Forum Discussion
POOR CONNECTION 5g home internet
Since I have had my 5g internet, I get no more then 2 bars. I have moved it all over the house and here and there might get three, but once I set it down back to two bars. Tmobile told me I would hav...
Re: Improving signal etc…
Regarding cellmapper.net use. Once the page renders the left hand pane has the dropdown to use to select the "Provider" i.e. T-Mobile 310260 and once this is done then there is the Network which will default to 4G - LTE or you can filter for 5G NR. CellMapper.net is roughly 80-85% complete as it relies upon subscribers to upload data to the database. The 4G LTE information is very extensive. Some 5G may not be seen on the map but if you find the 4G LTE chances are the same tower may have 5G NR cell delivery on it as well. Knowing where the possible towers are and in what direction with respect to the gateway location does help with the effort to get a better signal.
The position of the gateway can be experimented with. In one of Nater Tater's YouTube videos he reported that when he put the Arcadyan gateway in the attic on its side that it actually provided a better signal reception. I found with the Nokia gateway I have it is best oriented with the front right half of the gateway facing the direction of the tower. Just by rotating the gateway a few degrees or in some cases 180 degrees to impact the signal wash over the 5G antenna can help with 3-4 dBm improvement. That is not a great deal but when you have very little sometimes that can push from 2 bars to 3 bars or 3 bars to 4 bars in effect. It can also help the SNR, signal to noise ratio which is a good thing. A clean signal will help improve performance. It all takes time and experimentation and yes patience. Results can vary but in some locations which are not easily covered by the cellular signals all the trial and error with gateway positioning still may not provide much help.
If you have an iPhone you can put it into Field Test Mode by dialing *3001#12345#* and get cellular metrics reporting. When the dashboard appears use the menu bar icon at the top right to expand to the menu drop downs to dig deeper. You can see the RAT > Serving Cell Info and then see the band info and the CellID and the PCI for the tower plus a bit more info such as the RSRP which is the radio signal receive power level. It is safe to poke around and look at the information as it is just reporting. When you are done just flip the window away and it will close.
With an Android phone you can load a network scanner application from the play store and get cellular and wireless information that is also useful. Of course all this is really more for geeks but it is still good for the inquisitive to play with.
Of course T-Mobile support should be able to provide some information about the tower your gateway connects to but you need to get with a support engineer and have one that really knows their stuff. Ask the questions you want answers for. If you don't ask you will for sure not get the answer. I have had mixed results with support as I have had good ones and not so good. Don't expect quick results in peak periods. Start early in the morning not at mid morning and it is often better with less wait time.
