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@Unknown420: All electronic devices produce heat. When engineers design products, part of the process is to do a "thermal analysis" and then testing to ensure that the heat doesn't build up inside the enclosure, creating a safety hazard, or allow a device (think chip) to get hot enough to malfunction and quit working or perform marginally. To port the heat away, the mechanical packaging can employ active measures like the fans in your computer, or passively using convection of air through the housing as is the case with the T-Mobile gateway. Having said that, there's the always the possibility of a component failure causing dangerously high temperatures inside the enclosure (as in fire). So when you say "extremely hot", don't discount this possibility and err on the safe side by exchanging the gateway for a different one.

By way of an update, I've been running my gateway for over a month, mounted atop a muffin fan forcing room temperature air in through the base of the unit without seeing the original problem of periodic decline in data throughput. Others here have reported similar experiences, though the failure mode isn't always the same. I've reported to T-Mobile my suspicion that some engineer didn't do his/her homework (adequate environmental testing) before this product was released for production. So far I've heard nothing back. Such a shame, and so short sighted of them. I know they have people monitoring this forum.