dkyeager

Rumors but no 888 reality yet. That, plus chip shortages and AT&T difficulties keeping phone prices high at T-Mobile.

The salesperson at the store gets a commission. Make certain it is the strongest signal where you need it. They don't really want you to change back -- ie get a free line first with a t-mobile sim if you need to test).

I think T-Mobile was keeping their powder dry for the EBS auction for rural and other areas, hopefully later this year. I don't think the Duo will let them get it super cheap and will rather try to adjust the rules against T-Mobile for more EBS.

In terms of mmWave, he said the technology to tap the spectrum has come a long way. “When it was first launched by Verizon, I think the ranges were in the order of 500-900 meters,” said Irizarry. “We’ve been testing with Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and some of the handset folks. MmWave for the home ranges up to 5 kilometers. I do think there’s a place for wireless to offer competitive offerings to the existing fixed broadband offerings.” Irizarry is from US Cellular, https://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/t-mobile-s-ulf-ewaldsson-says-time-has-come-for-fixed-wireless Obviously Home Internet would have bigger antennas than your smartphone, but it does seem mmWave tech is improving. Initially Verizon was using lower frequencies for the uplink. Perhaps they will do so again with c-band etc.

I think Verizon is betting on increased power levels for the C-Band, as championed by FCC commissioner Carr. From his speech at the American Enterprise Institute https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-370781A1.pdf : "We should seek comment this year on increasing the power levels for CBRS operations in the 3.5 GHz band. Upping the power levels here would help align the U.S. band plan with international standards and create efficiencies for midband 5G builds in the U.S. that could span the 3.45 GHz to C Band spectrum ranges. We should take the real-world experiences we’re gaining with CBRS builds and coordinate with federal users as we look at increasing the power levels here. Getting this done will help extend the reach of 5G services to even more Americans." Or more expicitly by Verizon: 'While uplink is the most limiting factor, there are also some considerations when it comes to downlink. That includes stricter power limitations on EBS/BRS under FCC rules than for C-band - a difference which become more marked as beamwidth widens and in rural areas, according to Stone. “There’s the puts and takes,” he said. “C-band has advantage in transmit power, 2.5 has the advantage in propagation loss, but when you do the math in rural areas in particular, the downlink for C-band has an advantage and that becomes more pronounced at wider beamwidths for EBS/BRS, and those restrictions don’t apply at wider beamwidths for C-band.”' https://www.fiercewireless.com/operators/verizon-defends-c-band-plans

Thanks, mine now says (+-45.05 ft)

It really depends on how many Sprint network users are left. Have any Sprint only sites been decomissioned yet?

It a doubling of small cells from 15k to 30k. The bigger risk is a possible backlash to small cells in general if they Christmas tree out their small cells with too many antennas. I expect T-Mobile to reduce small cells given redundancy with their newly defined macro sites unless they use them for n77.

Does the m in location accuracy refer to miles or meters? Clarification in the selection would be useful.

Same around here. T-Mobile historically upgrades urban areas first.

If your city, county, or state has a online permit system that allows public access, that is the easiest way. Otherwise talk to your local T-Mobile store manager. Typically most reps don't care. Technicians in repair centers may also follow this. The carriers typically make such info available to all of the above. Worse case you could actually go down to your local building department and ask them.

The PLMN method appears to me to be often temporary. I am much more inclined to believe permits. T-Mobile also historically completed virtually all of its permits. It should also be noted here that before the merger was approved, T-Mobile moved onto some Sprint sites.

The key test will be stand alone Sprint sites in rural areas. Hopefully they understand the superior coverage distance of 1x800 compared to LTE. Some small cities would benefit from more sites given greater customer density. Ohio has stopped publicly tracking rural sites so intelligence on this is quite poor. Historically T-Mobile does rural sites last. In urban areas it looks like many Sprint standalone sites could be abandoned. Some of the WISP sites are not recognized as Sprint sites by me, thus it is possible some T-Mobile sites may also be abandoned or these are new WISP sites. It is even possible these are small cell sites or a shared rack arrangement has been reached. Starry has licenses in the 24GHz frequency here (200mhz and another 100Mhz.) Being marketting driven, it is possible T-Mobile will add more keep sites if they lose too many customers in these areas in their initial conversion markets. Not certain T-Mobile understands there are some of us who have delayed phone purchases for many years until we have clarity on the keep sites. For me personally the chip shortage and lack of competion in the Qualcomm 888 space has not helped (my home site now has a permit to be converted). AT&T has some very attractive offers. T-Mobile will give me a $100 to $200 phone to stick around for a few years, but I normally buy high end and retain them for a while. I bought many more phones when they were wrapped into the plan. My fear is being stuck with poor service while locked into a plan.

I think you would need to go IPv6. At least T-Mobile is more honest than Starlink about obviously showing you it is double NATed. VPNing back the router was also an issue. The key weakness to Starlink is the actual upload speeds. In many ways IPv6 is still not ready for prime time in terms of the detailed ways people use IPv4, but we must adopt to IPv6, especially in the mobile world.

Definitely a marketing approach in trying to get people to move over so far. Some of those who have moved over should have done it years ago. Starting to see permits for a few standalone Sprint sites to be converted, but only about 10 sites. About 40 co-location sites will be sold to a WISP in Columbus. AT&T is my backup plan (based on tested performance my pecking order is Sprint->AT&T->T-Mobile->Verizon.) Tempted by AT&T S21 Ultra deals, just want 500GB since there is no expansion).

In Columbus OH we have about 10 permits now to convert Sprint only sites. We have about 40 permits to convert Sprint colocated sites to Starry.com, a WISP that plans to come to town. Permits here are good for 12 months. If they start work they get a six month extension.

Is there an airport nearby? Certain types of radar have also caused band 41 site frequency shifts. We have four airports each with a different focus: international/ domestic passenger, primarily cargo, university/executive, and private/hobbyist. The last one has this issue in the SW part of town.

These last minute upgrades are driven by a different kind of logic. Typically loan covenants, contractual obligations, and professional pride to finish up projects. Also until the deal is closed it does not exist. Not saying it applies in this case, but don't rule it out overall until the deal closes.

The next step would be a spectrum analyzer. Historically T-Mobile has been very good with using buffer zones etc which are built-in to band 41 but might be able to be adjusted. I have seen Sprint overlap B26 3x3 and 5x5 along with 1x800 at one location with no ill effects.

Until the deal is closed, Shentel may continue to do work, just as Sprint and nTelos did.

T-Mobile has move some Sprint b41 in Ohio from 20Mhz to 10Mhz and then using the 20Mhz for n41 meanwhile they left 20Mhz also for b41 untouched. This is being done in small city locations with 50Mhz of contigous b41 spectrum.

What other ones have they bought?

Anyone have any background info on why the 512GB and now the 256GB ultra models are in sold out status? Chip shortage? Covid-19 related production problems? Lack of LG as a competitor in the US?

T-Mobile has signed some new B41 leases during the last year in PR iirc.

Last night I was looking through the ED (EBS) licenses issued since 01/01/2020. This is clouded by T-Mobile shifting ownership from one Sprint firm to another. There are a lot of tribes that got licenses but this is by no means universal among tribes. Most tribes have not leased their spectrum at this time. There were a few new ED licenses issued to Clearwire. T-Mobile has also signed a lot of new ED leases scattered throughout the country.