Using a wilson booster with my t-mobie 5G home internet gateway

Thanks for your input. 

I am still on 4G (live in the country and will probably not see 5G a year or two). My question is why is it that the T-Mobile gateway says I have 4 to 5 bars, but my connection is slow to no signal on my phone or laptop. Of course, streaming is almost non existent.

mscans wrote:

I am using the Griddy outdoor antenna Kit by Waveform along with the EASYBOOST BA-T5G 5g booster. The cell coverage in my house is great, but the gateway does not see the signal from the internal antenna. I've rebooted  everything multiple time in different orders trying to get the gateway to latch on to the new signal, but it refuses. Is this a box thing? 

@mscans Have you gotten any further?  I just ordered the Gateway box.  T-Mobile cellular is poor where I live, but if you look at coverage map, I'm barely outside the dark pink UW area, so I'm hoping that with a little boost, the Gateway will be fast.  I know from experience that the Gateway is blazing fast, when you ARE in the dark pink UW zone, from when I lived elsewhere.

One thing to consider is that a booster will receive the same signal and just amplify it. If the signal is weak and gets weaker well it can only amplify what it receives so a signal that is poor quality and suffers from RF noise is probably not going to be much better boosted. Keep in mind if you get a signal booster the cost is pretty steep for a good one. The 5G millimeter-wave frequencies (28, 37 & 39 GHz) are not handled by current boosters and it will be a while (2-3 years) before that is the case. Cellular boosters have been intended for cell phones. With the millimeter say the n41 the MIMO operation is not handled by the current generation of boosters. You would probably be better off with an external antenna than a booster. I suggest you investigate the antennas that Waveform has and talk to their engineers. They are very helpful and have some solid antenna solutions both 2x2 MIMO and 4x4 MIMO and have some guides and assistance available to customers. 

My sister needed a 4G booster and I installed a weBoost for her which works for her 4G needs but that was still pretty expensive and still limited capability. 

The booster will amplify the signal locally. It cannot do anything about the signal receive power. If it has a small antenna to receive the signal it will only be able to do so much. If the distance from your location to the tower is a long way out you can only get so much speed as the signal will be weaker and of lesser quality and more prone to noise resulting in poor performance. The speed capability always tapers off with distance from the source. It sounds like you have a ver weak signal. With the gateway having a connection only to the source without the booster you should use the T-Mobile home internet mobile application on your phone to gather and record the cellular metrics for the 4G signal. If it is very weak, has poor quality and there is lots of noise the character of the signal will help to explain things and set expectations. 

There are some external antenna solutions that can help improve the reception of signals and make the operation better but that still is an investment and there are the technical aspects of getting them connected IF the gateway you have has connectors for external antenna connections. 

I have a towers about ¼ - 1/3 of the mile from me. Download 30MiB upload 8Mb on my phone. That is way too slow. If I drive closer to the tower I get 700/700 Mb. So these towers apparently have very limited range.

Just tried hooking up a booster to work with my gateway. I get 2 bars without it, 5 bars with it BUT, the signal strength is less, noise is more so I guess I am returning it. Gateway works better without it. 😔

I am using the Griddy outdoor antenna Kit by Waveform along with the EASYBOOST BA-T5G 5g booster. The cell coverage in my house is great, but the gateway does not see the signal from the internal antenna. I've rebooted  everything multiple time in different orders trying to get the gateway to latch on to the new signal, but it refuses. Is this a box thing? 

jdavis244 wrote:

mscans wrote:

I am using the Griddy outdoor antenna Kit by Waveform along with the EASYBOOST BA-T5G 5g booster. The cell coverage in my house is great, but the gateway does not see the signal from the internal antenna. I've rebooted  everything multiple time in different orders trying to get the gateway to latch on to the new signal, but it refuses. Is this a box thing? 

@mscans Have you gotten any further?  I just ordered the Gateway box.  T-Mobile cellular is poor where I live, but if you look at coverage map, I'm barely outside the dark pink UW area, so I'm hoping that with a little boost, the Gateway will be fast.  I know from experience that the Gateway is blazing fast, when you ARE in the dark pink UW zone, from when I lived elsewhere.

I was not able to improve my signal or internet speed. The rep told me I should go with this instead of the Griddy, https://www.waveform.com/products/4x4-mimo-panel-kit there is a  version for unobstructed view of tower as well. But these would require the disassembly of the gateway to attach the antenna leads. I'm going to try a new modem/router approach. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09NDDH6S8/

mscans. Any reason you can't just use the hotspot on your phone? I do that with 2 bars and can do the internet and stream an Apple TV just fine.