Home internet speeds extremely inconsistent and connection drops intermittently

Speed swings and useless offshore customer service aside, T-Mobile has the worst account management Web site in the industry (worse even than TracFone before Verizon acquired that company). You've all read about repeated data breaches, which are evidence that software development is not a priority for this company.

In my case, it has proven impossible to link the phone number of the Internet gateway to the T-Mobile account I created at the T-mobile store when picking up the gateway. I was able to finish the account creation process, which involves creating a password, but every time I log in, I am immediately asked to link a phone number. When I enter the gateway's phone number, I get the notorious F451 error.

I tried the other way, by starting with the phone number and creating a new account. If I enter the e-mail address I provided at the store, the site recognizes it and won't let me create a new account. If I provide a different e-mail address, the site says I have to use the same e-mail address that I provided at the store. This makes sense because, as with any T-Mobile postpaid account, the account I created in-store has my biographic data, Social Security Number, state ID number, etc. (In the prepaid world, T-Mobile has none of those data, and one can associate any e-mail address.)

Since it's impossible to link the phone number to a T-Mobile account, you can't manage T-Mobile's home Internet service online. You might be able to pay the bill as a guest (I haven't tried), but that's it!

It's a particular concern for me because only downtown areas of major cities are eligible for the unlimited service. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in an urban city, but addresses in my city qualify only for the capped "lite" service. I'd want to be able to monitor my usage and know when I was approaching my monthly cap. (In the Bay Area, only addresses in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and San José are eligible for the unlimited product, and even within those cities, only addresses in the high-value downtown areas will qualify. T-Mobile hasn't made any network investments outside those areas -- you get LTE, rebranded as fake 5G.)

My box is going right back to the store tomorrow. The only good thing I can say is that T-Mobile is now using a more modern gateway, powered by USB-C (although you can't use your own USB adapter unless it is a large one that supports laptop voltages and current levels -- 15 V 3 A, according to the manual).

The new gateway has no external antenna port (I’m not sure that the old one did, and I wouldn’t risk modifying a device I don’t own, that’s marked up to $370.)

T-Mobile is the worst of the three remaining US cell carriers, and its home Internet offering is essentially unusable. Do yourself a favor and keep your current ISP until some other company comes up with a truly good alternative.