High-Speed Internet Gateway will not lock to 5G speeds (5G21)

jviola wrote:

Same issue.  I have a ticket open for over a month with their engineers.  No resolution.  Still waiting for them to call.  I was promised a return call the last 4 times I called in.  
 

 

Gee, just have my problem submitted a day go or so… meaning have to wait for two months maybe. Comcast just got done installing their fiber optic cable around the neighborhood and you know what that mean... 

For me not only time was the solution, finding the right spot. Sometime it is just rotating the device and seeing how the signal changed especially if it is fringe signal. Sometime right next to a window is not be signal, for me it was right in the middle of my home. Though right now I do have it in the window turned just right for 4 bars. Hope this helps, it can be frustrating at first, but after you find the right place and T-Mobile continues their expansion, it should improve.

Hola All,

As of right now, it is almost impossible that I know of to always lock in the 5G signal. I have though had this service for a few months now and with my experience working in IT for my local city, I have been able to figure out a few things to help get the best signal you can more times than not. I've actually written quite a bit so instead of redoing it all again here I am just going to link the other post below.

I know this is an old thread, but the issue seems to be ongoing.

What I did was get a directional 5g antenna and aim it at the 5g tower (n41 band 2500 MHz) so the 4g (B66 band 1700 MHz) signal wasn't the strongest. 

What I really wish is that the gateway worked with millimeter wave bands (mmWave) as I have a mmWave tower in the boulevard directly across the street from me. Not even my brand new phone uses it, so I'd guess a new version of this gateway supporting mmWave in the near future. 

bcbob wrote:

Hola,   

I'm new to T Mobile Home Internet (1 week),  I do not have a 5G cell phone.  I live in a large Los Angeles area with established 5G.   I am getting 4 bars on my Gateway but am only receiving speeds in the morning around 100 and afternoon speeds are about 50.  I believe, I am locked onto a 4LTE but am not sure.   I can try to troubleshoot faster speeds and locking onto a 5G tower but I need to know what I am looking for.   Doing a google search wasn't that helpful.  There is Cell Tower Metrics on my Cell using the T Mobile Home Internet App. In the App I can see information regarding the cell tower that my Gateway is using.

Can someone tell me what I look for to tell if I am on a 4G Tower or 5G Tower?   Do I look at the "Band" in the cell tower metrics?   What Bands are 5G?  Currently my Band says "B66"  is this 5G?

 

Please Advise.

 

Bob

I am using CellMapper to figure out which towers I am connecting to. The CGI number will help you figure out the cell tower. The first 6 digits are the network (310260 is T-Mobile) and the remaining numbers identify the tower. 

Hola,

I just received  T Mobile Home Internet (2 days ago). I am hoping to replace Spectrum, but I must say that the speeds with T Mobile is slower than expected (specifically the upload), which is important to me. Speeds are up/down and inconsistent (e.g. 83/16 - 260/1)

I am currently connected to bands n41 & b2 

I hopefully I will get a more consistent speed and faster upload.

futureray wrote:

For me not only time was the solution, finding the right spot. Sometime it is just rotating the device and seeing how the signal changed especially if it is fringe signal. Sometime right next to a window is not be signal, for me it was right in the middle of my home. Though right now I do have it in the window turned just right for 4 bars. Hope this helps, it can be frustrating at first, but after you find the right place and T-Mobile continues their expansion, it should improve.

¡Gracias!

It really is frustrating. I was hoping to be able to get rid of Spectrum, but if my upload speed does not improve I guess I will have to try ATT.

I literally down the street from cell tower (end of the block). The tower shows to have 5G available on it, but yet I still get slow downloads.

Got the Nokia gateway last Wed (May 5). Initially only got 2 of 5 bar signal strength, in metro area that T Mobile said has 5G available (I understand how that goes, "not necessarily where your exact location is" ) Still, highly motivated to get away from years of plunking down 3 figure monthly fee for landline TV and internet (cable co.). Having some skills at using web GUI's I opened the one for this Nokia, noticed the "wireless" menu under "network" on left pulldown menu, opened each radio (2.5GHz and 5 GHz), I decided to turn off all of those (had to do it on each WiFi sub-SSID, 12 in total-- attention T-Mobile, y'all need to do some serious web page re-design to simplify that! 😉 ) since I have my own established SSID's, and connected the gateway via ethernet to WAN on my home router. VOILA, it immediately got 3 of 5 bars, rechecked "speed test" on Google and it gets solid 40 MB/sec down, 9 MB/sec up, ping in low 30's ms. I'm not a "gamer" so ping time isn't a great concern until it gets over 50-- since Thursday, still solid on 3 bars, band 12 (I realize that isn't 5G, so if there's a disappointment, it's that so far). 

Here we go again, after over a month of connecting to 5G network getting amazing speeds, I thought the issues I was experiencing were over. We are again back to loss of 5G network, which occurred right after the firmware update, 1.2003.03.0178.  Now I get issues during my Zoom meetings, unstable connection. I'm so tired of this BS. I am sick of T-Mobile, and the loss of customer service since the merger with Sprint. Spectrum can't be worse than this.