Miserable Connection

I’m in the same boat with the same problem. Started out six month ago great and slowly got worse. Cannot even stream a movie without significant buffering. Very aggravating!

Same problem here. Been dealing with it for well

over a year, but I live in a rural

area and can’t find a better alternative. I hate it with a passion. 

I’ve been fortunate then.  It worked well on the 4G LTE home internet (but still in its infancy and was similar in price to Spectrum).

I got the Xmas special ($25/month) and T-Mobile updated the site to 5G (last one in the area that wasn’t a metrocell).  On 5G n71/b66 ~170Mbps/50Mbps.  On 5G n41/b2 +400Mbps/20Mbps.  ~150-200GB/month.

For those with poor (T-Mobile Home Internet App term) service and often buffering, this is technical, but it MAY help out:

1.  Use the T-Mobile Home Internet App to locate the ‘nearest’ tower.  This will help locate the direction that the signal closest to you is coming from.  I’d recommend placing your device on that side of the house.
2. If you can locate (physically see) the tower, or know roughly where it is, attempt to put your device in a line-of-site between your house/appartment/etc. and the tower.  I.e. If there is a large metal structure between your home and the tower … try to move it to an area that isn’t as blocked by obstacles
3. If you can … place it near or in front of a window, possibly at a high place in your home.
4. Once you’ve found an ideal location (or as good as it gets), you may wish to try ‘turning ‘ the device.  I.e. mine works best when the tower is ~45-60 degrees clockwise from the ‘face’ (LED) of the Arcadyan device.  This gives ‘good - very good’, while 180 degrees from that gives ‘poor’.

Oddly, for ideal ‘testing’ purpose, I used a 50’ extension cord outdoors, and found the ideal location - then replicated it from inside.

As  a note, I’m fairly close to the tower (~1200’) but blocked by buildlngs + trees.  Best location for me is a spot with a small gap between buildings across the street.  Winter service is better w/o leaves on the trees.

If you know where the tower is (i.e. using T-Mobile placement app), use Google Earth to draw a 3D measurement to look for obstructions between your home and the tower… it does help a lot.

Sadly,  but true .. desert (w/o trees or rain) typically is consistent.

Only few options:

1. Different technology (xDSL, Cable, Fiber, other WISP)
2. Antenna (not a great idea, but would ‘help’ possibly) - Youtube ‘natertater’ has this
3. Call into T-Mobile Home Internet for support.

Called support they recommended checking some settings and turning the phone on and off that works sometimes  but don't make a big difference.I know a signal booster would probably make a larger difference but they are quite pricey for a good one . Then if I did want to spend that much  could go with Star Link instead. but to tell the truth I don't need that amount of data or speed it would be overkill for me. Id be happy getting what I was paying for. I had a unlimited plan have downgraded it to a limited plan why pay for what you can't use. 

On the newer Rectangle shaped gateway there is a reset button in the backside of the unit . On the cylinder shaped unit there is a pin hole reset button. Use a bent paper clip on that type.

Just a note.  I’ve been commenting on their sites (even negatively) for years.

If you post on social media (Twitter), you’ll be most likely shadow-banned.

Correcting my pervious post, Sorry, I got it backwards. The cylindrical unit has a reset button, the rectangular unit has a pinhole that restores factory settings. for a simple reset, unplug the unit for a short time, then plug it back in. I use Ookla speed test. 

Changing provides? The price Spectrum quotes will never stay at the quoted price for very long. They always have a reason to raise the rates.