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.
Often its not so much that n71 is 'weak', but limited in capacity. In a rural area, n71 should be the default, but with capacity issues (lets assume 10x10 or 15x15, your SINR will not be great if many are using it, and performance will be awful. Eg. Where I am, close to a tower, n71 has worse SINR than n41 (but better RSRP). and performance isn't great. Upload can be as high as download.
On n41, its 100MHz (flat TDD), where ~5-10MHz is carved out for upload. Upload is weak, and a small chunk. SINR will be great, as there's typically little overlap between towers. Similarly n41 uses 4x4 MIMO, allowing for effectively 2x performance.
In my area, under ‘ideal’ conditions, n71 indoors, n71 15x15 = 40Mbps/12Mbps.RSRP -90dBm, SS-SINR 10dB.
n41 (100+80) = 421Mbps, 7.8Mbps, RSRP -107dBm, SS-SINR=11dB
