ericdabbs

Does anyone have insight as to when Tmobile will start deploying radio equipment with C-band and CBRS support?  Hopefully their 200 MHz of C-band spectrum is freed up by now.

On 7/31/2019 at 5:04 PM, RAvirani said:

I think it's unfortunate that the combined company is divesting 800. Having 5x5 L800 and 5x5 L700 would probably allow the combined company to use their 600 holdings exclusively for NR.

Additionally, Sprint could add 800 radios to T-Mobile's new 600 equipment without an antenna swap. A diplexer+RRH is all they would need. 

The small amount of 800 MHz which btw is still having issues along the Mexico border is not worth the headache.  Divesting the 800 MHz spectrum is a small price to pay to make the appearance that Dish has enough low band spectrum to compete as a wireless carrier.  The 600 MHz and 700 MHz spectrum are enough.  Tmobile plans to even lease some of Dish's 600 MHz spectrum to help create 20x20 5G carriers for markets that only have 15x15 or 10x10 carriers.  

I know the FCC Auction 103 is coming up to auction off the 37 GHz, 39 GHz and 47 GHz spectrum assets. Does anyone know any details as to how much spectrum will be available for auction in each band?

I see on the FCC website that it has a date of December 10th but I don't know if that date is just the deadline for filing paperwork or is that when the auction starts.

https://www.fcc.gov/auction/103

It seems too complicated to move TV stations just for this tiny sliver of low band spectrum.  

5 minutes ago, RAvirani said:

T-Mobile likely wouldn't bid as they have 45-55 MHz of lowband on average (B12/B71). Nor would AT&T with 60-70 MHz of lowband on average (B12/B14/B29/B5).

The next lowband auction will be dominated by Verizon, Dish and possibly Sprint if they're still around and have the money. 

Screw that.  I am not in favor of Verizon getting more low band spectrum when they have enough already.

4 hours ago, RAvirani said:

42 MHz could easily be 3 5x5 Blocks with 12 MHz of unpaired spectrum in the middle.  This would be almost identical to the lower 700 MHz band plan (B12/B17/B29):

I understand that but lets be honest unless you can get nationwide licenses its not really useful.  Also a 5x5 block is not that useful for speed or capacity and there is no way 1 carrier is going to grab all 3 5x5 blocks.  Tmobile would at most get 1 or 2 5x5 blocks since Dish would probably buy a 5x5 block.  

8 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

I saw a few speed tests of T-Mobile's 600MHz 5G in Puerto Rico and they resemble 20x20 LTE honestly. It'll be a great 5G foundation but what T-Mobile really needs is Band 41 to complement their mmWave and low-band. 

Not only does Tmobile need Sprint's 2.5 GHz spectrum (Band 41) that but they badly need Sprint's PCS spectrum assets as well.  In many top metros, it can mean that they can finally launch 20x20 carriers in the PCS band as well.  In the article below it has a chart for the top metros and how the PCS holdings complement each other.  I know 20x20 carriers are sorely needed in Los Angeles.

https://www.speedtest.net/insights/blog/new-t-mobile-spectrum-coverage/

So that would have allowed an additional l 42 MHz of low band spectrum to be auctioned?  If there is not another paired frequency in the 500 MHz range to match that 42 MHz then it is pretty useless.  That would indicate if you sell it as FDD that the most they can sell is two or three maybe 5x5 MHz blocks which is not enough for OEMS to generate hardware for that anyways.  

Can't wait until this court case is over and done with in December.  Lets just get this merger approved already.  Tmobile and Sprint both need to start ramping up 5G deployment and this AG lawsuit is really getting in the way and not good for wireless customers.

21 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

People keep saying that but it will NOT Happen. Once Sprint deploys 5G they are pretty much using all of B41. LTE small cells have different carriers from macro sites then 5G .

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We don't know what Sprint is going to do with 5G.  I don't even think for 4G they used all of its 160 GHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum.  Even in early 5G deployments Sprint is only deploying 40 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum.  Also we dont know how long Sprint will continue to operate as a company with all of its debt and declining customer base.

On 9/16/2019 at 3:57 PM, Brad The Beast said:

T-Mobile pursues license for more 2.5 GHz experiments

Thoughts? 

I think it is great.  Tmobile realizes the power of 2.5 GHz mid band spectrum for 5G deployment since Tmobile does not have enough midband spectrum for capacity to serve the growing number of customers.  If anything for some reason the Sprint/Tmobile merger falls through, Sprint should sell some of its 2.5 GHz midband spectrum to Tmobile to make full use of the entire 2.5 GHz band.

Ugh now Oregon has signed on to block the Sprint/Tmobile merger!! 😞  I don't like the fact that the growing list of states opposed to the merger is now 15.  They really need to make Dish a viable competitor sooner and this state AGs need to be concerned with other matters than the Sprint/Tmobile merger.  The sooner the Sprint/Tmobile merger can be finalized, the sooner the benefits of the combined spectrum assets can be deployed to help all customers.

1 minute ago, Paynefanbro said:

Only Band 26 got divested or rather sold.

That was such a smart move from Legere.  The 800 MHz spectrum didn't fit into Tmobile's low band spectrum portfolio especially with 600 MHz and 700 MHz spectrum already there and it made logical sense to divest nationwide licenses of them.  The good news is that they were able to maintain all of the 2.5 GHz spectrum and AWS/PCS spectrum to build a very solid mid band portfolio going forward.

No, T-mobile wants the 2.5GHz spectrum for 5G. But they could trade the 700+800MHz to Dish for Dish's 600MHz. I know that Dish has only 5x5Mhz nationwide but they have some choice holdings in some critical cities (NYC). 

I love the idea of swapping the 700+800 mhz spectrum for dish's 600 mhz holdings. It would really consolidate tmobiles low band portfolio and also create wider channels of 20x20 nationwide.

 

I want Tmobile to keep all of the 2.5 ghz spectrum for 5G. Any sub 6 ghz spectrum that tmobile can use for 5G should be preserved.

 

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No doubt New Tmobile since I am already a Tmobile customer.  Tmobile and Neville having access to 2.5 GHz spectrum is going to be great for their network and the way Tmobile gets things done.

Hell maybe with the help of Tmobile we can get 800 MHz LTE available in the Southern California markets at some point in the future.

1 minute ago, SprintNYC said:

Marcelo is pretty much gone. Softbank put him on the boards of its various businesses. Claure is going back to Miami since that is what he really wants. He was brought in to cut Sprint fat and reduce expenses which he did now he will get paid handsomely. They will keep their Overland Park campus open for a  year just to avoid PR problems. However for the last year so Marcelo has been shopping around half of the campus because is too big. This merger has been on the making since 2013, and there was never a strategy of making Sprint competitive and healthy for the long term, the s plan was merger from the start.

I figure he would be gone and pretty much most if not all of the Sprint executive team.  I guess Gunther was smart to see the writing on the wall and bailed late last year.  I can't wait to see what Tmobile will do with the 2.5 GHz spectrum with HPUE to be used for 5G network.  Hopefully the 2.5 GHz resources should buy Tmobile some time for 5G before acquiring more MMwave spectrum. 

14 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

Again, what's to become of Sprint's 800MHz. Can they exchange Dish's 600Mhz for Sprint's 800MHz somewhere down the road? 

I would love that idea of exchanging 800 MHz spectrum for more 600 MHz spectrum.  There are some places in the US which still can't deploy 800 MHz LTE and I don't think we will ever see it deployed.

8 minutes ago, Thomas L. said:

So is this an accelerated death knell for CDMA in the US? Verizon will be shutting down CDMA by the end of next year. I can't see any reason a new T-Mobile would continue to use it. I imagine they'll start shuttering the network and refarming that spectrum for LTE and maybe HSPA+ (as backup) almost immediately in the same way they did when they bought MetroPCS. 

How easy will it be to allow devices that have hardware for both networks to use both networks? All Sprint devices support the primary T-Mobile bands, how quickly would they allow those devices to access T-Mobile's network? 

CDMA is dead IMO.  LTE works great and its about time we kill off CDMA and waste valuable spectrum on 3G technology.  5G is just around the corner and is built from 4G which should be universal amongst all carriers. 

I would expect that it would be fairly easy to configure Sprint devices to be able to work on both networks.  Hopefully nothing or a firmware upgrade would be what is necessary to work with the Sprint/Tmobile networks.

I wonder who from the Sprint executive team will remain on board with the New Tmobile?  Tmobile's executive team is top notch already so I guess the only person who I can see Tmobile keep to help with the combined company is John Saw to help Neville Ray on the 2.5 GHz high band expertise.  Maybe Marcelo would be kept to help with the existing partnerships he has with his former companies.

I wasn’t even aware Tmo would roll out 5g first in 600! You’re right it could be huge for them.  I see everyone trying to get the high band for capacity so I was under the impression it would a must have for 5g. Low band would be the fall back

Yup Mr. Legere mentioned it in a youtube video after the quiet period and the official 600 MHz auction results were announced back in May.  So I would imagine the markets with 10x10 MHz that 5G will be rolled out in a 5x5 block and 5x5 block will be 4G LTE. https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/t-mobile-to-roll-out-5g-over-600-mhz-and-other-spectrum

 

 

Listen at the 2:10 mark.

 

5 minutes ago, dnicekid said:

I agree with your points however you also pointed several others frequencies that may end up being more important than 600. Which is why I feel it might be overrated. It definitely has a role can’t argue it doesn’t. But I don’t see it playing a huge part in the future as we see the numbers are clearly going up for capacity.

Again, not saying it doesn’t have a place just wondering with the price paid for what it will probably be used for might make it overrated.

One thing for sure is that with 600 Mhz, they will definitely be able to deploy the 5G network faster and wider than with the high band frequencies and there are not any incumbent cellular technologies deployed at this point at 600 MHz.  I think that in itself will also pay dividends.  Just look what being the first to deploy 4G LTE quickly and widely did for Verizon back in 2010.  I am pretty sure that Sprint will not deploy 5G on its 800 MHz until a while since Sprint has CDMA and LTE deployed on it and their treasure trove of spectrum is in 2.5 GHz band is where I see Sprint first deploying 5G.  Again the problem with Sprint is that there is a lot of talk but not enough walk.  I still think that what Tmobile did with spending 8B for their average 35 MHz of 600 MHz was worth it.  Again we won't know until a few more years when TV stations vacate the 600 MHz spectrum. 

I am not saying that Sprint has doesn't have great potential with 2.5 GHz but even now it still has yet to fully bear fruit after 7 years of Network Vision.  Sprint is where they are at in 4th place with people bolting because of coverage and inconsistent capacity issues.  Lets hope that its true that Sprint and Masa are fully dedicated to competing and raising capex for the next few years to 5-6 billion because the 3 billion figure they had was surely not cutting it.  I would like to see 4 strong competitors rather than a weak Sprint and Tmobile.

i have mixed feelings about what I am saying but I think 600 is waaaaaay overrated. Yes it helps with coverage but it is clear the future is automated. Cars, refrigerators,phones, tablets Alexa and so forth. For this massive amount of data that will only continue to grow where does 600 fit if it has capacity setbacks? With cable in the mix the future will be small cell located at every street light/corner. 

I think Tmo mistake may have been to purchase the 600, they are clearly going for coverage to get themselves the same credibility as att/vzw. 

This may be a long term mistake as everyone is moving up.  Or it may work out for them long term, short term I don’t see any benefit of 600 with everyone racing to get 5g out. Maybe I am missing something 

I disagree that 600 mhz is overrated at all. Is it the most important piece of spectrum for 5G? Not by a long stretch. But it does help bridge coverage gaps and does help stretch into new markets faster that it would not otherwise. I would say sprint severely lacks low bamd spectrum.

 

While Tmobile may be praising 600 mhz but that is because they are now able to truly say they have spectrum nationwide that they can build into new markets. Tmobile is in no way content with just 600 mhz. In fact they have been very vocal in pressing the FCC to open up 3.5 ghz and just the other day pressing the FCC to open up 28 ghz, 37 ghz and 40 ghz spectrum to be auctioned. Also they have been doing test trials of 3.5 ghz, 28 ghz spectrum and other spectrum bands for 5G.

 

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Either way the full 5G NR standard will not be complete until June 2018.  What was completed during December 2017 was the non-standalone version of 5G NR which means it needs to rely on legacy networks like 4G to work but the standalone version of 5G NR (true 5G) will not be complete until June 2018.

45 minutes ago, tybo31316 said:

Someone’s going to jump too soon like Sprint did with WiMAX and get burned.

Agreed.  I could care less if AT&T is the first to jump into the 5G space.  I hope the others wait for better 5G equipment to deploy.  Tmobile has their hands full in trying to clear the 600 MHz band and working with the 3.5 GHz trials that I would expect this to not be a huge deal.  We will see how long it really takes AT&T since they took a delayed approach with LTE.

Yikes! T-Mobile shouldn't have spoken so soon about deploying 5G nationwide before VZW and AT&T. It'll only be a dozen cities by year end but nonetheless, I wouldn't be surprised if AT&T fast-tracked this roll out just to spite T-Mobile. I'm expecting a similar announcement from VZW very soon.
Source: AT&T announces plans to start rolling out a true 5G network by the end of 2018

But i thought the argument was that the official 5G standards by the 3GPP wouldnt be officially ratified until 2019 which is what Tmobile is calling BS on ATT claiming it will have true 5G. So how can ATT really have true 5G when it will not be approved until 2019? This has been known since mid 2017 that ATT put out a press release that claims that they will be the first 5G carrier to deploy. In fact Legere made a tweet or comment calling out ATT on this. This is not new news but ehhhh time will tell.

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21 hours ago, lilotimz said:

I followed that exact guide and got mine flashed successfully. What changed since then was Asus (and other manufacturers) released new firmware that prevented firmware downgrades past a certain point due to abuses in transmit powers being adjusted and etc. So i would flash something before the 378 range first. 

I've relegated my flashed AC66 running Merlin 380 version to my relatives place as a primary AIO router for their 30 / 30 fiber connection. It had a few connectivity issues initially but a couple of complete resets has made it stable. 
 

I had to mess with my friends Sprint AC66 back in september  since its IPSEC "prioritization" would mess with the Airave 3 / S1000 femto cell IPSEC tunnel back to Sprints network (~300 kbps limit up / down). I would not be surprised if they'll drop the router soon enough too as it's redundant with the Airave 3 / S1000 being able to offer AC WiFi + LTE &/or CDMA without the ipsec tunnel conflict. 

I was able to successfully flash my router to stock Asus to 376.3626 firmware to expand the rootfs boot partition from 32M to 64M.  Now I successfully flashed my Asus router to the latest Merlin firmware.  I guess I was a bit intimidated by the SNB forum guide and was comparing too much to the suggested youtube video which was for flashing a Tmobile router which does have some different steps since the Sprint router uses MIPS and Tmobile router uses ARM which led to further confusion.  It had good steps in the youtube video but the telnet commands were a bit different.