Frequent Disconnection on 5G Home Internet

brucekey wrote:

I had the same problem with frequent disconnects. After reading up on the internet on similar problems, I purchased a cheap 4.5"x4.5" cooling fan on amazon. No more drops. Apparently when the modem gets a lot of use, it overheats and drops the connection. I placed the cooling fan on a cookie cooling rack (a screen that is about a half inch from the table) with the fan blowing toward the ceiling. Then place the T-Mobile modem on the fan. The fan has run 24-7 for about 7 months now. I just had Astound cable service hooked up for only $32/month and have now cancelled the Tmobile internet. Good luck cancelling T-mobile internet … it took numerous calls, as they were unable to locate my account even after I gave them the account number and assigned phone number as listed on my monthly wireless internet bills.

I should have read the entire thread before posting my last post.

I believe overheating is my issue as well.

Please check this thread for a possible fix.

I had the same problem with frequent disconnects. After reading up on the internet on similar problems, I purchased a cheap 4.5"x4.5" cooling fan on amazon. No more drops. Apparently when the modem gets a lot of use, it overheats and drops the connection. I placed the cooling fan on a cookie cooling rack (a screen that is about a half inch from the table) with the fan blowing toward the ceiling. Then place the T-Mobile modem on the fan. The fan has run 24-7 for about 7 months now. I just had Astound cable service hooked up for only $32/month and have now cancelled the Tmobile internet. Good luck cancelling T-mobile internet … it took numerous calls, as they were unable to locate my account even after I gave them the account number and assigned phone number as listed on my monthly wireless internet bills.

So update.  It did not work. My spouse and I have gone so far as to remove the 5g network and it has not changed a thing. We reduced the number of electronics on the router, nothing changed. So we're going back to fios. Seriously T-Mobile, I get that contracts are signed and you're supposed to use a product for a certain amount of time. However, you think that there would be a clause that states that if the product is causing so many issues, that y'all can void out the contract and not have this machine as your advertising piece. Idunno, y'all don't pay me at all to give advice or work for you. But like tvision, y'all dropped the ball hard on this one. 

My router has been working much better since one of the techs realized that my little tower was not connected to the phone number assigned to the device. Still, it's not as reliable as cable. I've found that all I have to do, rather than move router is to just unplug and replug it without moving it at all. Still, that means that you have about 2 minutes down time before the router fires up again. But my internet now works a couple days at a time now without going out. Has that been checked for the rest of you

 This isn’t a giant issue for me most of the time, but it is inconvenient, espcially if I’m watching a movie and internet suddenly cuts out.

The issue is that these routers are not plug and play. The instructions to install them do not include things like attaching a phone number to your router if it wasn't programmed in before it was shipped to you. 

Hey everyone.  I think I have found the solution for you.  So, like y'all, I've been having issues with the internet for almost 3 weeks now (my gateway is the arcadyan kvd 21).  When I called T-mobile they just sent a replacement gateway and said that should fix it.  Surprisingly enough, that did not fix the issue, the replacement gateway that was sent did not match their records and due to maintenance on the nearby tower, the gateway wouldn't communicate.  Today, at least for the past 2 hours, there have been no issues with the wifi.  So when it comes to solutions.  It could be because of the manufacturer.  but the advice my spouse and I got was to go in the home internet app, go to  the Networks tab and add a network.  Make ones frequency set at 2.4 and set the others frequency exclusively at 5.  Its been a bit over 2 hours and the wifi hasn't dropped.  We do have the gateway connected to a router that is handling the load pretty well.  Good luck fellow travelers 

I've had the t-mobile 5G internet for less than a week now. It works intermittently at best. 
There are 2 locations in my house that get pretty strong reception, but in this short week, I've had to move the router almost everyday to get a signal strong enough that my computer can even connect to it. This is not acceptable service. AND, while most people on this forum say that they notice the most drops in service to busy hours, I find that the service all but disappears during the middle of the night when I'm occasionally woken by my dog, a child or strange sounds during the night. 

I really want this service to work because my prior internet service, while much more stable, was incredibly expensive. 

I recently subscribed to Home Internet and got the KVD21. Installation and set-up was simple. After two weeks of use and testing, I have found that the unit is fully capable of sustained advertised download speeds of 115 Mbps.

The problem that I have found is that T-Mobile is not pushing the bandwidth to the device when network usage in your area is high. In fact Home Internet has no priority at such times. In my use thus far that means speeds of 0-3 Mbps during these Prime Times. When network traffic is lower I have sustained speeds of 81.43 Mbps, 86.76 Mbps, and 94.16 Mbps for a few hours. So basically in a 24 hour period my ability to use this service goes from being on a 2400 baud modem (remember those) for a few Prime Time Hours to moderately high bit rate speeds that allow you to adequately use the service. Yes I have tried power the unit off, factory reset, unplug, change locations, reset devices, different cables and reinstall software multiple times.

I see the solution to this issue is simple at this stage. SUSTAINED MINIMUM BANDWIDTH. T-Mobile needs to set a minimum speed for these devices if they want to maintain subscribers until they can build out their network to handle demand in areas there is a problem.10 Mbps is an acceptable minimum during these Prime Times. If they want to compete with cable and fiber they can't expect people to accept daily speeds under 10 Mbps with all the options out there. This service solution has many positives but the biggest negative at the moment is sustained usable speed.

I've had a couple random dropouts before but today experience multiple disconnections from the internet while signal strength looked good.

I believe this to be an easy thing to detect on the network and something they should be trying to avoid.

I have been fighting this issue since mid Jan, right after the first weekend of 5G tower upgrades.  Prior to that when the Gateway was on the 4G LTE, it worked flawlessly for 3-4 months and I never had to reboot it.

Sadly, the customer service is clueless as I too have been asked to change the power outlet, factory reset, power off, unplug, etc. 

I was first told that there were tower issues and I'd be impacted for 2 weeks.  I got a credit for that and 2 weeks later it worked a few days and the same issues occurred (no internet though good tower connection, drops during the day which is painful with VPN).  They moved me to a different tower only to be kicked off and re-assigned to my non working tower when they told me there were once again tower issues needing several days to correct.

On 3/3, they sent me a new gateway with no sim card.  I changed sim cards and had the same issues.  They then told me it was a sim card issue and would send me a new sim and GW that is verified to work before sending.  It yet again cam without a sim card so I took it to the local store for a sim card and it wouldn't boot due to a hardware failure. 

I then demanded a second credit for loss of service and a new gateway from the store with a sim card so I at least knew quality control was in place.  I took the now 4th GW, 3rd sim card home and still had the dropouts (3/10).  When I called in they informed me that there were yet again (3rd time) tower upgrades and would not complete until 3/31!!  Since I will not be billed until April I told them I would give them until 4/1 and if it isn't working, I will cancel the service and get Verizon's home internet GW 4G or 5G service that works. 

When this works, it is great but dealing with the incompetence and lies from the support team is infuriating since I work in high tech networking and know how to troubleshoot networks.  They simply do not know what is causing the drops based on my experience and make things up.  10 weeks and 3 excuses saying the tower upgrades were complete and then not complete is enough so if it is not working by 4/1, they are clearly unable to deliver with 5G which is a major disappointment as a user that was an early adopter where it worked well on 4G.