Newly Installed LTE Home Internet, Now Slow Speed...

Thanks for that info, unfortunately I am up to date. I really can't understand, I was being conservative when I stated 50 meg down, went back through my notes and found it was closer to 100 meg down when I first connected. I have gone as far as taking it outside to eliminate any outside sources of interference. No help. I have also elevated the gateway about 20 feet in the air just to test the RSSI  not much change.

Log into 192.168.12.1 and make sure you have the current firmware (say’s software) … 1.2101.00.1609

The 1609 firmware provides a much more stable N71/41 5G connection,  I went from 40/10 to 140/40.

If you don’t have the 1609 call Tmobile Tech Support and they can push the new firmware to your modem.

I installed the service early this year. Was great, 50meg down at least consistently. Now lucky to get 2 meg down.  I have always been on the edge with only a couple of bars, but that didn't affect the speed. Also for the past couple of months if you go to the coverage check on their site, I am no longer eligible for home internet, although I still am connected and am being billed. I think I will be canceling soon. This also has nothing to do with connected devices, I disconnected everything, the speed is still 2meg down at the best. I have very few options where I live and this was great while it lasted.

I installed the round 5G gateway two weeks ago and consistently had a 50 meg download speed which is a nice improvement from my former ISP.  During peak evening hours streaming TV buffered repeatedly.   After a call to tech support I began getting a few hours of 150 meg down and three days ago the 150 meg down became steady and consistent.  No buffering at all now.  From what I can find I am now connected by 5G.  When I started the coverage map showed 5G a quarter of a mile away at the end of our driveway.  Just checked this morning and 5G now includes the house.   We are moderate users with our biggest consumption being 4K TV, something that we couldn't use at all.  Planning to pull the plug on the old ISP by the end of the week.   

I have found that pointing the face of the t-mobile gateway towards my nearest tower gives me the fastest speed. In other words don't set the gateway flat on it's feet. Instead stand it up on one edge and point the large flat surface of the gateway towards the nearest tower. You can locate cell towers using https://www.cellmapper.net/map

I was told when I signed up for T-mobile Home Internet that their gateway only supports up to 20 devices and limiting it to 15 devices would be better. I'm currently trying to connect my old router so I can connect more devices, but so far I haven't been able to get connected to the internet using my router. I'm hoping that I can get the router to work because a 20 device limit is woefully inadequate if you have many smart devices that use wifi.

I also plan to upgrade to a mesh router system in the very near future so I can get full coverage in my home. I hope using a mesh router system is supported.

Obviously it very much depends on the distance from your nearest cell tower as well as the placement of the router within the home.  We've had the service for two weeks now and have plenty of bandwidth to handle live TV streaming as well as our casual internet use (no kids!).  We're really lucky and so happy to be able to cancel our terrible cable internet service.  This is our first service with T-Mobile and our experience with their customer service has been very good.  If things continue to go well we plan to switch our cell service over when it's time for new phones.

Bait and switch I'm afraid. I have the same issue. Was on Band 71 now on band 12. Very good signal and very poor speeds. I don't understand it. Now I'm thinking I need ATT back. Started fast and now it's tanked permanently. Buffer Buffer Buffer 

olysounder wrote:

DrMan217 wrote:

Side note, we are a large family with easily 15-20 devices that would connect to the router. 

 

This article pretty much sums it up.  In short, says HASTA 10 devices can connect to each band, even though it recommends no more than 8 to each band. Also says for heavy data devices to use ethernet connections instead.  Hate to agree to the bearer of bad news, but I think Nikon is right. Even with all the devices connected and they're all using it at the same time, you're going to have a dumpy online experience.

Out of curiosity, did you kick all the devices off of the gateway and run that speed test?  Curious what speeds you're getting.

So after much research, yes you are right, our internet needs cannot be met by this router/service T-Mobile at this time. Turns out LTE doesn't support the bandwidth and speeds needed by a heavy internet using family, aka the rare heavy internet users. So needless to say we are going to switch back to DSL for now and eventually go to fiber once it's available in our area. This day and age with more and more smart devices and "smart homes" requiring internet and wifi, the need for faster and better wifi is growing. Sorry T-Mobile, but it's just not for us at this time. I do want to say T-Mobile has been great to us and we are definitely keeping our other services, cellular and home phone, and their customer service has been phenomenal!!! We love T-Mobile and we're saddens when their home internet didn't work out for us. 
 

...Yes, with everything off except my phone the download speed was almost 50Mbps and upload almost 12Mbps. I do believe that for a smaller/lighter internet demand family, this is definitely the way to go. 

DrMan217 wrote:

Side note, we are a large family with easily 15-20 devices that would connect to the router. 

This article pretty much sums it up.  In short, says HASTA 10 devices can connect to each band, even though it recommends no more than 8 to each band. Also says for heavy data devices to use ethernet connections instead.  Hate to agree to the bearer of bad news, but I think Nikon is right. Even with all the devices connected and they're all using it at the same time, you're going to have a dumpy online experience.

Out of curiosity, did you kick all the devices off of the gateway and run that speed test?  Curious what speeds you're getting.

A popular website to test your internet speeds is www.speedtest.net.  Also, it seems to me that 15-20 devices running simultaneously would have to put a strain on throughput.  I thought I saw something about a recommendation for up to 10 devices when researching this service but I haven't been able to find it to confirm that.