finding best location for T-Mobile home Internet gateway

ha ha we had SuddenLink when we lived in CA and it was really not a good experience for us either. Then again we had PG&E for electric service and that was much worse so it is all relative. 😎

If you want I can take a look at the cellmapper.net info. I just need to know the general location so I can examine what you are referring to. The cellmapper.net information is roughly 80% complete as it relies upon users to make an account and upload data into their database. Somethings are there and some are not. The tower our n71 signal comes from does not have the n71 info on cellmapper.net.

Yes, I was looking at the LTE metrics, when I checked the 5G side just now it shows the N41 band for it.

Not sure what tower the 5G N41 is coming from, the metric shown for the 5G aren’t as complete, but the tower for the LTE doesn’t show to have that N41 band on it.

The B66 is LTE so maybe it lost the n71 signal and now only sees the B66 LTE?

• 4G: B2, B4, B5, B7, B12, B13, B14, B17, B25, B30, B41, B66, B71

• 5G: n2, n25, n41, n66, n71

It is probable the n71 signal dropped and the primary signal is the B66 so it now locks ONLY to the B66. T-Mobile uses both the LTE and 5G i.e. primary and secondary cellular bands in unison for service. If you reset the router it might again pick up the both signals and you would see delivery on the 5G NR n71 band. I had times last year when I had to reboot the router to get the secondary channel back. Most often it would pickup both signals again UNLESS T-mobile engineers were working on the equipment then it might come back only to bounce up and down again. 

Yes, cellmapper is how I found the tower locations, how I knew the new direction of the currently used antenna. I don't know if T-Mobile locked me into that tower, but it hasn't changed since I conversed with them yesterday. The current tower is on the B66 band, previous tower was on N71. I am absolutely new to all of this, all my previous internet was cable, no choices on its setup, but suddenlink was TERRIBLE, went down OFTEN.

OK, so I would guess you are in a more urban area than I am and there are multiple towers about. The signal can and will move based upon strength as the algorithms used dictate when a given tower has a lesser signal than another so the signal lock changes. It would be good to do a little research on T-Mobile towers in the area with cellmapper.net. If you have the Arcadyan router it does not provide the PCI value for the LTE or 5G signals. So, it is a hunt and peck OR if you have an iPhone you can put it into Field Test Mode and see what it reports. Dial *3001#12345#* and enter and then you can see what an iPhone will report. I am not using an Android here but I believe there are some good applications from the app store that provide the cellular information. 

With the cellmapper.net site you can filter for cellular vendor, LTE or 5G towers. I don't recommend doing "all" as you will have so many towers that it will be too much clutter and hard to pick apart. With 5G NR, which is really what you want the mosts, you will see fewer towers and can use any map program you use to look at the topology in more detail and determine the distance to the various T-Mobile towers. You establish the location you want to look for towers within and then filter for what you want to see. 

You can call T-Mobile and ask them for tower locations around you and if they provide coordinates you can leverage your map of choice and determine distance and topology. If you are seeing multiple n41 and n71 5G towers around you that might explain the movement of the signal lock. Having a good signal on say the n41 mid-band signal would be best achieved say half a mile to 2 miles away. The n41 can reach out around 3 miles but as you reach the edge service diminishes. Speeds drop off and signal quality might suffer due to noise. The shorter mid-band mm frequency does not penetrate as well as the n71 lower frequency. The n71 on the other hand will reach out farther, theoretically ~10 miles but under best case conditions. We are 5.3 miles line of sight of a n71 tower with no obstructions and I get downloads at times up to 180 Mbs and uploads up to 60 Mbs but when weather and load conditions change that drops down. 

If you determine there is one of the towers nice and close with better access, i.e. fewer obstructions, you could request T-Mobile put your signal lock on that source. It will not hurt to ask. Also you need to, obviously look for a tower that provides you with a good local location in your home to meet your local network delivery needs. Sometimes i have seen community users state T-Mobile did a reset of their connection, in the tower switching I believe, and that improved matters. It will come down in the end to T-Mobile engineers getting the tower equipment stable and optimized and then internet nirvana sets in for a while. 

Well, last night I was trying to improve my reception, when I noticed that the tower CGI had changed since the T-Mobile rep had reset everything, and the current tower location was on the opposite side of my house from the original one, so I disconnected the gateway and moved it to a window on the other side of the house. That helped, had 3 bars showing instead of 2, but the internet speed only slightly improved, was still only about 5 Mbps. This morning when I got up and checked it on a few different servers, I got as high as 117 Mbps, but also as low as 24 Mbps. The problem with where the gateway is now is that it is so far away from my TV that the ethernet cable doesn't come close to reaching, and the wifi refuses to stay connected to it. Nothing's ever easy.

I joined in the BETA phase so I expected the possibility of disruptions but I had no other reasonable option here. My options were Hughes Net, sucky or StarLink and a whole bunch of money up front and 2x the cost. We did have a few periods where disruptions took place and the reality I discovered was that most of the time it was tower related equipment. The down side is it is difficult to determine right off if the signal is lost or not as the clients stay connected to the WIFI and one cellular signal might be present but it fails to work. The LTE signal here is pretty lame and only the n71 channel seems to do the heavy lifting. 

After T-Mobile dials in the tower and gets it where it should be it will improve. It is ver frustrating when it is bouncing or just goes bananas. Maybe Donkey Kong climbs T-Mobile towers for fun and exercise. 😎

So, after spending 45 minutes on the phone with T-Mobile, the support rep is telling me they are in the midst of doing enhancements to the local towers, and this is the most likely reason my speeds are going down in the evenings. They reset everything, reported the slow down to their support system, opened a ticket or whatever they call it. And, they are sure the problem will be resolved. Heck of a deal for a brand new customer to deal with right off the bat. We'll see...

So far, this T-Mobile deal is a little aggravating as far as speed. Right now the speed has tanked again, just checked and it is about 4 Mbps, earlier today it was running above 80 Mbps, and I have not changed anything.