Question

Extremely high latency with home internet

  • 15 October 2023
  • 15 replies
  • 3098 views
M
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Just recently got the home internet gateway and it's been incredibly disappointing.

 

For the price of it and the fact we have cell towers, including tmobiles towers, within less than a milebof our home, it's been incredibly underwhelming.

 

Speeds are anywhere between 20mbs and 300, meanwhile the latency is consistently well over 120ms (as high as 800) on downloads and several thousand milliseconds on upload. We've had the gateway in every spot we could think of, each one reading "excellent" signal on the gateway and app and single location was better than any other. Even had it sitting outside the balcony and it was still horrendous performing tests directly on top of it.

 

Is there anything to bother trying with this or just send it back? Was hoping for something at least halfway decent compared to what I had last and somehow it's come up even worse for wireless connection.

15 replies

copz1998
Userlevel 5
Badge +9

@Mm21 if you are close to a tower, then you should have great service. I am close to my tower (< 1 air mile away) and I get 150-300 down and 30-80 up. 

if you have the T-Mobile home internet service, then you must qualify for being in a 5G network area and able to receive a 5G signal from a nearby cell tower. 

That said, let's try to diagnose the cause so that we can resolve your issue. Please answer a few questions that will be helpful in the diagnosing the problem. 

Did you use the Placement Assistant in the T-Mobile Internet app? If not, you can access it from the app Home Screen: tap the More about connection quality link on the Home Screen > Launch placement assistant > OK! Let's do this > you can watch the video if it will help, then “skip video” which will launch the placement assistant > enter your address or share location (if you use “share location” and your address shows up then you are assured to be connected to the network). It will take 30-45 seconds to confirm your location.  Use the “Camera” mode for a direct visual of where your cell tower is located to where your gateway is located in your home. Try to make sure your gateway is located in a high point of your home and clear of any obstructions. Here is a helpful video: https://youtu.be/Q-DmRbQFuo0

 

What are your metrics - now that you are confident your gateway is located in the best possible location, your metrics will show the quality of your connection. In your T-Mobile Internet app > tap “MORE” at the bottom of the Home Screen > tap “Advanced cellular metrics” > tap “5G” > and let us know your RSRQ, RSRP, SINR and which band you are connected to. You should be on band n41 or n71. Look at the chart posted above in this thread for. the ideal readings. to get the best readings, slightly rotate your gateway about 1/8th of a turn and then check the metrics to see if they change for the better. Repeat until you get the best metrics.  

Let us know the results. I hope this helps. 

 

I am not a T-Mobile employee, but like helping others.
M
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Shows an excellent connection every where I've connected it. Using the camera showed nothing at all, literally just sent me in circles. Point it towards the location of two nearby towers and just keeps saying turn left over and over. Again due to close proximity of a few towers, the connection remains "excellent".

 

Regardless, the "connection" shows excellent. Download has peaked at around 400mbs but it's useless when the latency is sometimes nearly as high and could be 10x higher than upload speeds.

 

The test attached is just a quick one I ran from my phone at this time. I've even attached gigabit routers to the gateway to see if they'd be of any help and it's changed nothing.

 

Again, speeds are not the problem. It's the latency. The latency disrupts everything else drastically. Speed could be 800-1200mbs (like my last provider) but it's completely useless when latency is so high, hence why I thought I'd try this out

 

copz1998
Userlevel 5
Badge +9

Thanks @Mm21, At this point I would call T-MOBILE customer service and ask for an exchange unit. The upload latency could be problematic. 

My two cents. 

I am not a T-Mobile employee, but like helping others.
M
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@copz1998 That download latency is also a major issue. And that's under a "basic" test. If I were to start any kind of download on any device (phone, pc, laptop) with a wired or wireless connection, that download latency shoots to well over 600ms on the low end...under my old IP, the highest range I could get it was around 200ms to 300 while running intense tests and large download (let's just say it was a good thing I had an unlimited internet plan....was just about used up in a day) across multiple devices. Speeds of course dropped from 800 down to about 70-100, but latency only got as high as 300 for a few brief moments. Low end was about 75ms during the tests. Of course I don't expect the exact same results, just something consistently decent. Heard and read a lot of reviews, some of which mentioned a vast majority of home internet customers had latency under 40ms, and an even smaller amount had latency as high as 75ms. Hoping I'm just the accidental outlier with a faulty unit lol.

 

I've a feeling a new gateway would be the exact same but I'll give it a shot. Tends to be my luck lol.

 

If anyone else has info they'd like to share I'd be more than happy to continue reading. I appreciate all the responses offering help/advice and troubleshooting.

R
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

My “upload” and “download” ping latencies are in the same range as yours (as well as standard ping and speeds), and I haven’t had any issues with performance.  I can stream on multiple devices, my security cameras work fine...all basically good.  I don’t game, however.  I’m curious what you mean when you say it “disrupts everything”?

N
Userlevel 5
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I agree with Rogracer.  

I don’t understand why you feel this is “incredibly disappointing.”   It seems like quite an exaggeration to say the service is “completely useless.” 

Your unit is not faulty.

 

copz1998
Userlevel 5
Badge +9

@nc1037 and @Rogracer2000 have valid points. May be you are trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. My latency goes up and down but has little impact on my overall download performance. My thought was that if you have some evidence that your latency concern translates into a performance issue, then try to swap out the gateway. Otherwise, live with it as it’s a non-problem.  

I am not a T-Mobile employee, but like helping others.
M
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High latency still interrupts downloads....hence why it's called "latency", it's a delay... Using it for netflix alone might not be an issue for some of you, but when you're running multiple applications (whether work related or gaming related) it greatly hinders what you're trying to do. For something that gets marketed as being "great" for all around use, it's starting to look like it isn't. 

 

I'm sure if all I did was browse a few apps or sites a day it'd be great...but not when I actively *need* the service to run properly. And if this is "just how it is", it's got a long way to go. But again, I'll give another unit a shot. I've got my doubts, but hey, can always cancel the service and find something that works as it should in 2023

R
Userlevel 4
Badge +4

I still wonder if something else is going on with your set-up.  Like I said, I don’t game….and gamers have complained about latency on TMHI (not as bad as Starlink, though).  I wouldn’t say I’m a “lightweight” user though by any means, and I’ve had a household of millennials doing “remote work” and honestly haven’t had any problems.  Speedtest didn’t even report upload and download latencies until recently, so it is hard to form an opinion on what is really required. 

E
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Are you kidding me!  latency is extremely important If you need a quality connection.  It is one of the most important measurements that you can use in determining how responsive (or ‘fast’) an internet connection is, and is completely unrelated to bandwidth which is a measure of capacity. These problems definitely exist. They are sometimes hard to fix especially with a 5g gateway. I would try a different gateway and see what ya got 

D

Glad I read this. Latency is important to anyone that is doing more than browsing the web and email. Even those operations if the response is more than a few hundred milliseconds is going to be annoying. If you’re into online games, you’re going to want at least 50ms or faster. I’m considering T-Mobile Home Internet, but I will be sure to confirm what the latency actually is. Anyone who uses T-Mobile Home Internet and understand what latency/ping is, care to report what they’re getting?

N
Userlevel 5
Badge +7

I have had TMHI for over a year and I have been very satisfied.  I’m not a gamer; my primary uses are streaming and browsing.  I do a Speedtest fairly regularly.  My download speed is usually over 400 Mbps.  (However sometimes it is much less; I have not identified a pattern.  It has not been a problem for me.)  The latency numbers are in the neighborhood of 600 ms download and 120 ms upload. 

If those numbers are unacceptable, then you probably want to look for fiber rather than 5G home internet service.

P

Glad I read this. Latency is important to anyone that is doing more than browsing the web and email. Even those operations if the response is more than a few hundred milliseconds is going to be annoying. If you’re into online games, you’re going to want at least 50ms or faster. I’m considering T-Mobile Home Internet, but I will be sure to confirm what the latency actually is. Anyone who uses T-Mobile Home Internet and understand what latency/ping is, care to report what they’re getting?

Download ping 288. Upload 619.

S

Anyone who uses T-Mobile Home Internet and understand what latency/ping is, care to report what they’re getting?

I agree, the latency is an issue.  I get random disconnects from my companies VPN and it appears to be related to latency.  I came here hoping someone might have a trick to make it better.

 

T

Recently, me, too, get disconnected from my companies VPN very frequently.

This is mine in Ft. Lauderdale area today. 

We don’t have many choices here. Verizon, Comcast, AT&T?

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