bigsnake49

I actually roamed on band 4 but like everything else except band 41 by the front door it gave me very weak Speedtest results: around 2Mbps. I don't think they have merged band 2/25 in our area or if they have, it is so congested that the speed tests are still going to be rather disappointing. Maybe if/when Sprint supports eSIM so that I can move my Sprint account to my 10XR with additional Band 66/71 bandwidth.

6 minutes ago, Trip said:

 

Whew, indeed!  Good thing everyone has landlines and can fall back on them to call 911 when the cell towers go out at random.

- Trip

You can make emergency calls on other networks when you have no service on yours. 

6 minutes ago, blakebaa said:

This is what I'm currently "stuck with" all morning.

Man, I feel sorry for you 😂. I mean the signal strength is just pitiful and your Speedtest just paltry.

1 minute ago, shaferz said:

It's times like this that I am glad I live where I live.  The closest native tmobile site is 14 miles away, and there is a Sprint tower less than a mile from me.  I'm hanging on by a thread right now hoping that tmobile comes in and does a full 'new tmobile' build on this existing sprint site.  If I have to default to native tmobile coverage right now, I'm boned.

Well, before they integrated MetroPCS network around Florida, T-Mobile's network was pretty weak. Give credit to Metro, they colocated on each and every Verizon site. Conversely during Sprint's let's replace macro sites with monopoles, small cells and MBs phase, Sprint's weakened. 

9 hours ago, S4GRU said:

And this is the truth that many of us are going to learn.  T-Mobile is not perfect everywhere.  They have some markets where they have some real bad towers here and there.  And there are some entire markets that aren't that good.  But if the New T-Mobile fully leverages Sprint spectrum and add every Sprint site that expands coverage or provides additional capacity, it will get really good.  Probably the best. 

Sprint failed to leverage Nextel sites to expand coverage and capacity to its full extent.  Not even half its extent.  Hopefully NTmo will take it to the maximum.  But their comments about existing Sprint sites sound kinda lukewarm.  No I won't hold my breath.

If Tmo really wants to take it to the Duopoly, they need to keep every Sprint site that adds any coverage (and upgrade it, of course).  They should also try to add Nextel locations that expand coverage too.  And then any Sprint in-footprint sites that are not co-located With Tmo where density improvement or capacity would be helpful.  

Robert

They will keep about 11,000 non-colocated Sprint macro sites and add around 10,000 new macro sites. Not to mention any small cells. If T-mobile is smart they will leverage the cable cos ability to add strand and pole mounted small cells without permits. In addition to leasing/hosting Comcast's and Columbia Capital's 600MHz spectrum.

1 minute ago, blakebaa said:

With all that being said.. Something happened overnight in the Minnesota market. I can't seem to get back on to my Sprint signal. I've always had a pretty low connection at my house(-110 to -115dBm) on Sprint, but now I'm completely stuck on the T-mo network and it's showing as fully native. Speeds over 150mbps, compared to my 3-5mbps on Sprint.. So far, I'm a happy camper.

I wish I was as lucky as you. Guess they are targeting major markets first. I am still holding on Sprint's band 25 & 26. 

1 hour ago, dewbertdc said:

Good news for T-Mobile low band capacity in a whole bunch of markets. This should help ease some of the transition on the “new T-Mobile” network with Sprint users coming over.

“T-Mobile has entered into a three-year arrangement with LB License Co. — a company controlled by the venture capital firm Columbia Capital — for a 600 MHz paid leasing arrangement.

The deal with Columbia Capital gives T-Mobile immediate access to between 10 and 30 MHz of additional 600 MHz spectrum in various markets, including St. Louis, San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles, among others.”
 

https://www.fiercewireless.com/operators/t-mobile-leases-600-mhz-spectrum-from-columbia-capital

Isn't Coulmbia Capital the company that bought AT&T's 600Mhz winnings?

The nation’s No. 2 mobile network operator filed a document with the FCC indicating it would transfer its 600 MHz holdings to LB License Company, an affiliate of Columbia Capital, a Beltway-area venture firm focused on telecom and media. 

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/at-t-looks-to-sell-600-mhz-spectrum-to-lb-license-co-for-nearly-1b

3 minutes ago, jreuschl said:

Not sure if these are a couple of TM employees but I read the following on Reddit:

"All 100% compatible T-Mobile compatible devices will be getting an OTA update between now and July, registering the devices on both networks, many of the newer devices are reporting it looks like T-MOBILE bands are the priority and they now fall back on the sprint network.

Which is ultimately the goal. Over half of sprints currently activated devices are 100% T-Mobile compatible. If they can get as many devices onto T-Mobile’s network now, it lessens the blow when they start network integration"

"The OTA will be for the SIM card and not the devices. What they will do is set the T-Mobile PLMN as the 2nd home network on the SIM cards and the devices will see the T-Mobile network as native."

From: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sprint/comments/g4aoxs/this_is_how_to_disable_sprint_bands_on_the_pixel/

I can't wait!

Well, I roamed but on band 17 (is that the same as 12?) or does it indicate AT&T?

6 minutes ago, chamb said:

Is it possible that somebody might come up with a way to do MIMO on band 71 with some kind of antenna magic?  Consider how small the antennas are for band 71 in the phone.  Any company that can come up with a MIMO antenna for band 71 would probably have all the market to themselves for awhile.  I do realize the antennas in a phone are not going to ever be the same at a base station. But we can hope that the base station  antennas can be improved.

In order to have massive MIMO at that frequency and to have a reasonably sized antenna each of the antenna elements will have to be a smaller and smaller fraction of the wavelength. Efficiency suffers when your element size is an ever decreasing size of the wavelength. If I remember my RF theory classes, coverage might suffer. Of course a lot has changed since the 1970s when I took that class :).

11 hours ago, S4GRU said:

That's too bad.  I was hoping to see L600 MIMO along major routes an din rural towns.

Robert

You already have 4x4 MIMO on band 71. You just can't have massive MIMO at those frequencies because the antenna would be huge.

2 hours ago, RAvirani said:

The plan is to add a M-MIMO 2500 panel to T-Mobile sites. I think it is unlikely they will add 800 to T-Mobile sites. If they do, it will likely just be a stopgap in areas where they do not own 700 MHz and 600 MHz isn't ready for deployment yet. As they shut off Sprint sites, they will accumulate 800 equipment, so it wouldn't be much expense to them. 

I think they want to shut off the Sprint sites that they don't want to keep as soon as possible. On the other hand they can't get rid of 800MHz until 3 years from now. Even then it is not guaranteed that Dish will pick up the option to buy it. If Dish does not, what then?

3 hours ago, dkyeager said:

 

You guys seen any n41/b41 going up on T-Mobile sites yet? Or AWS 600/700 on Sprint sites? Pics if possible would be great. Stay safe.

I'm not sure we will see any yet. They are probably moving band 2-25 to the right sites (t-mobile and surviving Sprint sites) using software configuration. Now if they can lower the roaming threshold so that Sprint phones can roam on T-Mobile and vice versa easier. If there is actual physical site work being done, look to Philly first. 

I have looked at T-Mobile's RRHs and they typically have one RRH for the lower frequencies (band 71 and 12) and one for the mid frequencies (2 & 4). So I am assuming they will add a band 41 M-MIMO to each site? Will they also move over or add an 800Mhz RRH or move over a combo one from a Sprint site with the appropriate inputs disabled? Might as well take advantage of 800Mhz while they still own it.

25 minutes ago, Grabber5.0 said:

It's nothing more than grandstanding

Make themselves feel important. Make a point like see we imposed tough guidelines.

Some of the additional conditions imposed by the CPUC:

 

Ahead of the CPUC’s voice call vote Thursday, CPUC Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen described some of the commitments the companies were making to get the deal done. The state imposed a number of additional conditions, including that the new T-Mobile, which doesn’t participate in Lifeline in California, continue offering Lifeline in California indefinitely to both Sprint’s existing Lifeline customers and to new customers. The new entity also is required to add 1,000 jobs in California in five years.

While commissioners said the anti-competitive nature of the transaction made it a tough one to approve, they said the inclusion of strong enforcement provisions for the conditions and a compliance monitor made it more acceptable.  

RELATED: T-Mobile: Merger with Sprint ready to roll despite COVID-19 fears

The revised proposal (PDF) to approve the merger was posted this week, spelling out the many conditions. Steve Blum, president of the wireless consultancy Tellus Venture Associates who's been closely following the CPUC proceeding, noted in his blog that service obligations were tweaked. T-Mobile needs to deliver 300 Mbps download speeds to 93% of Californians by 2024, but its obligation to serve rural communities will be capped at offering 50 Mbps download speeds to 94% of rural residents and 100 Mbps to 85% by 2026.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/t-mobile-deal-gets-final-cpuc-approval-conditions

I don't think the additional conditions are particularly onerous.

So far, absolutely no difference for me. Still switching back and forth between band 25 and 26 with 5Mbps down, unless I turn my MB on.

Also have we seen evidence that they are consolidating band 2/25 anywhere yet?

I am surprised that will allow new activations on the sprint network. When will they stop activating devices/SIMs on it?

I am going to miss the 1999-2004 Sprint before the Nextel merger. Not afterwards. 

I would like for USCC and C-Spire to eventually get absorbed by Dish but still offering roaming to T-Mobile.

5 hours ago, JimBob said:

What would be the payout to Shentel (SHEN) shareholders?

Somebody estimated it at $29/share.

16 minutes ago, clbowens said:

I was also wondering about this statement.

Yeah, both Virgin Mobile and Boost are MVNOs nothing to do with core. Now Altice is a facilities based MVNO which means that at some point all data and voice is routed over Altice's core. Nextel???? It is true that Sprint still has legacy CDMA that is routed over it's core but T-Mobile's HSPA+ is also routed our its core network. I think he's just talking out of his behind. 

OK, I don't know what the hell Entner is talking about in this segment:

"However, unlike turning on the 600 MHz in just a couple of days with a software upgrade, Entner said turning on Sprint’s spectrum for T-Mobile users is going to be more complicated. He explained that Sprint’s backbone and core network is very unique and not standard. It has to work with Boost, the former Virgin Mobile and Nextel, making “the core network a little bit difficult to work with.”"

https://www.fiercewireless.com/operators/t-mobile-doubled-capacity-speeds-days-spectrum-boost-during-covid-19

Can anybody that knows shed some light on this?

19 hours ago, Dkoellerwx said:

The New T-Mobile will maintain control of B26 for 2 or 3 years, and then an option to extend the lease before it's fully handed over to Dish.

Dish has an option to buy it in 3 years. They may decline the $3.4 option but with supposedly large penalties. Dish just might not want to mess around with a 3rd low frequency band. Plus they probably cannot afford the price. They need that money for deploying their other spectrum.

I wonder if Dish, Comcast will let T-Mobile use its 600Mhz spectrum beyond the 60 days under advantageous lease agreements. It will be win/win situation for everybody.