Why is my mobile hotspot so much slower than my regular data connection?

Well, I just visited a T-Mobile store that sits almost directly below a 5G uc equipped tower. They ran a speedtest on the store's iPhone 13 demo phone and it clocked in at 509 Mbps Download speed. I have tested my own iPhone 13 at the same 5G uc equipped tower and got 610 Mbps.

Then I asked them to demo the store's  MiFi 2000 Inseego hotspot and run the same speedtest - but they declined saying they don't have a demo version of the MiFi 2000. So I pulled out my own MiFi 2000 that I had just purchased from them and ran the same speedtest, but I only got 309 Mbps Download speed.

I asked them why the difference, but I received no response. This proves to me that T-Mobile's MiFi 2000 hotspots do not perform at mid band 5G speeds (mid-band 2.5GHz ultra capacity) as advertised, whereas the iPhone 13's do, and are capable  of performing at twice the BW speed, i.e., the MiFi 2000, and perhaps all non-phone devices, are being throttled to 300 Mbps by T-Mobile (5G routers, hotspots, etc.). Go to a T-Mobile store and do the same comparison test to see for yourself. Below is the MiFi 2000 speedtest result I got while in the T-Mobile store.

Hotspot on your phone device is limited by plan eg.  I get 3g speeds on my One plan.  Magenta gives 5GB, , Magenta Max gives 40GB.

TMobile has Hotspot plans for for mifi which are 50GB.  only the home internet service will give unlimited on Hotspot style connections

This is not usage related.. I have three Mifi 2000 devices, each with 100GByte plans (I was lucky to get the 100GB grandfathered limits). The 300 Mbps BW  throttling that I see started out of the box, i.e., at zero usage. I  have never reached anywhere  near the 100GB usage limit in one month  on any one of my three devices. It is not related to my plan limit.  The BW speedtest has never gone over 300 Mbps since day one.

My iPhone 13, on the other hand, has performed well  over 600 Mbps out of the box, and it shows the new 5G uc in the upper right hand corner (5G ultra capacity). T-Mobile does not seem to want to explain why this is happening.

I have this issue as well.  

I'm also having this issue. I'm getting Less than 1MB/s Download and rarely more than .5mb upload. I can't even work from home on that. It took 3 hours for my email to get updated from the day before.

I always had fast tether speeds on a military plan, but this year it will to under 1mbps. Even the phone data would be about the same. every week id call and be told different excuses from different people. one guy said a previous guy removed my high speed tether and that he put it back. Then another said it had not been put back. I was paying $25 extra just for my line and for years it worked great in every state while travelling.  They say its tower upgrades, then the next person says its fiber optics, towers are down, towers are fine. they then convinced me to do magenta and it would only cost $30 more for the entire bill. i had them do that in hopes it would fix a problem that never happened before. i tried different phones and laptops so i know its not on my side. Anyhow, the bill jumped for each line. so we pulled the plug on Magenta due to lies and the fact the service did not improve. Im down to the 40gb that comes with the basic plan and in over a week i have not had to call and complain yet? we will see what happens when i hit the 40gb, but i decided instead of getting nowhere with tmobile ill just get cable internet. and, no i will not recommend tmobile 100%, because their reps lie and never fixed my problems. If your tech reps and such are so poorly trained thet you need to address this and your congested towers! I believe everything gets throttled no matter your plan when towers are congested! so there is no fix for your data problems...so dont keep paying them for add ones for bad service. i can get cable internet for $30/month...i don't need t mobiles lies! 

Same problem here in Italy. LTE overall is not great but sufficient. Tethering by any method is garbage - I cannot work on my laptop. Different CS reps give a variety of answers but nothing fixes the issue. 

I got my hotspot 2 weeks ago. It ran (decent speeds) well the first couple of times I used the device. Now it runs incredibly slow. I check the download and upload speeds. Download was .97 mbps and upload was slightly faster, which is usually just the opposite. These speeds remind me of the old DSL lines. I am considering taking this toy back to T-Mobile. I just had changed my service from Verizon to TM. I need to reconsider.

When I travel, I buy local sim cards in every country. I never have a problem with using my phone as a hotspot. Then I come back to America and find that you vampires try to charge extra for something I get for free everywhere else. It's insulting and I'm extremely unhappy about it.

I have the Magenta Max plan, and when I got the hotspot capability increased (the premium version) it was absolutely terrible. I was so disappointed. Then Go5g/Plus came out and I couldn't switch back to regular Magenta. The hotspot capability is garbage. I can't do much of anything. I thought it was my phone, but my fiance's phone does it, too. I have a Samsung s22 and he has an iPhone 13 pro. Hotspot is sloooooooooow. I connect my tablet to my phone and try to download things and can't, even though my phone states I have 200mbps download speeds. Yeah right. I'm really disappointed. Fiance's phone is doing the same thing. What's the point of paying for hotspot? Nothing.