bigsnake49

Pcell worked liked MU-MIMO but using completely different tech plus it incorporated C-RAN inter overall network architecture. Their antennas were just that, antennas, with the RRH functionality incorporated at the C-RAN software. 

If was Artemis Networks I would have bought a small wireless company to demonstrate all the concepts live.

2 hours ago, the_intern said:

T-Mobile has been installing M-MIMO equipment for PCS/AWS for a while. There are quite a few sites in Northern Utah that received these upgrades as part of the 600 rollout. 

8Tx8R is not exactly Massive MIMO.

14 hours ago, ingenium said:

Sprint's 8T8R radios have been recertified for NR. If Sprint was still independent they could flip a software switch and basically have N41 coverage everywhere... but a more likely scenario is that T-mobile will redeploy the 8T8R equipment as they decommission Sprint sites. Either to add N41 to a T-Mobile site, or to add it in addition to a M-MIMO unit to add B41 and eventually additional N41 carriers (M-MIMO units can't utilize the full 160 MHz of B41). Having that much equipment already should hopefully speed up the deployment and number of sites they put it on.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 

Are the 8T8R and 64x64 MIMO radios compatible between vendors? Like can Samsung radios be used in Ericsson markets, Ericsson radios in Nokia markets, etc? Or does each vendors radios have to be used only with their own enodeBs? In that case what happens with all the Samsung radios?

5 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

What makes you think they aren't? It's only been 4 almost 5 months since the merger was approved, this stuff takes time..

 

Sent from my SM-G975U1 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

What market have they completed in the manner we have discussed? 

3 minutes ago, Tengen31 said:

Yes some 2.5 is showing up on LTE as well as 5G

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So what's stopping them from putting M-MIMO on all their sites in a market, maybe even host 20Mhz on their band 2/25, and then re-sim all Sprint phones in the same market.

Does anybody know whether T-Mobile partition their M-MIMO between NR41 and B41?

7 minutes ago, dkyeager said:

I believe most users were resimmed and now use T-Mobile.

Thanks, I did not know if they had done that. Do they get to roam on Sprint if T-Mobile has no service?

A more simple question. Does Boost still use Sprint as their base network or T-Mobile?

Just as an OT, the CBRS auction just concluded yesterday with $4.58B in proceeds. The FCC has not announce the names of the winners yet.

Very nice, what phone?

2 hours ago, 645824 said:

Since the August 1 change-over date, my Sprint speeds have been poor.   I'm on  b41.   Before then, I was easily getting 30-60 Mbps on all of my three Sprint devices (HTC 5G hotspot; in 4G LTE mode).  But after August 1, I've been getting   nothing,  or 3 Mbps, or perhaps 10-30 Mbps occasionally.  This is on the tower at 261 Orange Ave, ZIP=95363.

So at this point, I am not a happy New T-Mobile customer.  But I have to stick with my three HTC units (load balanced into one connection) since I have the 100 GB/month Sprint plan for each of my three 3 units (i.e.  300 GB/month).  Cable doesn't come to my neighborhood, DSL is spec'd at only 3 Mbps here, and I'm still waiting for SpaceX.  So this wireless connectivity is my only Internet.  And I'm not in "the country"; I'm 2 miles outside of the city limit.  I have flat panel antennas attached to each of my HTC's and pointed at the cell tower.  I have 4 bars on each, so it isn't my antennas or boxes, it is T-Mobile diddling with the tower.

Since T-Mobile is still dragging their feet on their fixed wireless Home Internet in my area, I'm stuck.   For my HTC boxes, it isn't clear what the path forward is.  There haven't been any software updates in awhile.  I did start getting a monthly rebate of $15/month per device from Sprint when they announced turning off 5G.  Whoop-tee-doo, they had never turned it on at my tower anyway.

Scott

 

You're not the only one, reddit is full of people complaining about losing Sprint B41 coverage. 

It's not the way I would have done it. I would have targeted one market at a time and integrated the network completely (including 5G) at which time they would have been migrated to the T-Mobile billing system which would have contained all the different Sprint plans and discounts. Then on to the next market and the next.

55 minutes ago, greenbastard said:

Or is savvy enough to do it or understand the process. Phones without VoLTE are going to be severely handicapped moving forward (which is a massive amount of Sprint users). Decommissioning Sprint towers means removing 1xRTT coverage (specifically, indoor coverage).

It's a bold move by T-Mobile. Especially since Verizon is also killing off CDMA in major urban areas, so there isn't any roaming to fallback on.

I would have long left Sprint if it was not for their 1x voice coverage which is very good.

1 hour ago, JonnygATL said:

Just turn off Sprint bands on your phone. 

Not everybody has a phone that can do that. 

51 minutes ago, greenbastard said:

From that article;

 

 

Sprint customers are about to have a bad time.

I don't think that they will be able to decommission all redundant sites by the end of the current quarter. Maybe they can decommission redundant sites whose leases end this quarter. But the question still remains. Will the Sprint subscribers it served be given full access to the T-Mobile Network or not? Will Boost subs be given full access to the T-Mobile network before Sprint subs?

3 minutes ago, cyclone said:

With network upgrades being 5G centric as well as Sprint subs being left off the T-Mo network unless no other Sprint signal can be found, will result in an even smaller footprint. Yes this is assuming that majority of the redundant sites torn down being that of Sprint's network. Until there is consistent network sharing, Sprint subs will be weaned off the network through 5G device upgrades or through leaving due to shrinking service.

If I am AT&T or Verizon, I'd devise some attractive incentives to bring disgruntled Sprint customers over.

4 minutes ago, dro1984 said:

Not sure I follow you?    If the site is "redundant" meaning there is a T-Mobile site there too or very near by, why would it cause problems?   We will all be on one network soon, ... some sooner than others.    

That assumes that hey move over band 26 or replace it by band 12 or b71 (if you have a compatible phone) they move over band 25 spectrum and possibly add another RRH and move over B41 panels/RRHs or replace them with T-Mobile compatible panels/RRHs with b41/n41 MMIMO and give you access to them via a SIM swap or something. Roaming is not working real well right now since you have to lose coverage before it will switch you over.

9 minutes ago, dro1984 said:

Very interesting article from the T-Mobile Oppenheimer webchat yesterday.  It included network upgrade plans.  

SDX Central News article:   T-Mobile Details $40B Network Upgrade Strategy

It's all about 5G, nothing about LTE integration on PCS or new SIMs. So their network integration strategy is if you're on Sprint, you better move to 5G or else...

I was just trying to see if b41 on my Sprint phone was prevalent while driving to pick up a pizza. While it was available outside my condo, coverage died out quickly west of A1A and Sprint's B25 took over. B26 inside the pizzeria. No B41 until about a quarter mile west of A1A going east towards home. Probably a B41 small cell. No T-Mobile bands appeared on my Sprint phone anywhere on that trip and scant B41 coverage. I do believe T-Mobile has much better coverage on this route. I can't wait to see what T-Mobile will do but so far nothing has changed.

11 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Think T-Mobile will bid on this 5G spectrum?: https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2307275/white-house-and-dod-announce-additional-mid-band-spectrum-available-for-5g-by-t/

“The White House and Department of Defense announced today that 100 megahertz (MHz) of contiguous mid-band spectrum, in the 3450-3550 MHz band, will be available for 5G by the end of the summer.“

More info: https://breakingdefense.com/2020/08/pentagon-gives-up-huge-slice-of-spectrum-for-5g/

“The White House formally made the request in April. Roughly 200 technical experts from all four armed services, the Office of Secretary of Defense, and the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy studied the problem for 15 weeks. The FCC, which has already endorsed the plan, will start auctioning the spectrum off in December 2021, Kratsios said, with commercial use beginning “as soon as mid-2022.””

I’m sure AT&T/Verizon will fight hard for it.

And there goes T-Mobile spectrum advantage between that, CBRS and C-Band. 

7 hours ago, Tengen31 said:

He is wrong they are still doing LTE work. Sprints PCS spectrum will be LTE, people have seen 20-40 MHz of B41 on TMO LTE

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All I know is that people on reddit complaining that they have lost coverage on B41 when they had it before. Or going from 100Mbps+ on B41 to 1-5 Mbps. My MB is still working on B41 so I'm not complaining. 

Look T-Mobile elected to merge the networks on 5G tech not 4G. That is a dangerous assumption to make in that you're hoping that your subscribers will quickly move to 5G so that you don't have to integrate 4G networks. You're also hoping not to have to subsidize the handset transition.

When they say that decommissioning has started, are they actually transferring B41, B26 antennas/RRHs over to the T-Mobile racks? Or are they decommissioning sites with B41 and just using the 2.5 spectrum for 5G on the new site? What's happening to band 25 spectrum and RRHs from the Sprint sites they are decommissioning? I have seen Sprint subs complaining that they have lost B41 coverage all of a sudden. 

On 8/4/2020 at 7:10 PM, iansltx said:

Dish is making unconventional decisions to save money. It will succeed in doing so. As someone who uses Ting, their billing systems are fine. Nothing super special, but fine. As someone who runs plenty of stuff on cloud services, they're fine, but I'm skeptical about putting them at the core of your mobile network. Using a smaller company for NR gear may be fine, but Dish will be the first one Fujitsu builds low band NR equipment for.

If one of these links in the chain goes askew, Dish will wind up competing against CricKet/Metro/Visible rather than the postpaid equivalents. They may have enough of a cost advantage to make a go of it, just like CricKet/MetroPCS did back in the day. But it's definitely a tougher road when you can't get anyone to pay more than $45/mo for your service.

Rakuten was the pioneer in cloudified RAN or C-RAN.They are selling their expertise in putting together their network. I can see even the RRH's converted into software run on general-purpose hardware and just the antennas being at the site. Of course you need dependable and inexpensive fronthaul for all this to work. Rakuten could find that in Japan but is the US fiber situation similar?

2 hours ago, greenbastard said:

Why don't you think there isn't any money to be made out of IoT? There's already vending machines, cars/trucks, security systems that require Cellular connectivity. What makes you think the demand isn't there? The automatization of farming/agriculture is going to be huge for IoT.

The US has already automated all of that. There are vey, very few automation efforts that need the low latency of 5g. For example control system scans for Utilities are 3-5 secs. Automated metering  data are cached and only need to be sent at 5 minute intervals. IoT connections are $1-2/month. Automated cars and trucks need precise GPS and collision avoidance  but no cellular connectivity, unless you want to stream audio and video. There's an effort to utilize Cellular V2X over LTE but the technology is way ahead of its time. Let's get the autonomous driving part down before we use V2V or V2N. Plus those applications can be just accommodate by IEEE 802.11p a short range comm protocol.

I love this stuff:

“Standalone 5G really is the future of wireless connectivity,” said Karri Kuoppamaki, vice president of Technology Development and Strategy at T-Mobile, who noted that SA is what enables the more transformative 5G capabilities like self-driving vehicles, super-charged IoT and real-time translation.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/t-mobile-launches-nationwide-5g-standalone-network

Good luck making money out of IoT. 🤣

Which reminds me, N41 is not included in the 5G SA launch so they have to expend additional time to bring that over. They could not wait until now to connect both n71 and n41 to the SA network?