AirlineFlyer

6 minutes ago, thisischuck01 said:

Another Verizon deployment, this time at the corner of Graham and Scholes (40.709250369767524, -73.94362128284861). Didn't have my Verizon SIM on hand, but it either hasn't been turned up or it's mmWave-only.

Nice! Also, I didn't previously catch on to this design easter egg. Love it!

I'm not yet sure if they're working on the Verizon or T-Mobile equipment, but a team is up on the roof of the building near the corner of Ashland Pl and DeKalb Ave in Fort Greene. The site is currently lacking n41 for tmo and n77 for Verizon (it already has at least mmWave), so I'm interested to see what happens here.

So it seems like CityBridge has a single test site up in LIC. It doesn’t have the LinkNYC kiosk but the 5G mini tower and antenna shroud is there. I hope one of us makes it out there soon. This thing is fugly.

https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/3/20/22985681/linknyc-5g-tower-lic?utm_content=buffer45c52&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer

On 2/26/2022 at 10:06 PM, Paynefanbro said:

I finally got to try Verizon's n77 while in Manhasset. I was seeing speeds as high as 580Mbps. Pings were consistently in the low 20's and dipped as low as 18ms. Because T-Mobile and Verizon are collocated on the site I was connected to, I had the opportunity to test both carriers' mid-band 5G networks in an environment where neither of their site spacing was extremely dense. Since neither of my iPhones accurately report signal strength consistently in the Service Mode screen, I had to go by bars.

Outdoors in the same spot, my Verizon line had 4 out of 5 bars and my T-Mobile line had 5 out of 5. Indoors however, T-Mobile dropped to 4 out of 5 while my Verizon line dropped down to 2 out of 5 bars. I think it's important to note though that while signal strength was generally weaker on Verizon, they still had spectacular speeds. Even at 2 bars I was seeing speeds above 350Mbps. Finally, When I went into the lower level of a store, my Verizon line dropped n77 entirely while my T-Mobile line stayed at 2 bars.

So in general, n77 speeds were similar to T-Mobile, signal strength was slightly worse, but overall it was great. Can't wait for it to be more widely available in NYC. 

I was at Industry City yesterday and one of the buildings has a Verizon n77 site located on it. I was able to get a 2 bar n77 signal inside with speeds hovering around just under 200 Mbps and pings around 30ms. Nothing very impressive seeing as the site was right next door. I wasn't actually able to test outdoor speeds because anytime I went outside my phone latched on to mmWave, so the 200 Mbps I was getting clearly wasn't a backhaul issue. I have not been impressed with n77's range or speeds so far.

The city's small cell approval data has been updated again as of a few days ago if anyone wants to take a look https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/Mobile-Telecommunications-Franchise-Pole-Reservati/tbgj-tdd6

22 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

I went up to Beacon, NY recently and found this new Verizon site on top of a fire department. Looks like it was built in Fall 2021. It has Band 2/5/13/66 and what looks like sheathed CBRS antennas. No 5G coming from this site yet.

 

T-Mobile's coverage map claims that there is Ultra Capacity 5G covering all of Beacon but I couldn't connect to it at all. All I could find is n71.

However, I did connect to n41 a few times in really remote areas while driving up. I'd occasionally see the 5GUC icon appear with 1 bar while driving through the mountains which was pretty cool. I'm sure if I were actually using my phone I'd probably spot a lot more n41 because my phone pretty much never idles on n41, it only connects during an active data session.

I was there last October and noticed this site. My iPhone pulled 333 Mbps down, 53 Mbps up on LTE. Pretty good!

11 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

Apparently those horribly large Link5G kiosks got approved recently with a bunch of caveats.

1. Links with ads can't be deployed in residential areas, only in commercial or industrial areas.
2. Only one Link is permitted to be installed per block, and only on one side of the street per block.
3. All Link kiosks must be at least 50 feet apart.
4. Landmarks Preservation Commission must review any site in a historic district.
5. They can't be installed parallel to any landmarked site.

According to the slideshow that they gave when proposing the design, each Link5G pole has 5 equipment bays. Two that are strictly for mmWave, two that can either be used for mmWave or for LTE & sub-6GHz 5G, and the remaining bay is for WiFi. As a result, a single Link5G can have up to 4 carriers.

For a bunch of cool renderings of what they look like on the street, technical details of what inside of the pole looks like, and even a heat map of WiFi coverage in southern Crown Heights before and after their installation, check out the slideshow here:

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/designcommission/downloads/pdf/10-18-2021-pres-DoITT-p-Link-5G.pdf

Deployment starts this summer, mostly focusing on the outer boroughs.

 

I think all of those restrictions are fair and necessary. There are parts of Manhattan with four or five Links on a single block, it's crazy. And these 5G Links are stupidly ugly, so the fewer the better. It's nuts that we can't just string up some mmWave antennas on existing poles like Verizon is doing in so many cities. They're really unintrusive.

7 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

I did spot some NRCA in Crown Heights last weekend. Sadly because I'm using an iPhone I can't see the exact carrier combo but it did report that it was seeing 2 NR carriers. At first I thought it was a glitch or some weird stale data because my phone was still reporting NSA 5G and the primary NR carrier was the 80MHz n41 carrier but reading Sascha's article it's quite possible that my phone was using B2+B66 +n41+n41. 

— — — — —

On another note, it looks like someone found n5+n77+B2+B66 on Verizon: 

Edit: 

Two more confirmed locations of conversion sites: 

1. T-Mobile eNB 875316
   Location: 40.7314623618499, -73.82849493999701
    
2. T-Mobile eNB 875868
   Location: 40.75304305996773, -73.85311593221213

Looks like eNB 875868 was a high capacity Sprint site with a sector pointing at Citi Field. Wonder what T-Mobile does with it. 
 

31 minutes ago, Paynefanbro said:

I noticed the same exact thing. My nearest Verizon site has C-band antennas on it and I'm getting nothing from it indoors or outdoors. Sascha Segan from PC Mag has been running around Queens trying to find it and did connect in one spot it looks like.

I thought I'd give it a day just in case it's a staggered rollout of some sort but no luck today either.

For all the hemming and hawing Verizon did about how dire the need for C-band spectrum is they really didn't seem to focus on NYC, like, at all. It's really weird. I guess they are content with the service delivery as it is for the time being. Why rush to 500 Mbps when 100 Mbps is fine.

I know this is primarily a T-Mobile/Sprint forum, but has anyone seen any evidence of Verizon C-band in NYC yet? As expected, nothing so far in Downtown Brooklyn since none of the sites have the hardware.

Spotted what I believe is some Verizon C-band on Long Island for the first time. Co-located on the same building as T-Mobile eNB 40458 in East Rockaway. 5G NW was pushing 200 Mbps at the site before C-band goes live next week.

A monopole in Hewlett right at the LIRR station has been upgraded in the past few months to a full n41 array

This was a few months ago (top Verizon, middle was Nextel, Clearwire, then Sprint, bottom started as Metro PCS)

I think it’s still just Verizon right now, but Boingo activated LTE in a portion the LIRR tunnel between Atlantic Terminal and Nostrand Avenue. The rest of the tunnels between Nostrand and Jamaica are still dark. What’s online now, though, is stupid fast for LTE.

23 hours ago, thisischuck01 said:

Did a quick scan of some DOB filings and it looks like Sprint is the only carrier on there. There's a facade to hide the antennas, but it's missing in some of the Streetview shots (north-facing sector, south-facing sector).

I always suspected those protrusions were covering antennas but never knew for sure, thanks! It looks like the antennas are facing towards the BQE and away from the Park, unfortunately. And I don't see a third sector anywhere actually facing the park. Hopefully T-Mobile changes the config a bit to boost park coverage.

14 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

eNB 9339 in Brooklyn Heights is broadcasting the keep PLMN. I noticed that my phone dropped down to LTE while driving down Furman St and quickly confirmed in Service Mode.

Location: 40.693452718096985, -73.99994097994443

That’s great. T-Mobile is always so weak and slow in Brooklyn Bridge Park. I didn’t know Sprint was on this building, are the antennas visible from anywhere? Are any other carriers on it?

11 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

I'm glad you said this because location 2 and 3 are the locations of two small cells that according to the NYC DoITT were installed in late 2010/early 2011 by Extenet and they actually belonged to Clearwire. They were super rare WiMax small cells that got converted to LTE

Clearwire had small cells?! 🤯 There is so much legacy Clearwire stuff around the city, it's crazy. But I never knew they used small cells.

20 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

Hopefully they're able to convince communities that have been resistant to traditional monopoles to allow upgrades similar to this: 

I'm certain that they're going to be getting a ton of pushback not only from T-Mobile but also from Verizon, AT&T, and Dish since antennas are only getting larger. Hiding sites as flagpoles is going to become more difficult and in generally looks even uglier than just having the antennas visible.

For example, this one in Valley Stream:

Another option is to sheath them similar to how it's done throughout the Boston metro area. There are a ton of chimneys and steeples that are hiding antennas. They can be easily augmented to include more antennas but generally take longer to upgrade because of the much longer approval process but at least you won't be limited in terms of what bands you can deploy.

A good example of this is Newton City Hall which is hiding all Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint antennas in its steeple. MetroPCS was on it at one point but their antennas were removed in 2014 according to permits.

 

It’s funny, that Valley Stream site was the exact one I was thinking of. The top section for T-Mobile hasn’t had the cover over antennas in years. The Lower larger portion, I believe, is a Verizon addition. Some of these also had Metro latched on the exterior. I highly doubt Valley Stream allows a full replacement to monopole since these do sorta blend in nicely, so T-Mobile’s network is always going to struggle here until it can figure out a replacement plan. 

4 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

Was confirming some sites in Cellmapper and found a site in Carteret, NJ (eNB 52217) where T-Mobile decommissioned their 2/66 flagpole site and moved to a nearby monopole that I think was Verizon's. Looks like they collocated on the site last year but the flagpole site was up and broadcasting until this summer when it was finally decommissioned and demolished.

I'm happy to see that T-Mobile is ditching a lot of these flagpoles during this round of upgrades.

Before:

 

After:

 

Here's a better look at the site. I'm kinda surprised they didn't bother with adding n41.

Going to be fun to see how this plays out on Long Island, specifically through Nassau and Valley Stream. T-Mobile has a ton of these flagpole sites that just can’t fit modern antennas and there really aren’t many suitable sites to move to. Wonder where they go from here.

Verizon site 81345 by Prospect Park on Ocean Ave at Lincoln Road appears to have C-band ready to go. Looks to have shrouded mmWave but I was unable to find that signal.

There’s also a Verizon site with mmWave right by Barclays Center on Pacific Street that isn’t currently on cellmapper. Wish I could map with iOS. 

mmWave oDAS is here...and it looks nothing like what NYC approved as the design

On 11/28/2021 at 11:43 AM, thisischuck01 said:

Also, would be nice if the DOITT updated their database a bit more often, the last update was in May...

The data was updated today: https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/Mobile-Telecommunications-Franchise-Pole-Reservati/tbgj-tdd6

NY SMA (Verizon?) looks to be installing a really dense network in Staten Island. Could this be a mmWave deployment?

14 hours ago, thisischuck01 said:

This is AT&T. They've got a permit for microwave there, plus the antenna on the left is Kathrein gear.

This is Verizon. 

Oh, huh! The Verizon pin is on the wrong side of the street on cellmapper then, while AT&T is missing entirely. Thanks!

A few sites of interest here in Fort Greene, Washginton Ave at DeKalb. I know the first is Verizon eNB 84421, running LTE only on those small antennas. But unlike T-Mobile with a similar site in the area, speeds are very good, 200+ Mbps.

Across the street, though, I'm not sure who this is. It's not mapped on Cellmapper. I suspect it's AT&T but mapper for that carrier is weak. Any thoughts?

Verizon

Unknown, maybe AT&T?

12 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

I don't think Verizon is deploying those smaller CBRS/LAA antennas anymore. They look like some of the newer outdoor WiFi APs. Given the direction it's facing and the area it's in I wouldn't be surprised if it belongs to Spectrum.

Really weird to see a co-location like that. Does anyone actually use Spectrum Wi-Fi outdoors? It's has been universally awful in my experience. Maybe Spectrum Mobile phones prefer it over cellular? I'd love to see Verizon start to co-locate its equipment on some of the many rooftops that Spectrum has its junky old Wi-Fi equipment on, though.

Looks like another Verizon site with mmWave is up in Brooklyn. Flatbush and 6th Ave. Also does it look like it's sporting LAA on the side focused right down Flatbush? eNB 84402.