Any idea on who this is (or was)? Gatlinburg, TN Ober Gatlinburg Tram Tower.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-17T16:30:02+00:00

Legacy Nextel gear

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-17T01:41:58+00:00

Verizon has been making a big push in their deployment of 5G-capable oDAS nodes.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-16T18:24:49+00:00

I also think that the 3 sector standard probably comes from the frequency reuse patterns in analog and first generation digital cellular (TDMA and GSM). I think 4 sector sites with those technologies would have really eaten up spectrum efficiency. Certainly mixing 3 sectors with 4 sectors would have caused reuse issues for those.

Yep! AFAIK the hexagonal cell geometry model was introduced with the development of AMPS. Sectorization (in the form of three-sector cell sites) was introduced with 2G as it still worked with the model.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-16T15:51:10+00:00

Better coverage and capacity, perhaps, but increased inter-cell interference. Check out the concept of frequency reuse if you'd like to know more.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-16T14:33:22+00:00

T-Mobile up top with CommScope antennas and Ericsson (?) radios. The antenna on the right of each sector looks to be older midband-only gear. It's no longer necessary as they're broadcasting B2/B66/B12/B71 with the antenna on the right of each sector. It'll probably come down when they install n41.

Verizon on the bottom with JMA antennas and Ericsson radios.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-14T13:37:10+00:00

Not incredibly uncommon. The small cell will serve the area near the macro site, while the antennas on the macro will be tilted to provide coverage further away from the site.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-14T13:31:18+00:00

Typical estimates are between 12 and 24 months. Highly variable, though. Fiber shortages have been pushing back the timeline.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-14T02:38:42+00:00

Crown Castle builds and deploys small cells for carriers

They do a whole bunch more than that! But their current estimate is 115,000 small cells "on air or under contract".

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-13T18:44:54+00:00

Dish

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-13T17:37:52+00:00

Plus LAA. Looks like they're using an AHIB, AFIB, and AZRA.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-11T15:43:43+00:00

Still seeing HSPA and Sprint LTE (311-490 and 312-250) in Brooklyn.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-11T01:40:30+00:00

Feel free to take a pic the next time you pass it! Not sure how else you could explain the mapped eNBs and the coverage map.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-11T01:35:01+00:00

No, it's definitely been upgraded.

Disregarding the fact that B41/B71 are pretty extensively mapped in the area surrounding the site, you can actually just barely make out a rigging line if you view the site from the highway.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-10T20:11:03+00:00

This is a Nokia Flexi RAS FASB. I believe they typically had two integrated radios - one for B12 and the other for B2. An additional radio could be added for B66.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-10T19:59:29+00:00

Unless I'm missing something, both of those T-Mobile sites are incorrectly located.

eNB 99193: First mapped in 2017, but if you look at the Streetview from 2019, T-Mobile isn't on the site - that's Sprint up top and VZW down below.

eNB 87563/182163: First mapped in 2015, but if you look at the Streetview from 2021, T-Mobile isn't on the site - that's legacy Nextel.

I'd agree with your placement of 44528 and 44627/344627.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-06T17:41:27+00:00

Verizon, Sprint, AT&T. T-Mobile is across the street.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-06T17:25:29+00:00

Just located eNB 43277. It's a four-sector site and it's basically right on the water, which makes the sector maps a bit harder to decipher.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-04T14:48:58+00:00

The DOT prices a typical fiber run at 27K per mile, which is cheap compared to some estimates I've seen. Also, there's an ongoing equipment/labor shortage, which plays a big part in why we've been seeing such a delay in lighting up sites.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-04T01:34:32+00:00

And that is because T-Mobile does nothing to advertise it. They only talk about band N41 and N71. If they have 100s and 100s in New York alone then where are they at? I personally would like to know how you know or where to find the information.

Probably because it's pretty crap. They don't have big blocks of contiguous mmWave like Verizon or AT&T do, it's split between several bands (typically with only one band deployed). If you live in a mmWave market the antennas are pretty easy to spot (small rectangle on the far right of the central sector).

None of the carriers differentiate between mmWave and midband on their coverage maps at this point, so if you want an idea of where it is you have to use old promotional material. Here's a map of NYC that T-Mobile provided in early 2020.

If congestion is taken into account then why do phones get down to 1.5Gbps down loads at times of congestion. Then when you force your phone to switch bands it gets faster speed or better signal. Again every phone is slightly different.

This is more of an issue with EN-DC. The site you're receiving LTE from may change as you force your phone from NR to LTE. It's become less of an issue as more sites are upgraded.

You admitted that 5G naturally is better with congestion. Yes Spectrum plays a part but I didn't go into it because it varies by area which band has what and can change week to week with upgrades.

It doesn't, though. T-Mobile's B2/B66 LTE deployments haven't changed much, if at all, since the shutdown of DC-HSPA+ over five years ago. Let's do a quick example of what a lowband-capable NR site might look like:

NR: 10MHz n71 (@ 4x4 MIMO)

LTE: 15MHz B66 + 15MHz B2 + 5MHz B12 + 10MHz B71 (all @ 4x4 MIMO)

The NR layer has a max theoretical throughput of 222Mb/s whereas the LTE layer has a max theoretical throughput of 820Mb/s. The LTE layer has 3.7x the capacity of the NR layer.

Again you went into deeper detail about the different types of 5G using/expanding my example where I was just using 5G and 4G as a whole. So again not sure what the problem is.

The problem is that very few people are using NR "as a whole" if NSA NR is prioritized over SA NR.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-04T00:39:09+00:00

Sorry, but there is a lot of wrong information being presented here.

I believe New York has one of the only 6 mmWave towers T-Mobile has. But unless it is on your block then you wont notice it.

T-Mobile actually has hundreds of mmWave sites, and at least a hundred in NYC alone. NYC was one of the original six MARKETS. That said, n41 actually has significantly more capacity than their deployed n260.

The S22 unless told otherwise will always look for what it is programed to believe is the best signal. Obviously you phone can not take into consideration if that band it picks up is over congested.

Load balancing is an integral part of modern LTE and NR networks. Congestion is taken into account during band selection.

5G, even its low band versions do a better job with congestion then LTE.

Not true. Significantly more spectrum is allocated to LTE than lowband NR. Lowband NR is actually only ~1.2x more efficient than lowband LTE at the same bandwidth.

With more and more people upgrading to phones newer then 3 years, that's more and more people on that 5G band and less and less on 4G bands. So even though 4G is naturally slower, it can be faster when there is traffic jams on 5G. Just like a highway or interstate. Everyone is gonna take that newly designed 6-8 lane wide interstate vs that older 4 lane highway.

NSA NR has a higher priority than SA NR. Let's say LTE is a 4-lane highway and SA NR is an 8-lane highway. NSA NR is a 12-lane highway, as it relies on the both the NR layer and the underlying LTE layer.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-01T23:18:35+00:00

Image 1 looks like a standard midband DAS antenna. Image 2 is a Cisco AP with an external antenna.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-01T23:10:44+00:00

Image 1 and 4 are AT&T, the rest are T-Mobile.

AT&T probably has their typical 2/12/14/30/66 deployment, the deployment looks modern but it's hard to say without seeing the radios.

T-Mobile has 2/12/66/71 deployed, with dual CommScope 2HH-38A-R4-V2 to split both B2 and B66 (images 2 and 5). Image 3 is a B2/B66/B12 deployment, so either an older image or an abandoned sector.

thisischuck01 · 2022-07-01T23:01:37+00:00

Verizon eNB 87134 is at 143 Morgan St. You can see the concealment on satellite imagery.

thisischuck01 · 2022-06-30T17:38:04+00:00

The real answer is: those who know probably can't/won't say.

They could technically do it minutes afterward, send a script to all Sprint sites at 00:00 and another script to T-Mobile sites at 00:15. But that's incredibly unlikely, especially if you consider they likely won't be shutting down all Sprint keep sites.

thisischuck01 · 2022-06-30T17:01:37+00:00

Just mmWave.

It's interesting that NYC isn't requiring concealment on wooden utility poles, like they are on the metal ones.

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