Roaming on former Centennial: Here yesterday, gone today & tomorrow?

[whacker]

Just based on dead reckoning and how the signal meter on my Nuron shows it, the new T-Mobile (3G) installation is indeed in Berrien Springs, right on the campus of Andrews U. There's a huge tower there for WAUS (campus classical station) with maybe one cell array on it, and right next to that is a smaller (in height) tower with maybe two carriers' arrays (hard to see exactly what from the main highway).

I will say though, after travelling through in the past few weeks, there are now more coverage holes than there were when roaming on 2G AT&T (out on the big road), and that to me is not a net service improvement (which for me is mitigated by carrrying a Page Plus phone!). But in this entire county, AT&T really rules, coverage-wise. But it's good to see T-Mo making some moves. Still my main squeeze!

[4mula1]

I can confirm that Wabash has some new T-Mo 3G coverage. There is still a coverage gap between Wabash and Peru on US24. Going north on SR15 once the coverage in Wabash fades out there is a gap until just south of Silver Lake. I don't know what the coverage on SR13 north out of Wabash looks like, it may be similar. I figured out that the 3G network uses a separate LAC than the GSM network, that's why I was confused by it earlier.

Hopefully existing coverage along US30 will get a 3G bump.

[tdw]

Interesting coverage updates for us, I'll have to check next time I'm north in MI or S of US30.

[4mula1]

This morning when I grabbed my phone I saw something new...3G indicator. It was a weak signal as it kicked back to GSM pretty quickly, but a longer route to work revealed that there are two separate sites to the south of me that I can pick up weak 3G from. It seems that new coverage will soon be butting up to the original US30 corridor coverage.

I did a check of T-Mo's coverage viewer (I miss Compass!) and there has been a subtle change: where the "partner" coverage was always solid gray now the green native coverage is overlapping it. No new sites yet, just optimistic projections of where the currently mapped coverage overlaps.

This is all looking good!

[jarrodpd]

This morning when I grabbed my phone I saw something new...3G indicator. It was a weak signal as it kicked back to GSM pretty quickly, but a longer route to work revealed that there are two separate sites to the south of me that I can pick up weak 3G from. It seems that new coverage will soon be butting up to the original US30 corridor coverage.

I did a check of T-Mo's coverage viewer (I miss Compass!) and there has been a subtle change: where the "partner" coverage was always solid gray now the green native coverage is overlapping it. No new sites yet, just optimistic projections of where the currently mapped coverage overlaps.

This is all looking good!

Its good to see them put that $4Bn to use.

[4mula1]

I took a drive north yeterday on SR15 from Warsaw to Bristol and the coverage gaps are still there. Bummer.

[4mula1]

T-Mo has some new coverage maps up that finally show the new coverage.

https://maps.eng.t-mobile.com/

Looks like they are really trying to fill the hole from the former Centennial roaming in Indiana. I just hope they fill in the old holes north of US30 where they didn't have roaming.

[tdw]

I checked those maps out. They really added a lot of sites west of US31. I came up from Indy on Friday via 421-sr29-sr25 back to 31 and never saw it roam on old Centennial. Had coverage pretty much all the way, even when I felt in the middle of nowhere!

Sent from my NexusHD2 using HowardForums

[whacker]

I've been able to recently travel through several additional areas local to me that used to be Centennial and became AT&T, and pretty much all have gotten some level of T-Mobile 3G or better coverage. In addition to my often traveled route from Buchanan, MI to Benton Harbor, the M-51 jaunt from Niles to Dowagiac has converted as well. So, with varying degrees of success, it seems they have that pretty well covered.

Unfortunately, and hard to understand, is the really poor coverage west of Buchanan on U.S. 12 all the way to New Buffalo. Except for "leftover" fringe coverage from the tower on the west side of town that serves me at home, and covers a few miles to the west on that route, there is no on-purpose coverage of that road the entire way until you get to I-94. There is some residual coverage from some distant towers located who-knows-where, but never more than one or two bars' worth. And last time I was in New Buffalo proper, coverage was only GPRS!

So I think that route could use a major new infusion of T-Mobile's attention (about 20 miles' worth).