5G Home internet keeps dropping!

I see some comments here that are questionable. Now to be clear, I don't think T-Mobile is perfect by no means, but the disillusioned people that consider high dollar Verizon the "only" way to go, and the unreliable AT&T farce, T-Mobile certainly stands out. I switched to T-Mobile way back when they were a nobody and began the no contract(un-carrier) craze that forced every carrier to follow. They were definitely the best value, they had you assigned to a fixed customer support location( I live in SC and mine was in Charleston) which was great, and always answered immediately with an English speaking rep. I have never before or since experienced such great support from any company hands down. Now, due to their growth and merger with Sprint, they can(understandably)no longer provide this personal support now, but it will take a lot to get me to move away from them. Now if you wish to pay more and go to a no better solution, all power to you. T-Mobile has the largest 5G network (although others lie about theirs being the largest and the best), the best deals and prices on their service, and my commitment through these growing pains. I only have 3 bars on my Nokia Gateway bust get as high as 700-800/60 speeds. My bill is constantly the same amount(unlike every month different with AT&T) and constant problems with Spectrum even though they had sufficient speeds. Never tried high dollar Version but I have service when others with Verizon sometimes don't. I too am seeing some problems with internet that I didn't see at first, but I fail to believe it is intentional by throttling but I could be mistaken. Anyway, life is full of frustrations, and we become more and more inpatient and feel like we deserve the very best with no interruptions. However, sometimes "we bite off our nose to spite our face" and have regrets later. So, if you're new to T-Mobile, I am aware that you are unfamiliar with how they really stood out at a period in time, but hang in there, I don't think you will regret it. If you are a longtime customer, maybe you can confirm what I think. By the way, I do not work for T-Mobile. I have no incentive to bragg on them. I just have been there through the ups and downs and am confident they have saved me a considerable amount of money. Remember, Apple used to be the most expensive phone by a long shot, but look at the prices now on others, ie:Samsung, Google, OnePlus, etc. So I'm staying with Apple also but not because I'm diehard Apple. They just happen to provide some very reliable equipment. Thanks for letting me sound off!

Tlitchfo wrote:

For what it's worth, I've had the newer SAG FAST5688W gateway for about 2 months now and it is having the same drop issues, so I would doubt the issue is with the various gateways. The longest connection sustained so far has been a little over 2 days, and the worst has been multiple reboots per day. That said, when the service connects, I do usually get over 50Mb throughput (it's using the N71 band). Being in rural Virginia, this is great for us. 

To help make the constant rebooting less aggravating, I did see in another thread a device called Keep Connect - $50 on Amazon. Installed it yesterday and it has already automatically rebooted the device once, so now I don't have to manually intervene. We'll see - gateway has now been up 16h 38m 19s.

It's unfortunate that T-Mobile can't/won't fix their software to do what the Keep Connect device does - automatically detect connection failure and restore it. Funny how you never have to reboot your phone.

If you're listening T-Mobile, the device has dropped 21 times since I added the KeepConnect 6 days ago! At least the KeepConnect is handling the rebooting for me.

What I've learned through this is T-Mobile has signed on more people than the towers can handle. As such, there are drops. At this time, there is nothing the support dept. can do except continue to regurgitate the generic script, i.e. working on towers, replace router etc. 

Until they expand their systems, drops will continue. 

Acceptable wrote:

I see some comments here that are questionable. Now to be clear, I don't think T-Mobile is perfect by no means, but the disillusioned people that consider high dollar Verizon the "only" way to go, and the unreliable AT&T farce, T-Mobile certainly stands out. I switched to T-Mobile way back when they were a nobody and began the no contract(un-carrier) craze that forced every carrier to follow. They were definitely the best value, they had you assigned to a fixed customer support location( I live in SC and mine was in Charleston) which was great, and always answered immediately with an English speaking rep. I have never before or since experienced such great support from any company hands down. Now, due to their growth and merger with Sprint, they can(understandably)no longer provide this personal support now, but it will take a lot to get me to move away from them. Now if you wish to pay more and go to a no better solution, all power to you. T-Mobile has the largest 5G network (although others lie about theirs being the largest and the best), the best deals and prices on their service, and my commitment through these growing pains. I only have 3 bars on my Nokia Gateway bust get as high as 700-800/60 speeds. My bill is constantly the same amount(unlike every month different with AT&T) and constant problems with Spectrum even though they had sufficient speeds. Never tried high dollar Version but I have service when others with Verizon sometimes don't. I too am seeing some problems with internet that I didn't see at first, but I fail to believe it is intentional by throttling but I could be mistaken. Anyway, life is full of frustrations, and we become more and more inpatient and feel like we deserve the very best with no interruptions. However, sometimes "we bite off our nose to spite our face" and have regrets later. So, if you're new to T-Mobile, I am aware that you are unfamiliar with how they really stood out at a period in time, but hang in there, I don't think you will regret it. If you are a longtime customer, maybe you can confirm what I think. By the way, I do not work for T-Mobile. I have no incentive to bragg on them. I just have been there through the ups and downs and am confident they have saved me a considerable amount of money. Remember, Apple used to be the most expensive phone by a long shot, but look at the prices now on others, ie:Samsung, Google, OnePlus, etc. So I'm staying with Apple also but not because I'm diehard Apple. They just happen to provide some very reliable equipment. Thanks for letting me sound off!

I feel the same way you do. I have been with T-Mobile for close to 20 years. If I ever had a problem, they helped. But this feels like something much worse. I feel like I was sold a service that they knew wasn't what they were selling. One of the techs I talked to told me it was an experiment and just be patient and hang in there, I didn't buy an experiment I believe everything you say they oversold and now they're trying to play catch-up. To keep me they are going to have to offer me something I do not want to go back to cable and now I am so deep into T-Mobile with a new phone and all these bells and whistles that I bought and the Internet, I don't know how to get out without spending a lot of money , they don't throttle us, but if we have unlimited data plans, which on the home Internet, we all do, they do, you prioritize us during rush hour, whenever that is. So my 2MBPS drops even further to the point of not even being able to run a speed test . That's going to far. 

I made the decision today to go back to cable internet. I had the service for about 2months. I could no longer tolerate the daily disconnects in the middle of a VOIP call or Zoom session. This was now occurring on a daily basis. Most days 2-3 times but on bad days, 5-10 times or greater.

I replaced the Sagecom 5g gateway twice but that did not solve the problem. I put the Sagecom near a fan to cool the device but that did not solve the problem either (as someone suggested).

On the exit call, I spoke with Tmo representative and he said that they aware of the problem with disconnects. He believes in some areas, Tmo may have accepted too many home users without determining the impact on local lower capacity. Also, he could not give a reliable ETA as to when this problem will be fixed or when they would upgrade tower capacity.

The Tmo service has promise. If they can deliver 60-100mbps down consistently. that would serve my needs especially at the $50 forever price point. Only if they could fix the frequent disconnects. I will check out in 12 months time if things have improved or not.

Fortunately, cable internet offers 12month promo at $50 per month for returning customers. You have to have been a non-customer for an unspecified amount of time. Internet posts says 30 days but others say 90 days. Anyway, I got the $50 promotion back.

I will check out this thread frequently to see if this problem will be resolved at some point so if other users could continue to post their experience.

Preface: I don't work for T-Mobile. I am just another subscriber.

From the spread of community conversations regarding disconnects & no internet even though the clients appear to be connected; I have seen similar behavior. My experience with both and from what other users have reported relate to a number of possible sources.

• heat issues (in some cases with the gateway)
• faulty gateways (maybe less likely but happens)
• SIM card issues (Arcadyan SIM tray not holding the SIM properly)
• upgrades/maintenance on the cellular equipment (my prime suspect)
• DNS issues (seen it and easy to confirm by adding a public DNS server IP address to clients vs the 192.168.12.1 address by default)
• congestion and throttling of traffic

If you see the cellular signals connected in the management and the signal is strong then test the DNS by changing/replacing/adding say 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 for Google or Quad9s 9.9.9.9 or pick another. If the client starts getting the internet i.e. the browser pages work well the host names were not resolving. I saw the behavior a week or so ago along with many others.

It seems to be common that support will throw hardware at the "issue" but well that is just a hail Mary pass which is often short. They don't seem to have a proper play book nor database that they use to work through possible solutions. Users with some knowledge and patience can figure some things out with a little help from the community conversations. Some support engineers are really good and others not so much but that is a common aspect of technical support. 

T-Mobile engineering seems to do maintenance and deployments of cellular equipment during the middle of the day anytime that works and there are NO notices provided to customers about possible disruptions. It seems to be the same for new deployments that are not fully worked out. In some cases it is premature it seems and possibly just errors here and there. If there is work being done and the user's gateway is between cells then when the handoff takes place due to the loss of signal this is another situation where it becomes difficult to know exactly what is taking place IF you are not looking closely at the cellular metrics. If the PCI, physical cell identifier changes well it is clear that the gateway lost its prior connection and moved to another cell. It could be both the primary and secondary frequencies or one of them. It seems to be more common that the 5G signal changes. Regardless it is a disruption and gets frustrating. 

Cellular internet with 5G is NOT like a cable solution and has its own set of complications. The upside is the monthly cost for no data cap and no contract and no additional fees and costs for the gateway. The speeds when it is done right are impressive. There are growing pains and it has its challenges. I am not trying to defend it. I am just stating my opinion. Here I have had a few disruptive periods but when things were fixed it became stable again and has been a good solution. It can be a fickle animal though.

It is hard to say for sure. Maybe it is related to congestion on the tower and traffic throttling or possibly it could be another source disrupting the traffic. 

Do any of the cellular metrics fluctuate significantly during that period from when the traffic works?

Performance can be seriously impacted due to signal noise. Watch the RSRQ, signal quality and the SINR, signal noise. It might be some noise that results in significant impact on the signal. If you are in an urban area where there are more potential sources of RF noise I suppose possibly there could be a relationship to some factory or possibly a distribution center.

In addition to recording the cellular metrics you might experiment with the orientation of the gateway just a bit at a time. I discovered that by rotating the gateway clockwise or counter clockwise the exposure of the antennas in the gateway of course is different. There are multiple antennas in the Nokia that are in an alternating pattern with the cellular - wifi - cellular - wifi … orientation. As you rotate the gateway you can expose different antenna to the signal improving the signal wash over the antenna. I found by rotating my gateway pretty much 180 degrees from my initial placement to having the backside facing inside the room the signal receive power improved 2-3 dBm and signal quality also improved. It was a minor change but did result in a bit better performance. 

On the back side left and right of the LAN ports there is the 5G-4 and 5G-1 antennas. Directly across from the back is WIFI-4 and to the left and right are 5G-3 and 5G-2. From my tinkering I found exposing the 5G-3 and 5G-2 antennas toward the window produced much better reception. I don't know quite why that is but it did make a difference.  If the exterior shell is removed the labels on the antenna are clearly visible. Those two antenna exposed more direct toward the tower make a difference for me.

Another possible thing to consider would be some transient signal on the power line. It might be rare but with power conditioning it can be prevented. I run all my electronic gear on UPS systems to protect them but that also conditions the power filtering out any noise that might be on the power lines. Think about it. If you can send Ethernet modulated over a power circuit there are possible transient signals that can also ride those power lines. You often will never know what others are doing around you so identifying a source of noise without expensive equipment is pretty difficult. 

Then again with all that said it could have nothing to do with the gateway or local influence. It might just be congestion on the tower and excessive throttling. Doing things you can have some influence over to rule out local issues is a start but might not still resolve the behavior.

This morning, I have 4 bars.

Running Time  5d 3h 59m 45s

I hope this means my loss of Internet problem is finally fixed.

Agreed, rotating the gateway does make a difference.  Arcadyan KVD21 has a display with buttons on one side.  Initially I had the display opposite (away) from the window so it's easy to read.  Now, I have it turned almost 90 degrees to the right.  I also put it on top of a box, on the table, to raise it up higher in the window, with blackout curtains to protect it from the sun.  I always use an UPS.

I sure wish there were more details available, and more configuration options.  The manual says I should be able to configure gateway settings from a browser on a real computer.  All I can see is a status screen.  It does not have anyplace to log in, so I am stuck squinting at the lame phone app.  These tired old eyes need a full size monitor, keyboard, and mouse.  I hate phones.  That's a children's toy.

Just called Customer Service for similar issues:  1) Home Internet drops tower connection randomly; and, 2) The iOS Internet app does not connect to my gateway.

Here are the answers I just received from Customer Service.

Regarding the dropped connections:  T-Mobile's internet service is not a secure wired connection like competitors.  So a good connection depends on alot of factors.  Translation: T-mobile is not as reliable!  If you want reliability, get a wired connection.

Regarding the iOS app: That is a known issue.  They have no target date to resolve.  Find someone with an Android device and use that.  Translation: T-mobile does not have the technical skill set (internal or external) to fix an app that provides extremely basic functionality.

Sounds like Tmobile adopted an interesting business model.

The cellular wireless 5G solution is not a simple solution that will work for everyone. Transmitting through the airwaves will always have challenges. A fixed wired solution that is a mature technology is going to be more reliable. Maybe one day cellular technology will evolve to be a more stable and robust delivery system but it does have a way to go yet. 
I think it is important to remember that the objective cellular vendors have is to reduce overhead costs and boost the revenue returns for investors. In some markets the solution is working but but as expected not for ALL users. If they focus primarily on the bottom line and don't attend to the problems it will continue to be inferior. End to end details make great companies. Execution does matter.