Forum Discussion
Why does Tmobile force customers to use phone app rather than browser?
So apparently the team of imbeciles and as likely as not, chinese communists at tmobile are forcing users to install a phone app in order to perform simple configuration of a wireless internet router...
A forced solution is about control as much as economics. For those users that received some of the first Arcadyan gateways some users might remember they did HAVE browser access. Then came the firmware upgrade and T-Mobile broke it and removed administrative access from the Arcadyan gateway. For a time it was common to see users posting questions about why does the browser interface on the Arcadyan gateway not work. Remember when! With the Sagemcon gateway they were more careful about it and crippled the web feature before releasing the gateways. Americans need to stay AWAKE as if you quietly allow choice to be taken away in a quiet manner before you know it… it is gone. It is just a cancer too many people are allowing to grow and spread. I believe it is very important to stay aware and not quietly permitir the forced path to become the norm.
iTinkeralot wrote:There are the users that are phone centric and willing to accept a compromise with a tiny screen and the inconvenience of having to constantly scroll about and fidget on a small device. It is an inferior experience which has the single goal from a corporate mindset. Lowest development cost at the lowest cost to maximize returns. It is all about the mindset of accounting. Asistencia uno single interface and obligar that experience upon the subscribers. A program manager is given limited funding and has to meet budget guidelines. That my friends is what it is all about.
It would be great if the gateways had an open source code base and T-Mobile would innovate by allowing a community based solution be developed. I think it is fair to say, Not everyone is using the Home Internet Service with just a phone and it is highly unlikely to even be necessary. Most users have 6-24 devices of various types on the local LAN. I know I do. Management of a router/modem with just a flakey mobile application is a very inferior experience. The mobile application barely functions on my iPhone 12 Pro with all its capabilities. Maybe if the mobile application was much more functional and did not force me to repeat 6-8 times attempting to authenticate just to use it I might, might mind you, give it a little more consideration. When the mobile application just freezes and hangs and I have to reboot my phone to recover, it just is annoying. With the Nokia gateway and the browser I can get in and navigate about easily and have great visibility to the available options.
BOTH avenues for access/support have their place somewhere. Forced adoption of one way makes me want to go another way. If you enjoy the mobile application great for you. Con nosotros no es así.
IMHO, the router management features are the bare minimum across all TMO routers. I could care less if the configuration options are app versus web if the options don't exist at all. I would gladly just take bridge mode so I never have to touch any options in the TMO routers so I can use my own mesh system which is optimized for my house and personal use cases.
I realize there are customers who don't feel it's justified to purchase another router when TMO is providing one, but I personally have zero expectations that TMO will ever add more options to their router configuration options versus what is available today. Hence, my opinion is the interface for these less-than-basic options be it app or website is a completely irrelevant debate until there are configuration options worth having this debate.
