tremendousjohnson

18 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

Nope they're not using it but it could be used for n26 or Band 26. I still don't think T-Mobile will keep it though. The radios that they have deployed don't so far don't support Band 26 or n26. Really only Dish is prepared to deploy n26 immediately. T-Mobile might just decide to hold onto the spectrum if no one buys it and then sell it to Dish years down the line.

I still think the best deal for T-Mobile would be a swap where T-Mobile would give Dish a steep discount on the spectrum in exchange for a single 600MHz block in key markets.

For example T-Mobile's lease of Dish's 600MHz D-block in NYC expires pretty soon and T-Mobile will fall back down to 15MHz n71 here without it. I have no doubt that this has already been offered to Dish but Dish is rightfully wary about handing their competitor an advantage like that. Realistically almost any swap would end with T-Mobile benefitting more than Dish. Dish doesn't *need* T-Mobile's 800MHz but it would've been a nice-to-have for the little gains in capacity.

What if Dish goes out of business?  Looks like they're circling the bowl, are out of ideas, and can barely pay the payments on their debt, let alone buy anything additional or invest in capex.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/echostar-chairman-charlie-ergen-skips-dish-network-parents-quarterly-earnings-call-as-investor-angst-about-debt-keeps-mounting/ar-BB1jbB35 That whole Dish part of the merger was sketchy from the beginning, because it depended on trusting Charlie Ergen.  (PSA: Don't ever trust Charlie Ergen.  🙂 )

If that happens, it'll be interesting to see what a bankruptcy would look like.  Who gets Dish's spectrum?  This whole deal was structured to make sure ATT, Tmobile and Verzion don't get bigger.  Grab your popcorn.....

20 hours ago, BucketHead25 said:

I took T-Mobile up on their $25/month home internet deal.  Just connected yesterday and have been using it all morning.  I get about 550 down, 70 up with 19 mS latency.  Full time WFH with a virtual desktop and Zoom calls all day.  I'll use it for the next couple weeks.  Can't beat this deal with no contract.  Would love to send Spectrum packing with their $80 basic internet service.

I had this service for nearly a year, at $50/mo with no bandwidth caps.  Here in the Twin Cities area my speeds and reliability were great.  Similar to yours. I ended up dropping it for 2 reasons:  1) Comcast started offering a $50/mo unlimited plan for 2 years, and 2) I needed better router capabilities than the very limited Nokia device allowed.  I couldn't set IP addresses on my internal private network, without using a separate router in double-NAT config.  I couldn't VPN into my home network without setting up a separate 3rd party service.  

I told them when/if they get an improved device with better routing capabilities, I'd be back.  (I don't love Comcast). But with CGNAT who knows if that will even be possible.  

Good luck.  I hope it works for you.  

2 hours ago, jreuschl said:

My home of Milwaukee has made incredible gains:

• Since our previous round of testing, T-Mobile's median download speed increased from 49.3 Mbps to 294.3 Mbps.
• T-Mobile's median upload speed increased from 14.1 Mbps to 22.7 Mbps.

Sprint and T-Mobile used to fight for the distant bottom here.

I've seen similar improvements in the Minneapolis metro area.  

1 hour ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Only if you have 100Mhz of n41 available at your home address. Otherwise you are not likely to see anything close to what Though said. 

I'm in the Twin Cities and I get from 200-250 down and 30-50up.  Just as good as Xfinity for downloads, and way better for uploads.  Pretty sure we don't have 100Mhz here.  At least not current in active usage?  YMMV.  good luck.  

Looks like the RF telecom guy is showing a couple more spots where small cells are being deployed. Together with the Baltimore article and the MN article. It's safe to say that small cell deployment is moving forward in quite a few places.

Can you share a link to the MN article?  Thanks

I'm hesitant to write this, but I think I need to. I completely agree with Koiulpoi and centracityguy. I thought the entire conversation was very benign, and I still have difficulty finding anything in the tone that was out of line. I was shocked when the conversation turned to threats of "banning". I have many years of experience, and probably much to add, but posts like this have turned me into a reader, and made me avoid contributing. It's not worth it. Nerves seem to be pretty raw on this site at times.

I understand that being a moderator on a fourm site like this is challenging. It requires patience and temperment. But the authors and moderators are the public face of the site. If there is any "allegiance" required to perform that function, I would hope that at least some of it should be to the users. Many of us are the people helping pay the bills.

Some of the people reading this site may be sources of valuable information. I would hate to see them turn mute because of fear of reprisal, or because they don't trust or respect the site enough to share.

Thanks for listening. Keep the good information coming.

You can't just enable it, and it starts working. The hotspot feature requires an extra fee to Sprint. You can either call Sprint, or go to your Sprint account online, enable it there (and agree to the extra fee). Once you do that, you will be able to enable the hotspot feature. You can also turn it on and off on a month by month basis. I've used it for a month, and it worked fine.

Here's what you should see the first time you hit the "enable hotspot" button.

I noticed a blip in downtown St. Paul. Can anyone confirm that? If so' date=' that's good news. It's not downtown Minneapolis, but it's progress![/quote']

 

That's confirmed. It now shows on Sensorly maps. Also one small blip at the airport. You have to zoom in close to see them but they are there.

OK, but how would that cause the drop in signal strength he shows in post #2?

RootMetrics does upload coverage data collected by iPhones. It's the only one that I know of that does. It takes 5-10 minutes for your test to show on their map.

Here's another one:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/carriercompare-find-best-service/id516075262?mt=8

I just signed up for your iPhone mailing list. If you're doing a beta via Test Flight, I'd be happy to use and report back to you.

Mee too!

A very good point. The Atlantic recently did a good article on how China has bankrolled these companies.

It's also worth noting that most of the big name computer and phone companies use Foxconn. Only Apple gets bashed about it, because any article about Apple instantly gets a million hits.

It also doesn't appear that Foxconn is really any worse than any other Chinese company. Here is one of the better articles I've seen by a sociologist that spent 10 years studying Chinese labor.

The only option might be to bring manufacturing back to north america. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple and other companies are looking into it. But it's the kind of massive worldwide logistical exercise that can't possibly happen quickly.

Thank you! Plenty to like about all the current top tier smartphones. Using one or the other doesn't make anyone a "mindless sheep" or fanboi. We live in incredible times. Enjoy your device of choice.

The namecalling is depressing and gives me a headache.