Gateway location

jcm48 wrote:

When I 1st switched to T-mobile, I had a terrific connection from my upstairs landing, looking out through a west-facing window. This summer, however, I had to lower a sun shade on that window, and the connection fell from "Excellent" to "Very Good." Is this normal? Can a signal not penetrate a sun shade very well?

It won't take much to go from 'Excellent' (hard to get) to 'Very Good'.   Eg.  If I open/close my window on my sliding door, it goes from 'Good' (closed) to 'Very Good' (open).  It is important to realize that each of these are ranges.  If I'm at RSRP of -101 dBm, and opening a window moves it to -98dBm that will change it from 'Good' to 'Very Good', while a change from -105dBm to -101dBm will not change anything on the reading.  You should be happy to have 'Excellent' and even 'Very Good' service.

With ‘Very Good’ Service, I can reach +500Mbps/60Mbps, while ‘Good’ is typically ~400Mbps/20Mbps, and Weak goes down to ~200-250Mbps/15Mbps.  

Note:  This is 5G band 41 + 4GLTE B2 ‘or’ B66

5G band 71 will give lower download, higher upload and typically better ‘Connection Quality’ readings

As mentioned above, signal quality matters.  I typically have very good signal quality (LTE ~ 13-15, 5G n41 ~7 to15) , as the tower's range is short, and pointed to a residential area.  Similarly, RSRQ is -4 on 5G and -7 on LTE.