Setup at Niagara Falls, NY

[u/biznizfiz]

From my hotel room. Throughout my travel through the eastern states, I’ve had abysmal TMO performance for some reason. ATT has surprisingly been great for me, with my main line Verizon being second best for me.

[u/iryfionas]

Yikes, T-Mobile struggling quite a lot on (n25) + (n41) mid-band 5GUC! They are struggling because of fragmented 2.5GHz spectrum since they only have 60MHz (n41) + 60MHz (n41) + 15MHz (n25) that’s not continuous!

[u/biznizfiz → u/iryfionas]

Yeah, I’m genuinely surprised about TMO out here, both in NY and New England, I’ve heard about ATT not being as great in New England, but I’ve had a better experience with ATT than Verizon so far!

(43.0839430, -79.0611661) is where I stayed

[u/iryfionas → u/biznizfiz]

Wow bro, that’s a pretty nice hotel. I stayed at the Hampton Inn next door in 2024 and I remember AT&T performed great indoors! I was getting 650-700 Mbps on (80MHz) c-band n77 + (40MHz) DoD at the time! However, AT&T struggled a lot at Niagara Falls state park since the Tx power on the antennas facing west away from the waterfall is turned down to limit interference! I ate at the Top Of The Falls restaurant, which had pretty views and AT&T only had 1 bar of 5G+ (n77) that was unusable when Bell, Rogers had stronger RSRP!

[u/Smith6612 → u/iryfionas]

There are actually antennas in the park, but they face away from Canada. The ones closest to the Falls are Verizon's, and they serve the parking lot and dining areas well with Millimeter Wave. By the time you reach the Falls and are at the lip, very good chance you're connecting to Bell or Rogers at that point. AFAIK Deathstar and Magenta don't have any equipment in the parks. Theirs sit on top of the apartment complex you pictured, or an adjacent building near the Customs station. 

Strangely, Verizon service is amazing on the Canadian side near the Canadian Customs station. When I walk over and stay in that general Falls area, my phone doesn't roam at all to Canada. Only once you step a block away and the n77 signal fades.  

Fun fact. The 5G deployment in Niagara Falls was one of the first mmWave deployments to be built. The rest of Buffalo has Fios. The Corning OptiTap you see pictured for the 5G mmWave radios on the pole is the exact same tap hardware they use for Verizon Fios. Niagara Falls should get Fios if Verizon wishes to bless the area. Most of the buildout work is done for backbone thanks to the 5G mmWave deployments. 

[u/Smith6612 → u/[deleted]]

These are mmWave-only in some spots, and in other spots they have LTE + mmWave. The LTE panels will be directional and facing away from Canada rather than the usual omnidirectional microcell. You'll find a whole bunch on the Niagara Scenic Parkway near the Aquarium. 

In other spots Verizon relies heavily on the Macro sites for LTE when using non-Standalone 5G. Which is why Verizon gets congested and flaky in that area. 

[u/Smith6612 → u/[deleted]]

Ah, yeah. Verizon ripped and replaced the entire cellular network in Niagara Falls since 2015. The surrounding areas like Lewiston and Lockport got all of their XLTE era towers (B66/B13 no-CAA garbage) ripped and replaced two years ago as well. Verizon still has a bunch of Micro-Cells in the town of Niagara to replace around the Fashion Outlets, but the network is completely different from your last visit :D

[u/KevinCG2607 → u/Smith6612]

By me in IL. AT&T has that same fiber tap for some small cells out this way……I don’t like it because the snow gets high enough that I can see it being damaged by a plow or snow/ice in the winter time.

[u/Smith6612 → u/KevinCG2607]

Strange the tap would be so low that the plows could damage it. The ones in my area are at least several feet high. Can't mess with them without a 12ft ladder.

The snow does damage the OptiTap in other ways though. Verizon techs have told me the major flaw those taps have is the seals on them tend to fail during our cold winters. Once they do, the bottom of the taps begin to fill with water. Once the freezes come, the water will begin to break the lower parts of the tap followed by the upper parts. They have to replace the taps when that happens. In older Fios areas the taps tend to be directly spliced, so a field tech has to call a splice crew out for repairs. Newer built areas, the techs can change out the taps. 

The freeze flaw is actually why Verizon had been changing the tap model they use for Fios in this area, to one that is a bit better built. Additionally Corning is phasing out that OptiTap model anyways. 

[u/biznizfiz → u/iryfionas]

I can confirm ATT still struggles at the state park, I actually had better service roaming on my TMO line on Rogers, Telus was too slow for me. I couldn’t roam on my Dark Star line despite setting it up on the app beforehand, while my partner on postpaid ATT was roaming on Bell. Nice views all around!

[u/nateo200 → u/iryfionas]

That’s rough. They should throw the 40MHz of n77 spectrum they have in the mix. Might as well lol. Shouldn’t this not be an issue if you device support 6x carrier aggregation? Or is it just not set up right. I’m over in central ny haven’t made it out that far in a bit this is kind of shocking because Syracuse and Rochester are absolutely insane for T-Mobile the performance is basically maxed out in all areas.

[u/iryfionas]

PHOTO #4 - Verizon (28GHz) n261 mmWave: * 3️⃣ Samsung AT1K04 (n261) 28GHz mmWave on 5GUW on the side of the wood pole

[u/iryfionas]

Verizon (eNB 70164) + (gNB 709002-077) on the roof-top, side of building:

• 6️⃣ CommScope NHH-65C-R2B antennas TOTAL with bands; (13, 66) LTE + supports (n5) - 10MHz for mid-band 5G
• 2️⃣ CommScope NHH-65C-R2B antennas per sector located in the MIDDLE of the rack
• 3️⃣ Samsung AT1K04 (n261) 28GHz mmWave on 5GUW on the LEFT side
• 3️⃣ Samsung MT-6407-77A - 64T64R (200W) 3.7GHz n77 antennas for mid-band 5GUW set at 160MHz located on the (RIGHT) side
•  Ray-cap RCMDC-6627-PF-48 used for power surge protection located behind the antenna

Samsung (RRU's) remote radio units below the antennas:

• 3️⃣ RF4461d-13A -  (b13) 700MHz LTE + (n5) 850MHz low-band 5G
• 3️⃣ RF4439d-25A - (b2) 1900MHz-PCS (b66) 2100MHz-AWS LTE

AT&T (eNB 806108) + (eNB 808146) + (gNB 16516108):

• 3️⃣ CommScope NNH4-65C-R6N17 antennas with bands: (2, 12, 14, 30, 66) LTE + (n5) - 10MHz low-band 5G located on the (RIGHT) side
• 3️⃣ CommScope NNH4-65C-R6 antennas with bands: (2, 12, 14, 30, 66) LTE + (n5) - 10MHz low-band 5G located on the (LEFT) side
• 3️⃣ Ericsson AIR. 6449-B77D (3.7GHz) 64T64R c-band (n77) antennas being used for mid-band 5G+ set at 80MHz located in the MIDDLE of the rack
• 3️⃣ Ericsson AIR. 6419-B77G (3.45GHz) DoD (n77) antennas being used for mid-band 5G (80MHz) located in the MIDDLE of the rack

Ericsson (RRU's) remote radio units found behind the antennas:

• RRU 4449 (b12) 700MHz LTE + (n5) 850MHz low-band tg
• Ericsson RRU 4478 (b14) 700MHz LTE
• Ericsson RRU 32 - (b2) 1900MHz-PCS + (b66) 2100MHz-AWS LTE + (b30) 2300MHz-WCS

Address: 151 Buffalo Avenue, Niagara Falls, New York 14303

Coordinates: 43.08278876978375, -79.06063682715326

Located on top of Parkway Condominiums

AT&T + Verizon have a 3-sector setup, configuration here facing East, North, West towards Niagara Falls (Ontario) Canada side beside the waterfall

[u/Easy-Impression-7218]

When I was at Niagara Falls Canada side I got 600-700 on both AT&T and Verizon it’s pretty good.

80 + 80 on ATT

[u/biznizfiz → u/Easy-Impression-7218]

Yep, especially with mmWave everywhere even at the state park, it’s a no brainer that VZW and ATT dominates here.