Trip

Placebo effect. - Trip

Did some digging for Columbus permits to see if I could help. 3603 Livingston Ave sound right? If so: "DESCRIPTION OF WORK: NEW MONOPOLE CONSTRUCTION FOR CELL SITE OF T-MOBILE." (Emphasis mine.) - Trip

Which note, the one about the microwave? Yeah, that's working in government. - Trip

That's not all; I note some of the newer Shentel coverage--which was found in a previous version of the map--is now missing. Not sure how that happened. There are also individual LTE Plus towers missing in the DC area--some are Clear sites that have been there a very long time. That said, since the last time I looked at coverage in this area, the map has gotten more accurate. It now shows holes that I know exist because I travel through them on a regular basis. - Trip

Our dream house, should it even happen, would be built on a mountain top near Linden. We like Spelunker's in Front Royal, and find Woodstock to be a very nice town. - Trip

Couldn't help myself. Got to work today and went to put my lunch in the fridge. I noticed the microwave, did a double-take, then took this picture: I sent it to my wife with a note, "We must have good reception on the microwave today. 4 bars." I'll show myself out. - Trip

My wife and I like the Shenandoah Valley; I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we find our way out there again. That is, if nobody else gets there first. - Trip

Er, that's not true. It's allocated to the C-band satellite service. The licenses are, as I understand it, nationwide, but vary based on which slot in the sky the satellite is in. So Intelsat has some slots, SES has some, and there are other companies as well that I'm not familiar with. - Trip

My extended family lives in Fair Lawn and I boggle at how spotty the service is there. While the WiFi in the house makes it a bit of a non-issue, I sit on 1X in my grandmother's house, for example. T-Mobile built a flagpole tower down the street and even that doesn't do well for some reason. It's very odd. Only Verizon is decent, and that's only because they appear have a small cell around there that I can't find. Good news, of course, is that it's an Altice area, so I assume we'll see strand-mount equipment pop up at some point. That should help greatly. - Trip

On the state-by-state, their one overall win came in... West Virginia, which is dominated by Shentel. Surprise! - Trip

I was also surprised to see Lancaster and Culpeper included, but the rest seems like a good fit. Sprint currently has a network in those areas that is either entirely non-existent (see Charlotte, Lunenburg Counties), or is the bare minimum to be able to say there's service in the area. Take Farmville as an example; two cell sites to cover Farmville, and neither is particularly well-suited to cover Longwood University, leaving plenty of holes where the students are. Sprint is the only carrier not on the site near the high school, so while B26 connects outside the Wal-Mart, it's 3G or 1X 800 inside. The LTE is long gone by the time you get the Hampden-Sydney, too, usually 1X 800 even outdoors. I will be surprised if Shentel builds fewer than three new sites in Farmville proper; Shentel Cable actually owns one of the towers AT&T is on in Farmville, so I would bet we'll see Shentel cell service appear there sooner rather than later. The other two being the tower by the high school and the tower overlooking Longwood. (Hampden-Sydney is not in Farmville, but I expect they'll put one there too.) I also expect to see them beef up the highways around Farmville, as the network is quite sparse there too. I cannot wait to see what gets built. Exciting times await! - Trip

Yes yes yes YES YES!!!! https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/02/05/1332737/0/en/Shentel-Announces-Expansion-of-its-Affiliate-Relationship-with-Sprint.html http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/SHEN/5964881640x0x969980/03FEA5BA-6059-4DD6-BBB3-A6C1E6F02561/Wireless_Network_Expansion_01-30-2018.pdf My year has officially been made. - Trip

That SIM is how I track AT&T in my area. It's worked great, and it's helpful to have the 200MB of data through it now and then. - Trip

That is a fantastic story. Among the many reasons I love Shentel. At some point I'll have to try to make a similar contact. I want to try to get more information on their deployment down near my parents in the former nTelos region. - Trip

Mike, I've been having an issue where sometimes, when connected to Clear B41, I just get "LTE" without the band indicator. I've tried to send diagnostics, but I keep getting the Temporary Redirect message. And the Send Saved Reports button doesn't seem to work at all. Not sure how else to get it to you. - Trip

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/sprint-5G-is-coming-soon/ Anyone else see this? I wouldn't have assumed National Geographic to be a sensible place for wireless advertising, personally. - Trip

Excellent! Cox is the local cable company where I am. I don't actually have Cox service (waaay more expensive than FiOS) but hopefully it means they'll do something locally. - Trip

Much of the new Shentel coverage is shown. - Trip

That is why roaming was invented. Compete where it makes sense, and cooperate where it doesn't. - Trip

I took care of it. - Trip

Any info on which phones are coming that support Band 71? I want to find a low-end one to replace one of my current T-Mobile phones. - Trip

If 700 isn't low-band, then other than 600 (which they also hold), what is? FM? Shortwave? Except for 600, there's nothing lower than 700 even licensed to cell companies. The problem with the E-block isn't that it's not low-band, but that it has no matching uplink spectrum. - Trip

That all sounds like too much work. I'll just order a pizza. - Trip

Ah yes, the "I got mine, screw you" argument. When your house in the country is worth $50,000, how do you afford to move into the city, exactly? And if everyone were to move to the city, the value would plummet to approximately $0. Besides, everyone should move into the cities! Who needs food, lumber, or minerals anyway? - Trip

What? They have every incentive. If they can make video streaming from providers other than themselves so expensive that nobody uses it, that benefits them. Innovation on the Internet threatens their profits. And since in most places, there is no competition in the home Internet access space from anyone except another provider with its own video service (think Verizon FiOS TV versus Comcast), the market won't be able to correct this behavior. Even if you count wireless, AT&T and Verizon now own their own streaming services and would benefit from pushing you to those as well. - Trip (This comment is my own and does not necessarily reflect the view of my employer, the FCC.)