Slow 4G connection only, but only sometimes -- SOLVED

Timsw wrote:

justintyme2 wrote:

My phone and home internet used to use b66 and b12 a lot. Service went downhill for over a month, then I noticed my phone started connecting to b41 and speeds and service have been great. My phone shows 5g but I've never seen my router connect to a secondary signal. The router pretty much stays on b41, sometimes on b66. I hope the service continues to improve like this! 

Thank you for responding. This is the kind of thing I'm interested in. The phone app gives out information but for some reason leaves off the secondary signal, so that's why I use the GUI for that.

Are you using the GUI or just the T mobile home internet phone app? And when you say the speed is great, what kind of speed we talkin about here?

"Great" is relative to what you had in the past or expect. For some people 40 is great, and others anything under 200 is disappointing.

Also, what’s your signal strength, on both your 5G phone and your gateway?

A commenter responded to a post of mine on another thread saying he got 400 down and 50 up on T mobile's home internet 5G but dropped to 60 to 80 when on a primary 4G signal, and he gets stuck on that 4G signal for long periods which is totally unacceptable for him because he's used to  steady speeds in the hundreds on cable. He gets 5 bars signal strength and indeed, by lowering that down (by putting foil over the gateway)  he can connect to 5G only with fewer bars, but then his speeds drop off way too much. 

However, if you are using the GUI at the address I mentioned in my first post, and showing no secondary signal, chances are your B12 and B66 are 4G only. And that isn't bad! As long as the 4G works reasonably well for you. Also, the near future could be dramatic for you, when they install the 5G on your tower like n41, and you start getting that as your secondary signal. 

One form of 4G they put in Chicago, I read, and people can get speeds of 500Gbps if they are close enough to the tower.

About the 5G icon on your phone, here is a quote from an article:

T-Mobile has been adding this icon on their phones even when they are not connected to the 5G network, so if you are unsure, download the app Signal Spy (on Android) or enter Field Test Mode on your iPhone

 

The app is useless. I use the web settings to check. When I first got home internet (old gateway), my speeds were the same as my phone on LTE, usually 10mbps-50mbps. Not sure what bands the old gateway was using. I think my phone would go between b12 and b66. I got the 5g gateway 3 months ago and got the same speeds, never showed secondary signal. My signal strength on both the old gateway and new one stay at 2 bars, no matter where I put it. It's funny because the best spot is in the middle of my house, but it's a small house and one level. My phone generally has full signal, sometimes drops down to 2 bars. There seem to be 3 different towers that I can connect to. The closest being 2 miles. Last month I started getting horrible service, slow speeds, no signal, on all of my devices, including my work Sprint phone. 2 weeks ago, the service improved on all devices. That's when I noticed connecting to b41 and b25 (tagged as Sprint). I use signal checker pro on my android phone and tablet. It shows the tower/signal information in status bar. Another good app is LTE discovery. I use the web gui or app to see what the gateway is connected to. My home internet kept connecting to b12 for several weeks while I noticed the speeds slow to a crawl, under 1mbps. Now, with all devices consistently using b41 most of the time, my speeds are usually always above 20mbps. Usually hitting 100-150, even in the evenings during peak time. I'm not sure if the gateway ever connects to 5g, but my phone usually is on 5g, sometimes switching to 4g. It's funny because it doesn't seem to matter as speeds are the same and sometime worse on 5g throughout town. I never used to get 50 or 100 months ago. I would occasionally see 50 early mornings but that was it. Always consistently averaged about 15 and dropped to under 1 when they were upgrading the towers It's great because I can stream and use everything normally normally now. I think with the latest firmware update on the 5g router and the service from the towers improving, all the issues with my home devices staying connected and streaming have disappeared. I've found that I also don't have to reboot the gateway as I did regularly before because the signals were so wonky. My router still only shows primary signal and always on b41 now. Same with my phone, although I'm seeing more 4g on my phone than 5g at my house, but even on 5g it shows band as b41 or b25. I'm pretty sure at this point with the upgrades happening, even though it's hard to tell if really on 5g or 4g sometimes, it doesn't matter what "G" shows, it mattes what towers and bands you're connecting to. Right now in my area, I'm seeing way more 5g coverage and signal strength but speeds are definitely faster on 4g and sometimes better than on 5g. I have never seen n71 yet on any device. I'll be doing some more testing as I'm out and about in the next month. I'm happy with anything over 20mbps and definitely noticed when the service dropped out for several weeks. Now that I'm getting around 100 mpbs and staying well above 20mbps all the time, I'm very happy and impressed by the difference. I also don't notice any difference in speed performance between my devices. Home Internet for me always matches my phone and sometimes performs better. Hopefully that answered your questions, sorry got long winded haha!