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Sudden terrible (and strange) data speeds at home, TMo Tells me the towers are "fine"
I'll try to be brief, but have a bit of data to share. First, let me state that T-Mobile supports reps are super nice, BUT cannot think outside of the narrow box they are trained in and really can't help much. I have contacted and been on the phone with them 2 times now for hours trying to figure this problem out. Said they were going to toss it to network engineers and get back to me. Well, problem still exists, no call back, still getting really really awful speeds for no reason that I can think of other than tower or transport issues. Also, while I am not professing to be an expert in this arena, I am actually a network and infrastructure engineer at a massive/global manufacturing company by trade and have been for 2 decades now so I am very familiar with this space. The important bits: T-Mobile Magenta Max (Veteran) Family Plan (so effectively unlimited data and something like 40GB or 60GB tethering, which we never use). 6 Lines (2 lines are in TX and have NO issues at all, the other 4 are in Virginia, we are all having issues at home) Had the same plan for almost 5 years now and this has never happened. Live in a rural area, but we have one tower that is .6 miles from my house. It is on a small mountain and I have a direct line of site, unobstructed to it. I get about 2-3 bars 5G or, if I set it to LTE for preferred, I get full bars. 2 Fridays ago, I was doing some testing of speeds around my property outside. We wrote down download and upload speeds in about 25 different areas around the house. The average of all of these was around 60 Mbps/5 Mbps. This is actually not the fastest, but suitable considering the area. This was on 5G. About a week ago, we started getting TERRIBLE performance on our phones. I am talking less than 1Mbps-2 Mbps down and like 50 Mbps upload for some reason, consistently. This happens on 3 different android phones (Pixels and Galaxy), and an iPhone 14. I get the same exact speed range no matter if I force 4G, 5G and no matter where i am at on the property for the most part. When we go elsewhere and run Speedtests, our speed is as would be expected for the most part. Like in a different city where I work. When I test via hotspot or tether, again..speeds exactly the same range of speed . A few other things that may be related (since they seem to be data related) None of these 4 lines can dial data-related short codes (i.e. #WEB#). We either get a message stating this Service is not available (or valid) your your account type -or- it will spin and then come back after like 2 minutes and say "Connection problem or invalid MMI Code" When I look at my account online, it says for these lines that we have used 0.00GB of data which is not accurate at all. Again, these may not be related, but a little bit suspect IMO. When the reps say they look a the tower, there is no enhancement or upgrade going on. OK, fine but that doesn't mean something isn't messed up. There clearly is something going on. I know the exact tower identifier I am using (again, there is only one here) but they cannot confirm they are looking at the right one bc they say they don't have that info (comeon...really?) I use multiple sources for testing speed and they are all fairly in alignment. I am not exaggerating when I say I am getting such slow speeds, even on 5G or LTE. I tested just a minute ago and it was 876k down and 27 Mbps up. It's not congestion There is just no way. To start, most people in this part of my county either don't have mobile phones still/yet (farming community) and, if they do, they use either Verizon or US Cellular. Population density is very sparse and we are not a place where people come in and out of and demand changes. So to go from 30-40Mbps average to 1.5Mbps or less in 2 weeks seems super far fetched. I am frustrated bc I keep getting told that it will get looked into but doesn't seem to be an I never get a call back and the problem remains. I am at a loss on what to do. We rely on mobile phones this far out and this is frankly unacceptable. We are paying lot for nothing it seems. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions at all?Solved2.2KViews2likes33ComentariosRe: Sudden terrible (and strange) data speeds at home, TMo Tells me the towers are "fine"
Surprise, surprise. Working with the rep on X was a worthless endeavor. Based on the language used and the not exactly correct English, I assume I was once again talking with the very nice, yet utterly incompetent reps you get when you call on the phone. All they did was create a "ticket" that will inevitably get closed with literally no action taken. This is the same exact thing that has happened 2 other times since this problem started. It's honestly shameful how terrible all of these large companies are nowadays. Since T-Mobile is quite literally my only option out here, my only choice is to keep paying them for speeds that I cannot even hardly browse the web with or go without completely. They have proven they will absolutely go out of their way and above and beyond….to avoid doing anything to actually correct problems. WIth all of the evidence presented, can't possibly be bothered to send a tech out to the area to investigate further. Will have to figure out my next move now I suppose since the one place to go that is supposed to help does not.7Visto1like0ComentariosRe: Sudden terrible (and strange) data speeds at home, TMo Tells me the towers are "fine"
formercanuck wrote: BBB escalation will get you a bit more than the typical locals, but I have had your message of "we can't guarantee coverage in all areas" often. I'd almost recommend taking a 'drive by' the tower (½mile away?) and taking a 'test'. and similarly network readings. I did mention above that it took me a CPUC written complaint to get T-Mobile to 'fix' the 0.3Mbps 5G service, along with a BBB escalation. 8 months . Then, after publishing the written response, it was fixed in 1 month. Press them on the issue - tell them you have full bars, but effectively unusable service. 5G 'should be' +100Mbps (according to past reps). 1Mbps at ½mile is pretty bad, especially with good power level, and usable SINR. Why I mention microwave …I'm in a suburban area, the local tower here is microwave. A 'bump' (wind, or other) can move these a bit out of alignment - or …something comes in between. For the amount of spectrum available and signal, your results (2 weeks ago) were decent. And you are right on the money with this. I apologize, because I was wrong. There is fiber going up that road but that could be for something else because there is a fixed wireless provider that's co-located on that Tower. There are indeed microwave antennas on the tower. Interestingly enough the weekend after it stopped working well was when Ophelia came this way and the wind was blowing like crazy. So your theory is very well plausible. They seem to be taking it a little bit more serious in the X support chat so we will see. I'm not demanding that it be fixed ASAP because I'm realistic but I'm just trying to at least get an acknowledgment that there is something going on and that is going to be looked into. That's all.5Visto1like0ComentariosRe: Sudden terrible (and strange) data speeds at home, TMo Tells me the towers are "fine"
To be clear, it's not as rural as rural is sometimes taken to mean. It's not "middle of nowhere" rural. We are about 15 minutes from town. Backhaul is not microwave, at least not directly from this tower. I can see it clearly from my property. I have also seen the fiber markers going up the road to the tower. The tower is the only thing up that road. I have initiated a chat with TMobile on X, but a bit disheartened that they start out with something to the effect of we'll help but understand we can't guarantee coverage in all areas. I even linked them to this thread with all the data that discusses as little as 2 weeks ago, I had much better service. And if I'm getting signal lie I am but 1 or sub 1Mbps, something is up.9Visto1like0ComentariosRe: Sudden terrible (and strange) data speeds at home, TMo Tells me the towers are "fine"
I don't think this is what is happening to me. My issues has been going on for a few days and I have full bars LTE or 2 bars 5G with strong signal and can't get above 1 Mbps. It is like we are super throttled or something. Hopefully your issue gets resolved soon.10Visto1like0Comentarios