RedSpark

Good news!

Since I switched to TNX and started using the ScamShield App, the number of Spam/Scam calls I've gotten has dropped to almost zero. Totally worth doing.

Now this is pretty cool:

More info: https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/test-drive-eSIM-app

• Current T-Mobile, Sprint, and Metro by T-Mobile customers or customers of T-Mobile partners using the T-Mobile network are not eligible (former Test Drive customers must wait six (6) months for eligible to try another test drive).

Some more background: https://www.lightreading.com/ossbsscx/t-mobile-taps-esim-tech-for-free-network-test-drive/d/d-id/770535?

I switched our iPhone 12 Pros, a Galaxy S20+, and a Galaxy S21 over to TNX, and our voice/data performance is substantially better, so I'm glad we made the SIM Swap. Calls sound more clear and voice is more reliable when calling/receiving. We have a Pixel 5 on our account that isn't eligible for TNX yet, but apparently that may change in the future based on a recent (and helpful) reply comment here.

Some interesting info. Main takeaways:

• "The expectation is to have about 60% of the Sprint customer traffic migrated onto the T-Mobile network by the end of this year and 100% migrated by mid-2022."
• "Some 8,000 cell sites slated for decommissioning for the latter half of this year are already starting the process – well on the way to a full 35,000, he said. T-Mobile plans to decommission 35,000 macro sites by the end of 2022 and about 7,000 to 8,000 by the end of this year. All of the synergies will be achieved by 2024, leaving it with 80,000 to 85,000 macro sites and about 50,000 small cells."

Pretty amazing how well this is going. It's going to be a monster of a network when they're done. They've been making a big push for swapping to T-Mobile SIMs on the Sprint Website and in the My Sprint App, which has probably helped in moving this along.

16 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

Sprint also at least in my area never had sufficient backhaul, so even with decent spectrum it was never crazy fast.

That's a good point. Everything costs money and Sprint just didn't have enough to spend on its network to be truly competitive vs the other carriers.

Sprint's heavy debt load and the insufficient support it received from SoftBank really prevented Sprint from getting ahead of the curve enough to get breathing room.... and for these improvements to be substantial enough, consistent enough and timely enough across its network to have a meaningful impact on customer gains or retention, which is ultimately the measure of market competitiveness.

Just to add an additional thought.... There's nothing wrong with spending money if you're making money. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile all had comparatively healthy balance sheets vs Sprint and they could afford to spend big on spectrum and network capex and make the money back. Sprint couldn't, and we know the truth now after being told different narratives over the years. For Sprint, the oil was running out of the engine as fast as it was being poured in. The engine was on the verge of seizing up and they couldn't afford to get a drain plug to stop it.

6 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

How so? There’s room to criticize Sprint’s past actions but one place where they were always ahead of everyone else was in 5G. Sprint’s 5G network received universal praise and was already the best 5G network in the U.S. before it was shut down by T-Mobile per pretty much every third party testing service.

If the criticism is coverage area, that was never going to change. Sprint had no path to being a carrier that covers an area as large as Verizon but they could focus on being the best carrier in the areas that they do cover which they were well on their way to being in many markets, especially with their late push to put Band 41/n41 on every tower in their footprint.

The only reason Verizon stands a fighting chance against T-Mobile today is because T-Mobile barely participated in the C-band auction. And the only reason T-Mobile is able to claim all of these speed accolades is because of Sprint. If T-Mobile never merged with Sprint and was forced to participate in the C-band auction, all carriers would be spending tens of billions to get a piece of the pie and both AT&T and Verizon would be walking away with less spectrum than they currently have, leaving Sprint with significantly more mid-band spectrum than any other carrier without having to spend a dime.

Sprint's lack of sufficient lowband spectrum prevented it from being nationally competitive even if it put Band 41 on every tower it had. Sprint didn't have enough macro sites, and when you combine that with the lack of sufficient lowband spectrum, it resulted in the overall inconsistent experience that users experienced at the fringe of Band 41 coverage. The only way the Sprint network was going to improve beyond putting Band 41 on every site was to have T-Mobile's larger capex spend actually leverage Band 41 on more macro sites (or build more sites) and combine it with its 600 MHz holdings.... or have SoftBank dump a bunch of capital into the network if the merger didn't happen and build more macro sites to make up for the lack of lowband spectrum....

As to your point about C-Band. Assuming the merger didn't happen, SoftBank would have had to pitch in capital for Sprint to get some.... or Sprint would have sat it out and justified doing so, just like it did for the 600 MHz auction. In the absence of the Merger and in the absence of capital, Sprint would be even further behind than it was before the Merger. The other carriers haven't stayed still, but Sprint didn't have headroom to improve.

RootMetrics just came out with their June US 5G Scorecard: https://rootmetrics.com/en-US/content/rootmetrics-june-us-5g-scorecard

Good stuff from T-Mobile post-merger: 

Some good analysis: https://www.androidcentral.com/att-has-best-5g-speeds-rootmetrics-june-5g-scorecard?

Looking at that chart/analysis, it’s abundantly clear that Sprint would have never stood a competitive chance against the other carriers without the merger or a huge capital investment by SoftBank.

1 hour ago, dewbertdc said:

Sure, but it didn't matter how Sprint's 800 MHz was down there, since we have 1900 MHz LTE on the DAS.  I'd rather my T-Mobile iPhone used the Sprint Legacy 1900 MHz LTE signal that's available down there than the 600 MHz 5G/LTE macro network, which is congested as we share it with a major transit hub in the area.  My phone will hop over to the Sprint signal when it loses the T-Mobile signal entirely, but it's a hard transition to "Roaming," not seamless like the Sprint "keep" sites are around here.

Good point. You could try submitting a report to @NevilleRay or @TMobileHelp about the congestion on the nearby macro sites?

18 hours ago, dewbertdc said:

Yeah, we're definitely getting LTE and 5G on 600MHz down in the depths of the building now, but it's slow and congested.  I'd much rather have LTE on PCS, even if there's no 5G on the DAS!

It's still got to be better than Sprint's 800 MHz was, right? 🙂

At some point that DAS will have to be accounted for by the T-Mobile Network Folks. It's probably on some list somewhere with a plan to either upgrade it or shut it down.

This is something I've definitely noticed since the merger and switching to TNX on our devices. T-Mobile's 600 MHz is great for this.

On 6/12/2021 at 9:28 AM, dewbertdc said:

Thanks, I might do that.  I want to talk to the folks who run the DAS before I engage an external vendor - they're my colleagues and I don't want to step on their toes!  As far as I know, they haven't had any communications from T-Mobile on changes.

You're welcome! Curious what you hear back from the DAS people or T-Mobile about this. T-Mobile's 600 MHz via TNX has really improved my indoor coverage/speeds vs. Sprint's 800 MHz coverage.

1 hour ago, dewbertdc said:

Has anyone heard word of how T-Mobile is approaching Sprint's in-building DAS systems?  We've got an older system at work that has the "big three" carriers from the early-2010s on it... so AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.  😜

I've been back to the office a couple of times and I eventually roam onto it when I'm in the bowels of the building, but my T-Mobile iPhone 12 Pro prefers the outdoor macro network, so I assume that they haven't added 312-250 yet.  It's PCS-only for Sprint as far as I can tell.

You could try emailing Mike Sievert and asking about that DAS and if they have any plans for it or other legacy Sprint DAS builds. He's shared his email publicly on Twitter:

DerekKY1980 heard back on his email to Sievert about network upgrades pretty quickly. Curious what you hear back on it. Please share if you do!

18 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

I can kinda see where he's coming from but I also think he's trying to downplay the significance of mmWave once again. I can only speak for NYC but T-Mobile has now merged with two companies who had massive small cell networks here. MetroPCS at the time of its merger had the largest small cell network in the city to supplement their weak macro coverage and Sprint had over 1,600 small cells in NYC by January 2019 with Sprint rapidly adding more up until the point of their merger with T-Mobile. As a result T-Mobile has something like 2,000+ small cells and 1,000+ macros in this city alone.

In my opinion, they should keep those small cells for mmWave but because there is no band plan yet for 47GHz and there are no phones with n258 in the U.S. right now, they can't really deploy their mmWave holdings to their full potential. Once they can get a band plan and equipment for all of their spectrum, they're going to wish they kept all of those small cells because they'd have the resources to build a mmWave network easily rivaling and even potentially surpassing Verizon's.

Edit: I also think it's funny how he's saying this but we're seeing T-Mobile deploy more Band 2/66 small cells and even LAA small cells in NYC as recently as this year. Maybe they have a contract to fulfill or maybe they're not being honest about the role of small cells in their network going forward and are trying to lower expectations.

If I recall correctly, those Sprint small cells were limited to 2XCA on Band 41?

What you say makes sense. T-Mobile would be wise to keep those locations for eventual rollout of mmWave.

3 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

I'm not certain. Shortly after the merger I moved my line over to T-Mobile so I don't have access to the MySprint app anymore but I wish that there was a way for me to report that. It would've been super helpful.

It seems there's really no convenient way to report network issues in T-Mobile's App? That's what I liked about the My Sprint App. It was quick and easy to file a network issue report.

Seems like the best options now are to Tweet @NevilleRay or @TMobileHelp about network issues?

Interesting problem.

21 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

Visited Los Angeles this past weekend and T-Mobile's network left a lot to be desired in most of the areas I visited, especially their 5G network. I spent the most time in West Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice, Universal Studios. I visited other places but not long enough to give a good summary of network performance.

1. LAX: According to Cellmapper there are three T-Mobile macro sites that serve the airport specifically. That means that outdoor signal and speeds are great, but inside the terminal both signal strength and speeds dropped off significantly the further away from the site you were. Unfortunately, it looks like there is no T-Mobile DAS in the airport, or at least in Terminal 5 where I was. Luckily the terminal did have one of those Passpoint WiFi networks that your phone connects to automatically so I was still able to use my phone. This is in comparison to JFK which has one macro site that serves the airport but has a separate DAS in each terminal so signal strength and speeds are phenomenal both inside and outside the airport. It was definitely a shock going from 200Mbps indoors on LTE at JFK to barely being able to load directions to my car rental without WIFi at LAX.
    
2. West Hollywood/Hollywood: It appears that T-Mobile has done the bare minimum in terms of 5G deployment to provide contiguous coverage here. There was virtually no n41 to be found. All 5G was Band 71 and it was so sparsely deployed that the network was very overburdened resulting in poor speeds. Additionally, the low signal strength of the 5G network meant that my phone was constantly switching to standalone mode to attempt to stay connected to 5G at the expense of losing LTE completely. Because it was so overburdened it was worse than NSA 5G or even LTE alone. As a result, I found myself having to put my phone in LTE only mode if I wasn't near a 5G site or if my phone didn't switch over to NSA 5G fast enough.
    
3. Santa Monica: I can't speak for the entire city of Santa Monica, just the waterfront but this was the first place I went where T-Mobile's network performed decently everywhere I went. Speeds were great on 5G thanks to n41 on the site near Santa Monica Pier and they also had a bunch of oDAS sites littered throughout the area. I'd catch my phone dropping down to LTE frequently when I'd get near them but speeds remained high.
    
4. Venice: Great once again. I visited the beach and the canals. This was the first time that I actually spotted the physical n41 antenna. I believe Los Angeles is at 100MHz for n41 but they're limited by the same backhaul restrictions that I've seen in NYC. Near the site I was able to get about 600Mbps down but over 130Mbps up which was super impressive. I also encountered a few oDAS sites out there that would cause my phone to drop 5G in favor of LTE but they all performed well much like in Santa Monica.
    
5. Universal Studios: This area was LTE only because it's fed virtually entirely by a network of small cells littered throughout the entire studio/theme park. Having this dedicated small cell network meant having great speeds inside and out almost everywhere. Speeds of 100-200Mbps were common. Eventually T-Mobile will have to upgrade these to support 5G though.

Great report.

Does network issue reporting in My Sprint still work if you're on TNX or is there another way to report these slow speeds, etc.?

15 hours ago, comintel said:

According to this post from Sprint's very-well-connected revik2, it should be about a month until Pixels 3 and up are supported for TNX.

 

 

Good to know! Thanks. I guess I'll hold onto the T-Mobile SIM card until then.

10 hours ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

T-Mobile appears to be actively migrating Sprint "hold outs" over to the T-Mobile network (via TNA).

My wife has a Pixel 3a that we never bothered to add TNA to since it lacks 5G. Recieved an email stating: "Welcome to our combined bigger, better network...One or more lines on your account have recently joined our combined network and now you can enjoy an enhanced experience." Checked her phone and sure enough she is now on TMobile B2.

For obvious reasons, this is clearly a necessary step to ease the transition to the new network. 

Interesting. We have a Pixel 5 on our account that Sprint told me was eligible for TNX, so they sent us a T-Mobile SIM Card. It's currently on an eSIM. I put in the SIM Card, selected the T-Mobile SIM Card on the device set up screen and tried to activate it. It threw an activation error. When I contacted Sprint again to ask about what happened, I was told that Pixel devices aren't eligible for TNX and that they get TNA. So I removed it and reactivated the eSIM.

I guess that's right? No one has ever confirmed this either way.

4 hours ago, Cardsfan96 said:

Has anyone with one of the iPhone 12 models with tna been experiencing periods frequently where your phone will not connect to 5g? I cannot explain it. Sometimes it happens when I lose service and sometimes just randomly. Sometimes I can force the phone to lose service completely and when it reconnects it finds 5g right away, other times I can’t get it to reconnect that way. I don’t think it’s a device issue hardware wise because all four of our iPhones do it. It doesn’t happen with our one device on TNX. It has to be some kind of software glitch with sim provisioning or something. Anyone else experiencing the same?

What 5G mode do you have your iPhones in?

“5G On” or “5G Auto”?

“Allow More Data on 5G” or “Standard”?

We use “5G Auto” and “Allow More Data on 5G” for our iPhone 12 Pro’s on TNX and none of them have the issue you’re describing.

The materials for DT's Capital Markets Day 2021 are up: https://www.telekom.com/en/investor-relations/publications/capital-markets-days/capital-markets-day-2021

Group Strategy - Tim Höttges, CEO:

https://www.telekom.com/resource/blob/627572/e2db68744b3b0a46462f7d3af7193132/dl-dt-cmd21-1-group-strategy-data.pdf

TMUS - Mike Sievert:

https://www.telekom.com/resource/blob/627584/3c50d3c0620f3bbcf8e8ae1d35712864/dl-dt-cmd21-4-t-mobile-us-data.pdf

Some very interesting content about T-Mobile's post-merger strategy and its future plans in these presentations.

Now this could get interesting:

DT's stake in T-Mobile US: 43%

SoftBank's stake in T-Mobile US: 24%

Public shareholder stake in T-Mobile US: 33%

According to the article, DT has voting control over SoftBank’s shares in T-Mobile US, and this was agreed to as part of the deal for T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint.

Striking an agreement with Masa is the first step in the process apparently.

We could know more at DT's event on Thursday.

49 minutes ago, Cardsfan96 said:

I think they are planning to get all sprint customers to eventually opt into tax included versions of their current plans which will transfer to the T-Mobile system. People on legacy plans like myself on Everything data. I believe they’d like to see us leave or switch plans. Throttling our video on TNX is a terrible move unless they want us gone.

We're on "Unlimited Freedom with Taxes/Fees Included" w/TNX on our lines, and it's actually less than we were paying before, so I don't mind that. What I don't like is the loss of certain on-device functionality that we had with Sprint. 

Switching to TNX meant we couldn't update Wi-Fi Calling Addresses directly on Android handsets (On device address updating was still possible for iPhones) as we could before with Sprint SIM's. We now had to go through the ancient section of the Sprint website to do that (which T-Mobile probably has no intention of updating until they turn it off.) So every time you have to do this, which admittedly isn't often, you have to log on to Sprint's website and do it.

I guess it'll stay the same or get worse until T-Mobile throws the switch on billing migration (which these Tax/Fee included plans make easier for T-Mobile to do as they are in-line with what they currently offer) and Sprint is no longer a supported brand identity.

1 hour ago, Cardsfan96 said:

You should email mike.sievert@t-mobile.com. This get you a response from the executive team. It helped me when no one else could fixing device credits.

At a certain point, the customer service experience on legacy Sprint may drop to the point that customers leave for another carrier.

When T-Mobile says "T-Mobile Network Experience", it can't leave customers with a throwback Sprint customer experience, whether it's customer service that doesn't know how to do things or a website that clearly isn't being updated and in a "just keep the lights on" state for certain account functions, as was my experience.

Frankly, the legacy Sprint customer experience is going to continue to worsen until T-Mobile creates and announces an initiative to move everyone over and sunset the Sprint brand. This will take money. Right now T-Mobile is probably spending the bare minimum to keep the Sprint website afloat until it does that.

Just my thoughts of course.

2 minutes ago, jonathanm1978 said:

I definitely don't want to pay 4 phones (probably $2500+) off just so I can turn around and put those same phones right back on as a Tmobile customer, just to get...what..maybe $20-$30 a month in savings?

I am sure if they wanted to really give a discount, they could.

I agree. I'm sure that T-Mobile will eventually communicate how Sprint customers will eventually be migrated over without having to do that. Ultimately the Sprint brand will be shut down so that will have to happen. This affects millions of customers so they'll need to come up with a simple, inexpensive and non-disruptive solution.

1 hour ago, jonathanm1978 said:

While Tmobile is doing hardly anything near me...I can't say much for AT&T either. 

I have been assigned as the administrator for firstnet for my FD...so I am able to order prod/services for the station and members...and I'm here to tell yall..AT&T isn't doing much better with the B14 rollout.

My station, according to the map that AT&T gives me access to (basically it's a map of all the towers in the USA with a dot on each tower's location), is 3.5 miles from 1 tower to the east, and 5.9 miles from another tower towards the southwest. With towers that close, and the Microtik SXT LTE on the roof of the station...I can barely get a -95 on B14 and B2....

I even changed out the modem in the 'Tik to a Quectel EC25-AF and it still doesn't do much better.

 

And Tmobile advertises discounts for first responders...i found out because I clicked a Facebook ad showing a discount...

They called me and said I needed to verify with paperwork..and to physically take the paperwork to the nearest store -- so I did. I printed out my AL Fire College certification for Firefighter II...

The manager of the store told me that there was nothing he could do because I am still considered a "Sprint" customer, and unless I paid off all my devices and started over, the discount wouldn't apply to me.

WHAT?!?!?

So yeah... not the best thing to hear. 

That's interesting. At some point in the merger process when the the Sprint brand is "no more", they'll have to migrate all the Sprint customers to become T-Mobile customers and account for the current billing status of each account/line so that it's a seamless transition. We switched our lines to TNX, so I guess that's a predicate step for it. Hopefully they can do this while the "plane is in the air" and not require what that manager told you.