dewbertdc

16 hours ago, kct1975 said:

Not sure if this is the correct place to add this question, so if this question needs to go somewhere else, please move it to the correct discussion thread...

I am planning on adding my wife to my Wireless Mobile account. So my question are the following... 

First, if I require a new wireless mobile plan, can I get a T-Mobile plan? Or am I stuck with whatever remaining Sprint plans still exist?

Second, if I am able to get a new T-Mobile wireless plan, I can get it without having to 'port my current Sprint phone numbers over to T-Mobile'? 

If you wish to keep Sprint billing, you'll have to go with whatever they offer you for adding a line.  The cost will depend on which plan you currently have.  If you're not already on an unlimited plan, you can still switch to one. (https://www.sprint.com/en/shop/plans/unlimited-cell-phone-plan.html?INTNAV=TopNav:Shop:UnlimitedPlans).

You also have the option to migrate your entire account to T-Mobile and choose one of the current Magenta plans (https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans).  T-Mobile does not consider this a port-in, and you wouldn't qualify for any new customer deals.

If you want to keep your Sprint plan and billing but use the T-Mobile network, that's possible too as long as you have a supported plan and phone.  You can ask to be put on the "T-Mobile Network Experience," where you'll be provisioned a T-Mobile SIM.  https://www.sprint.com/en/support/solutions/device/t-mobile-network-experience.html

I would explore which of the options is more cost effective and go with that.  Eventually, the billing systems will combine, but we're not there yet.

23 hours ago, Terrell352 said:

Well the same thing is happening here. That's why I asked. Its really hurting the network. Something so basic and they couldn't get it right. They are throwing up equipment and spectrum now and optimizing later.

That's probably exactly it - they're dispatching folks to do the equipment upgrades faster than the backend networks team can optimize it.  They're acting like an agile software developer - work quickly and "break" stuff, incur some technical debt on the backend that they can fix behind the scenes.  

2 hours ago, Lockedtight said:

So my guess is T-Mobile will hold off on doing anything network related to their towers in the Shentel area and Shentel will just do regular maintenance until the deal is closed in 2Q21.  If that is the case they will be pretty far behind on combining the two networks in this area.  Kind of a bummer since the T-Mobile network in Shentel's footprint lags way behind Shentel's network as well as the other two big networks.  😪

In the interim, the thing to keep an eye on is whether or not T-Mobile continues to expand or upgrade its network in Shentel territory.  If they don't, it would be a signal that they plan to fold most of the existing Shentel infrastructure into their combined network.  IMO, it would be a mistake to do anything else - as we all know that Shentel has built a really solid network in their territory.

1 hour ago, RedSpark said:

Looking at that map, Verizon has a long way to go on mmWave coverage here.... which means that T-Mobile has probably barely scratched the surface with it.

Personally, I think Verizon's strategy of using mmWave for their primary 5G band was solely because they're so spectrum constrained.  The technology is more suited to a "hotspot" where substantial capacity is needed - a crowded outdoor market, a football stadium, a concert venue, etc. - than to provide any sort of reliable coverage.  The DSS technology that Verizon is allows 5G and LTE to coexist on the same spectrum, but at a performance cost to both technologies.  It won't be until Verizon starts to deploy some CBRS and/or C-Band spectrum that we see significant 5G coverage that isn't running in the same channels at LTE.

That's where T-Mobile has the upper hand - they've got tons of 2.5Ghz spectrum so they can run fairly wide 5G channels and don't need to rely on mmWave to get very good 5G speeds.  They've got mmWave spectrum and I'm sure they'll eventually deploy it, but right now they're laser focused on Sprint network integration and expanding 2.5GHz 5G coverage.

14 hours ago, schmidtj said:

I need to do this again but for the life of me I can’t find/remember the page where you select lines to enable. Can you refresh my mind? I’ve tried the digits app and web page but I’m at a loss as to where I need to go exactly. Any help appreciated. I just want to enable digits on the T-Mobile lines with iPhones. When I go into the digits app I see a single line associated with my T-Mobile ID but I have half a dozen lines and they are not listed. The web site just wants to use itself as a digits line. 

It's really buried down in there.  When first you log in, on the top right corner click on "My account," then "Profile". At the bottom of the next screen, you should see "Multiple Devices."  Click that, and on the next screen make sure that DIGITS is enabled.  Here's what mine looks like.

On 11/23/2020 at 5:12 PM, RedSpark said:

Based on this article, it seems like mmWave has actually been deployed in DC as one of the "five cities" listed: https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/verizon-s-5g-mmwave-crushing-it-but-for-how-long

Verizon definitely has mmWave in DC - all the very dark red areas on this map are coverage areas. The article you linked was just referring to 5G speeds overall.  Verizon's average speed has been very high because they'd been relying exclusively on mmWave for 5G until recently, but now that they're using DSS for "Nationwide 5G," they're seeing average speeds fall.

On the other hand, T-Mobile's average speed is notching up because of the 2.5GHz 5G deployments.  T-Mobile's known mmWave cities are Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York.  They pretty much halted mmWave deployment and pivoted to 600MHz 5G for Nationwide deployment, and now they're starting to re-farm Sprint's 2.5GHz spectrum to 5G.  They'll still deploy mmWave where they expect very heavy traffic, but they're not relying on it as heavily as Verizon.

Looks like the iOS 14.3 beta has an updated field test mode that at least indicates whether you're on NSA or SA 5G.

I am willing to bet there's no mmWave in DC still.  They'd be shouting it from the rooftops if there were.  The good news is that N41 is blazing fast and they're deploying it at a breakneck pace around here.

1 hour ago, RedSpark said:

Interesting. I imagine that as part of its network integration that T-Mobile will eventually get around to either shutting off Sprint on that DAS (and relying on native T-Mobile coverage) or putting in for the addition of T-Mobile to it. It's something they're going to keep track of... After all, I'd imagine Sprint (and now T-Mobile) is paying a recurring fee to be on that DAS? Someone has to notice that line item expense, right?

I'm not sure what the financial arrangement is for our particular DAS.  I know it was installed and is maintained by a third-party integrator, but the building we are in is owned by the US Government, who I cannot imagine is charging the carriers to be on it (though I could be wrong).

Legend has it that when the DAS was installed (now coming up on a decade ago), there was a reasonable monetary difference between installing one that could support 3 carriers, and one that could support 4.  Leadership decided to stick with the "big 3" carriers at the time: AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.  My how the tables have turned.

23 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Interesting. I'm sure at some point T-Mobile will take an audit of what's going on with that DAS and either terminate the legacy Sprint support or have support added for T-Mobile.

Curious what you find out when you go in. Let us know!

I've always been bewildered by the fact that carriers didn't prioritize coverage and speed improvements at major points of transit. I pestered Sprint about its Union Station coverage issues for years to no avail. That's where the most people actually use their phones the most (likely because they're talking, texting or surfing/streaming while arriving/departing/waiting for a train), and improvements at major transit points would readily affect and help the most people when they need their devices the most and need their service to be reliable and fast. You'd figure Sprint would see the substantial ROI from network improvements at these locations... Perhaps they did and simply had no money to do anything to improve things. Who knows, but T-Mobile shouldn't pass up on this either. 

Ultimately if a device doesn't perform at that type of location for a customer, it can lead to them switching to another carrier. Oh well. Hopefully T-Mobile takes this ball and runs with it.

Greetings from the B25 signal on the DAS in my office building. My iPhone is showing the PLMN as 311-490. It did have to drop the T-Mobile LTE signal entirely before it would pick up the legacy Sprint signal. 

15 hours ago, RedSpark said:

I agree. So far, my experience has been much better. With Sprint's network, I routinely ran into congestion or coverage issues in a number of areas in the DMV, especially the Central Business District (Downtown DC), Columbia Heights and National Harbor. Indoor coverage has definitely been better too. Curious where T-Mobile would put mmWave....

T-Mobile's LTE network was pretty close to unusable in the Union Station during business hours before COVID-19 hit.  My office is right next to there, and has a DAS with Verizon, AT&T and legacy Sprint on it, but they never added T-Mobile.  I have to go in tomorrow, I'll be interested to see if my phone grabs on to the legacy Sprint PCS carrier on the DAS.

3 hours ago, RedSpark said:

My download speeds have improved somewhat over the past couple of days. Obviously, T-Mobile is in the midst of merging things together.

I'm now seeing 250-260 Mbps for download over 5G, but more importantly, I'm seeing 76 Mbps for upload, which is about a 7x improvement over what I was seeing on Sprint before. This makes my iPhone substantially more usable for common tasks like sending photos, etc.

If T-Mobile can deliver a similar experience to Shentel's territory, I think customers will be happy with it.

Maybe T-Mobile will deploy some mmWave here in DC as well (if they haven't already)... That would be nice to check out. Anyone know if they have?

There's no mmWave that I know of here in DC, but I do have to say the 5G experience on T-Mobile has been much better than I was anticipating on my iPhone 12.  There appears to be quite a bit of mid-band 5G deployed in DC proper, at least in neighborhoods I frequent: Brookland, 16th Street Heights, Takoma Park...

Some progress on the Shentel front: https://www.commsupdate.com/articles/2020/11/09/shentel-t-mobile-deal-going-ahead-sale-should-conclude-in-2q21/?

Quote

Regional US operator Shentel and T-Mobile US have agreed to initiate a new appraisal process as they seek to establish an agreeable valuation ahead of T-Mobile’s planned takeover of the wireless unit. On 3 November the parties ‘aligned in principle to resolve such disputed items’. For the purpose of the exercise, the appraisers will assume the T-Mobile/Sprint merger did not occur, and that Shentel remains an affiliate of Sprint. The appraisers expect to complete their valuation on or about 20 January 2021 and the transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021, subject to receipt of customary regulatory approvals.

7 hours ago, twospirits said:

It's okay, but the one thing that I really miss from Sprint is the online chat feature (especially online). No matter what issue, it was always resolved online thru chat, hardly ever needed to call or go to a store. But T-Mobile only has chat on mobile and having to write out long issues on a tiny keyboard sucks.

You can message them on Twitter - @tmobilehelp. They’re usually very helpful there!

11 hours ago, schmidtj said:

I moved to T-Mobile Magenta and it’s fine for the most part. I have iPhones. One thing I miss is Sprint’s “WiFi calling on iCloud devices”. This allowed other devices on WiFi to make and receive calls even when the iPhone was off or not on WiFi. Now the iPhone must be on the same WiFi network or within Bluetooth range of the other iCloud devices. You see the difference as WiFi calling on other devices as “nearby” now whereas on Sprint it was “on”. Just an FYI. 

You can still use this on T-Mobile, but you may have to go in and make sure “DIGITS” is enabled on your line on the website. It took me quite awhile to figure that out!

1 hour ago, JDP121 said:

 

Interesting finding in my neck of the woods in Shentel Area. Picked up the new iPhone 12 Pro yesterday. Speeds are pretty decent for the time being. One thing I did notice is that it says Sprint/T-Mobile 5G when doing speed test. If I use my phone as a hotspot and connect my old iPhone XS Max to it and do a speed test it comes up as T-Mobile as the network. 
 

5G Speed Test and showing Sprint/T-Mobile 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qVHpOV1pUiQSEJLfLx-lasgZq7c3KFFz/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Hot Spot Speed Test showing T-Mobile

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Iek2VdxhTtWkGcX_jcNGfb8Vf-bE7x8F/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Your data is being routed through the T-Mobile network core now, so the phone Speedtest identifies the network as Sprint but the Internet provider as T-Mobile. Your hotspot speed test only knows which Internet provider it’s using, so it shows only as T-Mobile. 

46 minutes ago, clbowens said:

So, any guesses as to what they are going to announce?

 

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobile-to-announce-next-un-carrier-move-on-october-27

Perhaps the re-launch and re-branding of their T-Vision TV streaming service?

11 hours ago, RAvirani said:

To expand on this very brief answer I typed in 5 seconds...

T-Mobile has begun to enable RMOCN on certain Sprint sites. These sites will broadcast the 312/250 MCC/MNC and T-Mobile users will be able to roam on them as if they were native sites.

It is important to note that not all Sprint sites will have RMOCN enabled on them - only Sprint "keep" sites are receiving the software update. 

This is a stopgap solution while the team works to optimize inter-network handoff parameters and tonnage config. 

Thanks for explaining... now I’m curious:

What does the R stand for in RMOCN?

How is this different from what they’re doing with the 311-490 PLMN that T-Mobile customers can roam on now?

The $30 difference is actually a discount applied to the iPhone 12 (not Pro) handsets when you buy them and attach them to an AT&T or Verizon plan. AT&T and Verizon are clearly subsidizing the extra $30 here, just so Apple could say they didn’t raise the price of the handset by adding 5G. The margin on the Pro must have been big enough to absorb the cost. 

I’m sticking with the Pro line this year, so no skin off my back, but it’s a little bit frustrating to see this type of carrier wheeling and dealing from Apple. I was especially surprised to see them give Verizon airtime during the event to promote their nothingburger of a nationwide 5G network, but I guess that will help sell phones. 

2 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Neville responded to the report:

It would be one thing if it was a single source, but multiple sources? Who could have had an agenda here and what was the motivation to plant this? Perhaps Verizon/AT&T?

Consider the outlet that the journalist works for, and the weird use of "consumer 5G hardware."  This was clearly written to cause confusion amongst customers - and if you look at the replies to the original tweet, it's a lot of "my family will take their business elsewhere if this is true..."

I'm trying my hardest not to dive into politics here (and someone slap me if I get too close to the line), but it's no secret that T-Mobile got VERY cozy with the current DOJ and FCC in order to get the merger approved and the divestiture of Boost and the 800MHz spectrum to Dish facilitated.

Aside from the other big two carriers, T-Mobile's made some enemies among NWIDA with its policy changes on Metro dealer commission structure and accessory suppliers and the CWA union on its refusal to voluntarily recognize employee unionization attempts.  

5 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

I'm curious what this means for the iPhone 12 announcement coming up next week:

 

Given that they're all supposed to be 5G devices, I would not be surprised if they were homed to T-Mobile by default if the user's plan and area are eligible for the T-Mobile Network Experience.  It's an easy opportunity for T-Mo to migrate customers without requiring another interaction later.  

Looks like the CBRS licenses Shentel purchased in the latest auction are not going to be sold to T-Mobile with the rest of the wireless business.

https://www.telecompetitor.com/shentel-adds-cbrs-spectrum-launches-beam-internet/

Just now, jreuschl said:

I saw something interesting on here.  https://www.sprint.com/en/support/solutions/device/t-mobile-network-experience.html

• You will not see any changes to your Sprint bill unless you add new lines, finance or lease a new device, or make other purchases.

So while TM has committed to 3 years of keeping rate plans the same, there's a loophole for them.  Might be a problem if you want to change anything.

To be fair, doing any of those things would potentially change your bill amount anyway - it doesn't mean they'll force anyone to change rate plans when they make those changes.

26 minutes ago, 1dante said:

Found out that a guy I met in college 14 years ago is the store manager at a converted Sprint store. He told me that they should begin swapping SIM cards for the TME on the 7th. Idk how true this is though. Located in Florida. 

It makes sense that they'd want to use the iPhone 12 launch to move folks over "organically," especially since it will have 5G and the Sprint LTE Network Experience will continue to deteriorate as they refarm and reallocate spectrum.

This lines up well enough in advance of the launch.

1 hour ago, bigsnake49 said:

I am also disappointed in their integration strategy. I was expecting them to integrate the 2 networks market by market starting with the biggest markets first. That would include 4G & 5G. Is there an actual strategy?

It seems like they've got a multi-pronged strategy, at least from what we can observe, with many of these things happening in parallel:

1. (Pre-Merger) Roaming agreement for Sprint subscribers to use the T-Mobile network when Sprint isn't available
2. Implement the ROAMAHOME SOC for certain Sprint subscribers to use the T-Mobile network as primary
3. Network integration: decommission Sprint 5G, begin to refarm 2.5GHz spectrum for T-Mobile 5G and LTE, similarly begin to reallocate PCS spectrum from Sprint to T-Mobile in markets where spectrum is contiguous.  Additionally, it appears they're working on a "hybrid" of the two networks, currently with the 311-490 PLMN, that will handoff between the two legacy networks, but that does not appear to be the default network for subscribers yet.  Eventually the tower work will be done to harmonize spectrum and radio assets, that's going to take some time.
4. Begin SIM-swapping eligible and willing Sprint customers to T-Mobile, currently happening in Seattle and Kansas City: https://www.sprint.com/en/support/solutions/device/t-mobile-network-experience.html

There are a lot of moving parts to this, and they have to execute them carefully.  From the looks of things, they're moving too aggressively on #2, and not quickly enough on #3.  I imagine #4 is going to continue to roll out and will become the default for new lines and handset upgrades (especially to 5G) on Sprint accounts.  

On 9/17/2020 at 2:31 PM, schmidtj said:

Lots of “Unavailable” things. Like Neighbor Cells. Just me? Tried several current iPhone models. I’m over on T-Mobile’s system if that’s significant. 
Thanks. 

I'm having the same issues - this is definitely a step backwards from what used to be there.