Strange connection problems with T-Mobile

Mike, Bocaboy is right. You will have to "separate" the 2 networks.  The idea here is that from what I understand, the 5 GHz band radio and the 2,4GHz band radio are both combined into one SSID name to act as WiFI 6 standards.  This gives seamless switching between 5 and 2.4 GHZ depending on location, distance, line-of site (signal strength). 

So as he said, if you “add” a network of 2.5GHz, then add a second with 5GHZ only, you can then see it in a network browse list,, and select it. 

I called them and asked about changing the DHCP scope to allow for static IP's.  They will not allow any setting changes to it. 

But I realized that I do have static IP’s on a few devices here, and it looks like the DHCP send out a ping to identify if an IP address is in use first, then if so, it moves to the next and assigns it at that point.  

I haven’t really had an issue with it. 

On the other hand, use an external router to do other things, the VPN function is not on TMOBILE either, you will have to use another router and use it as an access point.  Look into DD-wrt and openwrt forums to learn of the ways to make an even better router work for you. I have one, it is an ASUS, but I flashed it to be a much better router with many useful functions.   You can use one to do almost anything else you would need to.