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Paynefanbro

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Everything posted by Paynefanbro

  1. Paynefanbro
    Just got back from Boston where they now have 180MHz of n41 deployed. I was floored by the network there. It's funny reading my previous posts about Boston in comparison to now because it's a night and day difference. Speeds there are insane and I'd go as far as saying a somewhere between a third and half of all of the upgraded sites have multi-gig backhaul. One thing I noticed was that upload speeds seem to be slower than what I typically see here in NYC with the exception of small cells. Not certain why that's the case. There are still a decent number of sites that haven't been upgraded yet thanks to Boston's weird laws about concealing macros on buildings but speeds were still fantastic everywhere I went. On top of that they have a million midband small cells deployed for added capacity that are easily capable of speeds over 1Gbps on 5G and >300Mbps on LTE. I'd encounter them Downtown, Back Bay, South Boston, Dorchester, etc. Just non-stop n41 small cells. — — — — — Also had a Verizon and AT&T line for testing. For whatever reason, my phone struggled to connect to C-band on AT&T in Boston but it's not as if there is much C-band available. Instead my phone seemed to prefer n5 in most areas. On sites where C-band is installed, they also install DoD spectrum unlike in NYC. Speeds are great when I connected, usually around 500Mbps. Boston is an Ericsson market for AT&T and on upgraded small cells you'll often find little Ericsson mmWave antennas installed. The phone I use to test AT&T doesn't have mmWave so I couldn't determine how well it performed but on LTE I'd see speeds upward of 150Mbps. — — — — — Verizon has a lot of mmWave deployed in Boston in tons of neighborhoods. I didn't take any photos but they typically just look like 3 Samsung mmWave antennas attached to the top of a pole. Speeds are great with me getting 2-3Gbps when I connected. There is also plenty C-band which got me speeds up to 900Mbps but average in the 500-600Mbps range. One thing I noticed about Verizon here is that they haven't enabled ENDC on their older small cells which leads to some issues where if you're connected to LTE on an old small cell, you're phone will flat out refuse to connect to 5G. What I'd often do is cycle airplane mode which would force my phone to scan for 5G and connect to that first. However if your phone is idle, it'll drop back down to LTE and get stuck on that small cell. — — — — — Last point, there is a DAS in the Prudential Center that I tested on my last day in Boston. AT&T had ENDC enabled so I was able to connect to n5 from outside the mall and aggregate with Band 2 inside the mall for speeds of about 80Mbps. Verizon had LTE pulling speeds of about 150Mbps but because there is no ENDC enabled, my phone wouldn't connect to 5G at all. T-Mobile on the other hand got speeds up to 1.1Gbps on 5G and when I tested on LTE, I saw speeds above 200Mbps. — — — — — Edit: I counted about 36 n41 small cells that I connected to in my 3 days there.
  2. Paynefanbro
    I connected to 4xCA in midtown. — — — — — Sprint eNB Unknown -> T-Mobile eNB 348926
  3. Paynefanbro
    Looks like T-Mobile is now on the site near Bear Mountain Inn that Verizon built in 2020 and AT&T joined in 2021. — — — — — The Sprint conversion on One Brooklyn Bridge Park (360 Furman St) actually has much better range than we initially thought. It seems that the antenna is adjusted downward to cover Furman St and Brooklyn Bridge Park. I maintained a much stronger signal driving along there than I did walking along the promenade or driving on the BQE. On Furman I stayed connected to the site all the way to Clark St where I only disconnected because I connected to the small cell near the Cranberry Street Ventilation Shaft. — — — — — Also spotted a new Verizon site on top of 10-25 Jackson Ave in Long Island City, continuing the trend of Verizon immediately hopping onto newly constructed buildings. I wish the other carriers were as proactive about new builds. T-Mobile used to be fairly good about building new sites before the Sprint merger and they're finally wrapping those up so we'll probably start seeing more but AT&T rarely ever adds new sites. Even the new AT&T site on Vanderbilt & Myrtle in Clinton Hill was built to replace another site that got decommissioned two blocks over.
  4. Paynefanbro
    Atlantic Ave/Barclays Center has an n41 DAS but they haven't upgraded the entire station yet. For example, the 2/3/4/5 station and transfer concourse all have n41 but the Pacific St platform on the D/N/R is still LTE only even though it does have the NR flag switched so it'll say 5G in the status bar. Difference in speed between the transfer concourse and Pacific St. — — — — — I've also seen the 5GUC icon at High St on the A/C line but I've never run a speed test or managed to get Service Mode on the iPhone to update in time to determine if it's really an upgraded DAS. — — — — — Also 4xCA seems to be making it's way into NYC. https://x.com/milanmilanovic/status/1753499407528415665?s=20
  5. Paynefanbro
    Not much has changed. AT&T is still trying to convince the FCC to not grant T-Mobile the licenses they won, especially in areas where T-Mobile would have significantly more spectrum than their competition. The latest reply is focusing on Hawaii since T-Mobile would have ~190MHz of n41 post assignment while no C-band spectrum was auctioned in Hawaii so AT&T and Verizon will pretty much not be able to compete on speed or capacity. I still think it's stupid that AT&T is attempting to stop T-Mobile from getting spectrum it won fairly just because they didn't have foresight. They spent so much time and money attempting to become a media conglomerate that by the time they realized they were failing and that they needed to double down on telecomm, T-Mobile surpassed them.
  6. Paynefanbro
    mmWave is great for raw speed but one thing I've noticed about Verizon's mmWave iDAS (at least here in NYC) is that they seem to have a limit to how many simultaneous connections they can handle and will simply kick you off once it reaches that limit. At least 3 stadiums/arenas in the NYC area I've connected to mmWave and gotten upwards of 2Gbps and then suddenly my phone gets kicked off the network off and says SOS in the status bar. Then I have to cycle airplane mode to get connected again. I haven't experienced that with the n41 iDAS on T-Mobile at these same arenas.
  7. Paynefanbro
    Sprint eNB Unknown -> T-Mobile gNB 1371640 Location: 132-07 14th Ave, College Point, NY 11356 (40.78749217352727, -73.83569067377078) Sprint eNB Unknown -> T-Mobile gNB 1358277 Location: 81 W 104th St, New York, NY 10025 (40.79795431905179, -73.96330050041114) Decommission permit came in recently for the T-Mobile site on the shorter building. It's already offline. — — — — — A second mmWave node in Times Square (n260 at 400MHz). Good to see T-Mobile going all out deploying both mmWave and n41 in a single small cell. Hopefully we see a larger deployment this year focused on high density commercial areas at least initially. Areas like Fulton Mall, Fordham Road, Downtown Flushing, etc. could really benefit from these. Even a deployment in the lesser known "Main Streets" like 5th Ave in Sunset Park, 86th Street in Bath Beach/Gravesend, or Flatbush Ave/Church Ave in East Flatbush would be cool.
  8. Paynefanbro
    I think one person reported seeing it in eastern Queens but it may have just been a site bleeding over from Nassau County. It seems to be online there but not here in the city.
  9. Paynefanbro
    This site is live now. It's gNB 1088940/1088852 | eNB 109354 What's interesting about this site is that it is 140MHz despite all of the sites nearest to it being 80MHz. I've marked all 40+40MHz sites with a red dot and the green sites are all 100+40MHz. The site with the highlighted coverage area is the conversion. There has to be some amount of overlap/interference from the site just north of it in addition to NextWave's network.
  10. Paynefanbro
    Orange County update: I thought T-Mobile had 80MHz of n41 in Orange County, NY but they actually have 70MHz live split into one 40MHz carrier and one 30MHz carrier. It's my first time seeing that carrier size on T-Mobile's network. — — — — — I was at Woodbury earlier today and was unable to replicate the issues with NR aggregation that some others were seeing on their MVNO lines. I have a Tello prepaid line which is the same QCI as Boost Infinite and I was seeing 15MHz Band 2 + 40MHz n41 + 15MHz n71 + 20MHz Band 66. — — — — — I also drove a bit further north to Middletown both yesterday and today. T-Mobile built a new site on top of Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine's campus in Middletown. It's difficult to overstate how much this has improved coverage in Middletown. A friend of mine has a home in Middletown that had really poor coverage on T-Mobile. It was so bad that she had to have a T-Mobile Cellspot in her home just to make calls on her phone. She now has a full signal in her home thanks to this new site. T-Mobile shares this rooftop with both AT&T and Verizon and all carriers have upgraded their respective sites. Verizon has 160MHz C-band deployed, AT&T has C-band and DoD deployed for a total of 120MHz, and T-Mobile has 70MHz of n41 deployed. Oddly on AT&T my phone refused to aggregate DoD and C-band. Instead it would connect to one carrier or the other individually. Another quirk is that the new T-Mobile site seems to have super inconsistent standalone 5G. On most sites my Android phone will camp on standalone 5G without issue but on this site it seems to connect to NSA 5G almost exclusively and occasionally for a few seconds standalone 5G will activate but then I'll get kicked off. Other sites in Middletown don't have this same issue. I'm thinking it's some sort of software issue with the site. Thankfully it doesn't affect performance. — — — — — Here are some speed tests on all 3 carriers from in my friend's living room: Verizon 5G and LTE T-Mobile 5G and LTE AT&T 5G Verizon's performance is amazing but it's cool to see the performance T-Mobile is getting out of so little midband with multi-gig backhaul. They're holding their own against Verizon despite Verizon having over 2x the midband spectrum. I was seeing similar speeds on AT&T no matter if I was on C-band or DoD so I have to assume they were splitting the load over the two bands instead of aggregating them to increase throughput. I just wish I was able to aggregate the two because then I'd probably see speeds a lot more comparable to the other two.
  11. Paynefanbro
    This site is now live. gNB 1339372 | eNB 895413 — — — — — Tried to do some mapping in Staten Island and found what I think might be a gig+ site there. Got this while driving by T-Mobile gNB 1340847 earlier today. It's only 743Mbps but most 1Gbps sites in Staten Island cap out in the high 400's. — — — — — Sprint eNB 6235 -> T-Mobile eNB 219116/gNB 1345585 This site is on the keep site map on the outskirts of Goshen, NY near Mechanicstown.
  12. Paynefanbro
    I'm pretty sure Sprint eNB 839191 on the keep site map in Bushwick is the Sprint site located at 101 Wyckoff Ave Brooklyn, NY 11237. Even though it's right across the street from a converted T-Mobile site, there has been no decommission permit submitted for it yet. T-Mobile eNB 53596 could end up getting decommissioned or it could be a situation like T-Mobile gNB 1355290 where the sectors are rearranged on the conversion to minimize interference between sites and boost coverage and capacity in a specific direction.
  13. Paynefanbro
    We have a cluster of n66 sites here in Brooklyn. No idea if they're active all the time or only some of the time but it seems like every couple of months someone ends up mapping it again. The last time it was spotted here was November 2023.
  14. Paynefanbro
    Was in the Barclays Center yesterday. AT&T has 5G+ in the arena according to their coverage map which I'm assuming means mmWave because my test line on AT&T was only able to see LTE from the DAS and no midband at all. I think T-Mobile has n41 deployed on the DAS there. Speeds were reasonable for what looked like a sold out game. I was seeing anywhere from 40-80Mbps. Weirdly T-Mobile seems to be running 10MHz Band 2 in the arena as opposed to the 15MHz we see outside. I was able to see a single 100MHz n41 carrier but I was unable to confirm the existence of a second carrier. — — — — — New Gig+ Sites: eNB 40972 eNB 50450 eNB 41430 eNB 45733 eNB 41286 — — — — — More decommissioned sites from the keep site map: Sprint eNB 253671 located at 128-11 Newport Ave, Far Rockaway, NY 11694 Sprint eNB 6214 located at 41-16 51st St, Flushing, NY 11377 Sprint eNB 6295 located at 37-18 Northern Blvd, Queens, NY 11101 Sprint eNB 6727 located at 89-01 Astoria Blvd, East Elmhurst, NY 11369 Sprint eNB 6877/9452 located at 915 84th St, Brooklyn, NY 11228 — — — — — I think eNB 15833 on the keep site map is the same as T-Mobile eNB 326104 which already got converted. — — — — — Sprint eNB 6208 -> T-Mobile gNB 1355290 Location: 40.726957115554065, -73.89562912664496 Site has gig+ backhaul. Sprint eNB Unknown -> T-Mobile gNB 1350688 Location: 40.76419435322034, -73.8102723335394 Site has gig+ backhaul. Sprint eNB 6300 -> T-Mobile gNB 1328802 Located at: 40.76686150886295, -73.90548642920258
  15. Paynefanbro
    T-Mobile Delivers Another World’s First with 6-Carrier Aggregation https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/t-mobile-delivers-another-worlds-first-with-6-carrier-aggregation Now we just have to wait on devices that can aggregate six sub-6GHz carriers.
  16. Paynefanbro
    Did the same thing on Sunday. It's entirely possible that where you're standing you're connected to eNB 879451 in Manhattan. I walked the entire promenade to see if I could map the range of the site and quickly realized that it's not great. I was honestly confused that I could be standing within eyeshot of this new site and still getting coverage from across the water. From your pic it looks like you're just past Montague which funnily enough is exactly where coverage cuts out from that site. — — — — — As an aside I mapped like four n41 small cells in the southern section of Brooklyn Heights each pushing nearly a 1Gbps.
  17. Paynefanbro
    Slightly better pic. It's pretty fast too. Just wish coverage on this site were better.
  18. Paynefanbro
    I might be wrong but I think this is actually a new antenna and it's live. I drove by the site this evening and it seems like I'm actually picking up n41 from it. I think gNB ID 1345521 and eNB 219025 both map to this site. Is this a passive 8-port antenna? I'm gonna swing by again tomorrow to see if I can figure out what's up with this site.
  19. Paynefanbro
    More conversions: Sprint eNB 74668 -> T-Mobile eNB 895023 Located at: 40.8350975054593, -73.91533021361947 — — — — — Sprint eNB 6856 located at 421 Smith St got converted but isn't live yet.
  20. Paynefanbro
    This site is live and it is a gig+ site. Massive boost in coverage as anticipated. T-Mobile really struck gold by getting access to this site. I tried mapping every sector of it on n41. — — — — — This site is converted and live. gNB 1371634 — — — — — T-Mobile has removed the sheaths on this in preparation for upgrading it. Now the old Sprint antennas are exposed. — — — — — Sprint eNB 6714 located at 102 North End Ave, New York, NY 10282 is currently being converted (finally).
  21. Paynefanbro
    While they purchased C-band a while back they only got access to their blocks of the spectrum a few months ago. And they've always made the claim that they would only begin deploying it once they got the combined C-band DoD antennas. They acknowledged as recently as a few weeks ago that they've finally started getting stock of these antennas and so far at least one site with it deployed has been found in Texas, replacing a C-band antenna they previously had installed. I wouldn't even go as far as saying they're hoarding mmWave either. They have it deployed in quite a few cities even though it isn't nearly as widespread as Verizon or AT&T and they are (very slowly) deploying it in new places though they are mostly just high traffic venues. And while they've been alluding to it in interviews for about a year now, they finally made a public statement that they're likely going to us it for TMHI in that standalone mmWave press release they made recently.
  22. Paynefanbro
    It's as if Dish has never heard about spectrum swaps before. T-Mobile is fighting a war on two fronts with AT&T going after their midband spectrum and Dish going after their 600MHz. The end goal of both of those companies looks like they want stop T-Mobile from getting any more spectrum without some sort of divestiture. I get why they're doing this but I can't help but feel like both of them really are just sore losers that lacked foresight. What's even worse for Dish and AT&T is that T-Mobile has an extremely successful home internet product that justifies their need for so much capacity in the first place so they can't even say that T-Mobile doesn't need all of the spectrum they have. T-Mobile also doesn't have a history of hoarding spectrum without deploying it so they can't even point to past behavior to justify divestiture by saying they aren't going to use it.
  23. Paynefanbro
    Press Release: Bills Signed: H.R. 1734, S. 788, S. 2747, S. 2787 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/legislation/2023/12/19/press-release-bills-signed-h-r-1734-s-788-s-2747-s-2787/
  24. Paynefanbro
    4xCA live in NYC finally — — — — — Decommission permits for the sites at the following addresses came through. These are all sites that were broadcasting the keep PLMN and are on the keep site map. Almost all of them have 12/31/2023 expiration dates with a few having expiration dates in early 2024. Sad to see them go but they probably couldn't get favorable lease rates. Hopefully T-Mobile is considering putting sites on nearby buildings to fill in coverage in some of these areas. 231 Norman Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222 185 Marcy Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211 418 Madison St, Brooklyn, NY 11221 961 Eastern Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11213 88 Wyckoff St, Brooklyn, NY 11201 7119 Shore Rd, Brooklyn, NY 11209 223 78th St, Brooklyn, NY 11209 2427 E 29th St, Brooklyn, NY 11235 1123 Avenue K, Brooklyn, NY 11230 4701 Snyder Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11203 140 Delancey St, New York, NY 10002 1900 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10035 — — — — — Found two more conversion permits for sites on the map: 59 Lorimer St, Brooklyn, NY 11206 (Permit expires 04/23/2024) This site is in southern Williamsburg. 360 Furman St, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (Permit expires 02/09/2024) This is the stealth site that is just off of the BQE that should fill in a lot of coverage along Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Promenade, and the southwestern section Brooklyn Heights. — — — — — I'm in midtown a lot lately and it's super annoying that there still isn't a way to break up 5G gNBs to notate small cells vs macros. It's frustrating that there are so many red dots on the map in that area because there are a dozen or so small cells that I can't pin.
  25. Paynefanbro
    Converted Sites: Sprint eNB 6888 -> T-Mobile gNB 1344050 Location: 40.708900517652125, -73.9406671394352 Sprint eNB 6147 -> T-Mobile gNB 1371630 Location: 40.80216075318654, -73.96408008092577 — — — — — New Conversion Permits: Sprint eNB Unknown Located at 40.8523016210477, -73.93748813021824 Sprint eNB 6156 Located at: 40.78975335578959, -73.94790522609013 — — — — — Early Christmas present! North sector points directly across to Long Island City. The site isn't live yet but I'm so glad this finally got converted.
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