Forum Discussion
slow streming
I only stream to watch tv (Netflix, appleTV, HBOmax etc.). Will my internet slow once I stream so much?
Your experience with the content delivery could be dependent upon the level of the service your plan is and load upon the uplink equipment. Also the quality of the cellular signals will be a factor. If your gateway receives at least 3-4 bars and the signals are clean service delivery should be good. There are some locations where users seem to experience delivery problems but not all users have service problems. Only time will tell if you are fortunate to be in a good place for service. If the cell tower equipment and upstream routers are all provisioned to carry the subscriber load it could be just fine. If there are periods of the day/night when bandwidth is more limited just keep in mind you can plan ahead and download some content during off peak hours for offline viewing.
The bars on the LED display are a rather generic report for the aggregation of the 4G and 5g signals more or less. They do reflect cellular reception but do not provide any real detail. Yes they do present a representation of speed as more bars are better. T-Mobile uses the 4G LTE band for the uploads and the 5G NR for download. It is probably a little of both but the heavy lifting for downloads is on the 5G. If you are getting 250 Mbps down your gateway is probably on the n41 millimeter frequency for download. If you have the Arcadyan gateway you would need to use the mobile application to look closer and it may provide the cellular metrics for that appliance. I have the Nokia gateway and use the web browser as I don't care for using the mobile application. The Arcadyan now only allows management via the mobile application. You may be able to see some things with the web application still but I am not sure as I don't have one to be sure.
Here is a chart that explains the metrics. If the gateway shows 3-4 bars probably the RSRP is around -80 dBm or possibly a little less say -87 dBm. If the RSRQ and SINR is good to excellent then performance will be pretty solid. Signal noise due to a poor quality signal will result in poor performance as packet damage results in retransmissions so more delay to session completion. You can get more definition on RSRP, RSRQ and SINR with a web search if you really want to understand it better.
On average I receive around 125-130 Mbps pretty consistent and have uploads 45-60 Mbps here on the n71 frequency and I am 5.3 miles from the tower, line of sight. Pretty much true line of sight without obstructions so my signal is very clean. With -85 dBm on RSRP, signal receive, I am getting 157 Mbps down and 71.7 Mbps upload with speed test. The 4G only shows 3 bars with -96 dBm RSRP. The signal to noise ratio is good to excellent for both so performance is pretty solid. I use the Nokia gateway alone and have no additional router or extenders and we have a 3300 sq ft home. A couple of weak spots here and there but still coverage is good.
You can play with the gateway for orientation and placement and may be able to get another bar or better signal quality. Signal quality, i.e. clean signal with less noise does improve performance. Speed is not the only part of the equation. A clean signal without packet loss and delay is a good thing.
Do notice the negative values. Just how it works. The SINR, SNR will be a greater positive value whereas the RSRP and RSRQ a lower numerical negative value is better. My 4G LTE signal may be in the low medium range but it is clean with 22 dBm SNR so performance is good as the clean signal makes up for the loss of receive power.
