Forum Discussion
5G Home Internet Suddenly Very Unstable And Technical Support Is Essentially Useless
Wondering if anyone else is having similar issues.
First, at $50/month for 5G speeds with no data caps, this service is pretty much the best deal out there. When it is working well, we typically see speeds in the 60+ Mbps down/ 20+ Mbps up which is by far the best performance we've ever had at our house.
Unfortunately, it has recently become the case that it almost never "works well". Over the last couple of weeks, we are lucky if we can get an hour a day where it is getting this kind of performance. For much of the day, it is actually not even usable (we're talking less than 1 Mbps and barely registering uploads).
The strange thing is that when we first got this modem, it never seemed to be the case. I saw some forum discussions that overheating might be an issue, but it really isn't that hot. Additionally, when it is performing poorly, I noticed that we are getting less than two bars primary and zero bars secondary on the modem. Again, this previously wasn't the case.
Sometime rebooting with temporarily resolve this issue, but I am not kidding when I tell you that most days we restart the modem a minimum of five times. Many times it simply doesn't fix anything.
Compounding this is the fact that TMobile seems committed to off-shoring their technical support and the quality of this service is so bad it could be a post in itself. Over the last couple of months I've probably called once a week, which typically eats up an hour of my day and has rarely resolved anything. On three occasions, the representative told me they would call me back and not one has. Not one.
On the last call, I managed to get a "manager" on the line who honestly was not any better than those who work for him. His only solution was to downgrade us to LTE even after I told him that we ultimately go the 5G device because the LTE was working very poorly.
Anyway, I'm 99% sure I'm just going to have to bail on this service and go with Starlink which is available in my area. This really bums me out because when Tmobile's service is even working halfway decent it is more than enough for us, but "half-way decent" at this point is a dream state for us.
Again, I'm curious if others are having similar issues. For what it is worth, we have the Nokia 5G cylindrical tower.
I've had the exact same experience in Virginia, with speeds dropping to low single digits over the last 3 months, after being good for over a year. And always the same excuse from tech support as others have said- they blamed it on tower upgrades and promised improvement when completed. I upgraded from the Nokia to the Arcadyan gateway but that made no difference, except the Arcadyan gets a better signal (3 bars vs 2) but speeds are still poor, rarely getting above 10 Mbps. And it never connects to the 5g secondary band, just 4g. In the past I was getting fairly consistent connections to both. Very frustrating as we don't have any other good Internet options here.
Same issue with Home internet in Southeast Michigan. Worked great until May of this year and speed suddenly dropped to 7Mbps and now less than 2Mbps. Tech support is a joke and all I get as a cause is "maintenance is being done on the tower and speeds will be even better than before in a week...I guarantee it". What a bunch of liars. I was with tech support over 3 hours yesterday and they actually made my speed worse ( .2Mbps). New gateway coming but I don't see this as the problem since my neighbor is having the same issue. Its as if they are throttling my speed down all of the sudden. What a shame...I had such high hopes
T-Mobile, your loosing many potential and current customers by not having a 2nd and 3rd level of tech support! Why can't I speak with engineer to help these ongoing issues?
All of my internet problems started after upgrading to the gateway - I promptly returned if after 1 week, it clearly wasn't working. Internet has not worked properly since, not even after going back to LTE, that had worked well for a couple of years without a single problem prior, the LTE tower is a block away from my home. T-Mobile cut off my internet last night, I spent 1.5 hours on tech support call and got cut off before resolving it - they never called me back.
I just got my replacement gateway the black one. It worked great for 6 hours till 12:00. am and now goes down every 2 minutes. What did you do T Mobile?
Wow. The conversations I've heard are truly unbelievable, I have 5G in my area, we are working on the tower, you don't have 5G in your area. Move it, unplug it once a week, unplug it so it can cool down multiple times a day, go back to lte, whatever you choose, we will respect that. Today, they just cut me off, I sit here on hold for the past 45 min (still on hold) with no internet service. I really liked T-Mobile. It literally worked great for years, not sure what happened, but I'm not seeing any resolution and I've been very patient.
Same problems here in Northeast Ohio. I'm def. Going to have to switch carriers unfortunately. This isn't the only problem though. Alot of the reason we have Internet is because I have gamers in my home. You need internet that has a certain NAT type to be able to play most games online with friends (something this company says they are "working on fixing" but In reality I honestly don't think she knew what I was talking about when I called support. The whole kit and caboodle is junk I'd say!!
Leave while you can. If you have anyone to call that can help do so now!!! lol no but really if you have any other options, it's not worth the headache. I could explain to you exactly why its unstable and I have 2 plausible reasons. But it would be pointless because there is no solution unfortunately. It's the service. Hook line and sinker and it will only get worse. And when it does get worse you wont have support to help you because customer support or technical support or internet support no longer exist. What does exist is Tuker Suk Makyato of the Philippines who had such great trainer that the only two words of English he speaks is pin code. Where are my manners I am so sorry. I did not mean give out his real name. You will know him by Tracy Mayers of California. I know they had me fooled for a while too. Finally I saw past fake name and heard the accent of unknown origins and the voice of a baritone male. She had me I mean he had me tricked for so long they are good. I honestly that it was Tracy I was speaking to and she was asking me for variations of different pin codes for a day straight! lol See if you can get your money back and go. Until we get an actual support line with people that know what they are talking about this company is not worth the 10 cents in 120.10 I pay each month.
From what I understand, the 5g home internet primary connection is 4g and the secondary connection is the 5g. This seems to be confirmed by the band each is using.
WHEN mine is operating relatively well, I have 2 bars on primary (useless) and three bars on secondary (satisfactory with 50Mbs and up)
My problem is I can't get consistent service. Up one day, sick the next!
One positive thing is they will refund your monthly bill for this problem and repay you for Inseego having faulty devices that overheat anytime they get over 73 degrees. These units are faulty and should have fans installed as well as a charging source that doesn't cause the device to overheat. You have to unplug the units before they get to 100% or even in colder temps they overheat. So fans and unplugging from your power source REGULARLY is the answer until T-Mobile figures out the Inseego units are worthless.
