Forum Discussion
T-Mobile 5g 4 1/2 years later + road trip(s)
Summer road trip season, and I’ve posted in the past some trips from NC through ME, MA through to Canada, a loop in FL
This is part 1 - SoCal/SLO Cal, FL and HI
SoCal/SLO Cal from north of the San Fernando Valley through to Cambria, CA
- Santa Clarita valley down CA-126 mostly unchanged. 5G/UC starts at Piru (LTE only near Ventura Co line B12/66), +1200Mbps/100Mbps n41 100+80, n25, n71 15x15 + LTE B66 20x20, B2 20x20, B12 5x5 and B71 10x10. This has improved from south of Fillmore (1 tower) where the next tower is up high near Santa Paula. The Piru and Santa Paula tower cover most of the highway - not ideal, but it does work
- US-101 Ventura to Santa Barbara - pretty much solid n41 now. West side of Santa Barbara is not the greatest, and you'll end up on B12 or B66 LTE. West of Refugio State Beach, you'll be on B66, EDGE or AT&T/Verizon roaming, and roaming won't always disappear easliy until you approach Buellton.
- Last trip through this way, service was hit or miss, as many Sprint roaming B41/B25 have been taken down. Most is decent, from Los Alamos through to San Luis Obispo, with a few weak spots. My last trip ended up with a lot of roaming, as T-Mobile is/was apparently in upgrades. It was safer to select 5G SA + LTE B71 than to roam on AT&T.
- SLO through Cayucos is good, but you will hit a dead zone between Cayucos and Harmony.
- Cambria itself is a strange one … in town metrocell (with AT&T/VZW) covers east Main St. with max ~750Mbps but carries n41 180MHz, n25, n71, b2/66/12/71. The western and northern side of town is a dead zone, as coverage doesn't reach from Harmony (south) or San Simeon (north). Cell Mapper shows a DAS being added to the west side. They may actually be able to close a 5 year old ticket now.
- San Simeon is even more strange. Motel metrocell with same bands as Cambria, good for ~2Gbps, and similarly poor range. The site with range is an LTE B66 tower ~2000' above. Would be better on B71/n71 for range.
- Note: T-Mobile no longer shows roaming service/coverage at Big Sur. I did have roaming there in the past.
Florida - Orlando / Sanford / DeBary
- This was a relatively short trip, but in general, Orlando/Sanford area had decent service. As FL is pretty flat, towers are spread out quite a bit, but still have good service. Closer to Orlando gives better service, but there were no dead zones
Hawaii (Waikiki - East Honolulu - Kāne’ohe - Honolulu - Dole Plantation - Wailua - Waimea Valley)
- Waikiki in general has very good service. It is a quite small hotel strip, and is easily covered. Performance was good, given that the network density isn't super high, but has a high amount of spectrum available.
- From East Honolulu to Kāne’ohe given that it is on the edge of the coast had decent coverage, and only one instance of drop/AT&T roaming.
- West side of the island isn't bad, a little 'weak' between Dole Plantation and Wailua. Similar from Wailua to Waimea valley. Waimea valley is a dead zone
- Honolulu itself is also quite good - take city bus ($3 no change ) from airport to Waikiki.
Part 2 - Lake Michigan circle tour in July, with a touch of Canada
Chicago (ORD) is decent, as is the road up through Milwaukee on i94. 5g/5guc all the way to West Bend, WI.
Service was decent north on US41 (device would stay on lte unless forced to 5g)up through to Michigan border.
Service was.mostly non-existent between Marinette and Escanaba, and no roaming.
Escanaba throuugh Manistique was weak and patchy, and similar to Newberry on m117, and No Service east on m28 to i75.
Service was decent in Sault MI, and Sault Canada, keeping service often on TMobile in Canada, and dropping to Bell 4g/5g indoors.
Going south on i75 to Mackinaw is solid (added new site a few years back between Kinross and St. Ignace).
On m31 from Mackinaw to Pellston, service was good. Taking Robinson Rd west to m119 was effectively no service most of the trip. Harbor Springs is weak (better than in 2020 though), and Petoskey hasn't changed much, with the exception on n41 (tower at Starbucks/TMobile store).
Charlevoix itself is better after cutting 2g/3g, and moving bands to lte/5g. It is a bit weak in the area due to tower location and lack of towers (only 1).
South of Charlevoix, i have picked up service on 5g nr from a long ways. Capable of +800Mbps at 15 miles
One bit to note: some areas have very fragmented spectrum. Eg. N25 15x15 + n25 5x5 + n41 60 + n41 20
Lte b2 5x5, b66 10x10, b12 5x5
If you're a local Yooper, or even parts of northern MI, i might think twice, depending on location and where i travel. Tourists, passing through, should be fine, except in parts of the UP.
Traveling from Marquette MI through Iron Mountain down to Sheboygan WI to ORD shows how different spectrum and overall coverage is in different regions.
Marquette through Ishpaming on US41 to MI95 was ok, with areas of 0-1 bar due to having few towers and limited capacity.
M95 was patches of service and dead or unusable service, most b12 5x5 or if lucky n71 10x10. N25 and the.few.spots with n41 are really only nearby. At&t roaming exists in between sites at.~160kbps
Service does imporve ‘a bit’ south of Iron Mountain as you cross into Wisconsin, and much better south of Beaver, WI all the way to Chicago.
As a note… if you're in the UP of Michigan and can't roam on At&t, TMobile can't really help you besideshaving you check your settings
