ingenium

Their 2018-era FCC merger filings indicated that they were going to unify the RANs with MOCN as part of the transition, so hopefully that is still the plan.  If the rumors of network integration being "complete" by the end of this month are true, we'll know soon enough.

Sprint sites have begun broadcasting the Clearwire PLMN (311-490, the same one that T-Mobile broadcasts for Sprint roaming). Even my Airave has it, whereas it didn't a month or so ago. I'm pretty sure the reports on reddit showed T-Mobile customers using this PLMN on Sprint. So my assumption is that this is the PLMN for the merged network.

We've seen other signs of true MOCN, such as T-Mobile neighbors showing up while connected to Sprint in some areas (for me this is only in rural areas. It doesn't happen in Pittsburgh for example, where Sprint has the better network). The phone only scans neighbors that the tower asks it to, so the tower is specifically asking the phone to check on the T-Mobile neighbors and report back signal strength and quality. Normally this is used so the tower can determine if it should do a handoff. I haven't seen it handoff from Sprint to T-Mobile directly (and can't get a NSG log to confirm it's a real handoff), but I know others have seen it happen. So it's definitely a sign that they're close to having active handoffs between both networks, which would effectively merge them.

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So what's stopping them from putting M-MIMO on all their sites in a market, maybe even host 20Mhz on their band 2/25, and then re-sim all Sprint phones in the same market.

Sprint's 8T8R radios have been recertified for NR. If Sprint was still independent they could flip a software switch and basically have N41 coverage everywhere... but a more likely scenario is that T-mobile will redeploy the 8T8R equipment as they decommission Sprint sites. Either to add N41 to a T-Mobile site, or to add it in addition to a M-MIMO unit to add B41 and eventually additional N41 carriers (M-MIMO units can't utilize the full 160 MHz of B41). Having that much equipment already should hopefully speed up the deployment and number of sites they put it on.

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That makes sense. Didn't know they forced everybody to use their own DNS. I guess I'll have to start using a vpn all the time now.

If you use Android, you can go into the settings and force DNS over TLS by specifying a server.

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When using hotspot or tethering, and using Cloudfare or google DNS servers, I can no longer resolve most web addresses. But Sprint's DNS servers resolve addresses just fine. Is it just me or are others having the same issue?

Sprint has always intercepted DNS and redirected it to their server. It's impossible to actually use a third party DNS unless you use DNS over TLS or DNS over HTTPS. Or use a VPN. So it sounds like maybe something is broken with their redirection.

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In a hilarious display of incompetence, Sprint is still redirecting NXDOMAIN errors to search-error.com, but they also let the domain expire so it's now just a godaddy ad.

And Sprint intercepts all DNS requests and forces them through their DNS server. At least on Android, you can force DNS over TLS which will bypass this and let you use the DNS server of your choice.

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The only tmobile perk I care about is the free gogo inflight wifi tmobile customers get.  I wonder how long it will take for sprint customers to get that.

That is a nice perk. Btw you can just use anyone's T-mobile number to get it. Nothing ever gets sent to the number. I have a few friends with T-Mobile so I just pick one of their numbers when I need to use it.

I'm pretty sure it only works for like an hour or so though? Or at least I remember there being some sort of time limit the last time I used it (or possibly I had two flights and it only works on one flight a day?)

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Thanks so much for your quick response! I wonder if Sprint in my area provisioned the S10's to be on T-Mobile network by default already while they haven't done the with the S8. I also had an Airave rep do a refresh on their end and didn't seem to fix the issues for the S10's.

I do have the GPS antenna and it is right next to the window so that doesn't appear to be the problem. I have reset the Airave a few times and even doing a hard reset though. Based on what you mention, that might be the reason why I don't have VoLTE anymore. Do you know if it's same process for Airave 4 to get back VoLTE or is that process only for the MB?

Thanks so much for your response! Definitely helpful in trying to diagnose. Sprint also sent me a return kit. Do you think it's worth trading in for the Pebble? Or should I try and keep tinkering with the Airave 4?

Thanks!

Personally I'd keep the Airave 4.

 

All the femtos are the same when it comes to VoLTE. Your resets are definitely delaying it getting reactivated. I know it sucks, but you just have to leave it be for 3 weeks. Eventually VoLTE will get turned back on.

 

If your S10s are on Sprint (check the PLMN in the engineering screen, or use an app like Signal Check Pro), then they will eventually find the Airave again. The network completely controls what your phone connects to, unless you lose service completely. You will not end up on the Airave unless the network tells your phone to connect to it. Usually it takes up to a few weeks for the Airave to get integrated into the network and for the towers around you to know about it. Once they do, they'll allow handoffs and will move your phone to it when it's in range.

 

As to why the other phones see it and connect, there are a number of possible reasons. One of which is because it doesn't have VoLTE enabled (I've found that devices that use VoLTE will avoid moving to something that doesn't have VoLTE enabled). But basically it will be inconsistent until the network has integrated it. Every time you factory reset (ie, the PCI changes), it wipes this and has to start over again with integration.

 

 

 

Hey All,
I have the Airave 4 LTE and for the past few weeks my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10) is having problems connecting to the device's LTE. Prior to these past few weeks, it would connect great and even had VOLTE. Now, my phone would only connect to the Airave if I reactivate/refresh device. Even then, it would have only LTE and not VoLTE anymore like a few weeks before.
I tried with 2 other family members device (Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S10e). The Samsung Galaxy S8 didn't have any problems connecting but still only had LTE instead of VoLTE while the Galaxy S10e needed to be reactivated/refreshed to connect to the Airave too. Both the S10's would have to be reactivated/refreshed after a few days to connect to Airave again. Is this because of the T-Mobile merger or is there a different problem with the S10's? It just seems strange that everything was working great before until now. Thanks all!

It's possible that your S10s are set to use the T-Mobile network by default. In which case they would only use the Airave if you lose T-mobile service (basically they'd roam on Sprint).

Airaves and MBs occasionally lose VoLTE. Often this happens if your internet or power cuts out, or if your GPS is weak or loses its lock. Do you use the included GPS antenna and have it in a window?

Sometimes you might have to factory reset it. I had to do this with my magic box which lost its VoLTE recently. Be aware that it can take 3 weeks to reacquire VoLTE. It's a manual process to flip it back on. Basically when the requirements are met, your device is added to a queue, and a tech has to go through and manually turn it back on. For me, it's usually taken 2.5 weeks for this to happen.

If you have a UPS/battery backup, I suggest putting your Airave, router, and modem on it to prevent dropouts that would cause you to lose the VoLTE flag and have to wait for it to get added back again.

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The other thing to take into consideration is equipment limitations; massive MIMO units Sprint was deploying had a 120 MHz bandwidth limit, and I believe T-Mobile equipment is the same (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Without DSS, this means every bit of spectrum that goes towards LTE is spectrum that can’t be used for NR. 

True, but NR maxes out at 100 MHz per carrier, and there's no NR CA yet. So may as well use the remaining 20 MHz for LTE until 5G devices become more prominent. You just have to drop to 32t32r on both I think.

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Let's not leave out the fact TMUS loves to give out "free lines" every blue moon. I have two fully activated SIM cards with unlimited everything + HD Video + Hotspot just sitting in a drawer not being used. 

How did you get those?

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Question is whether SA would stick after a SIM swap back to Sprint. I have a Straight Talk data-only SIM that I could reactivate that sits on TMo, so I could test this. As for VoNR support, betting that it isn't actual VoNR, but basically the NR equivalent of CallingPlus/WiFi calling, where calls run over IP without QoS. Same idea as VoIMS on the iPhone when you don't have service from one of the SIMs.  

 

 No it's real VoNR. It sets up the equivalent of a dedicated EUTRA session (I forget what it's called in NR) for it with the proper bearer. NSG isn't really able to decode a lot of the VoNR signaling to get codec details and such yet.  

 

There are likely a lot of issues with it still. It's probably not supposed to be public yet, and it's a fluke that you can access it by forcing SA. It probably won't launch more widely until the x60 comes out, which is the first modem that's supposed to support it.

 

Regarding the SIM swap, I doubt it. In my experience, changing the SIM resets all locking back to none/default. But you can certainly try.

 

 

 

 

Tried that. Phone still picked up B2 as an anchor. I'm convinced that SBS can't actually control NR band selection at this point.

If you had a T-Mobile SIM you could get into the service menu and force SA. The Sprint SIM locks out the dialer code.

It appears that the S20 actually has some support for VoNR when locked to SA on T-Mobile. The signaling (captured via Airscreen, which is basically the PC version of NSG) seems to show everything as NR without LTE fallback, since the phone advertises to the network that it doesn't support LTE when locked. And this seems to only work on the S20, not other SA capable 5G phones. But there's still a little uncertainty with it. Either way, T-mobile is making progress with it and appears to be ahead of a lot of providers.

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In a chat session with customer service today they told me that VoLTE is only supported on the MB Gold when using LTE for backhaul.

For whatever that's worth.

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Not true, they're mistaken. It works on previous versions as well, along with non LTE backhaul. I have it on working on a 545 (LTE backhaul since that's all it supports) and a MB Gold with Ethernet backhaul.

A senior / high level tech confirmed a few months ago that it's supported and working on wired and wireless backhaul in addition to LTE backhaul. It also works on Airave 4s and Pebbles, which use wired backhaul.

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Look T-Mobile elected to merge the networks on 5G tech not 4G. That is a dangerous assumption to make in that you're hoping that your subscribers will quickly move to 5G so that you don't have to integrate 4G networks. You're also hoping not to have to subsidize the handset transition.

When they say that decommissioning has started, are they actually transferring B41, B26 antennas/RRHs over to the T-Mobile racks? Or are they decommissioning sites with B41 and just using the 2.5 spectrum for 5G on the new site? What's happening to band 25 spectrum and RRHs from the Sprint sites they are decommissioning? I have seen Sprint subs complaining that they have lost B41 coverage all of a sudden. 

From what I've gathered, they have not refarmed any Sprint B41 to NR yet. N41 is greenfield spectrum, in B41M. LTE tends to be in B41H and B41L (small cells and femtos in one, macros in the other). Sprint's N41 was also in B41M, which was why they had to shut it down. They also moved femtos to the same earfcn as small cells to free up another 20-40 MHz. None of this reduces Sprint B41 LTE capacity. They've also deployed 1-2 T-Mobile B41 LTE carriers in some markets, and I believe they have the spectrum to do that as well without shutting down any Sprint B41.

 

I'm skeptical that they've actually shut down any Sprint sites yet actually. They've moved 5 MHz of B2 from Sprint B25 to T-Mobile B2 in some markets where it's contiguous. But I haven't heard of anyone reporting actual decommissions. And I'd hope that they wouldn't start until almost all Sprint customers are on T-Mobile's network. It just doesn't make much sense to do earlier than that.

 

 

 

As an aside, there's every indication that Dish is building their network out as cheaply as they possibly can, using cloud providers for their core network rather than their own data centers, buying base stations from Fujitsu rather than Nokia/Ericsson/Samsung, and now farming out their billing software to a company that they fully expect will sell that software to other customers.

I'm pretty sure Fujitsu equipment is actually fairly advanced. The Japanese carriers tend to use domestic suppliers for their equipment and we don't see them much outside of Japan. One reason likely is the unique bands in Japan and support for proprietary and Japanese only legacy protocols. From what I've seen and heard, the equipment is surprisingly good and solid, and is definitely competitive with the big vendors we're used to seeing.

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Ok so when I go into Google and start to type in "Sprint" it indicates an "auto forward page." But when I finish typing out "sprint.com" and tap on it, I'm still taken to the same Sprint page I went to all summer long. Nothing has changed. 

I was getting redirected on my phone, but not my laptop or desktop. Now both my laptop and desktop are redirected to T-Mobile also.

For me also.   
1. incognito mode
2. go to www.sprint.com
3. it redirects to   www.t-mobile.com/?src=spr&rdpage=%2F
4. My Account  (pink box in upper-right corner)   |   Login 
5. I put in my Sprint username
6. it redirects to www.sprint.com/en/login.html ...
7. my username is autopopulated.  So it is now waiting for my password
Scott
 

They check for a sprint.com cookie is all. If you delete all the cookies for sprint.com, then it'll redirect to tmobile.com. That's why incognito works, since it clears all cookies from the session when you close it and you start fresh each time. They're probably looking for a particular cookie that's set if you've ever logged in in the past.

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Regular phone line. They waited until the merger to start the IMEI list. It is OK, I will have a fix for it soon similar to the sierra wireless IMEI rewrite. The home internet box has been IMEI locked out of the gate.

Hmm, let me know when you have a fix, I'm curious what you come up with. So far I've been sticking with my MC7455 solely because of the IMEI rewriting just in case ATT decides to implement that policy on postpaid.

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The fact is that there are more neglected areas than good areas. New York, Las Vegas, KC, Denver were good markets. Everywhere else? Swiss cheese coverage with overloaded B26.

Pittsburgh has great B41 coverage and speeds. I rarely drop B41. B26 is very usable as a result (I really only see it deep in buildings or in basements).

The SF bay area is hit or miss, since they had good density but due to permitting issues had trouble getting it on every site. Also they're limited to 2 contiguous carriers due to AT&T squatting, which makes B41 congested in some places. I think almost all the sites have B41 now though.

Most cities in my experience are pretty good with B41 now. The issue I see most often is hanging onto weak B41, causing uploads to fail or be painfully slow, instead of dropping to B25. Pittsburgh has a 15x15 B25 carrier that is often wide open and unused due to the solid B41 coverage. It would have been nice to utilize that more, especially with B25-41 CA.

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I wonder what the plan is for EDGE-only sites. I don't imagine they'd be turning EDGE down given the fact it can be thrown into an LTE guard band...

I heard they originally planned to shut down EDGE at the end of this year, and 3G at the end of next year, before moving it up. Having EDGE and GSM I think still ties up resources on the site (maybe port power limitations). I heard that they basically turn it off unless a UE requests it, in which case the carrier is turned on. But I don't know how they can turn it off and still be available, unless it's some low power mode or something.

I'm guessing that they don't plan to enable it on the DSS capable equipment, so it'll realistically probably be shut off as they upgrade sites.

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Dumb question.  Does VoLTE kick in for all calls, or only for calls where the other end is also on a cellular connection and their device supports VoLTE?

All calls

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Thanks so much for the reply.  It's been about a week now and my phone still does not connect to the MB.  The MB has LTE/WIFI and GPS all still locked in.  Anything else I should try or just continue to play the waiting game?  Thanks again.......

I think it could be VoLTE related. I lost VoLTE on my magic box, so I factory reset it last weekend to try to get it back. It hasn't come back yet, but when I come home the macro will not hand me off to it, possibly because it doesn't support VoLTE (handoffs are 100% controlled by the network unless you completely lose service). It will however handoff to my Airave, which does have VoLTE. Once I'm on the Airave, it will handoff to the magic box.

 

Before I lose VoLTE on my magic box, the network would hand me off to the magic box as soon as I approached my house (on B41). Now it will move me to b26 instead of the magic box, until I get in range of the Airave, when it immediately moves me there.

 

So it's possible/likely that the network is avoiding doing handoffs which would cause the loss of VoLTE. My phone sees it in neighbors while on the macro, so it's being reported as an option for handoffs. The network is just actively deciding to not handoff. It's so frustrating that VoLTE is still a manual toggle for these femtos....

 

 

 

So they have 9-10 weeks to launch NR-SA. Looking forward to the upload speed boost and latency drop, if their hype is borne out. Though I bet that download speeds would take a hit since NR would no longer aggregate with LTE. Of course, who cares about aggregating with LTE if you're playing with 60 MHz of n41...leave the LTE for folks whose phones don't have 5G.
In other news, the T-Mobile test drive is back...30 days or 30GB, whichever comes first. The hotspot they're handing out doesn't have CA, but does have B71. Have a few family members that'll find that test drive useful I think.

NR SA can aggregate LTE. You may lose the latency benefit, though honestly I wouldn't even notice.

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Well, my MB suddenly dropped from the WiFi.  I didn't get VoLTE, so who knows whether it's an upgrade or a bug.
When I connected it again, I'm no longer able to get reception outside on the sidewalk.  Not sure if they turned off directionality, strength or something combination of that and other settings.  Data usage dropped from 3 GB / day to under 2 GB / month!! 

You might need to factory reset. My Magic Box lost VoLTE about a week ago (Airave is fine). Rebooted it, still no VoLTE. So I factory reset it on Friday or Saturday. Still no VoLTE, but hopefully in a few days it'll get re-enabled.

There's something going on with the provisioning I think. I kept getting emails saying that my MB was offline (it wasn't). And to move it to wireless or wired backhaul (it was). So I figured a factory reset would fix whatever backend provisioning issues they might be having. Just very weird that it would lose VoLTE when the GPS lock is still solid (12 satellites), power is fine (it's on a UPS), and my internet is fine (also on a UPS, and haven't had any downtime in years).

So you might be having a similar issue. It seems like the macro has "forgotten" about your Magic Box and won't handoff to it, resulting in it not getting used. 2GB/month is probably just from keeping the ipsec connection alive and normal background idling. A factory reset should force all the provisioning and such to happen again, and hopefully get things fixed.

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Good Afternoon All,
I am new to the party an hope someone can provide me some insight.
Living in Charlotte, NC I received my Magic Box Gold yesterday as a replacement for a defective Gen2.  I have gone through the entire process;  Connected fine to LTE, GPS and my 5ghz Wifi Home Network.  It is set as Wifi Backhaul Preferred.  For whatever reason, I am unable to get my Pixel 3 to connect to it.  Will it take several days for the MBG to be fully operational?  Am I missing something else?  
Any help would be greatly appreciated.........Thanks in advance.
DR.

If you have an LTE signal from the macro network, then chances are your phone won't really see the magic box for a few days. It has to be integrated into the network before your phone will handoff to it.

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Just called a friend on VZW. Decided to call him rather than the reverse based on y'all saying the probability of HD voice was higher.
HD voice worked. There's a definite difference between HD and HD+ of course, but I'll take the quality increase over a standard mobile call any day of the week.

What is HD+?

In my experience, when I'm on calls with Verizon users it uses EVS for the codec. I may have seen EVS-WB once with a Verizon call too. Calls to att customers used a lower tier codec, AMR-WB. I don't call other Sprint users very often, but I think it's usually EVS if they're on VoLTE or Vowifi. VoLTE/vowifi calls that go through POTS use regular AMR.

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