5G home internet speed after 15-day trial.

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For the first two weeks of having 5G Home Internet I was getting download speeds from 250-400 Mbps down and 20-25 Mbps upload. I know they only advertise 35-115 Mbps download on their website. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Really good speeds until the 15-day trial ends and then it’s slowed down.

 

This seems pretty shady. I’ve been testing every day for two weeks and consistently got above 200 Mbps download. Now the free trial is ending and the speeds slow down. I know it’s not a signal issue because I get 250-400 Mbps download on my T-Mobile 5G phone. I feel like I’ve been baited into not cancelling before the free trial ends.

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M
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I’m a little past day 15 and haven’t seen much difference in speed tests.   My gateway is on band n71 so the most I’ve ever seen is ~170.  You must have been on the faster 2500mhz band n41 to get your 250-400.  Might just be the gateway placement and your seeing slower speeds because it’s connected to n71? 

Check yours via http://192.168.12.1/TMI/v1/gateway?get=all to find out which 5g band your on

iTinkeralot
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T-Mobile does NOT guarantee you will have access to the n41 band. They state the 35-115 as that would be more common on the n71 600 MHz band. Both are touted as 5G the n41 is the millimeter band range so it is faster. They deploy n71 to cover large areas and n41 where user density would be higher and it can handle more. It is about how the frequency characteristics can be used. It gets pretty technical so not going into that. I am not an expert but I have done extensive research and reading. 

We would all like to be on the n41 band for the blazing speeds. You have to be within reach of the tower that has n41 to get it. If an n71 is deployed in an area and you are between the two and one signal dips and the other is preferred it can migrate over to the other tower and band. I never had the option, and probably will not have it here, for the n41 service. Put it into perspective. Where can you possibly get the same bandwidth with no upfront hardware costs, data cap, no contract, or fees and do it for $50/month and be able to walk away when you want to. When you find that with the guarantee of n41 delivery let me know. 

T

I’ve had this exact experience today, I had between 170-250mb down and around 70mb up for the first 15 days. On day 16(today) my speed is down to between 30-80mb down and 13-20mb up, this is straight up ridiculous, because I’m surrounded by T-mobile towers, yet when I speedtest it keeps saying that the closest ping locations to me are in another state, which tells me that t-mobile is connecting me to a tower way WAY far away.

C
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Check your advanced cell metrics to see which band you have for the 2nd signal with is the 5G one. N71 has approximately half the bandwidth of N41. Unfortunately, there is no way to “lock” these bands in firmware at this time so many users see different bands on a daily if not hourly basis. Moving your gateway can help keep your desired band longer. It’s a lot of effort for sure.

T

Check your advanced cell metrics to see which band you have for the 2nd signal with is the 5G one. N71 has approximately half the bandwidth of N41. Unfortunately, there is no way to “lock” these bands in firmware at this time so many users see different bands on a daily if not hourly basis. Moving your gateway can help keep your desired band longer. It’s a lot of effort for sure.

I know, but that’s something that should be included in the contract don’t you think? I mean if you got cable internet they wouldn’t say “oh you’re only gonna have the speed we promised you ½ the day.” This is the kind of stuff that makes people not want to ever deal with a company again.

C
Userlevel 5
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Check your advanced cell metrics to see which band you have for the 2nd signal with is the 5G one. N71 has approximately half the bandwidth of N41. Unfortunately, there is no way to “lock” these bands in firmware at this time so many users see different bands on a daily if not hourly basis. Moving your gateway can help keep your desired band longer. It’s a lot of effort for sure.

I know, but that’s something that should be included in the contract don’t you think? I mean if you got cable internet they wouldn’t say “oh you’re only gonna have the speed we promised you ½ the day.” This is the kind of stuff that makes people not want to ever deal with a company again.

Band locking is the top priority that I hope TMO adds for sure. To be fair to TMO, they are not guaranteeing any specific bandwidth and priced their service accordingly. For example, my TMO speeds vary from 200-400 mbps depending on time of day for $50. If want guaranteed 400 minimum download, I would have to sign up with Spectrum for $85 per month. The cheapest Spectrum option is 200 mbps at $65 per month. If Spectrum would just lower their 400 price to $65, I would probably switch back.

iTinkeralot
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I am assuming you have the Arcadyan gateway. Check your gateway cell metrics via http://192.168.12.1/TMI/v1/gateway?get=all and find out which 5g band(s) your gateway connects to. It would be helpful to know the cell metrics when the speed is faster or the slower. If you have the PCI value you can locate the cell with cellmapper.net and possibly obtain a better signal from the n41 band. If your gateway is in between the two towers and you are able to influence the signal lock you could get what you prefer. Another approach might be to use an external antenna to get a signal strength on the preferred cell signal. If you want to take advantage of the n41 band the 4X4 MIMO antenna would be needed. It is not an inexpensive solution but could provide the end result you would prefer. If you are considering the T-Mobile home internet solution seriously then the extra efforts can pay off. The videos by Nater Tater on YouTube are very helpful. 

T

I am assuming you have the Arcadyan gateway. Check your gateway cell metrics via http://192.168.12.1/TMI/v1/gateway?get=all and find out which 5g band(s) your gateway connects to. It would be helpful to know the cell metrics when the speed is faster or the slower. If you have the PCI value you can locate the cell with cellmapper.net and possibly obtain a better signal from the n41 band. If your gateway is in between the two towers and you are able to influence the signal lock you could get what you prefer. Another approach might be to use an external antenna to get a signal strength on the preferred cell signal. If you want to take advantage of the n41 band the 4X4 MIMO antenna would be needed. It is not an inexpensive solution but could provide the end result you would prefer. If you are considering the T-Mobile home internet solution seriously then the extra efforts can pay off. The videos by Nater Tater on YouTube are very helpful. 

I’ve watched his channel for a while now but the antennas aren’t the issue, because I have great reception, the issue is it just switches to a lower band on its own, and those antennas don’t provide band control. If T-mobile included band control in their options this would be a none issue.

iTinkeralot
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Actually the tower/cell transition is a normal behavior of a cellular based node. If the cell transmission requires a handover to continue service then the “move” will take place. There could be a number of reasons for the handoff or handover from one cellular source to another. When the conditions for the threshold is reached where the signal makes the transition it is per how cellular communications work. 

If your GW is covered by both sources and there is a number of variables which change and trigger the handover there is little you can do about that other than to do what is possible to favor one source much better than the other. If say you use a directional antenna, and leverage the shielding properties of your home, if possible, then you might be able to reduce the chance of a handover to the other source. You would need to know the locations fo both cell sources and the signal receive power of each plus consider the distance to each source and the terrain between your gateway and each signal source. The conditions might be such that even with a directional antenna you cannot get the results you desire. Without a bit of research to have a clear knowledge of the differences between the sources you will not know for sure. 

T

Actually the tower/cell transition is a normal behavior of a cellular based node. If the cell transmission requires a handover to continue service then the “move” will take place. There could be a number of reasons for the handoff or handover from one cellular source to another. When the conditions for the threshold is reached where the signal makes the transition it is per how cellular communications work. 

If your GW is covered by both sources and there is a number of variables which change and trigger the handover there is little you can do about that other than to do what is possible to favor one source much better than the other. If say you use a directional antenna, and leverage the shielding properties of your home, if possible, then you might be able to reduce the chance of a handover to the other source. You would need to know the locations fo both cell sources and the signal receive power of each plus consider the distance to each source and the terrain between your gateway and each signal source. The conditions might be such that even with a directional antenna you cannot get the results you desire. Without a bit of research to have a clear knowledge of the differences between the sources you will not know for sure. 

My modem never moves, so short of it automatically switching the signal over on there end there’s no reason for it to be handed off at all. Now if you’re saying it gets handed off because of congestion that sounds like an issue that they should have resolved before setting up 5G don’t you think? I mean there’s a reason that you have a specific amount of people per tower, it’s because if you have that amount of people the congestion is calculated to where it should never switch to another band.

W

I am in the New Orleans area and the best download speed I have ever gotten was 130-180 Mbps. worse than that every few hours it drops to virtually zero - dial-up is faster!  If I reset the gateway, it returns to 130 Mbps, but then a little later I get bumped down again. What kind of service is that? I used to have their 4G home internet and never had to reset the gateway.

I am very disappointed in their misleading advertising, but that is the name of the game today, all of the service providers have issues and lie about them.

What a wonderful world😜

iTinkeralot
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Userlevel 7
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If you have only been able to get up to 180 MBs download your gateway is probably on the n71 band or maybe at a larger distance from an n41 source but I would bet it is an n71 5G signal. If you have the Arcadyan KVD21 gateway you can use the mobile application to get some information on the cellular metrics to get a better idea of the signal strength and quality. You can use the browser to get more information from the Arcadyan as well.

http://192.168.12.1/TMI/v1/gateway?get=all 

The metrics might help explain more about the behavior. Also try to locate the tower with the PCI value using cellmapper.net. Knowing how far you are away from the signal source helps set expectations. If you are farther away from the source that will impact the speed and signal integrity.

Another thing it consider is if the T-Mobile engineers are still working on the tower where you are that can be a factor with the unstable signals. They dont do a very good job of letting users know when they are going to work on the equipment in a given area.

T

I am in the New Orleans area and the best download speed I have ever gotten was 130-180 Mbps. worse than that every few hours it drops to virtually zero - dial-up is faster!  If I reset the gateway, it returns to 130 Mbps, but then a little later I get bumped down again. What kind of service is that? I used to have their 4G home internet and never had to reset the gateway.

I am very disappointed in their misleading advertising, but that is the name of the game today, all of the service providers have issues and lie about them.

What a wonderful world😜

I think that’s the problem with companies these days, they promise 1 thing but do something completely different.

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