Forum Discussion
Sudden terrible (and strange) data speeds at home, TMo Tells me the towers are "fine"
I'll try to be brief, but have a bit of data to share. First, let me state that T-Mobile supports reps are super nice, BUT cannot think outside of the narrow box they are trained in and really can't ...
BBB escalation will get you a bit more than the typical locals, but I have had your message of “we can't guarantee coverage in all areas” often.
I’d almost recommend taking a ‘drive by’ the tower (½ mile away?) and taking a ‘test’.
and similarly network readings.
I did mention above that it took me a CPUC written complaint to get T-Mobile to ‘fix’ the 0.3Mbps 5G service, along with a BBB escalation. 8 months .
Then, after publishing the written response, it was fixed in 1 month. Press them on the issue - tell them you have full bars, but effectively unusable service. 5G 'should be' +100Mbps (according to past reps). 1Mbps at ½ mile is pretty bad, especially with good power level, and usable SINR.
Why I mention microwave … I'm in a suburban area, the local tower here is microwave. A 'bump' (wind, or other) can move these a bit out of alignment - or … something comes in between. For the amount of spectrum available and signal, your results (2 weeks ago) were decent.
I would tend to agree… either network aggregation (rural may be aggregating to an overloaded location), backhaul itself (microwave - being rural ?) … or something else along those lines. Typically, in my travels at least, most rural areas are capped ~750Mbps (1gbps ports?), but typically obtain something quite decent - well above 200Mbps - even for LTE only. Not too many rural subs. Had something similar when I went to Estes park a few years back. Service was so poor that calls wouldn't hold - with 'full bars'. Even the T-Mobile app messaging would timeout. Their ETA to 'fix' was +8 months (i.e. in July they told me it would be fixed by the following April). Of course, it was to take over a Sprint tower in the middle of town (all other carriers had a spot on the main street strip, except T-Mobile).
It definitely sounds like something between the tower and its aggregation point. If you can't get anything out of TMobile tech support - go up the food chain - BBB can open an escalation.
