Forum Discussion
Arcadyan KVD21 Will not connect to internet on Band N41. N71 works fine
I've called the customer support hotline 4 times in the past two days. I lose all internet when my gateway connects to band N41. If I try to block the signal using stuff like aluminum foil and walls I can get it to reconnect to N71 for a little while, but then it will reconnect itself to N41 again and I'll lose internet all over again.
Can we PLEASE get channel/band locking on gateways! I will continue going through warranty replacements, costing T-Mobile money, if yall see no reason not to give customers what we want.
It sounds like you need to get in touch with a customer retention specialist at T-Mobile. Obviously you are getting no place just calling into support. I once managed to be passed up to a customer retention specialist and got the answers I needed. If nothing more than getting connected to an elevation engineer that can investigate the behavior properly and provide answers that would be some progress.
Maybe there are so many people out there just clamoring to get T-Mobile 5G home internet that they don't care but they should. Hopefully you can get to the right person that will provide answers and help.
Sounds like my area. I have great LTE service, but 5G is marginal at best.
Back of house is ~1200’ from LTE tower (B2/B66/B12) and ¾ mile from another 5G n41/n71 tower
Front of house is ~ 1mile from 5G tower (n41/n71)
LTE CQI/RSRQ = excellent, 5G (front = n41) = Poor, 5G back = n71 poor)
If i leave my gateway in the front, LTE goes to ‘Good’ service, and speeds are ~10-50Mbps, with once in a blue moon 250-300Mbps.
If I leave my gateway by the back, its typically 75Mbps to 150Mbps, with late night above 250Mbps.
I can only recommend finding the best ‘LTE’ signal (use the app)
The way T-Mobile leverages the HetNet it becomes a balancing act to position the gateway so the LTE is able to do what it is intended to accomplish with the split signal radio bearers. From conversations in the community it seems to me users on the n41 frequency on the secondary channel are more challenged in higher density urban areas where user loading on the cells is higher. I personally believe this is due to bandwidth throttling and also the bandwidth is shared with phones which have higher priority due to the nature of the cellular usage.
If you are interested in understanding the HetNet better:
https://prateek-mishra.medium.com/en-dc-overview-62d35521edc4
This is an interesting and informative overview of how the use of the 4G LTE and 5G NR frequencies are used to deliver service. It is the best explanation I have come across and it does not take a masters in radio technology to grasp the concepts.
