Forum Discussion
Network Congestion
I would like to know if there is a way to modify the home internet gateway to run with 4g data rather than 5g? Yes a bit backward question I know, but the T-Mobile home gateway I have is clearly suffering from oversold 5g network congestion at the cell tower. There are just too many 5g devices being serviced and not enough capacity. I have been on the phone with tech service now for hours over several days. All of my equipment works amazingly well. The techs are even able to boost the speed of the gateway to levels I am really surprised by. The problem is those levels drop significantly a couple hours after ending the call. My wife has an older phone with 4g speeds. She turned it into a hotspot and it works very well and consistent. So my conclusion is the gateway is struggling to break though and maintain speeds on a 5g tower that just cannot service the demand. I would like to switch the gateway to 4g if there is any way that can be done. I tried logging into it, but I do not see a setting to do that. Unfortunately if I cannot find a dependable solution, we will be going back to Xfinity which is going to really demoralize me. I really do not like that company, but their internet was consistent.
Tbh, the gateways run both 4g lte and 5g… and at the same time (5g NSA mode).
You're more than likely a victim of deprioritization. Check the stats values on your Tmobile gateway for the advanced metrics for signal on both 4g lte and 5g
Being behind trees is something that doesn't help much. I've had service for ~1 year, and did notice that my service SINR/RSRP does take a 'bit' of a hit during summer months of a few db. There aren't many trees, but during summer, they have a lot of leaves (won't have that with pine).
SINR here on LTE can drop to ~4dB at times, and up to 14 on LTE B2. 5G n41 is more stable, with SINR around 7.4 to 12. If I move the device outside, LTE SINR can reach over 20, and n41 can reach around 18. I'll be a polling cron on the device to map metrics
RSRP doesn’t change too much, but is typically in the -98 to -103 dBm on LTE B2, and around -103 to -105 on n41.
Middle of the night metrics can be a little better, but in general performance can gain about 100Mbps.
SINR is basically anything that can degrade signal - whether it is congestion from many users or external 'noise'. Being rural, I wouldn't expect too much traffic on the signal (i.e. too many users), but I don't know the area or what kind of backhaul there is.
Oddly enough, when T-Mobile first deployed 5G in San Simeon, CA, it was on a T1 (T-Mobile provided that in a written statement to California PUC). Speed on cells were < 500kbps, with a few hits above 1Mbps. SINR was …. 30, and RSRP was -57dBm, distance was ~500'.
It was blamed on … congestion, which was partially true. It was congested because T-Mobile pushed 5g traffic through a T1 circuit. Once updated, it hit +300Mbps. Now with n41, its hitting +1400Mbps on a Samsung S21/S23.
If anything else will help, the newer Arcadyan model has carrier aggregation on 5G carriers + LTE.
in my case, n25 is great on the mobile … however, existing Acradyan kv-21 doesn’t support n25, or 5g aggregation (i.e. no n41 + n41 or n41 + n71, or n25 + n71 combos).
If the SINR is poor on … n41 (likely), n25 could help. As more bands are switched over … this will help.
Similarly the newer Arcadyan model has ports for antenna build in.
As far as backhaul/deprioritization … I can't help on that one. Also, it still doesn't affect my area (yet!).
I was just contacted by a local company who offered free installation and 1 mo free service for a microwave dish receiver off their transmitter. They got new equipment with a federal grant and they recently set it up to point directly towards our subdivision across the river from their transmitting station. Supposedly will have 25-50mbs 24/7, unlimited and no congestion or throttling.
I've scheduled the install for Tues. Crossing my fingers it will give us daytime internet.Will see how it compares over the next few months to what I an getting with TMHI.
BTW, for Pines are one of the highest rated trees for signal blocking despite having no leaves.
Awesome. Competition is good. There's no contracts or termination/install fees. Ive kept Spectrum as a back (cheapest plan) , as i need service for work
TMO has absolutely oversold their home Internet. My service was great for 1 year- slower speeds than Cox, however, the connection was very stable. Over the past 3 months we have ZERO internet from 5 pm until about 10 pm. Called tech support,, the matter was escalated and they are going to call me back. A Supervisor even called me because I am a 20 year customer. What are they going to do -- it is either add more towers or remove customers!
My family members have demanded we go back to Cox. SuperBowl is coming up and the men in my house are not happy so 15 minutes ago I reconnected Cox and am just reconfiguring a few things..
I wonder what will happen with TMO. If you think about almost every new initiative they undertake ends because of issues on their end --TV, their original prepaid card, their TV portal, their box. their home router for calls etc --the list goes on and on.
I work from home and cannot deal with Internet that does not work.
The pricing is great which is what attracted me and for just about a year it was good and now went back to Cox and got a good deal. I took the price comparable> The option.I used to have the Ultimate and if anything good came out of this I now know that the slower speeds of 100 down work just fine. I never got anything over 25 with TMO and when it worked it was fine.My prediction for TMO moving forward -- heavy throttling and new pricing options with data caps
