Paynefanbro

Reviving this thread!

Sprint eNB 57506 is now T-Mobile eNB 478361. This was formerly the main Sprint site covering Roosevelt Field Mall. With the addition of this site, T-Mobile now has ~3 macros covering the mall in addition to a DAS. 

Saw an interesting Verizon C-band site in the Financial District. Any idea what that little antenna on the far right is? CBRS maybe?

— — — — —

T-Mobile and AT&T sites on the buildings next door:

Seems like most sites in the Financial District have over a gig of backhaul. I got great speeds ranging from 700-900Mbps from lots of sites in the area. iPhone Field Test reported that I was connected to eNB 127915 during this test but I'm not sure where it's located exactly.

Assuming we're gonna start seeing these getting deployed on the T-Mobile side later this year/early next year too: 

Another indoor UC vs UW speed test. This time on 4th Ave in Bay Ridge.

Verizon with 60MHz n77 and T-Mobile with 40MHz n41. 

Four more Sprint sites broadcasting the keep PLMN. I found two in Dyker Heights, one in Bay Ridge, and one that I suspect is in Staten Island but I'm not sure exactly where since I connected to it while in Brooklyn.

1. eNB 9493
   1. Location: 40.616105992921554, -74.01143434077802
2. eNB 9453 
   1. Location: 40.61988322331958, -74.01998863821413
3. eNB 8999
   1. Location: 40.636305818445145, -74.03644800944117
4. eNB 5790
   1. Location: Unknown

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I also think that Verizon has turned on C-band on nearly every site that it's deployed on. To be honest I was kinda expecting Verizon to just throw money at the wall and as much backhaul as possible (considering they often user themselves for backhaul) so that they could light a fire under T-Mobile but I'm not really seeing that. They're getting the same speeds on 60MHz that I was seeing from T-Mobile when they were at 60MHz. That's not a bad thing though, it's just that I set my expectations pretty high lol.

Here's a speed test that I took in Flatbush comparing Verizon and T-Mobile. They had similar signal strength. While I'm sure you can find just as many examples of the opposite result (where T-Mobile does poorly at similar signal strength) I'm only posting because I suspect either something is wrong with this Verizon site or they need to significantly increase backhaul. That ping is much higher than what I typically see on Verizon.

— — — — —

Yesterday I was in Red Hook at Louis Valentino Jr. Park and was seeing great speeds on n77 at ~430Mbps. T-Mobile desperately needs a macro in that area because they're struggling. Since you're at the edge of cell of every T-Mobile site in the area you tend to bounce between n71 SA and Band 26 from Sprint keep sites in Staten Island. Verizon eNB 84642 and AT&T eNB 111519 cover that part of Red Hook really well while T-Mobile's most recent addition to that area is a single small cell, eNB 141343. That small cell performs really well when you're close to it and has decent range because the area is pretty underdeveloped but it's no replacement for a macro.

Here's a speed test from the small cell (T-Mobile eNB 141343) and from Verizon eNB 84642 on n77:

— — — — —

Finally, here's an interesting site in Park Slope where for some reason Verizon deployed CBRS but not mmWave and also decided to sheathe the antenna on only one of the three sectors.

Happy Birthday @S4GRU!!!

Quote

T-Mobile said Wednesday that its shutdown of Sprint’s 3G network is proceeding as planned, beginning on March 31st. As part of the shutdown process, the company said in a statement emailed to The Verge, it will migrate customers over the next 60 days “to ensure they are supported and not left without connectivity, and the network will be completely turned off by no later than May 31.”

https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/30/23002956/tmobile-shutdown-date-push-back-sprint-3g-dcma-network-dish

27 minutes ago, thisischuck01 said:

And I'm kinda impressed by the range! That seems to be the typical range of the current oDAS nodes.

Definitely better than what I expected but it's also kind of an ideal scenario. The area that this small cell is in has no vegetation and is mostly single-story industrial buildings. I'm not certain if it's range is that good in every direction. For example, I didn't connect to it while on Morgan Ave at all with the exception of when I was within direct line of site. Here's a map of the range I saw.

By the time I was at the corner of Lombardy St and Morgan Ave, I was at ~90 dbm. I would disconnect while walking down the street but an airplane mode cycle would reconnect me. By the time I got to Lombardy and Vanderhoort I could only connect to n77.

Seems like ideal spacing for mmWave is something like one site every couple hundred feet if you want contiguous coverage.

I visited the Link5G in Long Island City and it's only broadcasting WiFi right now, no LTE or 5G coming from it at all. In person, they're not that bad looking. They're as tall as street lights but not nearly as thick as photos make them seem. Over time I can see them fitting in with the streetscape. 

Interestingly there's one of those newer small cells on a street light on the opposite corner of the same block the Link5G is on. Literally less than 100ft away. It looks like it was installed by ZenFi and has been there since at least May 2021 if we're to believe Google Street View. It's amazing none of us spotted it until now. I wasn't getting anything from it on my T-Mobile or Verizon iPhones so I'm assuming that it's an AT&T small cell. Kinda redundant if one of these Link5G's are nearby.

Finally, I also got to visit the Extenet small cell by the Staples in Williamsburg. It's definitely a Verizon small cell broadcasting mmWave but nothing else. I wasn't picking up LTE nor C-band from it. Speeds were around ~2.2Gbps coming from it and it had an outdoor coverage radius of about a block and half before my phone dropped it completely.

On the topic of C-band though, it seems like Verizon has been lighting up a lot of sites as I'm now seeing it more often. However, I haven't been too impressed by the speeds on it. While speeds on n77 are significantly better than on n5, they're noticeably slower than what I typically see on n41. Average speeds are about 300-350Mbps outdoors which while fast is significantly slower than what I'm seeing posted in the VZW subreddit in other cities. I'm hoping that deploying more sites (macros and small cells), as well as just further optimization increases speeds over time because for now it's looking like T-Mobile's super dense macro network strategy is paying off for them here, and they're only making it more dense with all of these Sprint conversions.

Sidenote: I was able to confirm that those two Clearwire era small cells in SoHo are in fact broadcasting the keep PLMN. While I was hypothesizing before, I managed to drive up next to them and actually confirm it. My phone had a -60dbm Band 41 signal while standing right next to them. I'm interested in what this means for T-Mobile. Do they plan on keeping them running just as they are post-Sprint LTE shutdown or will they pay Extenet to completely replace them with an n41 small cell? I'm also curious as to how many of these Sprint small cells they have broadcasting the keep PLMN citywide.

AT&T just submitted their first permit for C-band in Newton and it looks like they're doing exactly what they said they would. They're using an Ericsson AIR6449 and an AIR6419 for C-band and DOD spectrum and deploying both at the same time.

No idea how this person keeps finding these small cells so early on but he found one of the new ones. Looks like the franchisee that reserved this one is Extenet II, the same company that has been installing the new small cells on wooden poles that we've been seeing.

Location: 40.722109338932334, -73.93909165030479

Looks like Sprint eNB 839574 in SoHo got converted and is now T-Mobile eNB 875857.

20 minutes ago, clbowens said:

I still see the mmWave layer

Really weird. I’m not seeing it on my phone, tablet, or computer. 
 

Edit: Oh wait, my bad. I was misremembering when I thought that the map was differentiating between mmWave and C-band on the map while calling them both Ultra Wideband but I just realized that they just made them the same color way back when C-band launched. 

Verizon finally turned on C-band on the sites the cover my home. Maximum speeds indoors or out are ~350Mbps around my home. Unfortunately their signal isn't great inside my home just as I hypothesized. Near any window I get 2 bars which gets me as fast as 350Mbps down and up to 12Mbps up but generally hover around 250 down.

In my living room where I have the weakest signal on both T-Mobile or Verizon (besides my basement) I lose n77 completely. If I hold my phone just right I can get ~55Mbps down but the uplink is the bottleneck. I can’t get more than 1Mbps there. This is in comparison to 483 down and 28Mbps up in the same place on my T-Mobile line.

For what it's worth I don't think backhaul is the issue since the sites around me all have mmWave. I think it's more that C-band's range isn't that great in my area. 

Here are some screenshots of Verizon speeds just outside my house vs in my living room:

Sidenote: Has anyone else noticed that Verizon has removed the mmWave layer from their coverage maps? Looks like they're deemphasizing it just like T-Mobile and AT&T.

Edit 2: Speed test from closer to the site

Two more Manhattan keep sites: 

eNB 9097/9098/9099 (Location: 40.73731141530291, -74.00194364096748)

eNB 9670/9671/9672 (Location: 40.72189329735279, -74.00495597394665)

Edit: Should specify that these are broadcasting the keep PLMN, they aren't converted yet.

On 3/7/2022 at 8:06 PM, Paynefanbro said:

Found an interesting site to check out.

T-Mobile eNB 40982 is a flagpole site in Canarsie that apparently recently got n71 added to it according to Cellmapper. I'm wondering if n41 was also added and also how they managed to add other bands to it given that the current n71 antennas are a bit larger both in length and width than existing Band 12 antennas. It may give a bit of insight into how they plan to handle flagpole upgrades in the region and potentially signals that T-Mobile may be on the next phase of 5G deployment, upgrading the problem sites. I'll try to visit this weekend to take some pics of it.

Street View image from 2018:

 

I visited this site and visually nothing has changed about it. I don't know how they managed to get 600MHz antennas to fit, but they did. Unfortunately I couldn't force my phone to connect to n71 at all. I cycled airplane mode a bunch but my phone would quickly connect to n41 from eNB 42917 instead of connecting to n71 from this site.

Speeds on both LTE and 5G weren't that impressive. On 5G I was seeing speeds of 50 down and 60 up and on LTE speeds were 30 down and 25 up. I think it may be a combination of backhaul being limited and just not being enough capacity being available in the area. The next nearest site to this one is eNB 53741 and it's also a flagpole site with only Band 2/12/66 so T-Mobile has their work cut out for them and increasing backhaul likely won't be enough.

3 hours ago, dkyeager said:

Hopefully once they are done with the marketing check boxes, they will go for more density, not only with n41 but also with n71.

Funny you say this. I just made a post in the North Jersey market thread that T-Mobile has been doing a lot of Sprint conversions and new builds there to increase density. Also in NYC they are starting to ramp up the Sprint site conversions from the looks of it. In rural areas in eastern North Carolina I've seen some new T-Mobile sites appear on Cellmapper that aren't Sprint conversions so they're trying to increase rural density too. We're even seeing T-Mobile start to deploy n41 small cells and mini-macros on Reddit.

It's anecdotal but it seems like they're definitely trying to increase density. 

T-Mobile has been doing lots of upgrades in North Jersey to increase density through Sprint conversions and organically building new sites. I've been identifying some on Cellmapper.

Sprint Conversions: 

1. eNB 874744 (Location: 40.884324553470826, -74.06894151337626)
2. eNB 875135 (Location: 40.87586452482414, -74.06618163727573)

New Builds:

1. eNB 891761 (Location: 40.92465135307351, -73.96688969812453)
2. eNB 894907 (Location: 40.89930669860068, -73.9708909875452)

19 hours ago, T-MoblieUser207 said:

Found another mmWave small cell, again outside of the specs the city approved. This time in Brooklyn, corner of Winthrop Street and Albany Avenue.

Looks like it's an upgrade of an Extenet small cell just like the one posted on Reddit a few months ago. 

The common theme that I see is that they're using this design on wooden poles. Maybe the city carved out an exception.

If I'm recalling correctly there's another Extenet small cell near the one in your photo on Snyder and Troy that got upgraded around December 2021. It's also a on wooden pole and using the same design.

- - - - - 

On another note, it appears that T-Mobile upgraded backhaul on my home site. Over the last few months, specifically post-iPhone 13 launch, I watched speeds on my home site decline a little. I went from hitting 600/100 regularly to seeing speed of 575/80 at all hours of the day. But this week I noticed that speeds are back up again. I just ran a speed test and got 660 down and 120 up on my site. LTE quickly shoots up to 220 Mbps but flattens out at 180Mbps. The last time they increased backhaul on my site it was just before they added n41/71. Did they increase backhaul this time because they saw the performance decrease or because they're expecting a change to the site soon?

The only thing I can think of is that CDMA is going to be shut off later this month so an extra 5MHz of PCS is going to be available pretty soon.

Found an interesting site to check out.

T-Mobile eNB 40982 is a flagpole site in Canarsie that apparently recently got n71 added to it according to Cellmapper. I'm wondering if n41 was also added and also how they managed to add other bands to it given that the current n71 antennas are a bit larger both in length and width than existing Band 12 antennas. It may give a bit of insight into how they plan to handle flagpole upgrades in the region and potentially signals that T-Mobile may be on the next phase of 5G deployment, upgrading the problem sites. I'll try to visit this weekend to take some pics of it.

Street View image from 2018:

On 2/28/2022 at 12:25 PM, Paynefanbro said:

Pretty sure eNB 895044 in the Bronx is a fully converted Sprint site. I'll confirm this weekend but I've marked it on Cellmapper already and the trails look correct.

Location: 40.82639148703134, -73.84100143796987

Confirmed it's now a T-Mobile site. n41 at 40MHz but speeds are still really good.

Also Sprint eNB 75141 in Staten Island is broadcasting the keep PLMN. I verified this while inside the Food Bazaar in Red Hook. I connected to Band 26 with a -114 signal from that site. Pretty good signal for that distance and being indoors.

Location: 40.62938953855877, -74.07909702198626

I also connected to T-Mobile eNB 137361 in Staten Island in the same place but had a much weaker -123 signal on Band 71 which is virtually unusable.

Went up to Middletown again and found two keep sites. 

1. Sprint eNB 6325 (Location: 41.4311701118526, -74.35960489915462)
   1. This site fills in coverage on NY Highway 17 just south of Middletown. Good site to keep.
2. Sprint eNB 6324 (Location: 41.47101083500609, -74.37163722479815)
   1. This site is a weird one because it's within spitting distance of a T-Mobile tower. On top of that, the T-Mobile site that it's nearest to it is fully upgraded with n41/71. I'm curious whether this is site in broadcasting the keep PLMN temporarily or if T-Mobile actually wants to keep both towers. 

Also looks like n41 was added to T-Mobile eNB 48775 but it hasn't been mapped in Cellmapper yet. I was getting a super weak n41 signal from it. My phone was reporting 40MHz but that could be wrong and I was seeing speeds around 50Mbps.

Sadly I'm not certain that Sprint eNB 74435 is broadcasting the keep PLMN or that it's even live anymore. I really wanted T-Mobile to keep that site but I wasn't able to connect to it in the area I was in. Verizon is collocated on that site and had a really strong signal in the area I was in so I figured Sprint should be able to provide something similar but instead my phone connected to 6324 and 6325 which were further away.

While Verizon has deployed C-band on a lot of sites in Brooklyn, the vast majority of them are inactive despite virtually the entire borough being outside of those exclusion zones and the coverage maps showing the entire city covered. Both Verizon sites that serve my home have been upgraded with C-band yet I get nothing besides Verizon's much slower DSS 5G in my home and outdoors. I'm patiently waiting for them activate the sites citywide.

Found my first Sprint conversion site in Boston on Cellmapper. eNB 507001 and 507063 (interesting numbering) belong to a former Sprint site on top of the Loews Boston Hotel. Looks like T-Mobile immediately went for Band 2/12/41/66/71 and n41/71. It adds a bit of density and capacity to the Back Bay area, near Boston Common. 

23 minutes ago, clbowens said:

Does anyone know if T-Mobile is still planning to sell B26 to Dish?   Or what the status of that is?  Just curious.

All evidence points to yes. The antennas that Dish has been deploying are capable of n26 whereas T-Mobile hasn’t deployed any n26 capable equipment.