5G Home Internet nightly slow down

Actually, if cell phone users use to much data in a month, they are also tagged high-volume users and get the same priority as TM Internet customers.  TMI users are just considered high-volume from the get-go...because we basically are.  That said, if you look at the contract, there are some weasel-words in there about fair distribution of resources to all their users.  I *think* that means if you use gobs of data (I don't know that that means, but say approaching a TB a month), you may get assigned a lower priority than almost everyone else.  I would suggest for those of you that are seeing massive slow-downs during times of congestion, that you check to see how much data you are using in a month.  Do you leave TVs on for no reason?  Do you watch a lot of 4K on multiple TVs?  If you are in this category, that may be the reason.

MAUI671 wrote:

Hey all, I've had the black 5G gateway for a couple days now, and have been a T-Mobile customer for just as long. I guess the issue I'm having is looking like one that a lot of other people are as well.

During the day my gateway pulls about 500 Mbps and has a "Very Good" signal. Without moving or changing anything about the setup, usage area, or anything, around 8PM Eastern my speeds go down to MAX 5 Mbps.

Nothing has changed other than the time of the day. I have a ticket open for the "local engineering department" to troubleshoot. It'll randomly be good during the night and then go back to the unusable 5 Mbps.

I relayed this to Customer Care, and while they seem sympathetic to the plight, they ultimately just want me to continuously restart the gateway so they can reconnect it to the tower because it has "stopped communicating." Is this the common reply that everyone is getting? Restart on restart while waiting for engineers to troubleshoot your wifi, only to then get told you need to restart to be reconnected to the tower, and then ultimately a factory default when they've exhausted their checklist?

Change your frequency band to 5GHz instead of automatic (2.4&5ghz) this can be done in the app under network, this fixed my slow speeds and unreliability 

The CEOs policy is to oversell the network and degrade the quality for all to boost subscriber counts. I hope his shareholders start to discover that his business strategy is unsustainable and will cause massive turnover to Verizon and AT&T as their more stable networks continue to expand. The gaslighting tech support alone makes me have zero loyalty to T-Mobile. Unfortunately, options are limited where I am at so I have to endure until a proper ISP comes along.

Exact same symptoms here. My gateway in in a woindow and I get 200 mps + at times nad then slow to less than 2 mps yesterday.  T- Mobile please fix this.

I believe T-Mobile has put a cap on this. I've been a customer for around 10 months and I was getting around 800+ download and 90+ upload until about a month ago. Now I can't break 150 download on a good day any time of the day and my upload seems to be capped at 7.4 upload. T-Mobile gives me the same crap answers I'm sure everyone else is getting. I've rebooted several times and I've repositioned. I have EXCELLENT service with full bars and I believe I have the latest modem they are offering atm. I'm considering making the move back to Cox since they are putting Fiber in our neighborhood. It'll be more expensive but at least I won't have to compete with cell phones!

For my 1st 8 months or so I was bragging about Tmobile coverage and Higher speeds (over 75mps) than my Xfinity "high speed". Since then my highest daily speed has dropped to around 30mps (off peak hours) and my average download all day is 10-20. In a multiple TV house we hit the max gig throttle in the first couple of days in the new billing period. Terribly disappointed with them and I am now in search of alternatives.

Boo, tsk tsk to T-mobile, false advertising, rehearsed support scripts, non High Speed, non-unlimited.

Truly limited and not very pleased. (forget trying to do any gaming anymore)

Sorry friends, I forgot to update when this got resolved. Here's hoping you can dedicate the time it took me to get this resolved (if what I did even affected the results).

What I did that was extremely time consuming was I constantly called and chatted customer service the second it throttled or slowed to the crawl. I called and called and argued and argued. After about three days and seriously considering cutting back to my old plan I was told to send my unit back. I drove to two T-Mobile stores and forgive me but it's been almost a year since then and I can't recall if they shipped it for me in the store but I recall a distinct displeasure of dealing with the store personnel. Either way, the old unit went back to HQ and I got a new one in the mail 2-3 days later.

I made a call to the local store to ask about coverage and they said they don't offer home internet at my address when I in fact had a gateway running previously AND a new one on the way from main customer support. I'm not sure if they had beefed up the tower and were previously shifting to the Narrowband 5G cell beam in the evenings while they did work previously. But by the time the new gateway came in my speeds were solid and I haven't noticed any issues.

If anyone wants to doubt my credentials and ability to troubleshoot, I've worked in IT and communications for 12 years, all 12 of those doing majority wireless transmission work and 8 years networking experience. I'm very well versed in transmission of information, so no it wasn't an IP setting on my laptop, it wasn't the WiFi frequency of 2.4GHz or 5GHz. It wasn't band overlap with my neighbors WiFi. It was not a throttling on my PC to conserve resources. It had to be something on T-Mobile's end, but it's resolved for me now.

@ECMP it is helpful to have your gateway metrics and an understanding of your location. Are you located near a freeway? If so, the morning and evening commute traffic will impact your signal (download/upload speeds) as T-mobile prioritizes cellular traffic over home internet traffic. For example, I am near a freeway and my speeds drop to about 90-110 Mbps down during commute hours and rise to 150-250 Mbps at night with less traffic. 

Using your T-Mobile Internet app, tap the "MORE" link at the bottom of the screen, then Advanced cellular metrics, then 5G. What are your RSRP, RSRQ, and SINR metrics? Which band are you connected to (n41 or n71)? 

See the chart below for interpreting the metrics.

@CookieJ if you have the T-Mobile home internet service, then you must qualify for being in a 5G network area and able to receive a 5G signal from a nearby cell tower. 

That said, let's try to diagnose the cause so that we can resolve your issue. Please answer a few questions that will be helpful in the diagnosing the problem. 

1. Did you use the Placement Assistant in the T-Mobile Internet app? If not, you can access it from the app Home Screen: tap the More about connection quality link on the Home Screen > Launch placement assistant > OK! Let's do this > you can watch the video if it will help, then "skip video" which will launch the placement assistant > enter your address or share location (if you use "share location" and your address shows up then you are assured to be connected to the network). It will take 30-45 seconds to confirm your location.  Use the "Camera" mode for a direct visual of where your cell tower is located to where your gateway is located in your home. Try to make sure your gateway is located in a high point of your home and clear of any obstructions. Here is a helpful video: 

    

2. What are your metrics - now that you are confident your gateway is located in the best possible location, your metrics will show the quality of your connection. In your T-Mobile Internet app > tap "MORE" at the bottom of the Home Screen > tap "Advanced cellular metrics" > tap "5G" > and let us know your RSRQ, RSRP, SINR and which band you are connected to. You should be on band n41 or n71. Look at the chart posted above in this thread for. the ideal readings. to get the best readings, slightly rotate your gateway about 1/8th of a turn and then check the metrics to see if they change for the better. Repeat until you get the best metrics.  

Let us know the results. I hope this helps. 

I find it extremely interesting that my phone gets 130 mbps, but my 5g router is only getting 40. I called customer support and they said the tower is having issues and someone has been dispatched to fix it.  That was 3 days ago.  :/