Forum Discussion
Problem with gateway losing just 5G signal
I've been using T-Mo Home Internet for over 3 years. I finally got good, continuous service after switching to the black Arcadyan gateway. BUT, I recently moved, and the aggravation has returned, with (so far) no help from T-MHI engineers.
I am literally 400 feet from a highrise with a T-Mo 5G tower (it's 20 floors higher than I am), AND less than a 1/5th mile line-of-sight away from a 2nd T-Mo 5G tower!
However, the gateway (I'm on my 3rd one) keeps LOSING the 5G signal! This happens unexpectedly, even though the gateway shows 5-bar (excellent) signal strength on the front info screen AND in the T-MHI app!
Has anyone else experienced this? Did you find a fix/solution? I'm thanking you in advance for any help!
Aloha copz1998! Thanks much for your help! I have some new info you may find interesting! (Understatement). But first to answer your question. No, I can't determine, thru any source, WHICH tower my gateway is connected to at any time. It seems ONLY T-Mo personnel can do that. I DID use cellmapper to "look at" ALL of the towers near me. There are actually 2 T-Mo 5G towers I "should" be connecting to - as I previously noted.
So here's the new info: researching online, I discovered that T-Mo gives older 5G Home Internet accounts LOWER priority than 1) ALL 5G mobile phone usage; as well as 2) NEW 5G Home Internet accounts!! Yup, that's right, T-Mo "rewards" its loyal customers by THROTTLING access to it's 5G towers! As a type of back-handed confirmation of this, I submit this. I have a new 'friend' inside T-Mo Support. That person went to their boss with my problem. The boss suggested that I close my current 5GHI account and open a new one!!
And here's a new development - also with my research, I discovered that the Arcadyan gateways, (which I have) even though they are the best 5G gateways T-Mo has supplied so far, have a problem with SIM card connectivity! I mention this because, on the 3rd day with my newest gateway (Arcadyan #3, for me), I lost my 5G signal (again)! So, I had T-Mo send me a new SIM card, as that had never been replaced, and was the last possible fix I could try. (I'm STILL waiting to hear back from the 5GHI engineers.) Well, installing the new SIM didn't help squat! So, in my frustration to stream content on my TV, I decided to run an Ethernet cable from the gateway to the TV. While I was doing so, I knocked the online gateway onto the floor. Guess what happened? EVER SINCE THEN I have had 5G data flow! Now, while I certainly would NOT recommend people drop their gateway onto the floor (YMMV), doing so did the trick for me!!
About once a month my Arcadyan loses 5g. No cellular metrics for 5g as mentioned above. No one at TM has an answer. The one thing that does work is to factory reset the gateway. THIS WORKS FOR ME EVERY TIME! Although, it is a pain to go through the trouble of resetting admin and wifi passwords to reconnect devices.
Interesting and explains a lot. Tmobile gives a free 15 day trial. For me I kept my old service "just in case". In the first 2 months the service was great, so I dropped Xfinity. By month 3, service began getting iffy. Now I'm lucky to watch a TV program without buffering, or use the internet without pauses, or talk on the landline (via VOIP) without breaks.
Talked to server CS reps which pointed me to 2 optional towers. But no way to instruct Gateway to not use the closest tower (even though they confirmed several work tickets have been issued on that tower).
Oddly 5G signal is great on mobile phone and I have about used all mobile Hot Spot data as a substitute for the Gateway.
Not returning to Xfinity, and AT&T does not offer fiber in our neighborhood (though they charge the same). But I'm looking for a better option.
@WhiteDolfin that is quite the story. So, in the end maybe there was a loose component/connection that was causing signal degradation (or something). I am happy to hear you solved your problem.
Aloha copz1998! Thanks much for your help! I have some new info you may find interesting! (Understatement). But first to answer your question. No, I can't determine, thru any source, WHICH tower my gateway is connected to at any time. It seems ONLY T-Mo personnel can do that. I DID use cellmapper to "look at" ALL of the towers near me. There are actually 2 T-Mo 5G towers I "should" be connecting to - as I previously noted.
So here's the new info: researching online, I discovered that T-Mo gives older 5G Home Internet accounts LOWER priority than 1) ALL 5G mobile phone usage; as well as 2) NEW 5G Home Internet accounts!! Yup, that's right, T-Mo "rewards" its loyal customers by THROTTLING access to it's 5G towers! As a type of back-handed confirmation of this, I submit this. I have a new 'friend' inside T-Mo Support. That person went to their boss with my problem. The boss suggested that I close my current 5GHI account and open a new one!!
And here's a new development - also with my research, I discovered that the Arcadyan gateways, (which I have) even though they are the best 5G gateways T-Mo has supplied so far, have a problem with SIM card connectivity! I mention this because, on the 3rd day with my newest gateway (Arcadyan #3, for me), I lost my 5G signal (again)! So, I had T-Mo send me a new SIM card, as that had never been replaced, and was the last possible fix I could try. (I'm STILL waiting to hear back from the 5GHI engineers.) Well, installing the new SIM didn't help squat! So, in my frustration to stream content on my TV, I decided to run an Ethernet cable from the gateway to the TV. While I was doing so, I knocked the online gateway onto the floor. Guess what happened? EVER SINCE THEN I have had 5G data flow! Now, while I certainly would NOT recommend people drop their gateway onto the floor (YMMV), doing so did the trick for me!!
@CStar the cell tower location and advanced metrics are two separate items. I wanted to see what your cell metrics show for signal strength and signal to noise reference. What are the numbers in your 5G fields?
Cellmapper.net is helpful to identify your cell tower. Go to cell mapper.net > click on menu (top left) > Search > type in your address (or use Move to my current location). Once your location is shown, close the search box (X). Then click "Provider" > from the dropdown menu chose T-Mobile USA > then select Network - 5G-NR. There you can see the N41 and N71 bands. Hopefully you have N41 (is better).
I hope this helps.
@copz1998 , how do I look up the tower # for the tower that my 5G connection is connected to?
Under Advanced Metrics, I see there are two tabs: one for LTE and one for 5G. Under LTE, there is the CGI (Cell Global Identity) which shows a number. Under 5G tab, I do not see any field that is for cell tower identifier. I see only the following fields:
RSRQ
RSRP
SINR
BANDA
I imagine that what the app identifies for my LTE connection is not the same tower as that for the 5G?
@WhiteDolfin Can ou note the tower # from your TM Internet app, then check which tower you are connected to using cellmapper.net? You may be connected to another tower than the one closest to you.
Looking at your gateway metrics using the TM internet app - More > Advanced cellular metrics >
5G:
RSRQ -
RSRP -
SINR -
Banda -
