ingenium

Or the permits didn't allow them to install the new equipment? And they have to wait for a revision or new permit to be approved for N71 and N41 equipment. Depends on his rigid and slow the permitting agency is. I know in Berkeley, CA for example, is on the extreme end. The permits took years to be approved (and are quite detailed. Many many pages with engineering diagrams, structural diagrams, etc). I know of one site there that when it finally got B41 (late during the deployment, but the first site in Berkeley with it), the permit that was used still referenced Lightsquared / Ligado equipment. That's how long it took for the permit to go through. So I wouldn't be surprised if they had to wait a couple months for a permit in more normal areas. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Yeah, it drops the NR carrier whenever the connection goes idle. Unlike Sprint where they basically kept CA active all the time (at least on B41). It's behaving more like CA on other providers, where it engages when needed, and then is dropped when usage drops. Possibly you can have a flag to not show the alert again until the PCC changes. And/or until a certain time has elapsed without the NR indicator coming back. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I heard HSPA shutdown at the end of 2021, and GSM shutdown at the end of this year. GSM runs in the LTE guard bands, so isn't using spectrum. I was told that HSPA and GSM both run in a sort of minimalist mode, and only power on when a device requests it. My assumption though is that they only have it on older sites. Any new sites definitely don't have it, and there's a chance rebuilt or recently upgraded sites also don't have it. Before they can shut it down, they have to ensure that all their customers have VoLTE capable devices. With a lot of Sprint customers being moved to their network, that may be a problem/issue. Especially with 911 regulations, where people have to be able to make a voice call if they have data service (T-mobile I believe locked out B12 access on devices without VoLTE for this reason). Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

That only happens when the phone loses service completely. Once connected to the network, the network will tell the phone when to scan, and what to scan (sends a list of earfcns), and the signal strength and quality is reported back to the network. This happens pretty frequently, especially as your signal gets weaker. It's how the tower knows where to handoff your phone to, and when. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I'm pretty sure you can't. I don't think Sprint has whitelisted it, even though it has CDMA. Or at least people were complaining about that when it launched. I'm almost certain I read about one person who bought it and couldn't activate it. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I don't believe any providers in the US (or anywhere really) have deployed NR SA. Everything is NSA still. I've seen some Network Signal Guru data from Ericsson test labs showing standalone, but no one is planning to deploy it until the end of the year at the earliest. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

The band priority on the phone itself is just the scan order. So if it loses service, or comes out of airplane mode, it will scan the bands in that order. Once it's connected to the network, the phone has absolutely no say in which band it's on (other than reporting signal strength of neighbor cells back to the tower so the tower can decide where to put the phone). It's completely controlled by the network, and within a minute or less it will move you to where it wants you. All you can do is completely disable bands on the device if you want to avoid it. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

It's tough to say whether it's internally malicious/misleading, or simply a limitation of Android. Android 10 is pretty limited with it's API for 5G. Android 11 is supposed to be better (maybe this will be fixed then?). It's possible that Google was having trouble reliably detecting if an NR carrier was used (or maybe a modem limitation?), so they just looked for that flag instead. It might be something like the indicator has to be tied to the primary carrier, and they didn't have time to re-write and test the code to make it instead reflect information from an aggregated carrier. There also weren't many (any?) 5G capable devices when Android 10 was released, and there definitely weren't early enough in development to make big changes. Is that the reason? Maybe, maybe not, but it's a plausible explanation. Or they just wanted to exaggerate coverage lol. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

The 5G indicator doesn't indicate 5G on T-Mobile. It just means that you might be able to use 5G. Right now, 5G is only "non standalone" (NSA). This means that LTE has to be the primary carrier, and then it CAN aggregate with NR if it's available, but doesn't have to. If the LTE connection you're using has the ability to aggregate an NR carrier, regardless of whether or not NR is connected or deployed, it shows 5G. That's all that the indicator means, that you can use 5G if it's been deployed. There may not be NR even deployed on that tower, but generally it means that at least one of the nearby towers has NR deployed. The only way to reliably confirm it is engineering screens or NSG. Standalone (SA) NR is supposed to begin deployment in December I heard, so hopefully the indicator will be a bit more useful then Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

They have a lot more small cells than I thought. Do they count every antenna on a DAS separately? Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

It works well. I also change cellmapper to log a data point every second instead of every 3 seconds (default), and I exempt it from battery optimization. For the Tasker Bluetooth exit task, have it run the following command to exit cellmapper: am broadcast -a "exitAppIntent" -n "cellmapper.net.cellmapper/.MyBroadcastReceiver

T-mobile has a lot of cellmapper users. I'd say it's the most mapped carrier in the US. Sprint is #2. You really only need a few active people in an area to end up mapping it pretty well. I have it configured to automatically launch and begin mapping when I connect to my car's Bluetooth. Then it exits when Bluetooth disconnects. Cellmapper has built in Intents for a graceful exit that you can use with Tasker. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I think they know it, but there's not much that they can do other than densify heavily and deploy mmwave. Plus deploy DSS (which has overhead of ~10% I think). There's no other spectrum available, so they have no options. CBRS (3.5 GHz) won't be auctioned for a few years, so they can't depend on that. They're in a tough situation honestly, at least assuming new T-mobile actually deploys and mobile bandwidth usage keeps increasing. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Yup I had that Sanyo. I actually went through 2-3 of them.... The hinge kept breaking in the exact same spot, and Sprint would replace it. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I've been with Sprint since 2002. I was in high school at a conference (where I saw Nextel for the first time as well...I was amazed at the distance on the "walkie talkies"), and another attendee there had Sprint. We needed to look something up on the internet, and he was able to use his phone for it (1x data, used the minutes from the plan). The revelation that I could have internet access anywhere meant that I just had to have it. I convinced my parents to switch to Sprint from CellOne (regional carrier, later acquired by Alltel I think), since Sprint had nation wide coverage (rare at the time) and I was going to college soon somewhere not local. Been with Sprint since then. Those were the days when Sprint was the data king. If you wanted fast mobile data, Sprint was who you had. Until they rolled out their EVDO network (Sprint Vision I think?), SMS was a pain. It was entirely web based. So you'd get an SMS telling you that you had an SMS, and then select the link to load the web portal to view it and respond. The only nice thing about it was that I could text from my computer haha. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Oh I didn't know that it got added. Good to know. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Which phones? Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

B71 can be aggregated only with B2 and/or B66. It cannot be aggregated with B12 or N71. B12 and N71 are the same, and can only be aggregated with B2 and/or B66. Current RF front ends on phones only support one low band carrier at a time, except the latest Sony phone I believe. So you'll never see B12+B71, B12+N71, B71+N71, or any other combination of those. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I've had that happen before. A reboot fixed it. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

You cannot use B71 and N71 at the same time. It's one or the other. Just like you can't have B12+B71, you also can't have B71+N71 or B12+N71. Only one low band carrier (LTE or NR) can be used at a time. At least with all phones on the market besides the latest Sony Xperia I believe. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

It's always been that way on Sprint, though I've heard Textra could get around it somehow I think? No idea if other carriers do that as well. RCS can use wifi for everything. But both people have to be using RCS. You can probably enable developer settings and then disable "always on mobile data". With wifi calling set to wifi preferred, it *should* basically disconnect from the mobile network when not in use, and you shouldn't really notice any battery difference compared to airplane mode. Then if you need to send/receive a MMS, it'll quickly connect and do it, then disconnect. Also, a bit too late now, but you should have just requested an Airave. Would have solved your low signal issue. Phone barely used any power idling on wifi with full service. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

MMS over wifi doesn't work on Android. Sprint's MMS servers are only accessible via mobile data unfortunately. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

N71 can't use b71 as the anchor band. It can only use B2 or B66. ENDC is only enabled on those bands, and whenever you're connected to them the device will say 5G even if you aren't connected to run NR carrier. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

There is an OTA of sorts (you won't notice it, it would be like a PRL update in the background) that will eventually add T-mobile as a secondary home network on the SIM card. They can then set which network is preferred from the network side, without any software changes on your device. What we'll likely see happen is that T-mobile will be kept as secondary home on the SIM, with equal priority as Sprint. Then they'll gradually shut down or replace Sprint equipment. When that happens, new/replaced equipment will only broadcast a T-mobile signal. So Sprint's network will gradually disappear and be replaced with T-Mobile only. You'll start finding yourself on T-Mobile more and more frequently until you never see Sprint anymore. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I'm not sure why there was a speed difference honestly. Possibly it was using NR? I don't have an 5G phone to test with, but my guess is that the network might only report EN-DC if the UE supports the NR bands it asks about. When your phone connects to the network, the network asks if it's capable of bands x, y, z, etc. And the phone reports back which of those bands it supports, all CA combinations of those bands, 4x4 capabilities on those bands, etc. So if you had N41 and/or N71 disabled, the phone wouldn't report that it supports them, and the network would probably not advertise EN-DC. Here's an example of a UE capability inquiry signaling message asking about LTE and NR Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk