77?

I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea. Will have to remember to bring a proper camera to get some good pictures if I'm ever in the area again.

[RedSpark]

More info here as well: https://www.rcrwireless.com/20221006/spectrum/t-mobile-us-wants-to-get-a-jump-on-new-2-5-ghz-use

Interesting request.

[PedroDaGr8]

On 9/28/2022 at 2:28 PM, PedroDaGr8 said:

SWAC lines have gained the unlimited in-flight WiFi with streaming option. 

And today Unlimited on Us lines gained 4 flights a year of full flight unlimited WiFi.

[PedroDaGr8]

First tower I have seen around here (Olive Tower in downtown Seattle) with both n258 and n260 mmWave! My phone doesn't have n258 active yet, so I couldn't see if it was live.

 

[jf15219]

6 hours ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

And today Unlimited on Us lines gained 4 flights a year of full flight unlimited WiFi.

The old Framily plans have it too...

[RedSpark]

I imagine they're going to be importing a whole bunch of former Sprint customer data into this.

[RedSpark]

Curious how far along the Sprint network integration is and if we'll get any update on billing integration.

[RedSpark]

It'll be interesting to hear the network integration/build update during the Earnings Call in light of this report. It's impressive how quickly T-Mobile has moved on integrating Sprint's network assets post-merger.

[jreuschl]

T-Mobile is still very strict on roaming areas, correct?  There were a couple of times on a trip last week that I had to rely on my wife's phone on AT&T because I was not getting any data roaming (and it is set to on).

I know in the past T-Mobile blocked roaming in areas it "thinks" it has coverage.

Probably won't be adding her to my plan for the time being

[PedroDaGr8]

For a brief period of time today, I connected to the second n41 carrier as the PCC. For those that care, it appears that T-Mobile is using Sectors 311, 312, 313, ... for the second n41 carrier. 

[S4GRU]

22 hours ago, jreuschl said:

T-Mobile is still very strict on roaming areas, correct?  There were a couple of times on a trip last week that I had to rely on my wife's phone on AT&T because I was not getting any data roaming (and it is set to on).

I know in the past T-Mobile blocked roaming in areas it "thinks" it has coverage.

Probably won't be adding her to my plan for the time being

Yes, still true.  Tmo decides Roaming site by site on other networks. Can be very frustrating.

Robert