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rellor
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Re: t-monile home internet is barely providing basic data speeds sometimds.
Another thought would be to buy a 5G or even 4G LTE modem (Netgear has a range of them, including battery-powered portable ones that are much smaller, more modern andoffer better network performance than the generic gateway T-Mobile provides) and get a data-only SIM card. T-Mobile's prepaid arm offers 50 GB for $50/month, not a lot but adequate for someone who doesn't play online games, doesn't stream TV shows all day, and just has basic Internet needs. (There was apparently a limited-time 100 GB for $50/month promotion, and those who have it can keep that rate. Let's hope it comes back, or that prices fall and data caps rise with the market.) If you go this route you are sure to get better speeds, not only due to the more capable hardware, but also because T-Mobile Home Internet has close to the lowest priority on the network. For people who like to tinker (and since we, as users of a service as immature as T-Mobile Home Internet, have to spend so much time checking frequency bands andsignal strength, moving the gateway, rebooting, calling support, etc., most of us are tinkerers by definition), I'd even recommend getting a 4G LTE (cheap) or 5G board from SixFab and using a Raspberry Pi. You'd end up with a very high-performance, secure, infinitely configurable cellular modem + WiFi router setup.1Ver0likes0ComentariosRe: Arcadyan "device eligible for unlocking" offer from T-mob?
henry51 wrote: rellor wrote: … You know something is going on when youmust rent, in perpetuity, apiece of equipment that had a fixed price and that eventually becomes obsolete. ... But are we really renting our TMO gateways? Can'tthe $50/mo. we pay be considered payment for the internet service we receive? And, with thethe internet service we receive, we get a gateway that needs to be returned once we terminate our subscription to the service? A more honest way for T-Mobileto look at it would be to separate the portion of the $50 that pays for equipment form the portion that pays for service. When you've had the service for enough months/years that the money in the former bucket exceeds the fair price of the device, it should be yours, unlocked and ready for you to pop in a SIM card from the provider of your choice. And you should pay only for the service after that point, if you choose to stay with T-Mobile. I have no idea what portion of the monthly $50 charge T-Mobileallocates to customer premises equipment (CPE), but I can say that the quoted replacementprice of the gateway ($370) is excessive. That price would be appropriate forconsumer brandhardware bought at a real store like BestBuy, withthe attendant (hardware-specific)marketing, advertising, inventory and sales costs. Given that the gateway iswholesale rather than retailhardware, it would be generous to price it at $200. Allowing, say, $7/month, the device should be yours in 2.5 years.7Visto0likes0ComentariosRe: Home internet becoming unreliable after few months
NCC1701mess wrote: It's becoming clear. They get you to sign up then in a couple of months they cut the speed and the service. There ought to be a law. I think the answer is to cancel, send that cheap off-brand gateway back, and sign up with a better Internet service provider.11Visto3likes0ComentariosRe: Extremely long (multiple hours) hold times during the past week --- why?
I hate to say it, but what do you expect?100% of T-Mobile's customer service is offshored (and I don't mean to single them out; the same is true of AT&T, Verizon, UPS, FedEx, your credit company, the "card services" department of your heretofore "local" credit union, etc., etc.). In defense of offshoring and understaffing, when we are paying, say, $50/month for T-Mobile home Internet, or about $125/month for typical postpaid cell phone service, the company loses money the minute a human -- even someone earning 60¢ an hour in the Philippine call center -- answers the phone. (If T-Mobile still had US customer service staff, their wages would be the main factor, but with offshoring, it's the overhead -- the high-volumeinternational telecommunications capacity, the ticketing system, the call distribution hardware, the management, the profit for the contractor, the cost of the stateside procurement department that writes contracts with offshore call center vendors, etc.) Now, a better company would have more reliable systems and services, so calling customer service wouldn't be a weekly or monthly or even an annual activity. But beyond that, we all want to talk to real, fully-empowered corporate employees in the US, and we are not willing to pay the cost of quality customer support. If there were an option to pay a few dollars a minute for premium support by real people here in the US, I would happily do so. It's the combination of lousy underlying services from T-Mobile and our own price sensitivity that explains why we have to wait for hours to talk to a Third-World temporary call center worker who can only read from a script, and lacks the knowledge, as well as the authority, to actually do anything.14Visto0likes0ComentariosRe: Arcadyan "device eligible for unlocking" offer from T-mob?
You never own the device. It must be returned (if you bring it to a store, this must be a corporate store, as franchises don't deal in the home Internet product) when you cancel the service, or you will be billed $370. You know something is going on when youmust rent, in perpetuity, apiece of equipment that had a fixed price and that eventually becomes obsolete. An honest company would give you a SIM card and the option of purchasing their gateway, renting it (with lower payments not meant to cover the cost of fully purchasing the device), or using any compatible cellular modem (such as a Netgear M1, M5 or M6, all of which are much more modern and faster-performingthan T-Mobile's 2 generic gateways).9Visto0likes0ComentariosRe: tmobile home internet
Yes, it's not possible to manage home Internet using an online T-Mobile account. The gateway phone numbers cannot be linked. You might be able to pay as a guest, but that's all you can do online. I've had 3 calls to the (now 100% offshore) customer service, who just don't understand the issue. I've also tried the vaunted "T-Force" via Facebook Messenger. (It's just more offshore agents, if not outright automatons.) Not being able to manage the service online is fine if your address qualified for the unlimited product (mine is only eligible for the capped "Home Internet Lite" variant, so it would be nice to be able to check my cumulative usage). You should have 15 days to return the gateway and cancel the service, at no cost. Only corporate stores deal in the Home Internet product and can accept gateway returns. (If you ship the gateway, use a tracked service.) Because linking the device number to an account is impossible, it's also impossible to review the contract you signed. I would be sure to get something printed in-store that proves the gateway was returned and the service was canceled.2Visto0likes0ComentariosRe: t-monile home internet is barely providing basic data speeds sometimds.
T-Mobile's home Internet service sucks, as does its fake 5G service (really just relabeled 4G LTE). There's really not much point in checking radio frequency bands, connection strength, and so on. The proof is in the pudding: on weekends and late at night, I get download speeds in the hundreds of Mbps. During business hours, 1-2 Mbps! My suggestion is to return your gateway and choose a different provider. It's a shame that so many people are wasting time troubleshooting a service that is nothing more than a false promise. The network capacity just isn't there.2Visto0likes0ComentariosRe: Home internet speeds extremely inconsistent and connection drops intermittently
Speed swings and useless offshore customer service aside, T-Mobile has the worst account management Web site in the industry (worse even than TracFone before Verizon acquired that company). You've all read about repeated data breaches, which are evidence that software development is not a priority for this company. In my case, it has proven impossible to link the phone number ofthe Internet gateway to the T-Mobile account I created at the T-mobilestore when picking up the gateway. I was able to finish the account creation process, which involvescreating a password, but every time I log in, I am immediately asked to linka phone number. When I enter the gateway's phone number, I get the notorious F451 error. I tried the other way, by starting with the phone number and creating a new account. If I enter the e-mail address I provided at the store, the site recognizes it and won't let me create a new account. If I provide a different e-mail address, the site says I have to use the same e-mail address that I provided at the store. This makes sense because, as with any T-Mobile postpaid account, the account I created in-store has my biographic data, Social Security Number, state ID number, etc. (In the prepaid world, T-Mobile has none of those data, and one can associate any e-mail address.) Since it's impossible to link the phone number to a T-Mobile account, you can't manage T-Mobile's home Internetservice online. You might be able to pay the bill as a guest (I haven't tried), but that's it! It's a particular concern for me because only downtown areas of major cities are eligible for the unlimited service. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in an urban city, but addresses in mycity qualify only for the capped "lite" service. I'd want to be able to monitor my usage and know when I was approaching my monthly cap. (In the Bay Area, only addresses in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and San José are eligible for the unlimited product, and even within those cities, only addresses in the high-value downtown areas will qualify. T-Mobile hasn't made any network investments outside those areas -- you get LTE, rebranded as fake 5G.) My box is going right back to the store tomorrow. The only good thing I can say is that T-Mobile is now using a more modern gateway, powered byUSB-C (although you can't use your own USB adapter unless it is a large one that supports laptop voltages and current levels -- 15 V 3 A, according to the manual). The new gateway has no external antenna port (I'm not sure that the old one did, and I wouldn't risk modifying a device I don't own, that's marked up to $370.) T-Mobile is the worst of the three remaining US cell carriers, and its home Internet offering is essentially unusable. Do yourself a favor and keep your current ISP until some other company comes up with a truly good alternative.2Visto0likes0ComentariosRe: F451 Error - Unable to link T-Mobile home internet phone number
I am having exactly the same problem. Two calls to customer support have been useless. We repeat the same steps and get the same results, and then I'm asked to hold for a technician. Each time I give up holding after 20 minutes. I have tried various desktop and mobile Web browsers, have disabled all ad blockers at all levels, and have even tried using three different Internet service providers (my old one, my new T-Mobile home Internet service, and cellular data on my phone). Note that we should, in theory (I haven't tried) be able to pay our bill as a guest (an option below the option to log in), but this does not allow us to see the account details, plan, usage, etc., so it is not a solution (even if it actually works and accepts a payment). It's clear that T-Mobile has lousy computer systems (the series of serious security incidents makes that painfully and publicly obvious), but my experience is that T-Mobile also has no effective customer service. Although we talk with real people in the US, they are as uninformed and unhelpful as contract call center workers overseas, and there is no escalation staff (endless wait on hold until customers give up). I really regret providing my biographic details, including my Social Security Number, to T-Mobile to sigh up for this service in-store. Since online account access just doesn't work for T-Mobile home Internet customers, and there is no help, I'll just return the device to the store tomorrow. My main piece of advice is NOT to cancel your existing Internet service. Thank God I did not, and my only losses are my personal data (wish I hadn't trusted T-Mobile with it), my time, and the cost of transportation back to a store (which must be a corporate store; franchises don't handle T-Mobile home Internet).12Visto0likes0Comentarios