Trip

I can now see the pics in the first post, but not the second one. Very interesting thus far. - Trip

I found this article to be fascinating. https://wirelessestimator.com/articles/2021/rf-signage-placement-row-heads-to-nj-court-after-landlord-refuses-t-mobile-site-access/ Building on which T-Mobile is located refusing to allow T-Mobile to upgrade its equipment unless both violates FCC rules and removes required signs, and otherwise does things not required in the lease. - Trip

Yep, got signal strength, but nothing useful to ID the cell. - Trip

Mike, I sent you diagnostics today from my Moto One 5G Ace, which is on Tello service so I could do 5G-NR with it. It suddenly started picking up 5G stand-alone, but it appears the API is not providing any detailed information. Since sending it this morning, I've concluded the problem is likely that this device is still stuck on Android 10, and that Android 11 is needed for full information. If so, I'm at Motorola's mercy, waiting for them to release an update. Does that sound right to you? - Trip

So far as I know, all three carriers are co-located on all the sites all around there, except T-Mobile has an extra site at the church at 6817 Dean Dr. Sounds like a new tower is needed. - Trip

Yes, they're broadcasting 312250. What I'm saying is that they've not done anything more than that--in other areas, we've seen keep sites being converted to T-Mobile equipment. That hasn't begun in the Shentel region. And on my phone, at least, it seems to prefer the T-Mobile native over 312250, sometimes connecting to 5x5 T-Mobile 700 when 10x10 Shentel PCS should be available, for example. - Trip

I've seen a handful those as well, but only in Sprint territory, not yet in Shentel territory. (And they're B25/41 only, no 26.) I'll be passing one of them this coming weekend and was told it was supposed to be shifted to T-Mobile in early November, so we'll see. - Trip

T-Mobile's non-Shentel coverage is so sparse that there are large dead zones between sites in some areas. In many places, most or all T-Mobile sites that aren't on power lines now have 600 on them. But they've not started touching Shentel sites as far as I know. Just T-Mobile's own sites in Shentel territory, which won't be enough. - Trip

Using the Hagerstown-Chambersburg area as a proxy, they've done a handful of upgrades to pre-existing T-Mobile sites, not including the Chambersburg smokestack itself, but haven't touched Shentel sites at all. They've flagged almost every non-co-located Shentel site with 312250 though, so they should theoretically be available to T-Mobile customers, but YMMV. I'm going to stick with the Sprint SIM as long as I can, and then make a decision between staying with T-Mobile or joining Verizon. - Trip

They still aren't running any towers of their own with customers on them, so far as I'm aware. They've got a lot of gear popping up though, so construction does appear to be in progress, and I've seen permits in several areas. - Trip

Got what I hope is a minor issue. I will note I am on the previous beta, not the current one, but your description above didn't make it sound like this had been addressed, so... https://imgur.com/a/kFsHZdI Two of my phones ended up like the above after uploading data. With the Close button cut off, I was unable to dismiss the dialog except by killing SCP and restarting. The back button doesn't close it, and I can't figure out any other way to do it. - Trip

That's a great idea. I hope they're able to stick to it and get some towers built in places where only power line towers exist today. - Trip

Yeah, I saw that. Doesn't really explain why they don't have permits for the poles in Fairfax County, for example. - Trip

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

Mike, a few questions/comments: 1) Is there any way to disable the in-app update prompt? On some of my phones, literally every time I switched away and back to SCP, it popped up to ask. Really irritating since I wanted to do it on wifi. 2) PLMN 313690 popped up as T-Mobile when it appeared in my log, but it should probably be listed as either "Shentel" or "Beam", the latter being the brand name for the former's fixed LTE service. I had a single-hit log of one of their sites and it shows as "T-Mobile B41" when it has nothing to do with T-Mobile. 3) Any idea yet when a new public release might go out so that the database formats line up again? 4) A friendly reminder that I'd love to have the ability to append to the names of the output files so I don't have to rename each one as I copy it to my computer. Thanks again for all you do! - Trip

I've been seeing T-Mobile Band 2 connecting when Band 25 is selected for literally years at this point. If I lock one of my T-Mobile phones to Band 25, it will connect just fine, though it prefers Band 2 if I don't lock it. Can't speak to CA, though. - Trip

Over the weekend, I drove a route through Albemarle/Nelson Counties and Charlottesville that took me past every site I had yet to see. Essentially all that are not colocated are running 312250 at this time. One puzzler though; a native T-Mobile site with GCI 074AFF (for B12/71; no other bands were observed), appears to be very new and somewhere near the tower near the Amtrak station. Is it on that tower, or is it on one of the buildings across the street to the west? My observations suggest the latter, especially since 312250 is running on the Amtrak tower, but I can't find any permits to back it up either way. - Trip

Updates on MULTOCN. Went to Rennfest this weekend, and can report on it a bit. Contrary to what I had read, it prefers T-Mobile a lot rather than evenly splitting T-Mobile and Sprint, though 312250 sites appear as frequently (when available) as T-Mobile sites. However, when I was actually at Rennfest, where the service was bogged down, it did try to load balance over to Sprint sites. Neither T-Mobile nor Sprint was functioning with more than a trickle of data, so it bounced back and forth draining the battery without much to show for it. On Saturday I'll be in Shentel land again, and we'll see how it does there. - Trip

Haven't gone anywhere yet, so I can't speak to benefits. My issue was that I was out on Monday morning and it appears that T-Mobile has turned off several Sprint towers near me. I was sitting in a parking lot near Landmark Mall on -118 dBm Band 25 because two of the sites I used to connect to there were apparently not running, so data would barely move. This is in addition to my home site which has been off for several weeks, but that wasn't an issue because I don't use wireless data at home. But if they're starting to turn off Sprint sites and leave holes, then there's really no alternative. So far, I've only seen T-Mobile, but that makes sense since I've only been home and my home site is gone on Sprint, so the site I had been connecting to was a lot weaker. I'll have to see when I'm out and about, possibly this weekend. When ROAMAHOME came out, I had that removed and blocked from my account since T-Mobile's network is so lousy, so my lines were not automatically pushed to MULTOCN. I had to have the block removed and then MULTOCN manually added. That's probably not typical. - Trip

Another hour chat this evening but my lines are finally on MULTOCN. I actually had to argue with the person on the chat who didn't seem to know what it did and thought it would have no benefit for me. That was after she suggested it required a T-Mobile SIM and I had to show her that one of my lines already had it with a Sprint SIM... - Trip

T-Mobile? Being terrible? Never! I had ROAMAHOME blocked on my devices because the T-Mobile network was (and still is) so crummy in places I go. I'm now trying to have MULTOCN put on them since they've started turning off Sprint towers leaving gaps in the coverage. After nearly an hour, I finally got an answer trying to upsell me to new phones, then after another half hour I was told the G7 and G8X are somehow not compatible with MULTOCN even though the G8 is. Then I was called and put on hold to talk to "advanced support." After 25 minutes on hold waiting, they told me, oops! I am talking to T-Mobile support, not Sprint support, and they have to transfer me to Sprint support. I was dumped onto the main Sprint phone tree. At that point, I gave up. I'll try again later. That's 2 hours and 15 minutes of my life I won't get back. These people are so incompetent it's not even funny. I really want Sprint back. - Trip

What they had reported previously was that EV-DO would go away 1/1/2022, but 1X (presumably 1X 800) would last until 6/30/2022. - Trip

I spoke with T-Mobile on Twitter this morning and got yet another answer. Their answer was that my wife's line is eligible for upgrade today, but that my other phones will all need to be replaced, but will become eligible at a later date as they're not replacing equipment that still has payments due at this time. This, of course, is not what I've seen mentioned in other places, or in the e-mails I've gotten. So, go figure. - Trip

Both G8X phones were purchased from Sprint at the same time and have the same number of remaining installment payments. - Trip

I now have a fourth permutation! I've got an e-mail telling me three of my devices need to be replaced ("IMPACTED DEVICES"), but not mentioning the fourth. Somehow, my G8X requires replacement, according to this e-mail, but my sister-in-law's G8X does not. EDIT: Wow. Just found this page: https://www.sprint.com/en/cdma-retirement Which when logged in, tells me that only my wife's phone needs an upgrade, and says the other three phones are "not affected by these network changes". Again, I wish T-Mobile were competent. - Trip