Question

5G Home Internet nightly slow down

M
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Hey all, I’ve had the black 5G gateway for a couple days now, and have been a T-Mobile customer for just as long. I guess the issue I’m having is looking like one that a lot of other people are as well.

During the day my gateway pulls about 500 Mbps and has a “Very Good” signal. Without moving or changing anything about the setup, usage area, or anything, around 8PM Eastern my speeds go down to MAX 5 Mbps.

Nothing has changed other than the time of the day. I have a ticket open for the “local engineering department” to troubleshoot. It’ll randomly be good during the night and then go back to the unusable 5 Mbps.

I relayed this to Customer Care, and while they seem sympathetic to the plight, they ultimately just want me to continuously restart the gateway so they can reconnect it to the tower because it has “stopped communicating.” Is this the common reply that everyone is getting? Restart on restart while waiting for engineers to troubleshoot your wifi, only to then get told you need to restart to be reconnected to the tower, and then ultimately a factory default when they’ve exhausted their checklist?

44 replies

K
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I have the same slow down almost nightly at 9:00 PM-

Curiously when the internet drops my modem and APP both say I still have a good internet connection-

Same deal restarting daily sometimes twice-

T-Mobil tech says that my problem is due to saturation of the tower-and I may have to live with this until they upgrade-

I also told the tech that my other option would be to switch to a different provider-he wasn’t too fond of that idea-

A

The CEOs policy is to oversell the network and degrade the quality for all to boost subscriber counts. I hope his shareholders start to discover that his business strategy is unsustainable and will cause massive turnover to Verizon and AT&T as their more stable networks continue to expand. The gaslighting tech support alone makes me have zero loyalty to T-Mobile. Unfortunately, options are limited where I am at so I have to endure until a proper ISP comes along.

J

Found this thread while trying to figure out why my internet speed drops from 400 Mbps to 100 Mbps during late night/early morning times. While I enjoy the guaranteed-for-life price, I’m starting to regret the inconsistency with the service. I agree with amacc83 in that I believe T-Mobile is only trying to oversell the network without care for the quality. I’ll gladly switch to another network when available.

N

This happens daily more so now that my neighbor also has the home internet customer service told me the only suggestion is to go to a different provider because they dont have plans on fixing the tower issues its not “priority “ its got to the point where internet is not usable.

W

I was hoping to get some good solutions, but find everyone is having this same issue with the Gateway!  While our signal as always read “Weak” it was fine early a.m. and day--but come 6 pm. and the slowness and literally stopage begins.  Don’t even get me started on the football games!!   I feel like “you get what you pay for” with this.  I have spent countless hours moving this thing around---I think my first clue was when our address did not even show on the T Mobile finder.  Talking to friends I take the phone off Wi-fi as cellular does not break up. Each time I call T Mobile I get the reply “plug, unplug”-right.  However I finally reached a rep who told me they would be getting new towers---when I asked when she said 4th Qtr 2024!!!!   Why the heck is T Mobile selling these knowing they have overloaded the area--this is why the low price.  Looking at Verizon’s new tower online I got the message they are not offering in this area until they have adequate coverage. We will be returning the tower this weekend.  When I see how many are affected and how long this has been going on it really tells me who TMobile is.  NOT customer oriented that is for sure.

C
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I was hoping to get some good solutions, but find everyone is having this same issue with the Gateway!  While our signal as always read “Weak” it was fine early a.m. and day--but come 6 pm. and the slowness and literally stopage begins.  Don’t even get me started on the football games!!   I feel like “you get what you pay for” with this.  I have spent countless hours moving this thing around---I think my first clue was when our address did not even show on the T Mobile finder.  Talking to friends I take the phone off Wi-fi as cellular does not break up. Each time I call T Mobile I get the reply “plug, unplug”-right.  However I finally reached a rep who told me they would be getting new towers---when I asked when she said 4th Qtr 2024!!!!   Why the heck is T Mobile selling these knowing they have overloaded the area--this is why the low price.  Looking at Verizon’s new tower online I got the message they are not offering in this area until they have adequate coverage. We will be returning the tower this weekend.  When I see how many are affected and how long this has been going on it really tells me who TMobile is.  NOT customer oriented that is for sure.

So I finally got a tech that knew what they were doing, once she force pushed the firmware update it started working again, haven't had the nightly issue since it got pushed and installed, going on about a week now..

K
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New T-Mobile Home internet customer that has just replaced my ATT 4G equivalent due to T-Mobile’s unlimited 5G cap for the same price.  I am 3 miles from my closest tower but have my 5G antenna on a 60’ tower pointed at the T-Mobile tower.  I’m out in the boonies when I’m using this setup.  I get 4 out of 5 bars but I’m getting only 6 MB down and 20MB up.  I don’t really need blazing fast speeds for my applications.  The upload speed is fine for me but the down speed is terrible.  I am waiting on a new WaveForm 4x4 MIMO antenna to place at 60’ to see if that will help but I was positive that I should get better than this even while only using ANT1 (or ANT3) of the 4 antenna ports on my white T-Mobile hotspot box (G4AR?).  I’m even using LMR400 (not RG58) coax due to the terrible signal attenuation of RG58 at 6GHz.

I see some folks complaining about ONLY getting 100MB down…  Heck, I’d LOVE to see 100MB down.  I may have to go back to ATT 4G and live with the 100GB cap if I can’t get this figured out.  I’d also love to catch the same tech that ChefZiggy mentioned in his post.

C
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I called after hours so got a tech from the Philippines.. I was in the phone with her for probably 40 minutes, but it got resolved 

K
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Thanks ChefZiggy! 

 

I’ll try calling in after hours and see if I get lucky.  My unit did a firmware upgrade the first time I plugged it in but maybe there is another one needed. 

D

I am experiencing the same issue. I actually disconnect from my router and just use cell service on my cell phone and am getting way faster speeds (in the same location of the router). It seems as though they are throttling the internet. It is a prioritization thing they do. Only way to get it fixed is to have someone at T-Mobile move your internet to the cell phone priority. If anyone knows how to do this please share.

K

New T-Mobile Home internet customer that has just replaced my ATT 4G equivalent due to T-Mobile’s unlimited 5G cap for the same price.  I am 3 miles from my closest tower but have my 5G antenna on a 60’ tower pointed at the T-Mobile tower.  I’m out in the boonies when I’m using this setup.  I get 4 out of 5 bars but I’m getting only 6 MB down and 20MB up.  I don’t really need blazing fast speeds for my applications.  The upload speed is fine for me but the down speed is terrible.  I am waiting on a new WaveForm 4x4 MIMO antenna to place at 60’ to see if that will help but I was positive that I should get better than this even while only using ANT1 (or ANT3) of the 4 antenna ports on my white T-Mobile hotspot box (G4AR?).  I’m even using LMR400 (not RG58) coax due to the terrible signal attenuation of RG58 at 6GHz.

I see some folks complaining about ONLY getting 100MB down…  Heck, I’d LOVE to see 100MB down.  I may have to go back to ATT 4G and live with the 100GB cap if I can’t get this figured out.  I’d also love to catch the same tech that ChefZiggy mentioned in his post.

Did you not read the instructions while setting up your router? 60 feet is WAYYY too high. The higher you go the more interference you run into. Most people think the higher you go the better signal you get but that's simply not true. You want to have it below the roof of your house ideally. Move your antenna down to about 15-25 feet and then test your speeds there. I can guarantee they will be higher. I too am MILES away from my nearest tower and my router is sitting above my big living room windows. About 7-8 feet off the floor.

 

I get about 110 download and 30 upload when there is no congestion. During rush hour aka congestion times (4/5pm to about 9pm) my speeds drop to about 30/10 although sometimes when its really bad they go to about 10/2 or slightly lower. That rarely happens though and if it does I just reset my connection in the TMobile internet app and it will usually improve. Keep in mind I have multiple TVs, two home security systems with 10+ cameras, two computers, multiple cell phones, and other smart devices connected to this router. I have yet to have any complaints based off what I used to have (Hughes NET) this TMobile plan leaves them in the DIRT. Never again will I use Hughes NET, its 3x the price of TMobile for <1mbps satellite internet LOL. It was literally useless. No other ISP has yet to make it to my neighborhood.


I too plan on ordering the WaveForm 4x4 MIMO antenna due to how far away I am from the two closest towers. Hoping that can increase my speed as I have read in many other reviews. Even if its only slightly!

L

Exact same symptoms here. My gateway in in a woindow and I get 200 mps + at times nad then slow to less than 2 mps yesterday.  T- Mobile please fix this.

W

Having the same result here, but my upload speeds never change. Daytime is 150/70, evening is 10/70. Seems that only download speeds are affected. I have called support twice. The first tech reset something and fixed immediately until the next day. Called that evening and this tech could not fix anything. I’m currently waiting for an engineer for the elevated ticket. Hopefully someone can fix this issue as it’s obviously not my gateway as they “suspect.”

L

I contacted tech support and they said that there was a technical issue in the area (90731) that already had a ticket. He added my complaint to the ticket. At the moment, things are good, but speeds do drop here and there. 

R

I’ve been using their services for a couple of months now and the home internet is horrible after 8 pm and when it’s raining is worse. I’ve been experiencing the same issues, they have replaced the gateway 3 times and did the same “engineer thing” for a few days and the answer was that everything was working perfectly…another answer a different day was that their were working on one of the towers and told me to use the 4g tower instead, totally nightmare. Long story short I started using my phone hotspot during the night, and the last answer they gave me a few days ego was that I don’t have a contract with them so I’m free to go to any other carrier because they understand it’s frustrating.

Customer service is good same as phone but home internet is extremely disappointing.

M

Just sad and false advertising. It's not unlimited data, in any way. I've unfortunately have had their home internet service since it was originally introduced and have suffered from these random speed changes the whole time. At first, I would have to reset the gateway every few days, now it's daily. My download speeds are as low as 1.0 mbps, that's ridiculous. It tests in the 100's of mbps during the day but as soon as 7 o'clock arrives the speed disappears. Numerous changes of placement, countless of calls and yet no changes whatsoever. Support's response? There's always maintenance being done on the tower. Always. Just as there's always a ticket that's been placed prior to my call. And yet, after all of this, not a single change. Which is exactly why I'm switching to Verizon. I highly recommend it to everyone else, they're rated higher/better than T-mobile for home internet providers for both speeds and service. I'm just tired of the same scenario, with the same useless response/solutions. Anyone remember the definition of insanity? 

C
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I have the same issue that everyone else is having and if course we would be heavy users of data when we stream TV, etc. I am going back to my internet company and get wired in for consistency. I don't just slow down sparatically and never at a given time but if it was any slower I would be going backward. I haven't been able to watch a full 1/2 hour show in a year. I have done all the placements, re pacements, bought expensive boosters etc and nothing works. I don't even get 5G readings in the app. I have missed calls, messages, work calls etc. Can't do it anymore. T-Mobile just lied to the public to get the sales pure and simple. End of rant. 

S

Don’t know if it’s related, ever since they introduced TLife connection has gotten worse and worse. I reset my internet and got very little increase. Customer service has a script they have to follow so even if you tell them you unplugged and waited 5-10 minutes then plugged back in 10 times, they won’t listen and will still follow the script. They are mostly useless for those of us that know what we are doing. T-Mobile needs to cut out the middleman and connect us to the engineers immediately upon advising the Rep of what has been done.

 

R
Userlevel 1
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In my location with the Arcadyan G4AR, during peak hours where people are home after work and school it will slow down a bit. For me between 6pm through 9 or 10 pm. I may get download speeds of 80-100mbps download. After 10 or so it's back to almost 300mbps download. During non peak, 4 am or 5 it can get to near 600mbps. During the day 6am till 5pm I’m in the range of 200-300mbps.

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