iansltx

https://www.pcmag.com/news/fastest-mobile-networks-2021 Spoiler: T-Mobile easily gets the crown, thanks to mid-band 5G, though AT&T wins in California and Nevada, as well as in a number of rural areas, and Verizon wins in a few cities.

If you have good n41 service in an area, take those speeds, dramatically increase upload speeds, and that's in the neighborhood of what you'd get on T-Mobile. Reports are pretty consistent that their gateway turns in upload numbers that are faster than what most cablecos sell.

Home Internet at this point is NSA. SA is possible (the Nokia gateway has an X55 modem) but there isn't much of a point since T-Mobile wants as much available capacity as possible on those devices and SA would be going in the wrong direction.

I have Unlimited Plus Subsidy (business plan). Throttling was still there. Fast.com settled down at 1.5 Mbps. Without TNX I was at 6.5-8 Mbps.

Does seem that way. Maybe between now and then they'll figure out how not to throttle video to 1.5 Mbps on all TNX lines. My guess is 6/30/22 is when the Sprint mobile core network will be decom'd, so Sprint SIMs will stop working. New iPhones coming with T-Mobile SIMs seems like a good guess. One question I have is whether T-Mobile thinks they'll have all Keep Sites swapped over to T-Mobile equipment by then. If so, I should be able to switch my family back over to T-Mobile based service at that point, as I don't imaging they'll do those retrofits without at least n71. Or are they expecting to switch L-Sprint sites that remain to T-Mobile's core, and upgrade equipment when they get around to it?

Got TNX'd yesterday. On chat to switch back now. SA n71 is cool, but speeds are pretty low (~30 Mbps) and unnecessary around here. Not seeing SA n41. And losing L-Sprint network access, other than 312-250 sites (which are few and far between here) is a downside. NR CA doesn't exist yet either. I'd rather catch L-Sprint LTE (and 1x) than L-TMo H+ (which is now down to a few Mbps). Only big benefit is theoretically T-Mobile roams on a solid carrier west of here, but I can just use a different (VZW/AT&T) SIM for that. Biggest downside though is that T-Mobile *still* haven't fixed the 1.5 Mbps streaming cap on TNX'd accounts. So I either VPN in (Cloudflare Warp+ works, but not while tethered) or I get heavily capped video throughput after an initial burst of speed. Of note, if you force SA (which *does* work in Samsung Band Selector; forcing NR 71 only gets you on SA n71) you can attempt to make calls, and they'll ring on the other end, but the call will fail after a half-second or so without ringing on your side. So VoNR definitely isn't there. Did some testing last night and the n41 site nearest me reaches about 0.6 mi on n41 (at which point I get 350-375 Mbps on 100 MHz). B41 LTE reaches a little over a mile, including indoors. EDIT: ...and switch back to TNA is complete. Took a bit for my phone to get the network update that prioritized T-Mobile, but it's there now, and includes 5G just like I had 48 hours ago.

To clarify my comment earlier, I'd assume that TMo would want to run 40 MHz T-Mobile B41 on top of 100 MHz n41 at a minimum, so going > 100 MHz on mid-band even on full 194 MHz would only get them another 40 MHz of n41. Maybe 60 due to guard bands, which would require taking Sprint down to zero. Wouldn't make sense to deploy a 20 MHz n41 channel I don't think. Alternative would be dropping from 100 MHz in one channel to have two channels, each with >= 40 MHz capacity. If they did 100+40 n41 plus 2CA T-Mobile B41, they could fit 15-20 MHz of Sprint B41 in, at which point the band is maxed out...and they'd have online as much spectrum for n41 as VZW will have in many areas for n77 in late 2023. Their statement of 100 MHz mid-band on average by year end has gotta be n41 only, as n77 won't be live 'til late 2023, and I'm 99.9% sure they wouldn't include n2/25/66 on the mid-band side as you're not going to have more than 10x10 there this year, which is less than they have on n71 in a lot of areas. So, not very Ultra Capacity. Now, their "300MM on Ultra Capacity by YE23" statement? If they can move enough traffic to n71/41 that they can carve out 20x20 of dedicated n2/25/66, with at least 16x16 M-MIMO? That's probably enough to hit 300 Mbps and call it Ultra Capacity. That, or they're counting on massive range improvements on n41 when CA'd with n71, n25, or n66...which, yeah, that might work. As for the n41 coverage map, it's a bit generous around here. B41 from the same radio makes it to my location, but n41 does not, despite being supposedly covered by it. Checked with Premier Care and none of the sites closer to me are slated for imminent upgrades (though apparently the Sprint rooftop site close to me will be the one that survives rather than the legacy T-Mobile one further north that now has all three carriers on it...so I guess that site will get Dish eventually), so this is flat-out a case over overestimating coverage. I'll go on a walk in a bit to see whether moving the NR carrier down 50 MHz improved coverage any; guessing I'll have to get within 0.75 mi of the site to pick up n41 though.

So...they'll have areas with >100 MHz? Certainly possible, but would be rather surprising.

Hit San Antonio and Austin this evening (and the stretch of 35 between). San Antonio is up to 100 MHz in many places, though I saw 80 MHz in one. Austin seems to be at 100 across the board. Looks like where that 100 MHz is got reconfigured very recently (last few days); it's now basically 2500-2600 MHz, with B41 2CA sitting at the top of the NR channel rather than below. Sprint B41 is at 2680.

100 MHz n41 is live in Austin and...Bentonville, Arkansas. Guessing this went live on Tuesday or Wednesday in Austin; network was acting a bit wonky on Tuesday. Noticed it yesterday, as I'm still a little too far away at home to catch n41. Peak speed in Bentonville 1/3 mi from the site was 675-700 Mbps down, 80-90 Mbps up, with the upload speed only possible with a 20 MHz B66 anchor...which seems congested at times. They also have 5 MHz B2 here as an anchor, which predictably leads to slow uploads. n71 is 15x15 here. Sprint B25 is two 5x5 channels. Weirdly, seems like I'm being routed through Nashville, so latency is rather high, and tethering performance is somehow quite poor...maybe it's due to congestion on the PCC meaning that the difference between on-phone and tethered priority is the difference between a usable connection and...not. Also, VZW (with the old Alltel SID for CDMA) is what you end up using inside the Crystal Bridges museum, though the area has WiFi so not the end of the world.

I saw that here awhile back, but a reboot or two got me access to 25/26 again. Maybe it's offline for real now, but not sure why they'd do that in areas that aren't direly spectrum constrained ahead of the shutdown in a year.

Source on power limits? Believe there may be exclusion zones due to the Navy, but power limits are news to me. 40 MHz limit is rather similar, but that's as much spectrum as AT&T got on the early-clearing side, so that's pretty significant.

The only thing you get with a TNX SIM is SA. Sprint-SIM phones still have TMo as the primary, with keep sites filling in just like they do on TNX, but non-keep sites are available as a fallback (high priority roaming, basically). Oh, and you get CDMA (including 1x800) as a fallback rather than H+/GSM until CDMA goes away. The benefit of a Sprint SIM will decrease over time, but for non-5G there's still a benefit. You want TNX basically for SA (if you wind up in areas where n71 can reach but B2/66 can't) and NR CA at some point where you can get n71 and n41. That's...basically it.

Just got apprised by my biz rep friend that I'm now TNX eligible. I'll switch over if I'm allowed to go back. NR CA via SA would be cool.

If there's an equipment restriction limiting MIMO rank or similar, would make sense for TMo to phase them out in favor of macros, then come back in with mmW later if capacity constraints merit it.

My guess is that SCs will get concentrated in areas where they flat-out need the capacity. Where I believe Sprint was throwing MiniMacros (which TMo may be classifying as SCs for these purposes) and similar gear in areas for pure cost reasons, rather than performance-centric infill. Additionally, betting that 2/66 SCs set up for capacity will start to phase out as B/n41 on macros roll out, including MU-MIMO. 100% agree that in places like NYC, there may be a use case for mmW SCs, though TMo probably wants to see what they can do with mmW added to macros first, as shoving wired backhaul in the direction of one supersite is less of a pain than running it to sites every block. Actually rather curious, for the existing 2/66 SCs, what backhaul tops out at. If they can't cost-effectively get more than 100-200 Mbps, the SCs are a liability going forward.

Who are they using for strand mount gear? Airspan? B41 2CA only or something else? I missed out on that whole discussion because AFAIK strand mount doesn't exist for cell service here (though we have it for CableWiFi).

Back from my whirlwind Hawaii tour and have a few more things to report. Oahu has the most mature n41 deployment I've seen yet. While it's not everywhere, its outdoor coverage in Honolulu is significant, such that it's hard to find n71 unless you're at the airport. Also saw n41 at the BYU campus. Interestingly, I was able to keep n41 down to even negative SNRs, which is the first time I've seen that happen. Speeds with good signal were in excess of 500 Mbps, though that's pretty obviously backhaul limited, as Oahu has a full 100 MHz live already, even though I'm pretty sure Sprint still has 3CA B41 there as well. This feat is even more impressive given that C-Band flat-out doesn't exist for mobile in Hawaii...it's the one market that didn't even get auctioned off because the existing satellite providers still need all that spectrum. I also confirmed B26+26 CA, with 26 as the primary and 25 at 10x10, on Oahu, though this CA config was fleeting. This was on a non-keep (312-530) site. So...I guess that means that AlcaLu gear can do 25+26 CA? Also saw 25+41 CA along the trip, but that's less interesting in the scheme of things. By contrast, on Kauai Sprint seems to cover more geography than T-Mobile by a significant amount, with B25 10x10 on 312-250 reaching over 15 miles in some cases if Timing Advance values are to be believed. Actually wound up in a number of areas where 1x (PCS or even 800) survived when LTE didn't, and 1x800 was a few db stronger than VZW's CDMA 850 signal, which in turn reached further than VZW B13, TMo B12, or Sprint B26. T-Mobile *does* have 5G on Kauai, and where it's available speeds were solid, but we're talking about n71 here, albeit at 20x20. CellMapper said there are seven sites with 600 live, and that more or less tracks with what I saw. Of note, if you couldn't get n71, there was a very good chance B2 on T-Mobile's side was basically useless. Going back to the Big Island for a sec, my record for Timing Advance (and thus site distance) was actually on the south side of the Big Island. 33 or so miles on B71 and B12, yet still strong enough to pull a video on YouTube. Amazing what you can do with high power output and a super low noise floor.

So, on the Big Island T-Mobile isn't much worse than VZW on coverage, though there are gaps in the more rural north of the island, and seems to do better on speeds. 20x20 n71 with 15x15 each of B66 and B2 will do that. Guessing spectrum config is consistent across all islands, as I'm seeing similar in Maui. Actually saw 312-250 10x10 B25 at the big aquarium here, but 5G is pretty widespread as things go, and thanks to lower demand at the moment clocks in at 100+ Mbps pretty consistently. Don't think I've seen B41 312-250 on Maui at all, but I didn't make it to the NW side of the island, nor anywhere east of the airport. There's more 312-250 on the Big Island, I think. Including some areas where 1x800 is handy (but service dropped even with that). VZW already seems to be pretty heavily loaded in the touristy parts of Maui, but I haven't swapped my Visible SIM in, so that may just be on sub-6 non-CBRS. Their map doesn't show mmW here though. Certainly enough density in the resort areas to merit it.

Will be posting various network updates from the four main Hawaiian islands over the next week or so. For the Big Island, there are a couple cell sites on Kona airport property, including B2 15x15 and n71 20x20. Want to say B66 15x15 as well. That netted me 300+ Mbps despite no mid-band, as I was only competing for service with another couple flights. At LAX they had 15x15 n71, 10x10 B71, 20x20 B66, 15x15 B2, 2CA TMo B41, 2CA Sprint B41. Spent a significant amount of time sitting on B41 while connecting there. At AUS, it appears that the DAS there doesn't support more than 10 MHz channels for TMo; the EARFCN is the same as elsewhere in Austin, but it's 10 MHz wife rather than 20.

99% sure it's something specific to Samsung gear. Haven't seen it in Ericsson markets, but did see it in geographically disparate Samsung markets.

Either 66 at 20 MHz or 2 at 15, with the other as SCC. Sometimes with B71 at 5 MHz as an SCC. I've likewise seen plenty good speeds out of even 40 MHz n41, so this was definitely a surprise. This was near the Embarcadero BART station (so, an area where I believe VZW says they have mmW), so rather dense, though traffic still isn't quite to normal levels yet. If T-Mobile can't get more than 40 MHz n41 to play with there, I wouldn't be surprised if they threw mmW, LAA, or CBRS in some areas to supplement capacity once outdoor usage picks back up.

Sitting on my flight home from SJC and hitting 400 Mbps in an aisle seat. That's on 100 MHz n41 (centered at 2560 MHz) plus 20x20 B66 + 15x15 B2. Sprint B41 also exists here; was seeing that in the terminal. Didn't lose signal between SF and here, even in the BART tunnel under the bay. In SF, had only 40 MHz n41, and it was rare to see speeds break 100 Mbps. VZW was either LTE-only or LTE+n5 but hit 150-180 Mbps on Visible. In SJC speeds were much slower with a similar config. Didn't see mmW or even CBRS anywhere. Also saw 25+41 CA (5x5 on B25 every time I looked, 1-2 CA on B41) in a few places.

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.