MIMO antenna for T-Mobile 5G home internet gateway?

  • 30 August 2021
  • 32 replies
  • 44463 views
T
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Hi all - 
New T-Mobile home internet user, here.  I set up my 5G internet gateway (silver cylinder) this weekend and it works just fine.  I have Frontier DSL and Charter Spectrum now and T-Mobile is currently way outperforming Frontier DSL and outperforming Charter Spectrum almost always.

I found this article about installing a MIMO antenna using the internal gateway ports. 

https://www.waveform.com/a/b/guides/hotspots/t-mobile-5g-gateway

Has anyone tried it?  I would be interested in experiences and results.  Thanks in advance!

32 replies

T

Anyone knows what are these ports on the new Tmobile Arcadyan KVD21 Gateway? M, M1, M2, D, 4, and 5 ports.  Which ports give the best signal and speed? 

m & d are the 4g pairs, m1 & m2 are the 5g pairs

T

I recently rolled the dice on waveforms external antenna. My parents chose T-Mobile for home internet because of the awesome results I have had at my home. They also lacked any other real options. I would strongly consider moving before I ever considered settling for CenturyLink or HughesNet and this is what they faced. Luckily T-Mobile was available so they signed up. Gateway arrives, I set it up, and run the first speed test. 21mbps up and 4mbps down. This was super disappointing considering I consistently see speeds over 250mbps down and 35-40mbps up at my home from T-Mobile. They have a tower 0.83 miles west of their location so I expected much more. The issue they face is that their property is densely wooded including a high volume of large trees that completely surround the home. So, I took a gamble on an external panel 4x4 mimo. Super simple to connect to gateway. I used a gps to determine the exact azimuth to the nearest tower. Ran some test speed test with the antenna on the same side as that tower and pointed in its direction. I also tried it in various other locations on all sides of the house running test from each. Ultimately the location on the same side and pointed at nearest tower showed best results so I mounted it up. Not difficult to do at all. The only issue I could see being a problem would be if the best location ended up being on the front center of the home. While it isn’t this massive sore thumb on the house it is noticeable. Luckily our spot ended up being the back corner of the house. With install complete I went back to run a series of speed tests. Using the external antenna saved us from the 21mbps down we started with. Now, my parents consistently get speeds of 350mbps down during the peak use times and sometimes as high as 500mbps down during off hours (1:00 am). Honestly, I was absolutely floored. I never expected gains like that. Now that I have seen the possibilities I don’t see why everyone would get one. If you are going to rely on you primary internet service arriving via 4g or 5g why wouldn’t you do everything to grab every extra bit of signal strength or speed or reliability you can. For me and my family it is totally worth every penny.

If anyone has any additional questions about it feel free to reach out. I would be happy to help. 

Did you have to dissect the router to install or is this plug and play? If so what’s the connector type to plug and play 

performance depends on a lot of factors.  how close you are to the tower, your geography, hills and or trees. line of sight, antenna elevation to name a few.  I went with a 4x4 panel, lmr400 (n-connectors) from antenna to ground level, lmr 240 ground to inside (n and sma connectors) and 12 inch pig tails sma to u.fl, I also got the fan assisted box to put the  router in.  my nearest tower, 4g only is 1 mile los, the nearest 4/5g tower is 2 miles away los.  because of height the 5g tower isn’t seen. I’m currently at 20 feet until I get the rest of the mast hardware and right now performance sucks.  hopefully another 20 feet of antenna will put the project in the worth while category because 5 mbps up and down is not good.

 

copz1998
Userlevel 5
Badge +8

I recently rolled the dice on waveforms external antenna. My parents chose T-Mobile for home internet because of the awesome results I have had at my home. They also lacked any other real options. I would strongly consider moving before I ever considered settling for CenturyLink or HughesNet and this is what they faced. Luckily T-Mobile was available so they signed up. Gateway arrives, I set it up, and run the first speed test. 21mbps up and 4mbps down. This was super disappointing considering I consistently see speeds over 250mbps down and 35-40mbps up at my home from T-Mobile. They have a tower 0.83 miles west of their location so I expected much more. The issue they face is that their property is densely wooded including a high volume of large trees that completely surround the home. So, I took a gamble on an external panel 4x4 mimo. Super simple to connect to gateway. I used a gps to determine the exact azimuth to the nearest tower. Ran some test speed test with the antenna on the same side as that tower and pointed in its direction. I also tried it in various other locations on all sides of the house running test from each. Ultimately the location on the same side and pointed at nearest tower showed best results so I mounted it up. Not difficult to do at all. The only issue I could see being a problem would be if the best location ended up being on the front center of the home. While it isn’t this massive sore thumb on the house it is noticeable. Luckily our spot ended up being the back corner of the house. With install complete I went back to run a series of speed tests. Using the external antenna saved us from the 21mbps down we started with. Now, my parents consistently get speeds of 350mbps down during the peak use times and sometimes as high as 500mbps down during off hours (1:00 am). Honestly, I was absolutely floored. I never expected gains like that. Now that I have seen the possibilities I don’t see why everyone would get one. If you are going to rely on you primary internet service arriving via 4g or 5g why wouldn’t you do everything to grab every extra bit of signal strength or speed or reliability you can. For me and my family it is totally worth every penny.

If anyone has any additional questions about it feel free to reach out. I would be happy to help. 

It sounds like my experience. It look old like mounted outside provides better performance than mounting in the attic. 

I am not a T-Mobile employee, but like helping others.
copz1998
Userlevel 5
Badge +8

Anyone knows what are these ports on the new Tmobile Arcadyan KVD21 Gateway? M, M1, M2, D, 4, and 5 ports.  Which ports give the best signal and speed? 

Any response? I connected to M1 and M per some posts directions. Not sure if it’s the best.  

I am not a T-Mobile employee, but like helping others.
copz1998
Userlevel 5
Badge +8

Anyone knows what are these ports on the new Tmobile Arcadyan KVD21 Gateway? M, M1, M2, D, 4, and 5 ports.  Which ports give the best signal and speed? 

m & d are the 4g pairs, m1 & m2 are the 5g pairs

Thanks. I’ll try the M1 and M2. Currently using M and M1. 

I am not a T-Mobile employee, but like helping others.
iTinkeralot
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +8

Extreme care needs to be taken when making the U.Fl connections. If one of those is damaged all is not lost but could cost between $75-125 to have someone replace the damaged connectors. Getting it repaired is much cheaper than what T-Mobile would charge for a damaged unit. 

Per Waveform’s guide for antenna connections:

https://www.waveform.com/a/b/guides/hotspots/t-mobile-5g-gateway-arcadyan

  • If you have a 2x2 MIMO Antenna Kit, disconnect the cables for ports M and D, but leave ports M1 and M2 connected internally.

Be very careful here. U.Fl connectors can be quite fragile. Make sure you're very gentle to avoid breaking the connector.

If you were to get the waveform kit they also have engineers that are very helpful and will provide answers to questions. They are very good at what they do.

B

I mounted them vertically cross polarized, on two separate poles 420 feet away from my house, 20 feet above the ground,on the top of a hill away from my home. The antennas are still below the tree line. I would have to have a 60 ft tower if I were to go above the tree line. The 5G Nokia gateway is also at the antenna site inside a NEMA box that is cooled with fans. The box is from Hana Wireless. My home has a metal roof, so there is now way I would have been able to receive a consistent signal. Right now I just have a ethernet cable laying on the ground.

Every location is different. If your more than 2.50 miles from the tower and have a dense forest like mine, then I would suggest the parabolic antennas. A 4X4 yagi antenna setup might work for you. With the Bolton antennas I can connect to any T-mobile internet 5G tower within 12.5 miles or more. If one tower goes down for repair I can turn the antennas to 1 of 4 towers in my area. Parabolic antennas are much more versatile.

 

They will take them back. I kept them though.

Hey hopefully you see this from so long ago. I am trying to do a setup like your running the atenna around 400 feet from my home. After you run the ethernet cable do you have another router or distribution center in your home? If you could give more info on your setup that would be great. Thank you 

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