switched 3 months ago - not so pleased

cant help with the slow speeds. but you can still save the 5 dollars and still be in control of your bills. turn automatic pay back on to save the 5 dollars but pay your bill on your own. you still get the discount just pay before autopay would. i do t that way just to save on my bill

My wife works from home so we need  reliable internet which is why we're sticking with cable instead of taking a chance on a wifi based service.

alienxbutterfly wrote:

so where i  live i only have a few options for internet, so i have maxed out on one carrier and got the gateway from tmobile. first month speeds were epic almost 30mbps, which i have never had the pleasure of using. next month because i turned off auto i get charged 5 more $, let me say i dont think its fair to have to pay extra because you want to be in control of your bills. anyhow back on subject. the second month i saw more problems, slower speeds and i thought well maybe its just a busier month  or more customers have signed up.. pretty sure thats a factor but correct me if im wrong. 3rd month is slower than my century link.. and i only got up to 9 mbps with them on a good day.  your speeds in the evening have been 3-6 mbps. i can barely stream, my games lag. im wondering if it is actualy being capped or speeds just suck but either way I am NOT happy. internet should be dependable and its not!

I have the exact same situation and I work from home so it is nearly impossible for me to do that at this point. I have called and called and called and nobody will listen to me and nobody will fix the problem. I am really sick and tired of T-Mobile thanking me over and over again for how long I've been with them but not doing it thing to fix the problem. 

gramps28 wrote:

My wife works from home so we need  reliable internet which is why we're sticking with cable instead of taking a chance on a wifi based service.

I wish i had the option for cable internet sadly no one will run the lines down my driveway its kinda long ive tried once a year for over 5 years to get cable. 

If the best you have seen with the T-Mobile cellular solution is 30 MBs download then that is really not that impressive. Please post more specific information about your gateway. Do you have the Nokia or the Arcadyan gateway? If you just picked up the T-Mobile solution 3 months ago it might be either. The Nokia is a cylindrical shape and the Arcadyan is squarish with rounded corners. It only matters for how to get the important information out of the gateway to have a better idea of the cellular signals you are able to receive. If all you get is 30 MBs down then that is more like a 4G signal vs having 5G. Your location may be a bit of a challenge for obtaining a good strong signal. You might need to consider adding an external antenna. If you cannot get a hard line & cellular or satellite are the only options I would still look closer at the T-Mobile solution. Even if you need to add an external antenna the cost in the long run could still be better. It is nice to not have a contract with a vendor that repeatedly bumps the price up every year. 

T-Mobile should be able to tell you where the tower is that your service is sourced from. If you have the cellular metrics information from the router with the PCI values it is possible to locate the tower using cellmapper.net by identifying the tower that has the PCI, physical cell identifier for the 4G & 5G signals. Each will have a PCI value that is associated with the cell delivering the signal.

Suggestions to improve cellular reception:

• Contact support & get more information on the tower location & cells.
• Evaluate the location of the router with respect to the tower. (internal influence)
• Make sure the router is located at the most optimal location in the home.
• Determine the location of the cellular tower & distance from the home
• Evaluate the terrain between the home & cell tower (clear view, trees, hills, buildings etc.. between home and tower)
• Relocate the router/gateway if possible to a better location in the home.
• Locate close to a window, with no metal screen

Post specific router information to the community conversation:

• Primary & Secondary internet connection information (RSRP, SNR, RSRQ values)
• Primary & Secondary cellular network information (PCI, Band, EARFCN/NR-ARFCN values)
• Router Model & software version in operation (Nokia or Arcadyan)

thanks i will look in to it. it is a cylinder geteway. 

Using the information in the web interface for the cellular metrics is very helpful to fine tune it.

If your speeds are that slow it's probably because the tower is congested and needs an upgrade or your signal isn't good. Restart the device and see if that changes things. You can also get an external antenna to hook up to it but only do it if you know what your doing but make sure to try putting it in the window on the highest floor in the house and make sure it faces your nearest tmobile tower. Oh and given that it is the cylinder gateway (nokia gateway) you should rotate it a little bit each time until the connection improves.

If you are not a technical person approach the problem from a different angle.

From your first posting you stated you are, “NOT happy. internet should be dependable and its not!”

Well, that needs to be addressed by T-Mobile as they provide the "solution". What I found to be helpful and pretty fast is to look to the top of the page where you see “Coverage” y selecciona “Rural 5G & Internet”. When the page renders you will see a live chat window at the bottom right. I know it seems a little wrong but just consider that this is the marketing front end where the $$$s are generated. If you take a little time from the front end there you may see the results I found. They want to have satisfied customers and voluntad direct your conversation to a customer retention person. The chat starts with the BOT activity but does provide a link to a live person. Just present the facts in a balanced, level manner and give it a try. I used the same approach a couple of times now and both times I received answers and was able to have a productive chat conversation with a real person. It may be a text chat but I found it helpful. If you make a call to support you might get with a person but may find it is hard to understand them due to accent. The goal is to get answers and have attention on the problem. I did technical escalations for enterprise customers for 22 years and I know T-Mobile will try hard to retain customers and does have people that are good at addressing issues. You just have to be persistent and you might get lucky as I did.