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T-Mobile 5g 3 1/2 years later ( + road trip)
This is the ‘next’ installment of my experiences with T-Mobile and its 5G deployment - good and bad.
Over the past 12 months, what was left of Sprint’s towers ‘in my area’ have been converted to T-Mobile towers, filling in a few needed locations, and in a few areas .. just being left + powered off, with gear still attached. At least 3 sites locally are in ideal locations for fill in, which has helped. Each of them had been roaming for at least 2 years on Sprint B41 LTE+ B25 + B26, and took 3-4 weeks to replace (hard outage).
More 5G / 5G UC has been deployed, as well as carrier aggregation in many locations for the extra capacity on n41 that doesn’t fit in the 100MHz channel, as well as the addition of n25. N25 does well as it has fits between n71 ( 15x15 = ‘up to’ 150Mbps) and n41 (up to 800Mbps) giving ‘up to’ 300Mbps for 20x20 while its range is better than n41 but not that of n71.
More small communities are being updated with n41/n25, still waiting on the old GSM 1900 only site in Gaviota, and the LTE B66 sites at Hearst Castle for ‘modernization’.
On the down side… T-Mobile still lags in its exurban and rural areas, as well as its claimed coverage.
Road trip - Florida
Starting at LAX: Terminal 5 now works well on n41 + LTE. This was being deployed last summer.
MIA Airport is a mixed service area, with some spots LTE B41 only or LTE B2/66/71 and a few bits of 5G
Miami area itself (outdoors at least) is fairly good, with no issues. Key Biscayne works well. T-Mobile has a decent amount of spectrum in the Miami area, with 5GUC at 100+50MHz, and a small amount of n25, n71 in addition to LTE. As far as towers go, this is a small area, and coverage is decent with the few sites that it has (4). AT&T was similar, showing 5G+
I-95 to Melbourne - no real issues, other than a few dropouts on streaming audio up towards Vero Beach. Melbourne, service is a bit weak, as T-Mobile has its sites ½ as densely deployed, giving rural/exurban/suburban areas weak outdoors and no service indoors. Had no issues on AT&T. Kennedy Space center - mostly LTE nearby, 5G near VAB.
St. Augustine was decent. AT&T / T-Mobile had good service. Carriers have their sites on the old churches in the ‘Old City’.
St. Augustine → Tampa through Salt Spings + Ocala … T-Mobile was disappointing.
Going west, on FL207, service was hit or miss after crossing I-95, and dropping out after Palatka, and a sole tower on FL19 for all 3 https://www.google.com/maps/@29.5472013,-81.7435998,3a,15.1y,323.15h,114.42t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSIIVS7FsWeq6vMBarPgF1w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
No service after that until near Silver Springs, phone would pick up Verizon often until then, through Salt Springs, onto FL 314 and almost all the way to FL40.
Service itself (main route) from Silver Springs through Ocala was good.
Ocala to Tampa was decent, although some service dropouts, often from n41 5G UC to LTE B71 1-2 bars.
Clearwater Beach itself, oddly enough was (is?) LTE B2/B66 only, while coverage maps show 5G UC
5G itself is a few miles away, and the sites (some DAS) aren’t setup to for NR-NSA. This actually gave capacity issues during most of the days to the point that even T-Mobile support app wouldn’t work, with 5 bars LTE (DAS was ~200’ away, clear LOS). Using these DAS also had another downside - going indoors to Surf Style (1 block away) I end up roaming on Verizon.
Tampa → Naples → Everglades City This drive was similar to Ocala to Tampa. 5G UC → 4G LTE B71 with buffering. Taking I-75 to FL29, was weak mostly with a large chunk of No Service. AT&T / Verizon has towers north of the everglades for coverge. All 3 have coverage at I-75 / FL29, and FL29/US-41, however AT&T and Verizon have a site in the center of town in Everglades City, T-Mobile relies on weak (but usable) service from US41
Everglades City → Miami
T-MObile has the one site at US-41/FL29 and one about 17 miles east at Monument Lake… then a dead zone of 20 miles. AT&T and Verizon fill in this area
Summary: T-Mobile has been upgrading its sites, and converting Sprint sites, but it still falls short for actual service in many locations indoors, and in many areas outdoors.
In California, T-Mobile has a CPUC mandate to deploy actual service that is usable
https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/news-and-updates/all-news/cpuc-appoints-t-mobile-compliance-monitor
I recommend those on T-Mobile in CA to follow up with T-Mobile’s compliance, as I know there are a LOT of places marked at 4G LTE, 5G that have no service, let alone :
“Provide 5G wireless service with speeds of at least 100 Mbps to 85 percent of California’s rural population, and speeds of at least 50 Mbps available to 94 percent of California’s rural population, by the end of 2026.”
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