wispiANt

On 10/30/2021 at 3:03 PM, thisischuck01 said:

Would love to see them keep the site at 304 Boerum St, as well, what with the new Netflix studio - I'll have to take a trip over there and check it out.

Both this site and eNB 253874 are now broadcasting the keep PLMN. Was dropped from a strong but very congested n41 signal to Sprint's B41 broadcasting from eNB 253874, which was interesting.

On 11/9/2021 at 5:01 PM, jhman101 said:

Just came across a permit for another rural site that is being converted from Sprint to T-Mobile.  This site covers Interstate 75 and is taking their average tower spacing from 7 miles to just over 3 miles.  This is positive to see the site density that they are keeping with the Sprint sites.

Here are the details on the site https://webportal.columbiacountyfla.com/AlfrescoDownload.aspx?Site=BuildingAndZoning/BuildingPermits&NodeRef=40985554-0c57-478a-b3c7-91bdc66808b4

 

And just for comparison many of Sprint's sites in this area are 10+ miles apart.

Whole bunch of cool stuff going on here! Great find!

• Ericsson deployment in what is traditionally a T-Mobile Nokia market
• Dual-antenna deployment (no AIR32) and new RRUs! The 4460 still isn't that common, even for new deployments, and this is my first time seeing T-Mobile use the 4480 over the older 4449 for B12/B71
• FFVV deployment (better lowband performance compared to the older FFHH)

Sorry in advance for the poor quality pic, took this late last night. eNB 41792 was fully upgraded in the past month or two, which means we're down to two sites left in all of East Williamsburg that haven't been fully upgraded with n41 (one does have n71, though). Mapped on CellMapper.

Also, my nearest VZ site was upgraded with C-Band!

That's what I was thinking, does someone need to tell Neville that upgrading to 10GE equipment and having 10Gb/s provisioned are not the same?

And what a stupid statement, "Folks are worried that they can't get above 600 or 700Mbps on their devices?". You can brag about your spectral advantage all day, Neville, but I think the average customer would prefer 1Gb/s+ with "only" 60MHz of midband over 600-700Mb/s with 100+ MHz of midband.

Quote

Here in New York, there's been some criticism among network-watching types that T-Mobile's 80MHz of 5G isn't living up to expectations. I've gotten speeds up to around 600Mbps here in Queens, which falls short of what 80MHz could provide. According to Ookla Speedtest Intelligence, T-Mobile is delivering its fastest speeds around here, mostly in Midtown and downtown Manhattan. Is the problem backhaul?

"Folks are worried that they can't get above 600 or 700Mbps on their devices?" Ray laughs. T-Mobile has already upgraded most major-metro backhaul to 10 gigs per site and it's now working on making deals in suburban and rural areas, he says.

Source. So where are those >1Gb/s speeds, Neville?

On 10/28/2021 at 11:10 PM, Paynefanbro said:

I don't think Verizon is deploying those smaller CBRS/LAA antennas anymore. They look like some of the newer outdoor WiFi APs. Given the direction it's facing and the area it's in I wouldn't be surprised if it belongs to Spectrum.

Those antenna are actually pretty old - they were installed between Dec 2017 and Jul 2019 (according to Streetview). An antenna shroud was installed on another sector facing exactly the opposite direction at around the same time, so I'm more inclined to believe they are VZ gear. Not really sure why one sector would have the antennas shrouded and the other wouldn't, though...

I was thinking they were Nokia mRRHs, as seen here. But the pic is too low-res and I can't find a good Streetview pic. So who knows. 

On 10/28/2021 at 11:10 PM, Paynefanbro said:

Sadly unless T-Mobile decides to keep and convert these sites, next year all of these areas may become a dead zones again.

I'm starting to see more sites broadcasting the keep PLMN! One of 'em is the Sprint site at 206 Scholes St in East Williamsburg, which is an area that T-Mobile is currently covering with two oDAS nodes. I wonder if they're going to turn those down once they convert the site.

Would love to see them keep the site at 304 Boerum St, as well, what with the new Netflix studio - I'll have to take a trip over there and check it out.

"The City is proposing a design to expand 5G through the city's existing LinkNYC franchise: Link5G."

Source.

Looks like T-Mobile is planning to deploy on a few sites along OR-126. 

https://maprad.io/us/search/licence/WROE619?source=US

1 hour ago, Trip said:

I've been looking for permits for Dish and have found there seem to be more of them in outlying areas than I can find in areas around major cities.  For example, I've found none in Fairfax County VA, and fewer than a dozen in Montgomery County MD, but more than a dozen in Washington County MD (near Hagerstown) and others in places like Chesterfield County VA (near Richmond) but not in Hagerstown or Richmond.

- Trip

"[Dave Mayo] said work in coastal cities like New York and Los Angeles will start later because the company plans to use rooftop sites, due to local regulations, that may require different equipment configurations."

Source.

1 hour ago, T-MoblieUser207 said:

Was able to pass by this tower again, and it seems like only B66 is split, not B2. I wasn't able to do the 360 spin I did for B12/41/71, but 2 of the sectors are split, would assume the third is too. Still confused how the antenna layout leads to B66 being split, as its not something I recognize.

B66 is split via the AIR3246 (the antenna to the right of the AIR6449). It's a 32x32 mMIMO antenna that they run in split-sector mode. Unlike the 2HH-38A-R4-V2, which can support both a B66 and a B2/B25 split with a single antenna, the AIR3246 is a single-band antenna. Ericsson has two variants - one that supports B2/B25, and another that supports B66. I haven't seen them deploy the B2/B25 variant. The B66 variant seems to be the replacement for the 2HH-38A-R4-V2 (I haven't seen them deploy that antenna in a little while).
 

On 10/8/2021 at 6:09 PM, Paynefanbro said:

The only reason T-Mobile doesn't have high capacity antennas on this site is because they have another stealth site nearby that neither AT&T nor Verizon are on which also has all of their spectrum deployed on it inside this red building

Huh! Nice find! I've often wondered what exactly is going on there, CellMapper is a total mess haha. Any guesses as to what the deal is with 58611/131684/47695?

On 10/7/2021 at 5:13 PM, T-MoblieUser207 said:

T-Mobile 2xB41 seems to be expanding across Brooklyn, but it also seems targeted, as in for areas where they need/want the extra LTE capacity. Along Eastern Pkwy, most of the towers from Franklin Avenue (eNB 142953) to Rochester Avenue (eNB 475428) seem to have 2xB41 live. A trip along Fort Hamilton Pkwy only produced one tower with 2xB41, eNB 131646. I ran a test on 131646, and I think 2xCA uploads are active on the sites that have 2xB41, but that was the only site I ran the test on so I'm not 100% sure. Sprint definitely had it active when I tested eNB 7263, when 2660 MHz on Sprint was still around.

Nice find!! Seeing a secondary B41 carrier on at least a few sites in Williamsburg, I'll see if I can't map it. 

Dropped down to LTE to do some testing, and it is still SLOW. Very glad I upgraded to a 5G phone. At 5:30PM on a Friday:

2x B41: 29.7/1.70

B2/B66/B12: 11.2/0.95

n41/B2/.B66: 149/8 (I can generally pull upwards of 300/40 on off hours)

This is on a site with an AIR3246 per sector.

10 hours ago, T-MoblieUser207 said:

I'm leaning towards the idea of changes in the sector azimuth and didn't take down the old sector. I don't know of any 4-sector sites within NYC, but I have realized sites with 2/12/66 setup that get upgraded to all bands may get one or 2 sectors split after the upgrade. I think T-Mobile knew some of these sites had capacity issues, and are now doing something about it when they do their 5G upgrades. Another example of this is eNB 40988, a former 2/12/66 tower with no splits, and now it has all licensed bands, and B66 is now split on it. I would assume B2 is also, but I didn't check when I passed by.

Former view of the site, compared to the current view below:

At least in the case of 58152, it seems as though they had only three sectors in late 2017 and then built a fourth in early 2018. The fourth sector was never upgraded from three APX16 antenas, though, so it's a bit hard to tell what exactly they were doing. I generally agree, though, I haven't noticed any active four-sector sites in NYC.

Also, AFAIK the AIR 3246 is a single band antenna - Ericsson has a B66 variant and a B25 variant (though T-Mobile seems to only deploy the B66 variant). SOP for B2/B66 split sector sites typically seems to involve the deployment of two split sectors antennas, though I've seen them do it with a single 2HH-38A-R4-V2 (ie. eNB 43381).

Very glad to see more split sector sites, but still waiting for more LAA/CBRS and mmWave deployment... 😭

On 9/27/2021 at 2:21 PM, T-MoblieUser207 said:

I found this tower interesting too, but I think its an RFS panel next to that 6449. It's usually RFS+6488/6449 for Ericsson markets, Commscope+AAHF/AEHC for Nokia markets. Here is a similar setup, this time in Manhattan, eNB 45627. Looks like the same panel to me.

Agreed! Looks like it could be an APXVAALL15_43-U-NA20.

On 9/27/2021 at 2:21 PM, T-MoblieUser207 said:

I could be wrong, but I don't think those antennas are still active. From the May 2021 view of Google Maps, all the new panels for that sector are at the edge of the building, with the other 2 sectors also getting updated, but they haven't changed positions. Wouldn't make sense to keep the old panels though, as they no longer have a purpose.

Once again, agreed! Here's a similar setup in Williamsburg (eNB 58152). Kinda hard to tell what's going on - maybe these were four-sector sites that were downgraded to three-sector sites once they were upgraded with split-sector antennas? Or perhaps they changed sector azimuth at some point and were too lazy to take down the old sector?

2 hours ago, Rickie546 said:

was n260 but that's mmwave just 39 ghz vs 26 ghz

Yep! But that mmWave spectrum has been deployable for quite a while now - last years iPhone supported n260/n261, and so did the Galaxy series as far back as the S10. The only phone that T-Mobile currently sells that supports n258 is the OnePlus 9 Pro 5G.

Having a mainstream device such as the iPhone supporting n258 will greatly increase T-Mobile's amount of deployable mmWave. Tampa, for example, would go from 600MHz of deployable spectrum to 1000MHz (400MHz n260 + 200MHz n261 + 400 n258). NYC, which is currently only operating with 100MHz of n261, will go from 500MHz of deployable spectrum to 900MHz (400MHz n260 + 100MHz n261 + 400MHz n258). Hopefully, having more deployable spectrum will push them to expand deployment.

18 hours ago, Rickie546 said:

But yet my S21 has had it for awhile and used it in Tampa Airport this spring. Now on Apple maybe they will use it more. 

You sure it was n258, not n260? AFAIK the S21 series doesn't support n258.

Last night at Evil Twin Brewing (near the Halsey St L stop). Eek.

More Verizon content (sorry). BTS upgrade across from the Brooklyn Museum, eNB 84059.

2 hours ago, T-MoblieUser207 said:

I thought most oDAS's anchored NR by now, didn't know it was still a site by site basis. I found one anchoring NR since Dec 2020:

Oh, interesting! I haven't had much luck with 'em. eNB 137445 (literally one higher digit higher than the one in my post, and right around the corner) is dirt slow and I'm always dropped to LTE-only when I'm connected to those nodes. And no dice with the ones on my commute (eNB 59923 and 59919). 

Though I did catch them doing some work on the node tonight, so hopefully things will improve:

17 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

Your third photo isn't appearing on my end but are you referring to how the shroud on that site is vented? Separately what is the new antenna that they put there? It looks like it has a lot more ports than the previous two antennas. Are they running Band 2/5/13/66 off of a single antenna?

Updated the third image! Yes, it looks like they've switched from two 8-port antennas to a single 16-port antenna for 2/5/13/66 (eNB 84767 on CellMapper). And yes, new shroud design! The new shroud is vented and significantly thicker (maybe 1.5x as thick?) than the older design.

I figure I might as well post this here as it is NYC-specific and the Verizon thread is a bit dead. Haven't yet spotted any Verizon C-Band upgrades in the Williamsburg area (even on their FDC), but I did spot this site upgrade today:

Before:

After:

Compared to their typical mmWave antenna shrouds:

Have started to see some oDAS nodes (equipped with B2/B66/B46) act as anchor eNBs.

Speeds were in the 300Mb/s range, ping typical for n41 NSA.

https://tmo.report/2021/08/t-mobile-is-launching-fiber-optic-home-internet-starting-in-nyc/

Not available at my current or past addresses, but I'm interested.

7 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

I just saw that post and was about to post here.

If this means that T-Mobile is modernizing their mmWave sites in the city then this could be huge. That's another 400MHz of spectrum online. Maybe they finally heard our complaints about mmWave being worse than n41 through the city lol.

A side effect of the mmWave deployment is that T-Mobile will be further incentivized to increase backhaul significantly so that they can take advantage of all of that spectrum. That means that n41, n71, and LTE will all perform extremely well on these sites. We're finally gonna have the actual layer cake that T-Mobile parroted to the FCC for so long.

Edit: Mods removed the post since it's a speed test.

Messaged the OP, apparently it's a macro site right outside the flagship T-Mobile store in Times Square (46th St & 7th Ave). There's a couple macro sites around there so I'm not quite sure which one. Maybe the site at 1560 Broadway (40.75868, -73.98462)?

Possible n260 deployment? Link.

On 8/3/2021 at 6:14 PM, mirskyc said:

A while back this T-Mobile site got the full upgrade. It the site covering the NYC T-Mobile Corporate office so it's always getting upgraded. It has LAA and got N260 when T-Mobile originally launched 5G. Later on they added N71.  It also received N41 pretty fast once the merger was official. The first picture is once it received N41 and I think it received new antennas for the other bands at the same time. 

The 2nd and 3rd picture are from today and I noticed the additional antenna above the N41 antennas and I've never seen this setup before. Was hoping someone could explain what they are for. 

Nice spot! Definitely looks like the Ericsson 6488 (B48), as others have said. As far as I can tell, the unit is capable of 3x20MHz B48 LTE carriers at 64x64 mMIMO, but isn't yet certified for n48. If they're replicating what they're doing up in the Bronx, those carriers are likely sectors 81-83, 91-93, and 181-183.

Great to see them going with a high end antenna, I was expecting something more along the lines of the Micro Radio 4408 (similar to their LAA deployments).