jonathanm1978

NO!! The address for Walmart is 41301 US-280, Sylacauga, AL 35150

I can't bring myself to do it...I'm skeered!! I don't understand what's going on...however, maybe it's a good thing that Justin last emailed me 2 days ago saying that "I'm sorry, after meeting with my team, it has been discovered that MB is no longer going to work in your location..." Paraphrasing here..but that's pretty much what he said to me. Then, I conducted my test .....by going to Walmart with my inverter and MB Gold edition... Once I saw that the MB connected and was finally working as it should, I unplugged and came home with it..and put the Gold in place of the Demo Acct magic box..which is where it's at right now and working normally. I took some pics while at Wal-mart of the box connected to the relay, then broadcasting b41 like it should..and also saved my GPS coordinates in a longitude/latitude format...and when I got to my PC at home, I pieced together the photos of the mb, the GPS coordinates, and sent Justin an email saying that I hated to hear about the boxes no longer working..but that I have been using magic boxes flawlessly for over a year (since launch/inception) and never an issue. So it really was bad news for us to hear we can no longer use it after great service for the past 1 year +++. I haven't heard back yet. I hope that's a sign that he took what I said and isn't going to just chalk it up to listening to GIS software... This area should be fine for MB use...and I hope they discover what is causing this entire central AL area to show up as unavail to use magic box in the address tester. I don't know exactly how much area it is but EVERY single address that I've entered in the magic box address site says unavailable. That CANNOT be right...especially with all the bandwidth that Sprint has in this area... CAVEAT: At launch, this area was PERFECTLY APPROVED for a magic box. SOMETHING has changed in their GIS mapping software or location data..not sure what. But my kids raced through their roaming data in 1 week without the magic box being on...it's really starting to bite...

I've already rebooted this box (MB Gold) since I got home -- Someone parked in front of it and caused it to drop..so I rebooted ...and it's done came back on from a reboot. So...it seems as though the location data is dependent on which version of the MB that you have. (Also noted, the display on the MB Gold looks different -- so it obviously has taken a firmware update).

Thanks @belusnecropolis...I counted 2 blocks of 10MHz each of contiguous (if I'm doing it right)..so they have 20MHz total in this area. If they deploy 2 carriers of B41, would that mean that the donor site doesn't have the capability to let my MB connect, or would that not have anything to do with the donor PCI for MB?

I don't want to risk it..but I hope that I hear something back from the CTO of magic box team... If anyone has information that I am wrong about the licensing being changed in the central Alabama area, please let me know...as far as I know though, there's been no major changes in Sprint's spectrum holdings for this area. I have noticed they are deploying some B41 on the towers in Sylacauga..but that shouldn't affect the MB being able to rebroadcast B41. They've had 2CA B25 for months now, and the magic boxes have worked great. Plus, some of the towers that the box is connecting to have ONLY B25/B26 single carriers... I haven't gone in depth with PCI numbers, but I believe there are only 2 towers (out of the 3 total in Sylacauga area) that have B41 and B25. My wife, on her job in Shelby county, told me that the last couple of months her service has gone to sh**...where it used to be great in the control room, now she barely has signal. Not sure what they are doing here in this area...but geolocation data for this area is not great.. Being a firefighter and depending on Active911 to geocode addresses, sometimes we have to just guess at it.. For the most part, geocoding/geolocation works OK...but there are some areas here that we get 911 calls/fire calls and the map data is HORRIBLE!! Maybe this is part of the problem. I really think it's a GIS issue with their mapping software telling them this area isn't validly licensed when in fact it IS validly licensed. Does anyone know or have a resource that I can look to see how much B41/B25/B26 Sprint has in Central AL? I think on B26 they only have 5MHz...I only know that because the EMA won't release that last 5MHz of B26 (our dispatch radios are called "800's" because they are on 800MHz). As an aside, my chief just picked up my Motorola XTS5000 to have it re-programmed for the 700MHz frequency..along with getting a new antenna. But that has nothing to do with this (except hopefully we can get better communication for helping people when they call 911)

SO....I brought the MG Gold home, hooked it up...and VOILA!!! It's working right this minute! This is the same MB Gold that I took to Sylacauga Walmart and connected up!!! Works FINE! I dunno..something is up..

I will check when I get back from taking a kid to get a flu test...but as it stands...here's what I've found. 5 miles from my home, in the same county (just not within the city limits)..but same county...the magic box works fine. I just got back from Sylacauga, in the Wal-Mart parking lot with my power inverter, and the Magic Box Gold edition...and it connected to the 2669 Settlement Road, Sylacauga, 35150 tower just fine. My home, I connect to the SAME tower, just a different sector..and it won't work... I'm taking the Demo acct version MB with me back to town to connect the same way.. I took a few pics and forwarded them to Justin Aldridge with MB team..showed him my GPS coordinates of where I was when I connected..and told him that my home is only 5-6 miles from those GPS coordinates, in the same county, but on the same tower/different sector of the same tower, I can't get the MB to give me B41. There has been nothing changed around here in regards to how much B41/B25/B26 Sprint retains license to...so I don't understand why this address is being geocoded as unavail for MB deployment. ESPECIALLY since I've been using the magic box since launch without a issue..it's worked GREAT, until March 2, 2019. What gives??!!!?!?!

I could understand that if I was closer...but I live 2 counties away from Birmingham (Jefferson)...I'm in Talladega county...the southwest corner of it. I emailed back to Sprint and told them that I couldn't understand why it's been fine for nearly 2 years, and suddenly this sector of the tower can't allow MB...but the western-facing sector can.

Apparently, according to an email that I just received, the magic box no longer can be used in this area. But, I can travel to Sylacauga, in town within 3 miles of the tower (on a different sector of the same antenna that is my donor) and it works fine. But on the sector that serves as my donor, I can't have the MB... That doesn't even sound correct...but that's what I just got told via email. Why would this happen? It works fine for a year and a half, suddenly it can't work anymore?

Since all the saga began with all gens of MB doing the {GPS Lock, Donor/Relay Lock, B41 broadcast won't connect/broadcast} thing... there is still no word from the upper-level Sprint MB team on a resolve. My family member that lives 4-5 miles away DID however receive an email from Sprint on Thursday of this past week telling him that basically "we're sorry, the Magic Box is no longer going to work in your area".. He called into Sprint to discuss this email, and was told that the tower that his magic box connects to (the donor site) has scheduled work that began in January 2019 and the expected completion date of this work is January 2020. They told him that he could hold off for a couple of months on sending back the MB, and wait to see if the work is completed sooner, or he could check back in February of 2020 and try to get the MB again. I, however, have not received that email, and I don't connect to the same tower that he does for my donor site. His donor site is in Shelby county, AL...just across the Coosa River. My donor site is 7 miles away on Settlement Rd, US Hwy 280. Regardless, I don't understand what kind of site configuration Sprint has done to the towers that has caused the MB to not rebroadcast B41. The last email conversation that I had with Justin Aldridge, he told me that he does see my demo acct MB online. So it's connected to the donor site, just isn't giving me the B41 carrier to attach my devices to.

That would be great...but I think they have broken areas like mine where the boxes work just fine. I really hope there is a resolution soon..both my sons have already burned thru their roaming data on their lines... So it's really hurting them more than me..

I wish we could get a heads up on who's having this issue...I haven't heard back from Justin Aldridge... So I have nothing informative to share... I sure wish something would start working again..

For me, it's happening on the MB Gold, MB2, the Demo MB 2, and a family member's MB2... It's an across the board thing for us..not sure what they've changed, but it happened on March 2...when I got up that morning, it had dropped the B41 ..but was still connected to GPS and Relay.. Same for other versions.

What location are you in?

Still awaiting a resolve on my issue that I've had. Justin told me that they are seeing my MB's on the network, but they just aren't broadcasting b41 for me to connect to. So the donor connection is fine...but the b41 broadcast isn't starting. I have a family member who is adamantly voicing (to me) how much he's beginning to become frustrated..because I referred him to Sprint 2 years ago, then helped him acquire a MB last year..now I'm getting the heat from him because his isn't working either.. And I don't know what to say to him. I am not quite as upset..if it works, it works. If not, then I'll wait.

yes, the XP8. The phone connected to LTE via my MB but not sure on much else. i just know that it was showing LTE signal and it had to be from the MB...as the only other signal around me (in LTE flavor) is AT&T b2, b17 and VZW b25 (and b4?? I think). There are no other LTE carriers in my area except for b41 MB...I'm pretty sure it was the MB supplying it.

My wife finally got her CriticaLinc last week... Lots of set-up issues trying to get beep-beep to work.. They tried to do a 250+ group activation...told them not to turn on the phones until last monday..and still it didn't activate PTT correctly. There are 4 apps she has to run in order for PTT to connect correctly.. She doesn't like the phone either..it's heavy and big.. says it's way more phone than what she needs for work. Haven't really tried it around my house since the MB has been out since she got the phone... and still having issues with MB...

Here's what he told me earlier today:

In contact with justin Aldridge at sprint via email.. he's the CTO over magic box.. my discussion with him has uncovered a problem that they are working on right now. I emailed him just this morning about the issue.

Haven't seen VoLTE around here yet...I'm headed to Centerpoint, Birmingham today so I'm thinking I"ll take my inverter and MB..just to see if it's the entire Bham area. I'm placing my bets on yes. I'll check for VOLTE also.. I am seeing some B41 now and then... I noticed in Sylacauga when I was trying to use my inverter + magic box on Sunday that I could cycle airplane mode, and I'd hit B41...but the speeds were ATROCIOUS..like 2mbps down, 0.5mbps up...then, phone jumped to b25 2ca and speeds went immediately to 30mbps down, 17mbps up.. This was all within the same parking lot. So ...something is happening.. I hope that b41 stays hidden until it's WAY better than it is now.

That is along the line of my thinking. It's been a LONG while since they've done anything @ the tower sites in my area.. I would be pleasantly surprised to see some upgrades happen here.. Hopefully the maintenance doesn't last long. I just can't see them having the donor frequency for magic box work fine for over a year around here, then suddenly it just isn't there anymore. And as I mentioned, it's not just the tower that I connect to. It's the entire area... I've tried on all 3 towers that I am in reach of during my travels... Plus, I know it's not working on the tower in Shelby county that my cousin connects to with his magic box (because he msg'd me the same morning that my box quit working to say his had quit also)... So, my usual tower (On Settlement Road) which has housed my magic box freq for over a year, the US280 tower in Childersburg, and the Shelby county tower we hit in Wilsonville...they are ALL not allowing magic box to complete setup. At this time, I can't get to any of the physical tower sites to look around..Been so busy with trying to learn Microtik SXT stuff..and trying to configure a home ISP option for myself to use since I'm fed-up with AT&T and their absolutely moronic pricing on 20 year-old DSL -- plus overages after 150gb of data use...I just haven't had time to go stroll through the area and check. My first thought when I found that my boxes (3 of them) wouldn't work at all, and they've been working fine...is that Sprint is doing something in my area...now what might it be...is the question.

Usually Sprint says my address doesn't show up as available for the magic box. When Magic Box launched, I called to get one..at THAT time, my address was eligible for the Magic Box and had the proper freqs, according to their map. So they sent one. That magic box worked fine for over a year..then I wanted the gen2...so I swapped. That magic box worked fine...until the Gen2 got wet and I needed to swap..then I got the Gold...and it worked fine... Fast forward..I've added a 2nd MB, plus gotten a MB on a demo account by emailing Mr. Schnelbacher...and they've all worked..until Saturday morning. While my address may not show up as eligible, the MB does work here.

It probably doesn't, see my quote below...

So..weird issue with MB (MB2, MB Gold, and MB "water resistant" versions). I've verified this issue is not just related to a single tower either.. and not just the 3 magic boxes that I have to tinker with... Until yesterday morning, all 3 MB that I have, and a family member who has one, was working fine. No issues. I've been using magic boxes for over a year now (since they launched, I've had one in the same spot and it's worked fine)... I wake up yesterday morning to no LTE on my note 9.. and shortly thereafter I'm informed by 3 of my 4 children that "hey the magic box isn't working, I have no data" ...so I go out and check on the demo magic box ...the "water resistant" version...which has been fine and worked since day one when I sat it in it's place..(so, 2 months without a hiccup). I started resetting it. I tried 2-3 factory resets, and the thing is, it seemingly connected. I am still getting 2 of 3 boxes checked green ..the 3rd box won't establish or finalize... On the box it tells me that GPS is locked (green checkmark), Relay Connected (green checkmark), but the 3rd one, LTE connecting just stays... So far it's been sitting on that all day. A factory reset now and then, still has the 2 checkmarks green for GPS and Relay Connected...but LTE connecting doesn't appear. The gold edition has the menu when it's two-thirds complete in the setup...so you can cheat to see how the signal looks before it finalizes if you hit menu, then hit network settings (where the backhaul options are located).. I've taken it to a place where there is ample B25 and 2nd carrier B25...and under the Network Settings when it gets 2/3 done, it tells me that signal is excellent... But it just never finishes. I'm guessing the point where they are stopping is at the B41 radio starting broadcast.. Can anyone tell me what Sprint may have done in this area (S, SE of Bham, AL) that would render me unable to use the magic box? I've talked with Sprint today, the boxes are provisioned properly...so it's not on my end that I can tell... (to verify it's not just on the tower that I use for donor site, I took my magic box to my fire department and left it for 8 hours, and the tower for that area is in Shelby county -- across the river. So it's not just the tower that I hit from my house, it's also doing it on the tower in another county that is slightly NE of me)...

By chance. i'd like to speak to you privately (phone, PM, etc)...I have some questions. Looking at getting the LHG series...but I'd like to talk to someone who knows more about microtik than I currently do. I've ALWAYS used UBNT gear...they just don't have any LTE equipment.