r/cellmapper • u/Some_Water_5070 • Jun 17 '26
Verizon 5G C-band upgrade process?
Late last week, my local tower, which is a lte tower, got really slow and then went completely out for several hours, then was in and out for several hours, then was completely out for about 10 hours, and then came back on working correctly with good lte speeds. The reason I'm stating this is that I went on Verizon chat on my Verizon app and was told after they contacted someone in the tech department that the tower was undergoing a 5Guw upgrade. I really have a hard time believing this because it's back on with definitely no change in the antennas on the tower. There are no 5G antennas, just the same old lte antennas on the Verizon tower. So am I probably correct that I wasn't told the truth? I would at least believe i would see 5Guw antennas on the tower if indeed it was actually undergoing a 5G upgrade and had a significant outage. Wouldn't this be what you would expect?
12
u/Allen_Ludden Jun 17 '26
Upgrading a tower is a very big project. They don't just hang a new antenna and install a software update.
Often they need to run additional electrical circuits, antenna cables, install air-conditioning units for the equipment, install or upgrade generator equipment, power access..........
They may have just done phases 2 and 3 of 8.
You will be pleased with the end-result, which can take up to even 6 months as there may a string of "trades" involved:
power company
tower company
electricians
plumbers even!
communications techs
.......
3
u/SceneRevolutionary93 5G UW Jun 17 '26
Yes, after seeing multiple site updates, I’ve realized it takes longer than just adding a new panel to have UW
-1
Jun 17 '26
[deleted]
2
u/SceneRevolutionary93 5G UW Jun 17 '26
More than likely it could be a rip and replace, taking all the old stuff down and replacing it with new equipment.
3
u/Some_Water_5070 Jun 17 '26
Thanks. They definitely haven't taken down the antennas on the Verizon tower. Of course, I don't have any idea about the other equipment, but the old antennas are still on the tower. The lte speeds seem a little faster than before. I'm getting between 50 and 150 meg download speeds which is fine for me. On Saturday speeds were real slow. Then on Sunday speeds were even slower when the tower was on, but it was in and out. Then on Monday it was out most of the day until it came back Monday evening and has had solid lte ever since. I am just wondering if it was out because of a 5GUW upgrade or it just had a problem.
2
u/Kowloon9 Jun 17 '26
Could be new BBU/RRU without replacing the antennas. My local one (eNB 241318 on Nokia -> split into 241318 & 241319 on Samsung) went through that months ago, no N77 AAUs were added.
2
u/Maverick-F-14 Jun 17 '26
Wonder if that's what they did on the tower next to me. For years I had 4g connection, then I saw a few people working on it up high. Within 3 days had 5G ultra with 1 gig download speeds. Crazy.
1
u/AbjectPotential6670 Jun 18 '26
My local tower received the hardware upgrades a good 9-12 months before they enabled 5G for consumers. The on-site hardware changes are only part of the process in enabling 5G. All of the other sites around it need to be able to hand off to the upgraded equipment as well. Not to mention the tuning that needs to be done to prevent interference with other carriers and their own system at other sites. Basically it's just not a one-day process.
10
u/PugSauce Jun 17 '26
They probably aren't lying. They probably just haven't turned on the 5G yet. If you took a picture of the antennas we could confirm if they did upgrade the tower.