RAvirani

It does support lowband, but it's really not that great. Less than 13 dBi gain on 600 and barely 13 dBi on 700.

Mavenir's OpenRAN has been deployed on very large networks successfully. They have a good track record. And they are very much a forward-thinking company. I think they'll be able to get the job done.

Correct. One site being off can cause all kinds of issues with TDD-LTE.

TDD is a lot more sensitive than FDD when it comes to these things. This is why LTE Airaves are also unavailable in markets without high-low separation.

Not necessarily - if the block of spectrum in which the MB broadcasts is used on the macro network, problems will arise.

Correct, massive MIMO on L1900 and L2100 is part of the plan. In fact, we've already had some of that equipment installed, at least in the Seattle and Louisville markets. L600/L700/L800 will not be getting massive MIMO in the foreseeable future.

The plan is to add a M-MIMO 2500 panel to T-Mobile sites. I think it is unlikely they will add 800 to T-Mobile sites. If they do, it will likely just be a stopgap in areas where they do not own 700 MHz and 600 MHz isn't ready for deployment yet. As they shut off Sprint sites, they will accumulate 800 equipment, so it wouldn't be much expense to them.

You don't need to shut down EDGE to deploy 10x10. EDGE can operate in the LTE guard band. In any market where T-Mobile's LTE EARFCN is a round number plus one (for example in Louisville the L1900 EARFCN is 1051) they are running edge in the lower LTE guard band.

I think I know the area you're talking about. That tower is off of Outer Loop correct?

Interesting how everyone has a high-capacity setup here except Verizon.

Are you only seeing roaming when you're completely out of Sprint coverage or have you been seeing it when T-Mobile coverage is better? I'm curious as to when they will edit the QRxLevMinOffset and QQualMinOffset params to kick UEs over to T-Mobile before Sprint coverage is completely lost...

Looks like a new magic box on your block to me.

I can confirm that Louisville and Chicago seem to be relatively unchanged.

Even then, the voice coverage map falls far short of L800 coverage - even short of L1900 coverage in some places.

Yes. Very strange. There were areas before where I thought coverage was understated - now the maps look like they barely display L1900 coverage.

Sprint provides CDMA and LTE coverage the entire way from Seattle to Canada on both highways 5 and 9; I've driven both roads numerous times. The new map doesn't reflect this. The new map also displays coverage holes along highway 12 between I-5 and Packwood as well as roaming between Sedro-Woolley and Concrete, both of which are covered well. Large coverage areas south of Tacoma are missing, too, and there appear to be new inaccurate roaming holes on the east side of Lake Washington. Coverage on the west side of the sound is also thoroughly understated...

The voice coverage map specifically looks awful in Seattle, probably even worse than L1900 coverage...

Hi all, Sprint updated their coverage map today and coverage looks absolutely horrendous, at least in Seattle. Has anyone else noticed the update?

The AT&T site on top of The Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown also has N260.

I really wish they would re-TAC and re-PCI the entire network as part of integration, although I know there's almost no chance they will.

I've been dropping VoLTE calls all day in Louisville. Not sure if it's the iOS update I installed this morning or if it's something merger related...

Great info! Out of curiosity, would this site happen to be right next to 65 south of Slugger Field?

The "Extended" alpha tag comes from the PRL Sprint loads onto phones. Note that PRLs are only necessary (or relevant) for CDMA connectivity. On most all devices, the carrier name displayed is the voice carrier. Previously, Sprint only roamed on 1x for voice. Accordingly, whether using Sprint or a roaming partner for voice, the PRL always dictated that the alpha tag should read "Sprint" or "Extended" (or "Roaming" a very long time ago when on an international CDMA network). With the recent switch to WCDMA/HSPA voice roaming (which is the default now), the PRL is no longer in play, and the alpha tag reads what the roaming network dictates.

DAS or oDAS systems/fixed wireless services/NR or LTE relay.

I can also confirm this is happening.