Unreliable home internet

Hmm, it's a close call, but 13Mbps is a lot better than 3, isn't it. It still stinks though, except for your upload, which is reasonable. Only because they told you that work had been done on your tower recently, and you've got your old connection to rely on for work at home and other things for another week or two, you could wait a few more days probably, to see if the download kicks in.

When you do exchange a gateway, they'll mail it to you but they allow you to return the old one to a Tmobile store, if that's more convenient. My gateway works fine, doesn't overheat without a fan, so I'm just basing this on the many people who have tried exchanging their gateway.

Another way to test the gateway  is to take your gateway and computer (or phone, set to wifi) to another person's house, maybe someone closer to a tower, or if you have a portable power supply, you can do it in the car. All you need to do is turn it on and it should work. It's just like using a cell phone in another location.

T mobile has a warning that the gateway is to be used only at one location, but lots of people have tried it in other locations with no problems, just as experiments, and I don't think they care when you're using it for just a short period in another location. Hundreds of people have tried this and I haven't heard of one person saying T mobile revoked their subscription. The point of this would be that if you can get blazing speeds when right near youraT mobile 5G tower, well then you'd know your gateway works great and it's time to turn the whole business back to them and use another provider.

If you can take it near another T mobile tower and it works great there, but not right next to the T mobile tower nearest your house, then you know there's still something not working with your tower, and that  your gateway is fine. It'd be something you can do on the weekend, nothing you have to rush out and do.

From what I've read, about 9 out of 10 people who exchange their gateway, suspecting something may be defective about it, there is nothing wrong with it. But for that one person where it is a defective gateway it can send their speed soaring.