Internet connetion constantly dropping

OBTW: https://www.tmonews.com/tag/t-mobile-home-internet/ When it comes to firmware updates sometimes you can get a bit more about changes via the tmonews.com page via the home internet section.

iTinkeralot wrote:

So, signal to noise ratio is not bad but not stellar. What the RSRP and RSRQ do appear to reflect is that the tower must be fairly close to your location. The signal to noise ratio tells us that there are factors that cause noise for the signal. If the SINR were >=20 dB it would be excellent. Value of 13 not great but not bad.

 

Best SINR value I was able to get with my phone was 16 in the spot where I placed the gateway.  Getting 11-14 with the gateway, so that is the probably the best I can get.

Do I need to be concerned with the 4g stats at all?

4g": {      "bands": [        "b2"      ],      "bars": 4.0,      "cid": 1,      "eNBID": 71252,      "rsrp": -89,      "rsrq": -10,      "rssi": -79,      "sinr": 5

Well, I sort of ignored the 4G LTE and took focus on improving the 5G NR signal. I went so far as to rotate the Nokia router to see if exposing the antennas on one side of the router to the signal wash was better than the other side or area. It did indeed help with the Nokia gateway. I made it a point to improve the 5G signal 3-4 dBM and ignored the 4G LTE values. When I did get improvement for 5G then my tests with speedtest.net did reflect improvement. 

All your 4G LTE values are higher than mine so even your 4G LTE signal is not bad. If you see the PCI value in the data from the router you can locate the tower. The PCI is the physical cell identifier. With that value you can use cellmapper.net to locate T-Mobile towers with the various cellular radios. If you filter by 5G NR then you can reduce the field down a bit and locate the 5G cell where your signal comes from. You can do the same with 4G LTE but there are commonly many more hits so it takes a little more focus. If you find the 5G NR signal source the 4G LTE signal may be on the same tower. My 4G LTE and 5G signals come off the same tower. For me in the end I found having the router in a window in the basement with line of sight to the tower 5.3 miles to the north was better than upstairs with the window in the kitchen having the same exposure to the tower. I think it has to do with the deck/porch upstairs having the roof overhead where as the window below has no roof overhead in that location. Getting the router in an optimal placement is really trial and error. With an external antenna the location of the router in the house is then about local WIFI coverage vs getting cellular connections. With cellular internet that becomes a trade off or just another puzzle to solve and improve upon. 

Welp, I think I am throwing in the towel and sending this piece of junk back.  I have tried it for a week and I just can't deal with the constant drops, I need internet that works ALL the time, not just some of the time.  Today has been the worst, I have not been able to do much at all since 5:30 today.  Glad I didn't cancel my much slower speed internet service.

I mean, it is even worth my time trying to call them?  From what I have read all over the interwebs, they will just tell me they are working on the towers or what not.  Frustrated does not begin to describe it, I had so much hope for higher speeds, oh well.

Keep in mind it is very true that BAD NEWS travels much faster than good news. Most people who are satisfied and happy with the solution seldom visit the forums. The cellular home internet solution does not work in ALL places. You might just be in a location where there are too many obstacles to have a clean signal delivered. The cellular metrics you posted for the 5G  and the 4G were not bad though. If T-Mobile engineers are indeed "working on the tower" it might be prudent to ask T-Mobile to suspend the home internet account and notify you when they get the tower solution worked out. If you could get them to do that then later when the tower is stable you would still have a reservation on the tower. If you give up and send the GW back and close the account it might be hard to get another spot on the tower once it is working. They only load a tower with as many users as it can sustain for proper delivery. Once it is stable it is a darn good solution for the price. One week is a short trial but I do get it. When you need your internet to work and it repeatedly drops out that is annoying. Whatever you decide; the best of luck to you. 

Thanks!  I am going to let it sit the weekend unplugged and I will give it another go next week.  Will also try an give them a call as well.

I went to a live chat yesterday with a T-Mobile agent to confirm an answer about a specific question a customer presented. That chat was more on the marketing side for accounts vs the support side. If you login to your account and get the chat with a support person that is there to not fix the gateway but to make sure customers are happy that is where you will probably get better results. I got with a live chat pretty quick, say 3-4 minutes, ok so not super fast but still not bad. I got the answers and they were very willing and helpful. YOU just need to get them to understand you are not happy and want them to help turn it around. Customer retention is going to be more helpful.

When you hit the pages where you are looking at the T-Mobile services they know you are there to consider their service so they pay attention. Nothing gets attention like $$$s. 

The cellular solution for all the various frequencies & practices required to implement the solution is pretty sophisticated really. I can only speculate that there was still work being performed on the cellular tower equipment. When the T-Mobile field engineers were working on the tower here it was rather unpredictable and had similar episodes. Your cellular signals, when last you posted were actually not bad at all. You may have improved the signal with noise reduction in the new location. A house can shield unwanted noise from other sources and this can lead to better performance as a result. Maybe the gateway can no longer receive a signal from another source so it stays locked on the one it now is upon. Without knowing the PCI values from before and after the change it is hard to know. The PCI is the physical cell identifier which tells which cell the signal is sourced from. 

It really does not matter too much. If you are getting a good solid signal and 150-200 Mbs down then it will be pretty good. That is pretty much where ours is on the n71 signal here. I am glad you were able to work it out. I found the T-Mobile home internet solution to be a great solution here. I had no other options I would even consider so it was a big win for us.