Is there anything "special" about Home Internet? Data care? device? T-Mobile?

Once the T-Mobile box did it's normal, morning slowdown, I took the SIM and put it in the Nighthawk - it's only ever been used with AT&T and IN THEORY, it was unlocked.  I don't think it is 'cause it booted then gave me an error which I can no longer remember. 

So just to try it, I put it in the OLD phone that was on Verizon and WAS ALSO supposed to be unlocked.  Booted fine, knew it was on T-Mobile, but when I turned on the hot spot and attempted to connect I always got "connect, no internet".  So, I'm not sure WHAT it's doing, or what I need to do differently.

I DO recall WAY back, having to use a 3rd party to unlock the Nighthawk 'cause AT&T was refusing to unlock them.  It's been several years and I don't remember what all was going on.

In any case, I don’t SEEM to be able to use the HI SIM in any of the devices - unless the old phone is also locked and I can somehow unlock it.

In conversation with TMobile support yesterday (I've now learned how to get past the phone answering people whom I can't understand at all with their accents), I was told there ARE 3 tower near me, and they're where I thought.  AND, the HI SHOULD be using one to the South.  There's apparently ANOTHER one slightly farther away (maybe half a mile) that the HI was selecting, and that tower DOES have a problem.  There's a ticket on it, and in theory it'll eventually get fixed.

And supposedly they NO LONGER HAVE the RTL 0102, so there’s nothing to swap for the current box.

Support supposedly did SOMETHING so my home internet is LOCKED OUT of that tower and should now be using the one a couple blocks away.

And, he clearly stated that I SHOULD be seeing consistent numbers in the 60+ Mbps range.  Not happening except at 5 a.m.

Last evening, like clockwork, at about 7 pm, tanked.  From mid-20s to around 2 Mbps or less.  Then around 10 pm or so it started inching back up and by 2 a.m. it was back in the 60s and up 'til around 7 this morning.