Forum Discussion
Is download speed affected by cellular activity?
I'm trialing T-Mobile home internet. Got the new white 5G gateway. I get 3 bars pretty consistently from a tower about 3 miles away in an industrial area. I've noticed considerably slower download...
This can be from a couple of items.
- As mentioned - deprioritization this hits some areas worse than others. I've been lucky enough to not really have this in my area (suburbia)
- Overall signal quality/congestion. At times, your device may switch from 5G n41 + LTE to 5G n71 + LTE to … LTE only. When this occurs for me, +400/20Mbps → 170/70Mbps, and it is typically due to SINR/RSRP values. If your SINR is low, its either congestion (spectrum) or interference (objects). When I go below 8 on SINR for n41, it often drops to n71. SINR of 15 or better, and I'm rocking. I'm only ~1200' away from T-Mobile tower, but there's a building in between blocking
Now I suspect T-Mobile is pulling a fast one. For the first month (during my 15 day trial) I often saw download speeds of 250+ but now that I'm in the second month every time it's less than 100. Usually around 80. Even though I'm usually seeing 3 bars - GOOD connection. Is T-Mobile throttling me now that I've committed to using them?
