Trip

Today, I'm headed down to the Farmville area, and will be taking a route generally following US-522 to see which sites are 312250 (keep sites). On Friday or Saturday, I'll be headed back up a route generally following US-15, but meandering to try to cover most of the existing Shentel sites along the way. Where in Orange County are you having your issue? I only see 7-Eleven locations in Gordonsville and Orange proper. - Trip

I was under the impression that TNA meant you were on T-Mobile natively, like ROAMAHOME. I had that blocked on three of my lines. More evidence of T-Mobile's complete failure at transitioning in a clear manner is that I literally cannot figure out what their various things actually mean, and every time I think I understand it, it turns out to be wrong. - Trip

My wife's phone shows 312-530 frequently and it's definitely on Sprint. - Trip

Okay, then you are probably still Sprint-native. If you were T-Mobile native, you'd be seeing 311-490 or 312-250. - Trip

Are you generally on T-Mobile? That is, did they put you on ROAMAHOME or similar? - Trip

That's probably your device. I've heard some devices do show 310-120 in SCP instead of 312-250. None of mine do that. Thanks! Great to actually see it. EDIT: Looks like the T-Mobile coverage map shows it too, albeit as roaming. - Trip

You'd have to be on T-Mobile in order to see 312-250. That's the PLMN that T-Mobile is using to make select Sprint sites look like native T-Mobile. - Trip

Just out of curiosity, has anyone else seen any evidence of 312250 or 311490 in Shentel land as of yet? I've heard someone mention that T-Mobile PCIs have started showing up in the neighbor cells suddenly. I have to admit, I'm itching to make my way out there, but I'm at least a week from being there, and possibly closer to three weeks. If someone has a screenshot of SCP showing 312250 on a Shentel GCI, I for one would love to see it. - Trip

I'm not sure, but based on the pictures I found online of the Airspan, I believe so. I have a picture of one somewhere, but it's not handy. I know it's only a single B41 carrier though. Used to be on an EARFCN shared with one of the two values used for small cells here, but is now sitting on one of the macro EARFCNs. Small cells have been shrunk from 2x20 MHz to a single smaller-than-20 MHz carrier. - Trip

I'm reasonably sure I've never seen a T-Mobile small cell outside of Baltimore, where there's a bunch of stuff on poles for all the carriers. (I'm also not counting their Airave-equivalent in-home gear.) Sprint, by contrast, has tons of strand-mount around, which I assume they're counting, along with a handful of small cells. In some places around here, that strand-mount is the only service that either Sprint or T-Mobile has. - Trip

Next time I plan to be in Shentel territory is 6/30. (Possibly 6/19, but more likely 6/30.) I'll have to look. Exciting! - Trip

Here's the formal SEC filing press release for Shentel. https://www.shentel.com/news/2021/june/shentel and t-mobile enter into an asset purchase agreement - Trip

Mike, I have a feature request. With as many phones as I have, I'd very much like an option to stick a suffix on the name of any files exported from SCP, including database backups. I may have mentioned this one before, but it's been bugging me more lately. So imagine going into the Preferences and being able to set an option called something like "export name suffix." I could stick "tmo" in that option, and then when I back up the database, instead of just getting out a file named: 20210528-182723_signalcheck_log.db I would get out a file named: 20210528-182723_signalcheck_log_tmo.db This would make keeping track of the multiple files as I work on merging them together a whole lot easier, as I wouldn't have to copy one at a time and rename each one in sequence. And I would hope it's something pretty straight-forward to do. Any chance you can help me out on this? - Trip

My impression has been that Sprint has been moving Shentel customers over all the same, regardless of how awful the T-Mobile experience is. - Trip

Ah ha! I've been puzzled about why T-Mobile would be rushing to shut off CDMA when 1X 800 uses spectrum that T-Mobile literally will not be using otherwise, and the answer is, apparently, that it isn't: https://insidetowers.com/cell-tower-news-dish-concerns-over-t-mobile-cdma-sunsets-get-lawmakers-attention/ "The carrier assured Schatz and 12 other senators it plans to shutter its 3G CDMA network by January 1, 2021, but has no date certain for its 2G CDMA shutoff." (Emphasis mine.) That makes much more sense, and would be consistent with turning of EV-DO in PCS and possibly also CDMA in PCS, while leaving 1X 800 in place. - Trip

The new system is awful, IMO. Not that the old one was fantastic either. https://scout.dcra.dc.gov/login I've not been watching DC for permits, so I can't really say what might be going on there. In Fairfax County, they're filed as "T-Mobile" but I've also been searching by address just in case. I was told by someone in the permitting office that apparently antenna towers do not require antenna permits, but building-mounted antennas do. Of course, if they're doing massive electrical work like running new circuits, that may require a permit from the electrical side of things, but then that's not an antenna permit. I've also been searching by address in Alexandria and Arlington for 312250 (or suspected 312250) sites, without success. - Trip

I still have yet to see any Sprint sites converted to T-Mobile around here, or even permits for any. - Trip

I also have not gone very far. - Trip

I've had to toggle Location Service off and on with my G8X in some cases to get it to update. I always check my coordinates to make sure they're updating as I've historically had GPS problems with some of my phones. - Trip

I was going by what I saw on the website when I went earlier today. I assume the final bill will come to my e-mail tomorrow. - Trip

Mine jumped by $5/line, but considering the eliminated taxes and fees, my bill only went up 15 cents overall. Considering I've seen those taxes and fees jump around month to month, I'm going to call the consistency this should bring to my bill a net win. - Trip

I'm very happy with mine. If you can get a good price on it, I don't see why not. - Trip

I note they now do not expect the sale to close until the third quarter. I wish they would at least start running 312250 on the Shentel sites... - Trip

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/04/after-a-decade-of-failure-lg-officially-quits-the-smartphone-market/ Sigh. - Trip

I have seen it randomly kick me over to T-Mobile roaming, but service still works when it does that. I don't do texting and only do calling very infrequently, so I can't tell you whether or not those things work, though I think mine does 1X with T-Mobile LTE, as it typically would with roaming. Is 1X enabled on your device? I am sometimes able to get it to go back to Sprint with Airplane Mode, but it usually moves back on its own if I let it sit. I think I've had to reboot it a few times, but not often. - Trip