So apparently I cannot connect to sites that need to verify your location because my new tmobile internet service shows me as being located in a State that is different from my actual location.
Been on hold for 50 mins to speak to someone, not sure if I will get anyone tonight and this is not looking good for customer service support that you don’t have a different number specifically for tech issues like this.
I agree this is a major issue. Being disabled and home watching TV a lot, I cannot get the local information from the Smart TV channels, having streaming services repotting that my location seems wrong. I am trying to get my TV to use my location from my account, but it seems that I don’t have a way to do that.
I believe that we need to start contacting the BBB, FCC/FTC plus your local Agricultural, Trade and Consumer Protection, Public Service Commission and Department of Justice. Since my area has junk cable (down 30% or more) I don’t have much other choice for ISP in my building.
The reasons phones are not having the same issues is GPS built in. I wish somehow the gateway itself would have a way to provide the location via the SIM.
The root cause for live TV streaming goes to the television rights that were never designed for the internet. We all know there are local restrictions and blackout rules especially for news and sports. Local advertising counts on selectively broadcasting to only their respective local areas. When these policies were created it was easy to enforce because you literally had to be in the same zip code as the TV transmission towers or the access was controlled by the cable set top boxes. Well actually, the cable companies just installed band filters on your cable feed to block certain channels and you could simply remove those if you knew how, but I digress…..
Fast forward to now, the folks who own these local restriction polices are still trying to control who gets to watch what. It’s not good enough for you to just type in your zip code. No, they have to use IP geolocation or GPS because they think we are all liars.
So what’s the happy medium where we attest that we are in a given local area and satisfy the regulators that we are physically located where we claim to be?
I first noticed this problem (and it IS a problem!) when I ran a speed test and it was excessively slow. That’s when I noticed they were pinging a server in Denver, CO, when I am in Arkansas. I only recently switched to T-Mobile home internet. I wish they would address this.
T-Mobile really needs to find a solution to this. I will be changing internet providers because this is becoming more and more of an issue for me.
Same deal for us in Colorado, except I don’t think it’s an IP number translation issue since my location will alternate between Aurora, CO (not bad, about 30 miles away) and Memphis, TN (not even the same time zone!) If I go to a geolocation site like https://www.where-am-i.co/ it will switch back and forth constantly - mostly the Memphis address, but then every so often it will come up as Aurora.
When it’s wrong it breaks lots of things - streaming content, google maps, local weather reports, my Windows 10 current time, the default timezone for calendaring, and on and on.
I spent a bunch of time with “my personal tech support” on T-Mobile - I spoke with 2 techs who were friendly enough, but of no help at all. The second one decided it must be a problem with my computer instead of their gateway and transferred my call to Dell’s tech support line even after I told him it’s also a problem on my HP computer and phone!
It seemed like the problem wasn’t addressed in their troubleshooting script anywhere so they just punted - I didn’t bother to call back and go through that whole thing again.
We have the Nokia 5G21 Gateway, but I heard from a human T-Mobile employee at one of their retail stores that there is a “new” fancier 5G gateway available now - does anyone have this new hardware, but continue to have geolocation problems?
I’m tempted to call and demand the newer gateway.
How did that work for you? I am having constant problems now. Drops in service, no service for hours, wildly fluctuating speeds. As of the last two weeks I am either out of service completely, then rebooting for the 1000th time. Then I have great download, but ZERO upload. This a new one. The rapidly changing ip addresses have become a huge problem, too. I have been on the phone with Hulu every few hours to reset my zip & new IP addresses, today, eleven times. It’s doing the error message right now. I have not had this problem at this intensity, EVER. This is a TM problem, period. As you said, this disrupts log ins on websites, and countless other problems. All of these problems are all over these forums, and it appears that NOBODY has found a fix that lasts. Other than dumping TM, which is where I will probably end up doing myself. They were woefully under equipped to handle this customer load, and most of the tech people follow a flowchart for responses, that all end up with short term fixes. I have had issues escalated a number of times, and never got a callback from anyone. This is not a smart, nor profitable way to run a business. Apparently, they don’t care. At least I live in an area with more choices. Dumped Centurylink over a year ago because they could not sustain the speeds necessary to handle streaming tv services after I dumped both Dish & Directv. I’m going to try out the Xfinity internet option next.
So apparently I cannot connect to sites that need to verify your location because my new tmobile internet service shows me as being located in a State that is different from my actual location.
Been on hold for 50 mins to speak to someone, not sure if I will get anyone tonight and this is not looking good for customer service support that you don’t have a different number specifically for tech issues like this.
This really jacks me up because Sling uses this information for sports. I get anything in Dallas Texas blacked out because it says I'm there and not in Oklahoma City. Right now it says I'm in Austin. I'm no where close. And the Tmobile rep told me they use dynamic ip addresses and they can't change the geo location. That's not gonna work.
Same deal for us in Colorado, except I don’t think it’s an IP number translation issue since my location will alternate between Aurora, CO (not bad, about 30 miles away) and Memphis, TN (not even the same time zone!) If I go to a geolocation site like https://www.where-am-i.co/ it will switch back and forth constantly - mostly the Memphis address, but then every so often it will come up as Aurora.
When it’s wrong it breaks lots of things - streaming content, google maps, local weather reports, my Windows 10 current time, the default timezone for calendaring, and on and on.
I spent a bunch of time with “my personal tech support” on T-Mobile - I spoke with 2 techs who were friendly enough, but of no help at all. The second one decided it must be a problem with my computer instead of their gateway and transferred my call to Dell’s tech support line even after I told him it’s also a problem on my HP computer and phone!
It seemed like the problem wasn’t addressed in their troubleshooting script anywhere so they just punted - I didn’t bother to call back and go through that whole thing again.
We have the Nokia 5G21 Gateway, but I heard from a human T-Mobile employee at one of their retail stores that there is a “new” fancier 5G gateway available now - does anyone have this new hardware, but continue to have geolocation problems?
I’m tempted to call and demand the newer gateway.
Yes I have the new Gateway, same issue. The issue is with what ip address it assigns a piece of equipment. If the ip address is registered to one that was/or is in a different place than it returns that place rather then query your location and return that, or the actual location of the tower. The actual location of the tower, I would be happy with.
Try this while hooked to your gateway.
https://whatismyipaddress.com/
I got T-Mobile internet last year and since installing it, all my devices think I’m in Denver when I’m living just south of Kansas City. TV wants to default to Mountain Time, airlines think I’m leaving from DEN. It’s super annoying. Hey it’s cool that Sling wants to keep me up to date with Colorado political ads, but not very relevant.
Just used the link above (https://www.where-am-i.co/) and found the following...
IP location: State Capitol Building, 200 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80203, United States of America
Not even close...
I’ve found that changing the dns server on my router in AP or Router mode corrects my location. If you’re only using the T-Mobile device you can only change the dns settings in network settings on your network adapter. I’m currently using dns.watch, but any of the major ones like Cloudflare, Google, OpenDNS etc should work. This isn’t going to fix geolocation issues for wireless streaming unless you’re using your own router.
My IP from T-Mobile is consistently in the NYC, New Jersey area and I live in Western NY. If I look up my geolocation using https://www.gps-coordinates.net/my-location it’s less than a block from my house since I made the switch.
If your TMobile Home goes down for any reason you may have to reset to use default dns to connect to the internet. Then you can set it back to a dns that does geolocation.
Worse for me - my IP location is showing as either Bellevue, WA (not too much of a problem) or Puerto Rico (big problem). I am in Stamford CT! Work intranet locked me out as being “out of the country” and other sites that are US-specific are giving us difficulties. T-Mobile tech support no help. Argh!
I use fuboTV and using T-mobile home internet they will not provide you a local IP address, so a service like fubo will check your public IP to determine where you are, so I am getting local channels.
I contact the support they say that I need to speak with fubo, and that is not the case. fubo has an api to check what is your IP address that is api.fubo.tv/v3/location the same they use in their code to check your location and my IP returns not on my region,
But I am a point I can’t spectrum anymore, for local channel I am getting VHF/UHF/HD 4K antenna to at least get the local channels.
I would prefer that the support is more direct and honest and just say we don’t provide local IP addresses, but for the price of internet and fubo TV it is enough a good reason for me to drop the spectrum monopoly. I try so hard with spectrum to try to make the price of TV+internet the same as t-mobile plus fubo, but that was an even impossible task, I lost my hope and patience.
If wasn’t for the issue of local IP, I was going to be 100% satisfied with t-mobile hoem internet, but I hope they fix it at some point. On the mean time an antenna is coming my way.
Same here with fubo tv. I call T-Mobile they tell me it’s a fubo or ruko issue. The customer service rep I got told me they have no issues with this and have never got complaints. I told them we’ll check your website because there are many complaints. I hope they find a solution. I guess I need to get an antenna too. My husband almost lost it one Sunday when he couldn’t get the Steeler game. Thank goodness it was being streamed on Amazon or heck I was ready to pack my bags and move. Lol.
So apparently I cannot connect to sites that need to verify your location because my new tmobile internet service shows me as being located in a State that is different from my actual location.
Been on hold for 50 mins to speak to someone, not sure if I will get anyone tonight and this is not looking good for customer service support that you don’t have a different number specifically for tech issues like this.
Im not sure the solution to my issue will help yells but it worked for me. When I switched to t-mobile I could no longer play my lotto numbers because you have to be located in state to purchase online and it NEVER had me located in state. One day i tried opening the maps app, turning on location, and then actually selecting the button to find my location. Then went back to my lotto app and it's allowed it everything since then....I always made sure to turn on location before but now also open the maps app and hit the my location button and hey presto....Yay!! Although it will probably never work again now that I've shared technology advice. ..good luck
I had problems with my state’s lottery website, too. I did all the location settings I could do on my desktop, and it still did not work with the Chrome browser. I have no problem ever with the Firefox one, however, so just use that browser to play the lottery online. I also have no problem using the lottery app on my cell phone, which has T-Mobile.
I am locked out of NY Yankees broadcasts on MLB.tv even though I am located in New England. My Apple TV ip address is set by the T Mobile router and the MLB app can’t make sense of the private ip address. Contacted T Mobile support and they will supposedly fix the problem within 24 hours. We will see.
We are sort of running like a VPN… a 464 tunnel, actually. Just like a VPN, it can drop you out in a completely different area than your physical location.
I am typically “homed” out of Charlotte, NC even though I live in Florence, SC.
As such, my Sling TV wants to give me local content for the Charlotte area. Kinda annoying, but this solution is saving me a substantial amount against Spectrum’s standard rates… and I was tired of haggling constantly with them for a little $10 discount here and there just to TRY to keep the cost somewhat reasonable.
Once in a blue moon I will get shot off somewhere in left field. Sometimes a simple reboot resolves it. Have had to do a full power down for a few minutes a couple times though.
While it isn’t exactly ideal, it is one of those pros/cons things you sometimes have to deal with if you are trying to save money or otherwise just want to try an alternative option. I miss the ability to open ports properly as well. So far it hasn’t been a critical issue, as I am not doing any multiplayer games that REQUIRE it--but if I do get around to that again, I will likely have to go back to Spectrum on their intro rate if TMO doesn’t figure out a better way to do dual-stack IP’s.
syaoran, are you saying this is T-Mobile’s design and is inherent to the service?
I’m apparently being located to a place 700 miles away. It’s sort of humorous to get ads for New Mexico businesses on the Roku, but this could be a more serious problem with some websites and services.
In its current implementation, yes. In the future, the modem will need some sort of GPS receiver or something that can identify where the modem is located to tell the routing that it needs an IP address local to the physical location. I can’t see this happening anytime soon as it would be somewhat of a combination between a CellSpot V2 and a Modem/Gateway to achieve what it needs to do.
Don’t they already know which cell tower the can is connect to? Seems like GPS would be unnecessary with the knowledge of all their towers.
Same issues as above. VPN’s can be tricky and troublesome, but for the 95% of the time it works for me I can live with that. T-Mobile Home Internet has had me show up in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and even China. So, you can imagine what comes back on web pages I was using. I am north of San Diego. My solution was to fire up the VPN and set it to only use a Los Angeles based server for an IP address.
I am thinking about using one of my Asus routers and setting up the VPN on it, so all the stuff using the wi-fi will use that LA based VPN server for a WAN IP address, it would hand out the LAN IP’s. Speeds will slow down, higher latency and longer pings. Just not sure if the slower speeds are worth the trade off for sites and services not liking the VPN? Google results is one that gives a failed connection results when using my VPN. If I could count on T-Mobile for decent Home Internet, it would not be an issue to use a slower VPN through a router to handle DNS and obtaining local IP addresses. Without the L.A. VPN getting results in Spanish is a pain, my Spanish is very limited T-Mobile and images don’t translate!
It's very frustrating. Fortunately, YouTube TV gets our location correct so local channels are available. Paramount and Peacock use IP and consistently get it wrong. I notify them once a quarter that they need to improve their systems. For my money, T-Mobile is delivering an excellent product. I have consistent connection and reliable service.
Meanwhile, I wonder if there's a way to get some action out of Washington. Considering the lack of comprehension most in Congress have for 21st century technology, I am doubtful.
I am locked out of NY Yankees broadcasts on MLB.tv even though I am located in New England. My Apple TV ip address is set by the T Mobile router and the MLB app can’t make sense of the private ip address. Contacted T Mobile support and they will supposedly fix the problem within 24 hours. We will see.
Update: Waited 24 hours, rebooted T Mobile internet, rebooted Apple TV and problem not solved. No solution in sight.
I wish I had found this thread before I ordered my modem from T-Mobile. Cancelled the service within 24 hours hours when I found out my geolocation is in Maryland and I’m located in Virginia. Couldn’t buy a lottery ticket online and won’t get my local channels through Youtube TV. I was really hoping to dump my cable company.
I had this same problem with the IP address showing me in Boston. I am in Gaithersburg, MD, which is a northern suburb of Washington, DC.
There was a suggested solution of resetting the Gateway, but I thought I would try a simpler method. I just turned off the Gateway for a couple of minutes and then powered it back on.
The iplocation.net app reports I am in Baltimore. Well, not too far off. I can live with it.
How can I determine my current T-Mobile Home Internet location. I should not be getting my local MLB team games in MLB TV but I do.
How can I determine my current T-Mobile Home Internet location. I should not be getting my local MLB team games in MLB TV but I do.
There are many IP locators; here is a link to one...Where is my IP location? (Geolocation)
How can I determine my current T-Mobile Home Internet location. I should not be getting my local MLB team games in MLB TV but I do.
There are many IP locators; here is a link to one...Where is my IP location? (Geolocation)
Thanks. That site reports location from multiple services. Two of the services place me in my home state, but another (DB-IP) reports that I am in Oklahoma.
I agree this is a major issue. Being disabled and home watching TV a lot, I cannot get the local information from the Smart TV channels, having streaming services repotting that my location seems wrong. I am trying to get my TV to use my location from my account, but it seems that I don’t have a way to do that.
I believe that we need to start contacting the BBB, FCC/FTC plus your local Agricultural, Trade and Consumer Protection, Public Service Commission and Department of Justice. Since my area has junk cable (down 30% or more) I don’t have much other choice for ISP in my building.
The reasons phones are not having the same issues is GPS built in. I wish somehow the gateway itself would have a way to provide the location via the SIM.
Home location Omaha NE
Current location according to any speedtest, weather apps,tv,youtube locations… Denver, CO
The download ping for most speed tests is above 300ms
why cant tmobile use my billing and home address data to allow me to access better servers.
I cant recommend tmobile home internet for gaming use as my connection to servers is never good.
I went from 40mbps down / 1mbps up CenturyLink with 25/35ms gaming ping
to
303mbps down and 87mbps up tmobile with 100-150ms gaming ping
both at 50$ a month
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