Live 700MHz/band 12 areas + equipment upgrades --- Post here!

[Jesito418]

Good thing here in Cincinnati, the FCC approved the relocation of CH 51, so all we need is for the relocation to be complete. In the meantime waiting now on CBW to vacate the 10mhz of PCS that Tmo bought from Grain, (which we desperately need). Which should happen sometime in May(we hope)

[fraydog]

Good thing here in Cincinnati, the FCC approved the relocation of CH 51, so all we need is for the relocation to be complete. In the meantime waiting now on CBW to vacate the 10mhz of PCS that Tmo bought from Grain, (which we desperately need). Which should happen sometime in May(we hope)

Just the extra 5x5 of 700 MHz would provide a lot of relief.

[Jesito418]

Just the extra 5x5 of 700 MHz would provide a lot of relief.

Heck yeah lol

[fraydog]

Heck yeah lol

I also forgot better in-building and rural coverage. But Cincinnati is an odd duck for T-Mobile in that they're using PCS and 700 and not really touching AWS LTE like they're using in most cities because they have such a small slice of AWS there. They would have to shut down HSPA in that band just to aggregate that spectrum later on. Probably not even worth it at this point when they can simply increase PCS bandwidth.

[newyork4me]

I also forgot better in-building and rural coverage. But Cincinnati is an odd duck for T-Mobile in that they're using PCS and 700 and not really touching AWS LTE like they're using in most cities because they have such a small slice of AWS there. They would have to shut down HSPA in that band just to aggregate that spectrum later on. Probably not even worth it at this point when they can simply increase PCS bandwidth.

That's what they should do. Since they run HSPA in PCS too for their modernization, they are running more spectrum for HSPA than LTE...that's backwards.

I hope that when they finish their EDGE to LTE upgrades, they'll be confident enough in their ability to push the few remaining people from AWS-only HSPA devices to something newer by selling them on the increased 4G/4G-LTE coverage.

[joshua.justice]

I'll be glad when they're done with rolling out the 700 mhz

[kogashuko]

Well until they get more licenses it is going to be jacked up.

[ilvla2]

I'll be glad when they're done with rolling out the 700 mhz

They haven't even started yet up here in rural Northwestern California, they have lower 700A here from the Verizon deal. Currently, T Mobile is running all of their LTE in this area on Band 4 (former Metro PCS AWS) and/or Band 2.

[prankoy]

Since T-Mobile has officially announced that Band 12 is live here in Houston and in Dallas during the 4th Quarterly Earning Call last week I decided to test it out. I bought an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Core LTE (Canadian version of the Galaxy Avant), popped my SIM and voila! It really is live at least here in NW Houston.




Did a speed test and this is the result. Not bad at all for a brand new spanking network!




The phone defaults to Band 4 LTE. I had to force it to Band 12 to pick up the signal. BTW Band 12 works out of the box.

[Volaris]

Are they using 4x2 MIMO on 700MHz sites?

[terryjohnson16]

Are the recent network outages that are going on right now the result of network upgrades? Some of these recent outages are uncommon for tmobile. Let alone regional outages that affect an entire coast.


via the HoFo App

[klakzky]

Also in Houston and I've gotten band 12 in several places in the the metro. This has been needed so badly too. I live in Minneapolis which is also a band 12 market but Minneapolis has such a dense tower network that I get thrown onto band 12 only a handful of times per month. There's not much of a need for it there.

In Houston, I always ran into dead spots in the past (my parents home was one of them). Now I'm getting band 12 in all of those spots. The speeds haven't been as great as the previous screenshot. I get between 1-4 mbps on band 12 in the afternoon but at least its something. (plus the pings are fantastic so it still feels pretty snappy) I'm sure there are other cities in this situation that will be greatly served by the band 12 rollout.

[fmulder22]

Also in Houston and I've gotten band 12 in several places in the the metro. This has been needed so badly too. I live in Minneapolis which is also a band 12 market but Minneapolis has such a dense tower network that I get thrown onto band 12 only a handful of times per month. There's not much of a need for it there.

In Houston, I always ran into dead spots in the past (my parents home was one of them). Now I'm getting band 12 in all of those spots. The speeds haven't been as great as the previous screenshot. I get between 1-4 mbps on band 12 in the afternoon but at least its something. (plus the pings are fantastic so it still feels pretty snappy) I'm sure there are other cities in this situation that will be greatly served by the band 12 rollout.

Where exactly. Near hobby here. No band 12 sighting/dead spots.

[prankoy]

Day 2 of my phone forced to Band 12 and so far the areas I've been to have pretty decent signal. Drove southwards from Jersey Village via the Beltway then westwards to Katy via I-10 then down to Richmond via Grand Pkwy, the signal was pretty consistent mostly 3-4 bars. Here are the screenshots I took near the Santikos Palladium movie theater at Richmond:

[prankoy]

Then I decided to drive north to Cypress via the Grand Pkwy. Signals are still decent. However, driving NW towards Austin via 290, signal disappear about 2 miles past US-290 and Grand Pkwy junction. All I can see is AT&T's MBFI Band 12 signal. Signal returns as you pass the US290 Grand Pkwy junction. I guess the area along 290 towards Chappell Hill and Brenham is still a work in progress. They just lit up PCS LTE in that area a few months back anyway. I will try to check how it performs when I go to the concrete jungle called Downtown tomorrow.