crazy_vag

When TM nudged me to switching to a TM plan, I decided to remain on the Sprint plan for cheaper international roaming.  

With that said, if I want to keep the same setup, what's the right process to activate a Pixel 6 Pro eSIM when gong from a Pixel 4 XL eSIM?  Any steps I should avoid?

How was the eSIM activation process?  I'm still on legacy Sprint plans since they seem to have superior international roaming compared to TM, but wonder if that has an impact on how you activate the phone.  

Mine is arriving Nov 19th or so.

On 10/26/2021 at 10:33 AM, though said:

I noticed recently that my Pixel 4 XL's will rarely if ever connect to my STRONG magic box signal. it will hold on to a -120 B71 or B26 signal instead.

Mine is about 50/50.  It's definitely on MB Gold less frequently.

Has anyone on eSIM switched to T-Mobile eSIM?

After reaching "peak VoLTE", I've noticed my phone not getting VoLTE in places it used to.  This began sometime about a month ago in San Francisco, so many calls go over 1x.

Has anyone noticed this too?

This applies to MB Gold and non-Gold?  I haven't received mine yet, but maybe explains the lower signal strength.

Well, my MBG no longer reaches the street and now speeds capped at 17Mbit...

It feels like it's running at 1/4 the power and half the speed, but data usage dropped from 80GB/month to 2GB/month.

I noticed that my phone doesn't connect to 1x anymore unless I'm using Magic Box Gold.  Another sign that VoLTE is fully deployed in my neighborhood with the exception of the MBG.

Well, looking at the upcoming Pixel 5 rumors, the new phone seems so mediocre that it feels more like like a Pixel 3.

14 hours ago, troyd96 said:

I had to do a network reset on my Note 10+ by dialing the ##72786# maybe different on your phone then it restarts and does a new handsfree provisioning and it started working again.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
 

I should clarify that I did Factory Reset to the magic box, not my Pixel 4 XL.

Well, I did Factory Reset on Saturday, but still don't get reception on the street anymore and data usage is low.  Definitely seems like power setting was altered on the MB Gold. 

Still waiting for VoLTE.

On 7/25/2020 at 12:35 PM, ingenium said:

I think it could be VoLTE related. I lost VoLTE on my magic box, so I factory reset it last weekend to try to get it back. It hasn't come back yet, but when I come home the macro will not hand me off to it, possibly because it doesn't support VoLTE (handoffs are 100% controlled by the network unless you completely lose service). It will however handoff to my Airave, which does have VoLTE. Once I'm on the Airave, it will handoff to the magic box.

 

Before I lose VoLTE on my magic box, the network would hand me off to the magic box as soon as I approached my house (on B41). Now it will move me to b26 instead of the magic box, until I get in range of the Airave, when it immediately moves me there.

 

So it's possible/likely that the network is avoiding doing handoffs which would cause the loss of VoLTE. My phone sees it in neighbors while on the macro, so it's being reported as an option for handoffs. The network is just actively deciding to not handoff. It's so frustrating that VoLTE is still a manual toggle for these femtos....

 

 

 

Dumb question.  Does VoLTE kick in for all calls, or only for calls where the other end is also on a cellular connection and their device supports VoLTE?

Sounds like factory reset is the way to go.  I'm assuming I won't need to contact Sprint to re-enable anything after the factory reset.

On 7/13/2020 at 7:52 PM, ingenium said:

I just got that same email for my Magic box that has been on Ethernet backhaul for 9+ months (I checked and the serial number matched that unit). It was still on Ethernet when I got the email, since I speed tested faster than Sprint's nearby macros (they're fairly congested even on B41). So they're just blanket sending it out to everyone, even people who are already off of LTE backhaul.

 

 

 

Well, my MB suddenly dropped from the WiFi.  I didn't get VoLTE, so who knows whether it's an upgrade or a bug.

When I connected it again, I'm no longer able to get reception outside on the sidewalk.  Not sure if they turned off directionality, strength or something combination of that and other settings.  Data usage dropped from 3 GB / day to under 2 GB / month!! 

I got this email from Sprint:

You’re just a few steps away from a better network experience with Sprint and T-Mobile. Improve your coverage now by reconnecting your Sprint Magic Box to your home internet.

My MB Gold is currently on Wi-Fi working just fine, so wondering if this a general spam sent to all owners, or does this process to re-select Wi-Fi force it update its config in some way.

1 hour ago, ingenium said:

I'm still getting 50-90 Mbps (depending on how close I am to it). You might want to double check that it didn't fall to 2.4 GHz. Mine is Ethernet backhauled though.VoLTE has been live for many months on all the femtos. They don't need to cap anything for it to work. In my experience using LTE backhaul on a magic box with VoLTE, it didn't do well at congestion control (was cutting out because the donor was congested), so I'm skeptical that they tunnel VoLTE over a prioritized EUTRA session on relay. So if they aren't doing something as "basic" as this when they completely control the network, they almost certainly won't be doing anything on wifi or Ethernet backhaul to try to give VoLTE special treatment.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 

I did double check, but it was doing about 2GB a day at 2.4 GHz and about 3GB a day on 5GHz.  Now it's maybe couple hundred MB a day.  Perhaps it's a slow rollout.

To be honest, I haven't tried VoLTE on MB yet.  Sounds like it's time to give it a whirl...

BTW. This is all in San Francisco.

3 minutes ago, jakeliford said:

They just offered to send me a magicbox gold and volte amp to help with voice calls. Really curious as to how long this will work now that the merger is happening.  

VoLTE requires better bandwidth control, so capping speeds night indicate VoLTE is coming.

Anyone noticed that MB Gold speeds have been drastically capped even with Wi-Fi Backhaul?  I'm not getting more than 7Mbit anymore where I used to see 30Mbit +.

14 hours ago, dkyeager said:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/16/30percent-of-americans-missed-their-housing-payments-in-june.html?&qsearchterm=house payment

Ah,  When you said "skipped house payment", I assumed mortgage. Thanks for clarifying.

I have no doubt that people would give up internet before cell phone or electricity, but with internet become close to a "utility" in all but regulations, I think many will choose a cheaper housing situation before cancelling overpriced Comcast - if they have that option.

There's always hope next administration will drop that $100 billion to bring fiber everywhere.

13 minutes ago, dkyeager said:

Band 41 through a Magic Box is faster for a lot of customers.  They may not have an ISP or a good ISP.  By my definition, bad ISPs don't offer true speeds greater than 200Mbps down, are unreliable, ban or slow down certain sites and ports without telling customers, have no option to get rid of a data cap.  AT&T for example offers 1Gbps in new condos and upscale homes, but leaves out neighborhoods with buried cable and even most neighborhoods with above ground cable (they had plans which they dropped).  So many people's choice on internet is dial-up at 53kbps, ISDN dialup at 128kbps, ADSL at 3Mbps, VDSL with at most 75Mbps, rarely WISP, satellite has caps and can't do Zoom etc because of lag.  (Most of these should be good markets for SpaceX etc.)

BTW.  That's a really sad - but true - but still sad - statement.

i got a speedtest of 43Mbit/7.5Mbit from the Magic Box across the street, which is pretty impressive given it's coming from 7th floor and used in the city block covering a few hundred feet in each direction.

Wonder how many users the MB can simultaneously serve.  It's drawing about 3GB / day, so feels like a decent amount.

3 minutes ago, dkyeager said:

Band 41 through a Magic Box is faster for a lot of customers.  They may not have an ISP or a good ISP.  By my definition, bad ISPs don't offer true speeds greater than 200Mbps down, are unreliable, ban or slow down certain sites and ports without telling customers, have no option to get rid of a data cap.  AT&T for example offers 1Gbps in new condos and upscale homes, but leaves out neighborhoods with buried cable and even most neighborhoods with above ground cable (they had plans which they dropped).  So many people's choice on internet is dial-up at 53kbps, ISDN dialup at 128kbps, ADSL at 3Mbps, VDSL with at most 75Mbps, rarely WISP, satellite has caps and can't do Zoom etc because of lag.  (Most of these should be good markets for SpaceX etc.)

Then you also have budget reasons.  30% of American homes skipped their house payment this month.  Why pay for internet twice?  Many homes only internet devices are smartphones and tablets with LTE.

It's only 8% that missed last payment, unless we have June data already:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/22/success/mortgage-payment-delinquencies-in-may-coronavirus/index.html

2 hours ago, jasonsteele said:

Well, looks like they finally killed LTE backhaul in my area yesterday. MB connects to Wi-Fi backhaul, but refuses to connect to B41. Rebooted three times, factory reset once. No dice. Looks like I'm packing it up and sending it back, no way in hell im using Wi-Fi backhaul.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 

Why?  How is B41 more reliable than home Wi-Fi?   Or is that a "matter of principle"?

On 6/17/2020 at 10:47 PM, ingenium said:

Basically an Airave. If you have a VoLTE capable device, then the MB gold is better. It should have a much better range.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 

I think a friend got one and returned it since it wouldn't cover his 4000 sq ft house.  

As clunky as MB Gold is, it does a solid job.   Especially now that Wi-Fi backhaul works and 5 GHz support works for me.

On 6/10/2020 at 8:44 PM, though said:

I think Sprint is currently sending out the Pebble.

What's the Pebble and how do its features compare to Magic Box Gold?

Switching from 2.4GHz Wi-Fi backhaul to 5 GHz made for a noticeable increase in data usage.