poconoprime

Bump

In case anyone is interested, I have been keeping track of Sprint sites being converted to T-Mobile for northeast, northwest and Pittsburgh PA markets. Details available in the Premier sponsor threads for each market. Northeast PA is the most detailed. In summary: most sites converted for northeast and northwest PA. Pittsburgh still has quite a bit to convert. Lots of sites got B41/N41.

9 hours ago, mattp said:

any update and is this the market i live in 17078

Lebanon county is a Shentel market. Shentel site builds in PA are substantially finished except for Lancaster county. It just so happens that there is a Shentel site planned (under construction?) near Palmyra south of Horseshoe Pike (Rt. 322) near Louser rd. behind a farm. It will have microwave backhaul when finished.

According to reddit users, it seems that VoLTE is rolling out to the Central PA and Upstate NY East markets. Both users report having a Pixel 3a.

Thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sprint/comments/bx5txl/finally_have_enhanced_lte_volte/

GMO upgrade progress

• Central PA: 70% complete
• West PA: 95% complete
• Shentel Lancaster County: 74% complete

Most upgraded sites in central PA are hosting B41 LTE. In West PA and Shentel territory it looks as though B41 is limited to high density areas, while rural areas are limited to B25/26. Detailed information is available to premier members.

On 4/26/2019 at 3:33 PM, burnout8488 said:

Noticed hugely improved coverage along 17 a few weeks ago. Hopefully once B26 is tuned it'll be solid the whole way through. 

Anyone know if I-88 is solid from Binghamton to Albany yet? There were still a bunch of LTE --> 3G drops a few months ago when I checked. This should have been solid LTE years ago.

According to cellmapper uploads, it looks like I-88 coverage has improved a lot since last year. The trouble spots seem to be the six or so sites where they are strictly B25 and have hills and/or dense forest blocking the signal. Some rural sites got B41 along with B26 added to them.

I stand corrected ? The first few GMO upgrades around Milford, PA are showing 2 carrier band 41 besides band 25/26. Thanks to member @hungoverfurball and a cellmapper anon for finding that information. Perhaps this is a trend, at least for the central PA market. Most of west PA outside of urban areas looks to be just band 25 and 26 after upgrades.

On 10/4/2018 at 8:26 PM, Jim S. said:

I thought they were supposed to go tri-band on all towers by next year.  Did that get forgotten after the merger announcement?

 

On 10/4/2018 at 11:16 PM, nexgencpu said:

Nope, permits popping up everywhere..

I don't know, at the rate work is being done, it does not look like all sites will get tri-band by 2019. The weather has not been good for cell site work the last few months in these markets. Central PA GMO sites are ~10% upgraded. Unless they are incorporating band 41 antennas into the current upgrades, I don't see how they can pull off such a goal. Besides, in most rural areas of PA, band 41 seems practical only for fixed mobile broadband service. Urban areas seem to be getting significant tri-band upgrades in order to relieve data traffic congestion.

GMO sites are getting upgrades throughout Samsung OEM markets in Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh and west PA are further along in the process than central PA at this time. 800 Mhz CDMA and LTE (outside of IBEZ) come standard with the upgrade, though some sites have gotten band 41 also. More details are available to premier sponsors regarding each market.