falconhand

Yep! It's been up for a couple months. Still not live unfortunately. 

7 hours ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

One big thing I forgot to mention from my roaming this weekend, both n258 and n260 have been installed at the Olive Tower location in downtown Seattle:

4CC n260. This was tested on the AEWB panel facing the strip mall right at the corner of the parking lot, closest to the antenna. First parking lot in question! For some reason I was struggling to get much above 2.1gbps on my Samsung S22+ or S21, but my iPhone was doing far better. Field Test mode wouldn't show me anything useful. 

Took the 550 over to Bellevue today before class to have a look, and was able to pull just over 3.7gbps! (Imgur link below). 

No n258 unfortunately, which would have been fun to test. Hopefully it will go live on the Olive Tower site in Downtown Seattle soon. That site is currently waiting on fiber. 

https://imgur.com/a/mQ2Mfm7

Tested on iPhone 14 Pro Max 

19 hours ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

Finally broke 1gig! We stopped by the Ramen place and I locked my phone to LTE+n261 and got 1.1Gbps. This is despite me being deprioritized (over 50Gb this month) and it being CRAZY crowded today. The park is jam packed.

Congrats! Did you happen to notice if n258 was installed yet? Last time I visited the site there were workers up installing *something*, but I couldn't stay long enough to see what. 

Unfortunately I won't be headed that way in the near future, wish I could though. Would love to map & speedtest that new site! 

Also, a friend and I visited the Gregg's site again and hit nearly 3gbps on the 4cc n260. Impressive optimization! There was also someone working on the tower while we were there, possibly installing AWEUC/D n258?

N25 live in Seattle downtown, checking Kitsap tonight, will update. Speeds 60/40 on 10x10 carrier, also sighted aggregating with n41 SA as PCC. 

S22+, but I got the same speeds on my backup S21. Tested in the parking lot of the little strip mall for the best mmWave speeds. I found the best n41 speeds on the sector facing the Borgata apartments (around 1400mbps). I was surprised to see such good speeds, as I paid it a visit on Sunday while the city was busy after Seafair. 

Wow! Successfully passed 2.1gbps at the Gregg's site in Bellevue. 4cc n260. Did they acquire more 260 spectrum in King County, or just some sort of STA? 

https://imgur.com/a/IBHqz2P

N41 SA confirmed out in Kitsap County, no luck on VoNR unfortunately. 

Just now, PedroDaGr8 said:

Hmm, I haven't tried that particular one yet. I will test it the next time I am down in that area. For whatever reason, I can never break 1gig at the Gregg's bicycle site even though I know it is gig+. I can get close (850 range) but never cross it.

Oh that's strange. I've visited the Greggs site a couple times and pulled north of 1200mbps each time (Only if I get on n41, mmWave maxes out around 700 on 1cc.) 

Just now, PedroDaGr8 said:

Most sites around me at least have gig backhaul but so far I have never crossed the gig barrier when doing a speed test. 

 

 

I did encounter a site that cracked 1Gbps along SR520 on my way to Redmond, I believe it was 84088 but I could be mistaken as I was moving on the highway. The other two Gig+ sites I've seen is the Gregg's site in Bellevue, and the site on McMahon Hall at UW Seattle. 

I have also noticed several sites that were prevously 500k range eNB Sprint conversions get moved over to 887xxx range eNBs. Some of these sites had sub-100mbps backhaul before (and thus unusable speeds), and were upgraded to gigabit (netting the typical 650-750mbps speeds). Good to see forward motion on improving the rather dismal backhaul situation, hopefully they continue to expand gigabit and gig+ backhaul. 

51 minutes ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

As an aside, I wonder if they are testing VoNR here. Since I have an S22U instead of an S21, my phone isn't setup for VoNR.  Maybe someone with an S21 in the area can chime in. 

I can check both n41 SA and VoNR out in Kitsap today. 

1 hour ago, Rickie546 said:

Where this at??

Western Washington, mostly up Highway 101 between Aberdeen and Port Angeles, and Highway 3 between Shelton and Belfair. 

Very strange. Hoping it's just a bug with the map. 

Just noticed a coverage map update today... Seems like the map is no longer showing coverage from a whole list of rural towers here. Map bug? Or actual decommissions? Unless the leases were hideously expensive, I can't see them removing a whole bunch of rural sites while maintaining they are going after a rural expansion. 

eNBs missing (so far):

95590, 93818, 91494, 89575, 96559, 175558, 96463, 

Excited to test it on the gig+ backhaul site at the University of Washington tomorrow, previously was maxing out around 1100mbps on 100MHz. 

https://imgur.com/a/6642kIq

Second n41 carrier spotted out in Kitsap County today! 100+40 as expected, given the recent spectrum shifting. 

Would anyone happen to know if there are plans for new colocations or new build sites in Silverdale, WA? I was reviewing previous permits to try and determine why performance at the mall, Costco, etc is so incredibly poor, and noticed that when T-Mobile upgraded their site there with 71 and 41, they strongly deemphasized the heavy load areas around the mall and other stores (Photo attached). This change in azimuth would lead me to speculate that they plan a new site to be built, so I was wondering if this was an accurate assumption or if it’s just one of T-Mobile’s questionable decisions. Thank you!

NR CA live out in Kitsap County! Got n41 as SCC, with n71 PCCing. Couldn't force n41 by itself for some reason. 

These strand mounts also are deployed with Band 46 (LAA), in my experience. I have yet to encounter a strand mount with exclusively 2/66. 

I have been very happy to see T-Mobile densifying in my area, including several new rural sites out along Highway 3, 108, and the 8/12 corridor out to the coast. Unfortunately Sprint can't fix their deadzone at Pacific Beach, but it will certainly help on the way there! 

I appreciate the information and help Definitely helps me understand some of the decisions they have been making. Here's to hoping they continue to address their weak spots (like Silverdale) with new builds in the years to come! 

Thank you for pulling that information! 

I agree, it seems unlikely that there would be a need for such capacity, but I know of several other Sprint retain sites that are within spitting distance of T-Mobile existing or new build sites around here. Some examples of such are:

81970 & 505922

85241 & (currently yet unmigrated) Sprint 746000

94058 and 505912

T-Mobile is also installing a new colocation on the old inactive Clearwire site at 47.555280 -122.681103, which is right next to 85240, though at a slightly higher elevation (I presume to enhance capacity to the new neighborhood going in nearby, though this area is already covered very well by 89246.) 

From my outside perspective, it seems like they are building in ridiculous amounts of capacity on the assumption that they will snatch some home internet customers, as the cable situation out here is ... shoddy at best, and monopolized by either Wave Broadband or Comcast, depending on neighborhood. 

1 minute ago, RAvirani said:

Looks like my info was out of date - checked again this morning and that site is a listed as a conversion site.

Interestingly enough, they’re still showing a candidate at Lund & Bethell (47.51765, -122.63022), although it’s not added into the active program…

Interesting. That's currently a Verizon site, and they just recently changed from a dual rack, quad panel Amphenol setup (two per rack), to dual NHH-65C-R3B on a single rack per sector. No c band installed. That could possibly be intended to make space for another colocation. I suppose T-Mobile may be considering both the sprint retain and a new colocation, though the only reason I could see for that would be densification with Home Internet in mind. 

Of course, the density they've been building out here with a combination of new builds, colocations, and Sprint retains is pretty astounding. 

9 hours ago, RAvirani said:

746958 and 747190 will both be converted. 745791 doesn’t appear to be slated for conversion…I’ll see if I can figure out why. 

That's strange. 745791 is in a weak area for T-Mobile, and has been broadcasting 312-250 from the get go. (In fact, it was the site that I discovered the PLMN on in the first place). There's an outstanding permit (screenshot attached), but very limited public information. 

Hi! 

I have been closely watching the T-Mobile 5G buildout and gradual decommissioning of the Sprint network in the Seattle area. There are a few sites, though, that I cannot see permits on or have had outstanding permits for a very long time, and was curious regarding the conversion timeline to T-Mobile native. 

The main sites I have been avidly watching and waiting for are eNBs 746958 on Green Mountain, 747190 on Key Peninsula, and 745791.