cooltech6597

Saw 40+20 n41 CA at Findlay over the weekend. Was interesting to see...

North of Detroit I got 1.1gbps on 140mhz n41 on a Sprint convert site (enb 122593). Maybe it's Rocket Fiber backhaul left over from Sprint?

https://imgur.com/a/emM8ZEL

Took a trip up to Sleeping Bear Dunes, and T-Mo has converted Sprint enb 729389 to T-Mo 122073, which gives the dunes native coverage. The site has n41 40mhz but seems to be backhaul capped (screenshots below). It's probably not very well optimized either because there's a large area of no service in between sectors. There are like 6 new Sprint conversions along US 10 between Midland and Clare, all with n41.

100+40mhz n41 is live in the Detroit area

T-Mobile n41 last April vs Now. So many upgrades in the past year

https://imgur.com/a/sIrYiuZ

Don't know when this happened but Sprint B41 BW has finally been cut here in Toledo area. It was 2xB41 40mhz when I last checked in March, but now it has been dropped to 15mhz.

Recently took a trip down to the Red River Gorge area. They converted the one Sprint site along the way on Bert T Combs Pkwy (enb 117578), but n41/b41 wasn't on the tower. They also upgraded one of the native tmo towers there to 2,12,66,71 (enb 35565) and I could easily get 300mbps on it. Coverage was just as spotty as when I went last year, but I had an AT&T redpocket Sim card which had service almost everywhere I went in that area. Here is a AT&T/T-Mo setup near Nada, KY (enb 39878):

My library (Toledo Lucas County) is doing something similar, except you can only check out for 63 days at a time. Picked one up today and it's pretty nice.

15 hours ago, iansltx said:

The thing with roaming is, T-Mobile could roll a bunch of Starlink-backhauled 600-only sites with both LTE and NR and largely get the coverage they need. But that requires more cpex. Sounds like they intend to coast once they hit 2024, which is when AT&T and VZW will be going ham on C-Band. If VZW and AT&T execute, T-Mobile will have to invest in the network rather than doing share buybacks because they have nothing better to do with the money. Hopefully that competitive dynamic actually happens.

Yup. Found a few sites in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that only has LTE b71 5mhz broadcasting due to satellite backhaul. Sad thing is that 1 of those sites were placed very well where the other 2 didn't have service, but only calls worked. Hopefully if Starlink decides to make some enterprise version of their pro tier dish T-Mobile could start also broadcasting n71 SA on those sites too.

19 hours ago, jreuschl said:

Until the tower backhaul is upgraded I assume we will not see much for speed improvements.

Some have seen 1+gbps on non-CA speed tests with proper backhaul.

Yeah, the main benefit with NR CA for me is getting n41 for up to about 2.5 miles. Indoors where it used to be b71 LTE 10/1 can now do 170/5 with N71+N41.

Found NR CA in the Toledo, Ohio area! Speedtest/service mode

Map of Dish permits in Toledo. I wonder if they've completed their first towers in this area which they filed permits for back in June, will have to check that out sometime.

T-Mobile has done a lot within the past year in the Toledo and NW Ohio area! Seems as they've started upgrading the west half of Toledo quite rapidly recently, and converting Sprint sites. I've found 2 Sprint keeps, which are now eNBs 117311 and 117292. Can't wait for some more rural Sprint towers to be converted to T-Mobile native, as a lot of rural coverage in this area is relying on Sprint. Density is amazing with the addition of Sprint keeps, with a lot of Sprint keeps being just down the street or LOS of the nearest T-Mobile site.

N41 coming along very nicely in the Toledo area, with a lot of coverage & n41 density added. Backhaul is adequate in all of this region, since most sites can hit 700mbps from my testing. Downtown seems to have some congestion on N41 since I max out at 300mbps on most sites (downtown T-Mobile testing video). Some sites (like 109293) have taken quite a few months to get a backhaul bump to gig so a 250mbps cap on newly upgraded n41 does often occur. Very nice to see that rural sites are getting upgrades to n41 as well, which should boost T-Mobile's Home Internet customer base. Over the summer, it seems as T-Mobile has done a significant backhaul upgrade to most of their sites, including old 12/66 and 66 only towers. A notable example of this is eNB 27071, which used to have 100+ms ping and speeds of about 10/50 during the day. Now it performs much better with consistent 16-17ms ping and speeds spiking up to 70 during the day.

LTE B2 has also had a spectrum increase earlier this year, going from 5 -> 15, and then later 15 -> 20. This has allowed many rural 2 + 12 sites to finally be able to go above 20mbps consistently, and can deliver 150mbps on 2,12,71 sites along the interstate. However, I've experienced much slower upload on B2 20mhz compared to B66 20mhz, which can consistently do 50-60 up on good signal.

In comparison to Verizon and AT&T, T-Mobile is definitely the most active carrier in this area. Verizon is definitely working really hard in Detroit, as I've found plenty of VZ CBand sites along i-75 during my quick trip up to Detroit a couple days ago. However in this area T-Mobile is definitely gaining on the other two, not only in speed but also reliability. I have stronger indoor coverage with T-Mobile than Verizon in most places. T-Mobile also is at a huge spectrum ownership advantage over the other two as T-Mobile has 2 LTE 20mhz midband channels, and of course access to all 194mhz of b41. AT&T has a lot of fragmented spectrum, and is doing n66 5mhz on a few sites closer to downtown. Verizon has deployed CBRS in many places but it hasn't made much of an impact on the network as much as T-Mobile's n41 has. Verizon is only so good in Detroit because they own so much spectrum up there.

I'm excited to see what T-Mobile will do in the coming year. Fixing up rural with Sprint conversions would be a priority before the Sprint LTE shutdown next summer. They also need to enable n41 SA and n71 + n41 aggregation, since I've found the main reason for short n41 range is due to the LTE midband anchor dropping off before the n41 channel does. Better backhaul and small cells would be much welcome. Given the state of C-Band availability for ATT and Verizon and Toledo not being in in the early 2022 markets for C-Band launch, T-Mobile has time to get n41 everywhere and in rural. They just need to do it.

14 minutes ago, Dkoellerwx said:

Cellmapper has a layer for the 312250 PLMN. Evidently it's been around for a while although I just realized it last week.

I haven't been able to map to the 312250 plmn. Every time I connect to sprint the towers and trails all map to 310120.

I have marked over a cellmapper screenshot of the T-Mobile network in the Toledo area. I have marked with blue existing n41 sites and circled with red are towers/locations that have permits for upgrades from what I can find on the Toledo permit portal. Yellow dots are towers that I've been able to connect to that have the 312250 PLMN. None of these are completely accurate and I probably am missing the majority of sprint keeps throughout this area.

https://imgur.com/a/F20rFBv

7 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

I finally got those gigabit peak speeds on n41 that T-Mobile always talks about.

 

Great speeds! Are n41 sites nearby also getting such backhaul and are you able to do a traceroute or something to find out if this is Lumen fiber?