Trip

What a nightmare that would be. In multiple ways. Tons of non-public safety operations are in 450-470. Every one of those cheapo walkie-talkies that you see at Wal-Mart is in 450-470, so the spectrum would be swimming in interference from them for years. On top of that, only certain channels from 470-512 aren't used by TV stations in fewer than a dozen markets. And on top of that, in the most congested markets, 700 and 800 are full, if you believe the public safety folks. - Trip

I think it's harder to spot in urban areas. I was looking for it when I was out of town over the weekend and in the rural areas, when I know the cell tower is 10 miles away, the feet number is more obviously incorrect. Here in the city, where it's "close" but exactly how close never really enters my mind, it was easy to ignore. Thanks. Is the link universal? Like, does every GCI automatically jump to the one above? So would a 30001 link to 31451, and then if a 328A1 were to appear, would that also have the same note since 31451 has it? - Trip

Three things: 1) I didn't even realize the TA values were off until I saw it in the change log. I've now turned the setting on for ALL of my devices and the distances now look more reasonable. Why couldn't I tell they were off? Because I have a hard time eyeballing distances like that in feet. Would it be possible to have a switch to convert those distances to miles instead? 2) I've got an interesting new issue. I now regularly see CDMA entries that have BID values of 0, all with garbage data, and my log now has a number of them. I'm not sure what change triggered this, but I don't like it. Much like how empty GCIs shouldn't be logged, can the same option be made for logging CDMA with BID values of 0? (Interesting note, when I observe them on the device that way, I frequently see BSL data indicating it belongs to a particular site, despite the BID value being 0.) 3) Not really a bug, but I connected to Massive MIMO site 031F4C and 031F4E at Wellington yesterday, but rather than needing a note added, those GCIs were identified as being related to the Westlawn site. The reason for this is that 031F4C and 031F4E are off by 0x1450 from two of the the Mini Macros at the Westlawn site (030AFC and 030AFE). As more Massive MIMO sites light up, and a second wave seems to be lighting up right now, I expect to see more of these cases. - Trip

I have ssh access to a server I keep there with remote X tunneling. I got in just fine. It's a WZR-300HP with firmware version: DD-WRT v24SP2-MULTI (07/09/12) std - build 19438 I can see two sequential MAC addresses and IP addresses which I assume are associated with the Airave. But I figure as long as the GPS light is red, that's the main issue right now. I would expect the WAN light to be red if it were having trouble talking back to Sprint. - Trip

I was thinking about this, and the router is a Buffalo router running DD-WRT, as I recall. Is there any way to tell for certain if DD-WRT is the issue, and if it is, any way to change DD-WRT's behavior? - Trip

The LTE light is green, but I don't know if it's actually providing a connection. I've asked her to try replugging the GPS antenna and then do a hard reset. She's going to try tomorrow. We'll see what happens. - Trip

My parents just got an Airave 4 and while I've not been there to tinker with it, my mom informs me that she has green lights except for GPS and CDMA which are red. I had her plug in the separate GPS antenna and place it near the window (and I had her flip it over since I think she had it upside down to start) and then pull the power/plug it back in, but that doesn't seem to have helped. Any ideas for other things she might try? - Trip

In Albemarle County, VA, and Nelson County, VA, many sites, especially along highways, are on wooden poles for both aesthetic reasons (harder to see) and because the terrain is so rough that anything more than that would be a waste of money. But it means that in many areas, the bands in use are limited, including, for Shentel, sites that are Band 25-only, for example. - Trip

Everything I've ever read about Delrahim indicates that he strongly dislikes behavioral remedies such as these. - Trip

Emphasis mine. Cool, so no penalties. Got it. - Trip

So I went to my parents' new house yesterday and they had the Magic Box sitting in the kitchen window. It was working and had excellent reception of B25 from Mont Alto, PA, mostly because their B25 in the house was excellent as well. Their problem was with the sound quality of the voice service, which of course, the Magic Box won't help. Now they have Comcast for a landline phone and Internet, and the Magic Box wasn't going to do anything for them anyway, so I took the Magic Box with me. Part of me is tempted to try it here, but part of me thinks I should just return it. Thoughts? - Trip

Yes. - Trip

No, didn't make it to Tahoe. We had a (very tardy) van take us to Carson City for dinner, and other than that, I spent my entire time in the casino. I don't know what it is about people and barbecue--a lot of people seem to rave about bad barbecue. Maybe it's because I've lived in a part of the country with really good barbecue, but here in DC, a lot of people rave about this BBQ place in DC that, despite being there several times, I can't find anything particularly great about. The person I know best who likes it is from Florida and then went to school in Georgia, too, so he really should know better. I don't really know what to make of it. - Trip

Thanks. I'm home now. Ate in the hotel/casinos on Wednesday evening and Thursday, then breakfast and lunch were provided by the conference on Friday and Saturday, dinner Saturday as well, and Friday we went to Carson City to "Red's Old 395 Grill" which others raved about but I wasn't as keen on. At least I managed to get some TV and cell data! - Trip

T-Mobile and AT&T are in at least Silver Legacy and Eldorado. Just Sprint is isolated to Circus Circus only. - Trip

I just find it strange that the three buildings are connected--without going outside--and yet the Sprint DAS is only in one of them. Meanwhile, Verizon is in all three. I'll follow-up when I know about T-Mobile and AT&T. - Trip

I'm in Reno for a conference at the Silver Legacy Casino, and this is kind of weird. I've not taken my T-Mobile or AT&T phones around yet, but I took my Verizon phone and, of course, my Sprint phone. Verizon has a DAS spread across the three casinos (Eldorado, Silver Legacy, Circus Circus) with a different sector of GCI 009395xx for each casino. Sprint is on the DAS as well, but only in Circus Circus (0AC1C312). In the other two, my phone instead connects to a macro a few blocks away. - Trip

Please demonstrate what consequences AT&T is facing for raising prices twice in the year after their merger, despite representing to regulators that permitting the merger with Time Warner would permit them to lower prices. - Trip

So, my parents are moving from the home I grew up in down in southern Virginia to a home near Pond Bank, PA, which is in the Shentel region. While they were there over the weekend to close on the new house, my mom apparently noted poor cell reception. I told my parents there were solutions which I would work out for them, but that didn't stop my dad from calling Sprint who is now shipping them a Magic Box, which as we know, is not approved for use in the Shentel region. AIRSPAN MAGIC BOX GEN 3 I had been planning to try to get them an Airave. Am I correct that this device will not act as an Airave does, and will need to be returned to Sprint after it arrives? - Trip

Yeah, I noticed it yesterday but was waiting to confirm today before posting that not only is there now service in the tunnel north of Braddock Road and the tunnel south of King Street, as this press release indicates, but I also see service in the yellow tunnel between Pentagon and the bridge. The only part of my commute still missing service is the stretch south of L'enfant Plaza down to the bridge. - Trip

Shentel's on a different tower nearby though, I think. I believe on the tall Exxon sign near I-81 and US-50. I have record of AT&T and T-Mobile on that tower. Am I correct in assuming Verizon is on it as well? (Looks like T-Mobile is the bottom rack and AT&T the middle rack...) - Trip

This is a non-sequitur. My whole point was that they have the service on paper, but not in reality. If they put 5G-NR on 600 MHz on those same towers that currently have 700 MHz, they can fill a map full of rural areas running "5G" with the actual service being as poor as it is today. (And, if 5G-NR is a more fragile airlink than LTE, then it will be poorer.) Spectrum is not the issue, deployment is. Lose how? Once they've merged, what is the remedy if they decide to give the FCC, DOJ, and the American people the middle finger? I remind you to check out all the remedies that have been used on AT&T so far, such as... ... huh, I can't think of any. - Trip

Promise in one hand and do something else in the other... Fact of the matter is that right now, while T-Mobile has made the map look good, the actual service in rural areas is not good--at least in my experience--and that's with LTE. I'm not confident that the merger will improve this. I'm not sure why you expect it to. Are they going to put many billions of dollars into an escrow account that will be used only to fund rural deployment within a certain time frame and be forfeited to the government if not used? If not, then what is their promise other than words that could easily be ignored the moment after the merger is approved? Remember the time AT&T promised they wouldn't increase prices after merging with Time Warner and did so twice within a year? What was their promise worth? What makes T-Mobile's different? - Trip

I got a huge mailer about the G8. Nothing about it made me anxious to buy it. I'm going to keep an eye on out for the V50, but I anticipate it will be too expensive. We'll see what the G8 costs on Black Friday; I may or may not upgrade then. (Is the rear power button gone for good?) - Trip

That would actually explain it pretty well. Thanks. - Trip