Evidence of 1900 MHz refarm in South Bend/Mishawaka, IN?

[whacker]

The other day I decided, just for fun, to put my old Nokia 6263 back into service on my T-Mobile line. I'm just on by-the-minute prepaid, so no big deal. The Nuron needed some time off.

But my purpose was to be able to see where the 2G coverage differs from 3G (or perhaps more accurately, the 1900 PCS from the AWS), and this was possible due to the fact that I had debranded this phone a couple of years ago, installing firmware that allows me to manually select between the two service bands.

In my hometown (Buchanan, MI) we still just have 2G, but most of the surrounding towns of larger size got 3G service around two years ago (and probably further enhancements of that since).

I figured I'd leave the phone on 2G only and see what happened as I got to my destination at the University Park Mall in Mishawaka, IN.

I was surprised to see that somewhere east of Indiana 933, traveling along Cleveland Road, 2G dropped off entirely! At the mall, nothing. 3G coverage was solid.

Which leaves me wondering whether this is part of the refarm plan, even though this isn't a huge market by any measure. I'm sure there are lots of Notre Dame students with iPhones that would like to put them on T-Mobile, and of course the company would like to have them.

This also makes me wonder about all the cheapo T-Mobile 2G phones sold at the big box stores all over this area. I know I started out on one.

If anyone cares to venture a guess about this, please post.

[tdw]

Right now I am using an unlocked LG Quantum (obviously works only on 2-G at the moment)+ my wife is using an unlocked iphone 3g. I haven't noticed any changes, but only been down Cleveland using my unlocked HD2 which has 3g. I will experiment next time I am over there and see if I have any 3g. If it would be refarmed, close to ND is the first place I'd think you'd find it.

Headed to Indy this coming weekend, so I will see if I find any refarmed 3g near downtown or anywhere else on the way down.

[whacker]

Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.80 (Android; Opera Mini/7.0.29950/28.2225; U; en) Presto/2.8.119 Version/11.10)

Just made the trip again today, and I'd like to just be able to say "nevermind"! Had completely solid 2G coverage everywhere I commented about previously, and even went right up to the ND campus and drove east along Douglas Rd with max signal. So there must have been something up with the phone on that day, or else that side of T-Mobile was down; hard to say which.

Sorry for any premature alarms on the topic!

[DRNewcomb]

Indiana was built out on very thin PCS licenses. Except for Indianapolis the whole state was 10 MHz. I don't think they have a lot of PCS spectrum to spare for 3G.

[tdw]

Just a note, went to Indy yesterday, went south via US31, coverage mostly 2g, a few spots of GPRS and 3g in Kokomo and of course Indy. Never saw my phone roam once. Honestly 3g coverage was better in the 421 corridor, which is the way I started back until we decided to go back to Kokomo area to scout for food. Note, I used my HTC HD2 to check for coverage.