Day One with the Arc Gateway

So, the timer is running…. Hopefully the need to reboot/reset is not like the Nokia. So, the setup is simplified but does the web management of the router also reflect reduced management options? The management of the Nokia is pretty limited I could not imagine having a much more dumbed down management option. 

So, you see cellular signal strength improved but internet speed is a bit slower. Hum… I guess not having to reset the router every 2-3 days would be an improvement but it would be good if the Arc also can carry the bandwidth as well. I have the Nokia router but I have never had the problem you have been dealing with. I still think that may have been possibly related to when the routers were manufactured. I started out in the BETA period and my router has been stable so I can't really relate to the frequent resets requirement. It has been up now for 44 days and still kicking. 

I can relate with comments on inconsistent tech support response but not universal. I have had some very positive interactions with T-Mobile support and also encountered some agents that just are not on the same level. It is pretty common in the industry that level 1 support engineer turnover leads to a support base that is just not up to par. Some of them are knowledgeable and know when to leverage escalation engineers when they are in over their head. Others just don’t have the skills and are just going by the scripts. Customer support is only as good as the database access provided to the front line and the training they receive. Part of it can also be due to pressure from management for call volume and how the support engineers are paid based upon call metrics. Handling quality call response is more important to me over volume but support costs puts undue pressure on on agents to get the next call. 

I know there are a lot of cons, but none of that matters to me if it works constantly. So far it has been bad. T-Mobile claims they are working on the tower, but I doubt that it true. Slow speed and services pauses are the norm now. I don’t have to restart it all the time, but it does pause often. I’m going to hold off returning the trashcan gateway.

Thats a shame it is so unreliable there. I have been fortunate to have had a connection to a pretty stable tower. It may only be n71 but at least it is pretty stable. The mid band in town does NOT work well for delivery of data to my iPhone 12 Pro. When the signal shows the 5G “ultra capacity” that is really not the case. It is hard to say if it is the radio in the iPhone or the tower signal. T-Mobile has some work to do for sure. Hopefully the message from T-MO is true and they are working on the tower. Here when they worked on the tower equipment it was only unstable for maybe a week. It is hard to tell how long the equipment is acting up before they are reconfiguring and reloading the gear. 

I don’t want to be too negative about T-Mobile and their efforts but the decision to push out another router solution with a premature software tool set is not impressive. The most difficult part of trouble shooting the issue is that there is no visibility to the upstream device and the local router is so ill equipped to provide any useful data. If there was a flag that would trigger a notification to the user when the router first detects upstream failure that would be very helpful. I can’t tell you how many times I spent excessive efforts with the router itself only to find out the issue was on the tower. With the cellular channel signaling and flight delay and signal metrics a creative developer should be able to code up proactive monitoring notifications. If T-Mobile wants to really provide better customer support they need to get out of the box and work on solutions that help prevent user calls. I don’t see that going the proper direction right now. 

Hope your tower connection improves soon. Before you give up. 😉 

😎 Thats their job! Would you rather call an amateur or an expert or no a phone bott? I don’t know that there is a worse experience than going to a phone tree that is 6-7 levels deep or a chat bott only to be at a dead end after 5-10 minutes on the phone or chat. T-Mobile has strived to be the un-carrier. Now they need to develop a support solution that pushes out of the box and not follow the status quo. Support is a challenge to be sure. Training and retaining good support engineers is a challenge. I would guess the support entity is an outsourced vendor so building a proper solution that is really effective will be hard. Support is the overhead unit for a business not the money maker so it seldom gets proper funding. Maybe T-Mobile will eventually get smarter and provide a solution that has built in metrics and reporting that can provide them with proactive data. With proper equipment monitoring, more skilled technicians and interactive analytics software operations could be monitored and faster responses could be made. 

I can understand that. When my connection here was unstable it was very frustrating. I joined the BETA program back in early January of 2021. It was a bit unpredictable then but became stable until late June and early July when it went wonky. T-Mobile engineers were working on the tower then to resolve it. They did and it has been pretty solid ever since. Now a little over a year on and it is pretty reliable and speeds are usually 10X what I had with the ISP vendor in CA for half the cost. Since it is this or HughesNet well it is obvious which is going to win that battle. This is much better than satellite and less expensive with no contract. No contest. Hopefully they will get your tower stable and you can get to enjoying the connection and not chatting with support.

You should do a little Verizion tower search in advance just for giggles. It might be they have towers better situated for your location. Of course it all comes down to how well any vendor implements the solution. I really wanted no contract and I had to cough up for 5 phones to boot at the same time to get the family all online here. It was a good deal with T-Mobile and it works pretty well so I am happy.