T-Mobile is deploying 1900MHz HSPA/4G

**Gman91** · 06-16-2012, 01:18 AM

Originally Posted by Kies

Well I'm sure there are trade-offs, you have more 3G coverage.. it's just much slower (definitely) and bad at your house. You have to figure out what works best for you and on your budget. Me personally, Verizon/Sprint/AT&T is just not an option for me - and I get EDGE at home with T-Mobile (have WiFi though)

thought i'd contribute to the derailing.

I'll stop the derailment, let the 1900mhz proceed, with caution though.

Sent from my ADR6350 using HowardForums

**ja5219** · 06-17-2012, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by TheCellphoneGuy

The fastest I ever got on my old Samsung Exhibit II 4G was 9mbps and it was only once when I tethered it to my computer and ran the speedstest.net test. It could have been a fluke as I never saw such speeds again.

I would get 3-4 Mbps on average. What I noticed from my own testing was that usually the highest speed you could get (I'm talking a 42mbps DC market with almost no other person using the tower) is a little over half of your theoretical speed, so about 7 to 8 Mbps on the Exhibit. Keep in mind that this is based on my own tests, so your mileage may vary.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

Without taking this thread too much off-topic, just wanting to post one screen from a Exhibit II speed test that now set a new record for the max speed i've seen on this phone.

I am also extremely certain that they added more backhaul or whatever the term is... as my upload never went up higher than 1500kbps since November, now it was easily in the 2000kbps-3000kbps mark. Not to mention that download rate as well.

This is in Hickory, NC

(This is not HSPA on the 1900MHz band, just an update to a previous discussion within this topic, so again apologies.)

**jarrodpd** · 06-22-2012, 03:17 AM

In the markets that have PCS HSPA+ is the coverage still limited to few places? If so why would have taken them almost a year since last October when the very first reports came out to get those markets covered for the most part? Will that set the roll out back? Or was it planned along to drag it out for a while?

**brad15** · 06-22-2012, 03:18 AM

Originally Posted by jarrodpd

In the markets that have PCS HSPA+ is the coverage still limited to few places? If so why would have taken them almost a year since last October when the very first reports came out to get those markets covered for the most part? Will that set the roll out back? Or was it planned along to drag it out for a while?

i'm sure that the equipment is all there, it's just not turned on for "public" access yet, they're most likely just lighting up a few sites that are busy and a few that are not to monitor how it affects GSM, how much it gets used, etc..

**jarrodpd** · 06-22-2012, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by brad15

i'm sure that the equipment is all there, it's just not turned on for "public" access yet, they're most likely just lighting up a few sites that are busy and a few that are not to monitor how it affects GSM, how much it gets used, etc..

Hopefully they wrap up their testing soon it would be nice to hear them officially announce some markets next month with PCS HSPA+ so when October comes I don't have a doubt about getting a iPhone with only EDGE speeds.

**adriaticnyc** · 06-24-2012, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by jarrodpd

With wifi calling you can send text and mms and when you call back to the country it shows as you number.

It's less then 99% a few weekends ago I was out in a rural area that had 3G while Verizon didn't even have service.

T-Mobile does provide global roaming for its data coverage, but the user must specificaly ask for it from customer service/business services. I learned this detail after a trip to Sitka Alaska last Oct 2011 when my webconnect sim stopped working in my Rocket 3 and Dell Streak 7 tablet.

Several weeks later, I phoned TMobile's business care services and learned that a customer must request this feature. It's non-billable, but not automatically given when a data feature is provisioned.

**mvl_groups_user** · 06-25-2012, 07:01 AM

T-mo pre-sales rep told me yesterday that Boston 1900mhz data will be launched in July. First priority will be getting to 3G speeds on that band (eg: to support sim-unlocked iPhones), 4G would come later.

Given the timing, my guess is that all the hardware/software was nearly ready to go for a while, and Tmo just needed some of AT&T's breakup bandwidth before they flipped the switch.

**jarrodpd** · 06-25-2012, 03:24 PM

Originally Posted by mvl_groups_user

T-mo pre-sales rep told me yesterday that Boston 1900mhz data will be launched in July. First priority will be getting to 3G speeds on that band (eg: to support sim-unlocked iPhones), 4G would come later.

Given the timing, my guess is that all the hardware/software was nearly ready to go for a while, and Tmo just needed some of AT&T's breakup bandwidth before they flipped the switch.

If that's true this is very good news they're starting the process of getting things ready for a national scale.

**money69** · 06-26-2012, 11:23 PM

anyone know specifically if these 37,000 sites they are upgrading will be their entire network? I.e. will the GPRS finally be replaced with 3g?

**Loyal Servant** · 06-27-2012, 02:08 AM

Originally Posted by money69

anyone know specifically if these 37,000 sites they are upgrading will be their entire network? I.e. will the GPRS finally be replaced with 3g?

What I have been told by people that I know still working in wireless is that T-Mobile only has around 7,000 of their OWN sites.
The remaining 30,000 sites are colocated on either other carriers or other site owners (Crown castle, American tower, etc)
It's probable that 37,000 sites is a good majority of their network.

What blows my mind and I have said it before is why they are still turning up EDGE sites like this one I went and looked at in my area...
I know they can get backhaul because there is a Verizon LTE site colocated on the same tower.
Not only that but 2 different providers had fiber pulled into that site to boot.

Don't know why T-Mobile fired up an old EDGE BTS on it....
Perhaps T-Mobile will stun us all and flip a switch one night... till then I can only wonder what kind of strategy involves installing new EDGE sites unless they are concentrating on voice only.

**jarrodpd** · 06-27-2012, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by Loyal Servant

What I have been told by people that I know still working in wireless is that T-Mobile only has around 7,000 of their OWN sites.
The remaining 30,000 sites are colocated on either other carriers or other site owners (Crown castle, American tower, etc)
It's probable that 37,000 sites is a good majority of their network.

What blows my mind and I have said it before is why they are still turning up EDGE sites like this one I went and looked at in my area...
I know they can get backhaul because there is a Verizon LTE site colocated on the same tower.
Not only that but 2 different providers had fiber pulled into that site to boot.

Don't know why T-Mobile fired up an old EDGE BTS on it....
Perhaps T-Mobile will stun us all and flip a switch one night... till then I can only wonder what kind of strategy involves installing new EDGE sites unless they are concentrating on voice only.

I know its really weird back in December when they were lighting up a bunch of 3G in East Texas between Houston and Beaumont on Highway 90 after Liberty there was patchy 3G until you got to China now its EDGE with no 3G whereas before it was GPRS, I'm thinking that they had the site tweaked at high power levels and now they adjusted to a normal level.

**sonic57** · 06-29-2012, 09:26 PM

I'm in Seattle with an iPhone, and so far I haven't noticed any re-farm in the area since this all started happening (haven't seen any reports of it either). However, the last two days I've noticed Edge dropping out completely right in the middle of downtown Seattle. It seems to be limited to a certain cell site, as when I move several blocks away, I get data back. What I mean is that I'll still have full bars, but no data period (not even GPRS). This has happened every time I'm either in that few block radius, or passed through it for the last two days (as I did just now).

My question is if this is could possibly be an indication of things starting to happen out here with the re-farm? Or is it just a site having issues. Seems odd that it would be down for multiple days, right in the middle of downtown Seattle. No idea if others are getting AWS 3G in the same area.

Of course it will be here soon enough anyway, but it'd be cool to know if it was starting to happen around here. I've started keeping 3G enabled all the time now...

**sonic57** · 07-03-2012, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by sonic57

...the last two days I've noticed Edge dropping out completely right in the middle of downtown Seattle....

It's *still* been down all through now (I actually just happened to pass that area on a bus just now, sure enough the E disappeared & came back a couple blocks away).

I guess it's site is just having problems w/ Edge and no one has complained, I'm sure they wouldn't leave it down for so long knowingly. I'll try contacting them & see what happens.

**PhoneCreator123** · 07-03-2012, 10:18 PM

Apparently Los Angeles has 1900mhz spectrum active already (Just chatted with a representative)

**5318008** · 07-03-2012, 10:50 PM

to sonic57 -

My 2G connectivity in and around Portland has been pretty bad for a week now. I wouldn't think to mention it, but as we're both in the Northwest, maybe it means something's up.

--posted from my phone