wispiANt
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Everything posted by wispiANt
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Some interesting (though kinda dated) info about 6488/6449 allocation that I hadn't seen before.
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Speaking of strange setups, found this out in Bushwick. No idea what that little antenna is.
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Dang, not too shabby! I'm sure this has been said before, but in some ways I kinda feel like T-Mobile has abandoned their mmWave network in NYC. I haven't seen any recent buildout, they're still stuck on 2x 50MHz n261 carriers, and performance (when you can connect) generally isn't much to speak of. On one hand, I don't really blame them when they have so much n41 deployment left to do. But it's also disappointing to hear them preach about the "layer cake" when their mmWave performance (at least in NYC) is a bit underwhelming. Here's hoping they'll get back on it when we start seeing these new 5G oDAS nodes roll out. I wonder what the reason is for the abnormally high pings you're seeing on n261. Didn't even notice that from my last post - it's a bit brutal to see a 77ms ping on n261 NSA and 13ms ping on n41 NSA, from the same site. Is this a recent development? Also, you probably shouldn't be experiencing ~5% packet loss when you're LOS... On another note, that's an interesting setup. Haven't seen one with a single APXVAR18_43-C-NA20, and I don't believe I've seen that 8-port Ericsson (?) midband antenna before.
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https://www.lightreading.com/5g/c-band-auction-maps-and-charts-who-won-what-where-and-how-much/d/d-id/767682?
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I'm more of the opinion that they're going to keep the license and pay off whoever is squatting on BRS/EBS licenses. The license covers far more than NYC - the entirety of Rhode Island, a good portion of New Jersey, all of Long Island and the Hudson Valley, and a sizeable chunk of PA. Unless they plan on partitioning the license, it's probably worth more to keep it. Plus, it lines up well with their holdings in Philly and Boston. Additionally, they've previously demonstrated that they're very willing to shell out for licenses in key markets. Even if it's going for far above market value.
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Did some mapping in the East Village this past weekend. My S21U was really struggling with n261, had to try 4-5 sites before I could actually maintain a connection. n41 was fast and reliable in the majority of places I tested. n41 vs n261 on the same site: Did a bit of mapping in the Greenpoint area, as well. Only two of the five sites between Nassau Ave and Newtown Creek have been upgraded with n41, so still a bit of work that needs to be done. Unfortunately, the Sprint site on Ash Ave doesn't seem to be designated as a keep site.
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Been checking out a few T-Mobile oDAS nodes I know the install date of, and generally the reservation date seems to be 1.5 to 2 years before that. Oof. Just one of the reasons T-Mobile tends to shy away from small cells, I suppose.
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Awesome find! Link if anyone wants to view the map themselves. I actually spotted one of the new RRHs in the East Village about nine months ago! I wonder if they'll (finally) be switching away from omni-directional antennas, didn't see any information (or images) of what's hidden under the shrouds.
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Things speeding along in the Rochester market. Got this pic from my buddy of the site in Hilton, NY being upgraded with n41/n71. Promising to see that T-Mobile is committed to upgrading some relatively rural sites with n41. Site in ER was similarly upgraded a week or two ago.
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The new 47xxxx eNB numbering for B12/B71 seems to be popping up all over NYS, according to CellMapper. Spotted another one in my neighborhood, as well. T-Mobile also seems to be switching up sector numbering on some sites to match their Nokia markets (B12 goes from sectors 4/5/6 to sectors 21/22/23).
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Verizon outage brought down most sites in the Williamsburg area today. Best connection was to a site ~1 mile away. No data for almost two hours. Anyone else experiencing outages? Last I heard, Verizon service was affected in parts of Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Flatbush, Bushwick, and Greenpoint. No official acknowledgment from Verizon.
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Ran a few snowy 1AM speedtests at each sector of my serving site tonight: Backhaul is looking awfully capped at 700Mb/s. Like you said, far from slow - though it'd certainly be refreshing to see T-Mobile sites equipped with multi-gig backhaul like Verizon is doing with their mmWave sites. 2.5+Gb/s speed tests are a dime a dozen in the Verizon subreddit. While Verizon and AT&T certainly have an advantage as last-mile providers (among many other things), I do wonder if/how the acquisition of Sprint's fiber backbone will be able to benefit T-Mobile in this regard.
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My S21U seems to have figured itself out and I'm now connecting to to n41/B2/B66/B12 by default (though I'm occasionally running into issues with connecting to anything but B2/B66/B12, or connecting to n71 NSA instead of n41 NSA). Typical speeds tend to be between 150-200Mb/s, but tonight I managed to max out at almost 500Mb/s by practically sticking my device out the window: Still have to get used to these dialer codes, rather than NSG... my last Samsung phone was a Galaxy S2. Planning to stop by my serving site in the next day or two to see what kinda speeds I can get during off-hours with an RSRP < -90dBM. The capability is certainly there for some >1Gb/s speed tests, though I'm more likely to agree with @Paynefanbro on backhaul being the main limitation at this point.
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Last I heard, T-Mobile plans to boost their number of macro sites from 65K (pre-merger) to 85K over the next five years. Between 10-15K of those sites are Sprint conversions, whereas the rest are greenfield builds.
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Got my new S21 Ultra today. It generally seems to prefer N71 SA in my location, though if I walk around my apartment (or bandlock) I can connect to N41 NSA. When RAT-locking to LTE, B2 still tends to be the default band. That said, the phone is bouncing between bands quite a bit, so it might just need some time to figure itself out. Average speeds: LTE (B2/B66/B12): 15Mb/s N71 SA: 30Mb/s N41 SA: 150+ Mb/s Super happy to see such a big improvement over my OP6T!!
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Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread
wispiANt replied to Nextel49's topic in T-Mobile Merger/5G NR Deployment
Neville also confirmed (on twitter) that they're planning on adding an "Ultra Capacity" layer to their coverage maps in the near future. Very glad to see all this work being done. That said, here's hoping this isn't shaping up to be a finalized look at which sites T-Mobile is planning to keep - just looking at rural NY, the impact on rural coverage is somewhat minimal. At least a few Sprint sites in poor coverage areas (Chazy, Millport, or Mosherville for example) that aren't showing up on the map. -
CellMapper seems to indicate there is an oDAS node near there (eNB ID 127069).
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Honestly, this is just a complaint about poor network optimization than anything else. For comparison: B2: RSRP: -102dBM RSSI: -68dBM Speedtest: 6Mb/s on 15MHz B66: RSRP: -108dBM RSSI: -70dBM Speedtest: 3Mb/s on 20MHz B41: RSRP: -108dBM RSSI: -80dBM Speedtest: 70Mb/s on 20MHz I have two sites nearby: one on the same avenue but 1200ft (4 blocks) away, and the other (my primary serving cell) is less than 500ft (a block as the crow flies, a block and a half if you were to walk) away. The B41 deployment on my primary site delivers great performance, even with a relatively poor RSSI, because it’s uncongested and there’s no interference between these two cell sites. B66/B2 are likely somewhat congested, but interference is definitely affecting performance here - the B66 SINR, in particular, is trash. If I walk around the corner (half a block closer towards my primary serving cell) I can typically pull >100Mb/s on B2/B66 LTE during peak hours. But to answer your questions: Have a Galaxy S21 Ultra on order! Surprisingly, the OP6T hadn’t really been letting me down too much with performance, either network or user experience. Figured if I were to upgrade I should wait for the X60. Here’s hoping dual-SIM/eSIM gets worked out on the S21, I’m a big fan of that on the OP6T. As far as my primary serving cell goes, I have to band-lock (B2 is the default). As far as other sites go, it seems to be about a 50/50 chance. Might have something to do with the OP6T not supporting HPUE.
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Should be fixed now, thanks for the heads up!
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A follow-up on my previous post: Have been doing some more testing on my local site as my speeds are really suffering. B2/B66 CA: This site was previously equipped with B12 and B71, which shared an eNB with the B2 and B66 carriers. However, with the (assumed) B41 upgrade, B12 and B71 were switched to a new eNB. It doesn't appear as though inter-eNB CA has been enabled, which explains why my speeds are now in the single digits. B12/B71: B12 and B71 now have a fun new eNB numbering scheme that doesn't follow anything T-Mobile has previously done in NYC! B41: B41 a cool 1300% increase over B2/B66. Standard 14xxxx eNB numbering here.
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Finally back in NYC and it seems as though my serving site in Williamsburg has been upgraded with B41! Still pulling single digits (or slightly better) on B2/B66/B71 (or B12) CA, but if I lock to B41 I can consistently pull 50+ Mb/s. Interestingly enough, signal actually seems to be a few dBM better than the corresponding B66 signal (even though my OP6T doesn't support HPUE). Unfortunately can't check out the site for another week (due to quarantining), but in the meantime I'm taking a serious look into upgrading to something in the S21 range...
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I realize I'm reviving a dead thread here, but damn is the T-Mobile network hurting in Portland. Stayed in North Portland (Kenton) for the past month and speeds were very lackluster. At multiple points I had to ask my girlfriend (who has an iPhone 8 on Sprint) to hotspot me, even just to make Google Maps functional. Did a speedtest comparison at one of our AirBNBs (near N Winchell and N Peninsular) - 10Mb/s avg on T-Mobile, 120Mb/s avg on Sprint. Speeds tended to follow this trend most other places I tested (N/NW/NE Portland). That said, on the few sites T-Mobile had 20+20MHz of B41 active, speeds tended to be pretty usable - if you were close enough to the site to connect to B41. On the other hand, as we traveled around the more rural areas outside Portland (Silverton, Tillamook, and Sauvie Island come to mind) it was pretty likely my gf would run into coverage issues far more likely than I would. Can't wait for network integration hell to be over with.
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Moved into the Williamsburg area this past week and my speeds have suffered significantly. I'm ~1 block away from my serving cell and experiencing speeds <10Mb/s at most times. Fastest speed I've seen is 30Mb/s at 2AM. This is from a site with B2/B66/B12/B71 deployed, plus AIR 3246s running in split-sector mode on all three sectors. Interestingly enough, it appears as most of the sites here with B71 don't have split eNBs (either the eNB was never split, or they've since been merged). On the bright side, I've spotted n41 antennas on at least 3 sites within walking distance. Time to get mapping...
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Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread
wispiANt replied to Nextel49's topic in T-Mobile Merger/5G NR Deployment
T-Mobile's regional engineering office is in Rochester (Henrietta), but the NOC is in Syracuse. -
Can't recall the model number off the top of my head, but it's a CommScope antenna. B2/B66 sector split. Don't believe they're rolling out this model anymore, the Ericsson 3246 is the new go-to. Edit: Believe it's the CommScope 2HH‐38A‐R4.
