Forum Discussion
Home internet 5G but only 4G signal
Hi. I recently signed up for T-Mobile home internet 5G. The map said I was in extended 5G range. Unless I stand on a ladder in the attic I cannot get a consistent 5G signal. I do get a strong 4G. I am connected now with 4G and my internet speed test says:
2.24
Mbps download
5.77
Mbps upload
Is this normal or slow for 4g? Which would provide faster service a 5G 2 bar signal or a 4G 5 bar signal? I assume more bars would be more stabled.
So from the table we can see cell EDGE for both signals so very weak 4G & 5G signals. According to that there is a bit of noise on the 5G. That is the n71 band so it is a lower 5G gigahertz band not the n41 millimeter band which would be nice to get as it can be much faster. The B2 4G LTE is ok but not really strong enough for proper service. The problem appears to be the distance to the tower and cellular sources. Without additional metrics it is impossible to determine more. The PCI information, if the application provides it, would be useful as then we could find the cell using cell mapper.net and then use google maps to plot the distance to the tower that has the specific cell. Best guess I would say the tower that actually delivers those signals is at least 6 to 6.5 miles away or the power of each is rather low.
I've never had trouble getting someone on the line to talk to at T-Mobile. I'd give the phone a try first, then chat from the T-Mobile website if that doesn't work.
My take is the speeds recorded are slow but the specifics of the signal strength, signal quality and signal to noise ratio are not known. I just speculate you only have a couple of bars on the LED screen maybe and not more. If all it is connecting to is 4G LTE then that is still a rather meh… speed even for 4G LTE. I usually have 3 bars and good to excellent metric values on my gateway and uploads can be 35-70 Mbs and downloads can be 175-350 Mbs a good part of the time. It depends on the time of day and traffic load on the cells. Still single digit 4G LTE is slow.
Get on a browser with a good connection and goto CellMapper.net and find the 4G and 5G towers in the area. If your gateway reports the PCI physical cell identifier then you can locate the cell and better position your gateway. It will take some experimentation and probably using an upper level with a location close to or in a window to improve the reception.
If your are seeing 5 bars for 4G LTE and only those speeds you really need to look at the cellular metrics and determine the RSRP, RSRQ, and SINR values. If you have the PCI value for the cellular signal that is great. The speeds for 4G LTE, according to the bars on the LED should be much better than that or there is significant interference maybe causing poor performance. When running Speedtest be sure to consider the ping latency and jitter. A strong signal is good as long as it is clean. Noise from external influences can result in poor performance so there is more information needed. Maybe if you can get a conversation with a level 2 support engineer that is well informed you can get better answers via the support solution. It may appear that there is 5G in the area but the numbers don't reflect it is there.
Thank you! Here is what ai see in the app:
5G:
RSRQ: -8
RSRP: -102
SINR: -1.9
BAND: N71
LTE:
RSRQ: -12
RSRP: -113
SINR: -
BAND: B2
So from the table we can see cell EDGE for both signals so very weak 4G & 5G signals. According to that there is a bit of noise on the 5G. That is the n71 band so it is a lower 5G gigahertz band not the n41 millimeter band which would be nice to get as it can be much faster. The B2 4G LTE is ok but not really strong enough for proper service. The problem appears to be the distance to the tower and cellular sources. Without additional metrics it is impossible to determine more. The PCI information, if the application provides it, would be useful as then we could find the cell using cell mapper.net and then use google maps to plot the distance to the tower that has the specific cell. Best guess I would say the tower that actually delivers those signals is at least 6 to 6.5 miles away or the power of each is rather low.
I'm in the same situation where I can only receive 4G LTE. My download speeds, however, are good. I get between 35 Mbps up to 50 Mbps. Upload speeds are about 9-10 Mbps. The gateway shows my connection as Good (3 bars).
I agree that you should contact T-Mobile support to find out why you're not getting better performance.
Ok, is there a live chat option or should I just call? I heard it takes hours to get to someone so I am not exited about that. I am running down my 15 day trial so I have to make a decision soon as I also heard its a nightmare to cancel service.
I just had a call and they were super helpful but I am not that hopeful. I think it is what it is, but I got more information:
5G LTE 1.5-4 miles three towers
5G 1 band low N600
LTE 1 band low LTE500
More NE, run test at each outlet near windowThere is alot of "debris" between me and the towers he said and the signal falls off at my location. There are three between 1.5 and 4 miles.
I called at 6 pm EST time and call is to CA but the help was excellent. I was very impressed.
5g modem only getting 4g
Speed tests are very low
Connection says excellent.
