Forum Discussion
Why does Tmobile force customers to use phone app rather than browser?
So apparently the team of imbeciles and as likely as not, chinese communists at tmobile are forcing users to install a phone app in order to perform simple configuration of a wireless internet router...
A forced solution is about control as much as economics. For those users that received some of the first Arcadyan gateways some users might remember they did HAVE browser access. Then came the firmware upgrade and T-Mobile broke it and removed administrative access from the Arcadyan gateway. For a time it was common to see users posting questions about why does the browser interface on the Arcadyan gateway not work. Remember when! With the Sagemcon gateway they were more careful about it and crippled the web feature before releasing the gateways. Americans need to stay AWAKE as if you quietly allow choice to be taken away in a quiet manner before you know it… it is gone. It is just a cancer too many people are allowing to grow and spread. I believe it is very important to stay aware and not quietly permitir the forced path to become the norm.
TLDR - It’s about signal quality info!!
I have the Nokia Cylinder but have been thinking about signing up for TMo home internet at a second location. As I understand it, I will get the square unit if I sign up right now. I recently tried to access signal quality info on one of these units (at a friend's property) and was very frustrated that there was no info available at the web server address.
The "router" built into these units is very limited and I don't really need to access configuration stuff often. But what I really want to access easily is the RSRQ, SN and RSSI as well as the band that each signal is using (B66, N41 etc). This information is absolutely vital when troubleshooting a problem or trying to improve performance. The Nokia tube offers this info (albeit in a bit of a clumsy interface) from the built-in web server. 99% of the time that I'm looking for this info it's from a computer screen, not a phone.
To the argument that supporting one interface is easier than multiple devices, I have to suggest that basic web server functionality like this is now mature and should not be difficult to support, especially since there is still currently a web server functioning at the IP of the router. I have to speculate that the real reason this info has been removed from the web server is because TMo wants to have metrics about what customers are doing. They want to know how often customers mess with settings and when and what info they are looking for. The app offers a way to keep track of this info. There is also some value to the fact that the phone offers a secondary connection to the internet (and to TMo's servers). I recognize the value of this but I'm frustrated with the side affects.
We should have access to the radio info.
