Question

5G home internet keeps dropping

J
Userlevel 5
Badge

I’m having a problem with T-Mobile 5g home internet that has not been resolved despite many calls in to the help line.  I’ve had T-Mobile 5g home internet for almost a month now, and the short version is that every so often the gateway drops the network.  When I say “drop the network,” I mean to say it throws everything off of the Wifi that it’s broadcasting, and anything plugged in via ethernet says “no network found.  (To elaborate this point, cell phones switch to cellular data because wifi is gone for them, and computers hardwired into the gateway think that they are no longer plugged into anything.)  Turning off the gateway and turning it back on resolves the issue, but doesn’t prevent it from happening again.  Whatever is happening doesn’t seem to affect our connection speed/strength when the gateway IS providing signal to devices in the home, but due to the nature of our work, we need a connection that won’t just disconnect randomly.  

 

To address this, T-mobile has so far run a bunch of tests on their end, and seem to have ruled out a tower issue (which makes sense, as the tower shouldn’t have anything to do with whether or not the devices on the gateway’s wifi or ethernet connection get thrown off of the network.)  They’ve sent me a replacement gateway, which is experiencing the exact same problem (3 times in the last 36 hours, in fact).   I’ve noticed that the device gets pretty warm, so I set up a computer case fan as a cooler to force air through the device, thinking that perhaps it’s an issue with the device overheating.  However, while the gateway is notably cooler than it was without the fan, it has not prevented the issue from persisting.  The last thing that I can think to do (and my most recent attempt at resolving this issue) is to plug a router into the gateway via ethernet, and allow the router to handle the wifi/connections w/ devices in the house, and to disable wifi from the gateway all together.  Maybe the gateway is simply too overburdened with connections and gets somehow overwhelmed and shuts down, and having the router handle the “heavy lifting” of taking care of all of the individual device connections will resolve it?  I don’t have a great deal of faith that this will fix the issue (as the gateway also kicks ethernet things off of the network when it experiences this problem), but I’m running out of options/ideas of what to do in order to just get a stable, constant internet service.   

 

Is anybody else having this issue, has anybody resolved this issue, or does anybody have any advice or feedback regarding how I might get this resolved so that I can get back to having stable internet?

264 replies

B

I am also having the same issue with WiFi dropping. What I have noticed is that when the secondary signal connects to the N41 or N71 bands. When my gateway is connected to the N71 band, the WiFi will stay connected for days or even weeks but when it connects to the N41 band it drops WiFi continuously. Not sure why this is significant and I don't know enough about this stuff but this is the only common thing that I have noticed. Could this have anything to do with the WiFi dropping?

N
Userlevel 2
Badge

@Bushbond That’s an interesting observation. I’m not smart enough to know the answer. Nor do I know if it’s possible to turn off the 5G and just use 4G to see if that makes a difference in whether the connection drops. If anyone knows, please let me know and I’ll give it a try.

L
Badge

I too am having the problem. My one month old T-Mobile Home Internet device is repeatedly dropping its internet connection. Rebooting solves the problem…. temporarily. No overheating issues. Consistently strong reception (4 bars), and fast download speed (initially 359Mbs or higher, now 120Mbs to 325Mbs).

There is obviously a systemic problem here that need to be resolved. I switched from Verizon, and hoped for a better experience. Clearly, T- Mobile has its issues too.

N
Userlevel 2
Badge

@Lextor Yes, definitely a T-Mobile problem. I, too, switched from Verizon and got good speeds the first month. Rebooting the gateway doesn’t seem to fix the issue, however. And I have consistently had 5 bars. Calls to T-Mobile have been fruitless. The last rep I talked to said the drops were caused by tower maintenance, which would be completed in a month. Really? My T-Mobile phone service works fine. But that seems to be the standard response. And it’s now been several months that I’ve had dropped WiFi connections. Really bad.

A
Userlevel 2
Badge

The last rep I talked to said the drops were caused by tower maintenance, which would be completed in a month. Really? My T-Mobile phone service works fine. But that seems to be the standard response. And it’s now been several months that I’ve had dropped WiFi connections. Really bad.

 

It is a scripted response they use to end the call/close the ticket without anyone really looking into it. They don’t care about making a diagnosis, just follow the script and hope you buy it. It is bad.

N
Userlevel 2
Badge

Yeah, that’s what I figured. I’m amazed that so many people seem to have the same complaint but no one knows how to get T-Mobile to pay attention and fix it.

F

Same Same Same.

Nokia Gateway rural Little Rock.  Resetting the Gateway by turning off then on anywherre from 0 one day to 5 the next.  Download speeds: doing good to get 25-50.  Upload speeds: 1-2 at best.

This is a scam for sure and would wish for a breach of contract lawsuit.  Calling on phone for support ends up in another country with poor English skills and poor connection and does nothing when they ‘reset’ and ‘test’ everything.  It is horrible.  Then trying to sign up to be ‘next’ for a new 5G Gateway, I fill it in and the SUBMIT link is dead.  What a bunch of crap this is.  They actually call it high speed internet.

Now, Netflix loads to 25% and just sits there spinning and frozen and not moving past that: don’t know if that is on Netflix or TMobile Home Internet.  

Hurry up Elon Musk and get the darn Starlink in this area.

D

Mine drops too.  But it is more consistent and far cheaper than Spectrum. 

B

Mine drops almost daily (sometimes more) and has consistently done so for 4 months now. I am on my third gateway and all devices are connected to a router which is plugged in to the gateway, so it only has the wired connection. Like everyone else in this thread, T-mobile support has given the same excused (tower maintenance). So far I have not found anything that prevents it, but restarting always solves it. So aggravating. I guess I’ll be moving back to Comcast soon. 

M

I’m having a problem with T-Mobile 5g home internet that has not been resolved despite many calls in to the help line.  I’ve had T-Mobile 5g home internet for almost a month now, and the short version is that every so often the gateway drops the network.  When I say “drop the network,” I mean to say it throws everything off of the Wifi that it’s broadcasting, and anything plugged in via ethernet says “no network found.  (To elaborate this point, cell phones switch to cellular data because wifi is gone for them, and computers hardwired into the gateway think that they are no longer plugged into anything.)  Turning off the gateway and turning it back on resolves the issue, but doesn’t prevent it from happening again.  Whatever is happening doesn’t seem to affect our connection speed/strength when the gateway IS providing signal to devices in the home, but due to the nature of our work, we need a connection that won’t just disconnect randomly.  

 

To address this, T-mobile has so far run a bunch of tests on their end, and seem to have ruled out a tower issue (which makes sense, as the tower shouldn’t have anything to do with whether or not the devices on the gateway’s wifi or ethernet connection get thrown off of the network.)  They’ve sent me a replacement gateway, which is experiencing the exact same problem (3 times in the last 36 hours, in fact).   I’ve noticed that the device gets pretty warm, so I set up a computer case fan as a cooler to force air through the device, thinking that perhaps it’s an issue with the device overheating.  However, while the gateway is notably cooler than it was without the fan, it has not prevented the issue from persisting.  The last thing that I can think to do (and my most recent attempt at resolving this issue) is to plug a router into the gateway via ethernet, and allow the router to handle the wifi/connections w/ devices in the house, and to disable wifi from the gateway all together.  Maybe the gateway is simply too overburdened with connections and gets somehow overwhelmed and shuts down, and having the router handle the “heavy lifting” of taking care of all of the individual device connections will resolve it?  I don’t have a great deal of faith that this will fix the issue (as the gateway also kicks ethernet things off of the network when it experiences this problem), but I’m running out of options/ideas of what to do in order to just get a stable, constant internet service.   

 

Is anybody else having this issue, has anybody resolved this issue, or does anybody have any advice or feedback regarding how I might get this resolved so that I can get back to having stable internet?

I am having the same problem. They have sent a new unit and it is doing the same exact thing. My tmobile disappears completely.  I tried everything as you have , no luck. I am ready to give up. Please let me know if you figured it out. Thanks.

K

I’m having a problem with T-Mobile 5g home internet that has not been resolved despite many calls in to the help line.  I’ve had T-Mobile 5g home internet for almost a month now, and the short version is that every so often the gateway drops the network.  When I say “drop the network,” I mean to say it throws everything off of the Wifi that it’s broadcasting, and anything plugged in via ethernet says “no network found.  (To elaborate this point, cell phones switch to cellular data because wifi is gone for them, and computers hardwired into the gateway think that they are no longer plugged into anything.)  Turning off the gateway and turning it back on resolves the issue, but doesn’t prevent it from happening again.  Whatever is happening doesn’t seem to affect our connection speed/strength when the gateway IS providing signal to devices in the home, but due to the nature of our work, we need a connection that won’t just disconnect randomly.  

 

To address this, T-mobile has so far run a bunch of tests on their end, and seem to have ruled out a tower issue (which makes sense, as the tower shouldn’t have anything to do with whether or not the devices on the gateway’s wifi or ethernet connection get thrown off of the network.)  They’ve sent me a replacement gateway, which is experiencing the exact same problem (3 times in the last 36 hours, in fact).   I’ve noticed that the device gets pretty warm, so I set up a computer case fan as a cooler to force air through the device, thinking that perhaps it’s an issue with the device overheating.  However, while the gateway is notably cooler than it was without the fan, it has not prevented the issue from persisting.  The last thing that I can think to do (and my most recent attempt at resolving this issue) is to plug a router into the gateway via ethernet, and allow the router to handle the wifi/connections w/ devices in the house, and to disable wifi from the gateway all together.  Maybe the gateway is simply too overburdened with connections and gets somehow overwhelmed and shuts down, and having the router handle the “heavy lifting” of taking care of all of the individual device connections will resolve it?  I don’t have a great deal of faith that this will fix the issue (as the gateway also kicks ethernet things off of the network when it experiences this problem), but I’m running out of options/ideas of what to do in order to just get a stable, constant internet service.   

 

Is anybody else having this issue, has anybody resolved this issue, or does anybody have any advice or feedback regarding how I might get this resolved so that I can get back to having stable internet?

I am also having this issue.  I am on my third 5g Gateway, tried switching SIM cards, use a cooling fan and off-loaded the WiFi duties to a Netgear Nighthawk.  I get two to three bars and drop a few times a day.  I finally bought connection monitoring software and it reports that, when the network fails, “URL domain names are not being resolved but IP based traffic is still flowing over the connection”. It seems that, after a minute or two in this state, the box resets the connection resulting in a new IP address. Just figured I’d share that!

B

For whatever it is worth, in the 10 days since I began power cycling my gateway every morning at a time when not having internet for 2-3 minutes is fine, I have not had it drop on me unexpectedly.

R

This service is so HORRIBLE!!! I can’t even cancel it. After factory resetting the gateway, I couldn’t get it to connect to the tower; even if it did, it would drop whenever any device connected to it. I called customer service to cancel. They asked me for a pin. I had never setup a pin. I had to go to a store where they promptly said they don’t take care of pins. I called back customer  service and a rep asked me to have the store identify myself and they will reset the pin. I visited the store again. This time my pin was reset. The rep on the phone said it will take 24 hours to process the return label, but there was none in my email after 24 hours. I called customer service again and they said they need to transfer me to the home internet line and I was on hold for over 30 mins. 

I am going to file a complaint with the FCC and also contact a law firm. This sort of treatment and product service is begging for a class action law suit.

D

This is important issue.This happens with me too. I get great speeds but then this disconnect. Can happen couple tines per day. Its a pain to reboot it. I doubt this is a hearing issue because it does not get very hot. Rebooting would result in same heat status but it works fine immediately after reboot. i moved my spectrum service slowly over to the Tmobile service with increased devices and I think it has gotten worse so I actually think this is a Tmobile back end problem and they my even be rebooting theoretical system multiple times per day because it is overloaded. i do have another router connected but this makes no difference as everything disconnects. Not a signal problem as I always her 2-3 bar and have never seen it less than 2. The router communicates with tmobiles servers and this is causing a software freeze with disconnect???  If so they do need to fix it. (I have the newer silver round tower)

W

I've had this service for 2 months now. In fact paid my second bill 2 days ago. Started about a week ago maybe 3 or 4 times a day, however today Ive lost the gateway 17 times. I power cycle my router on a daily because the new nokia5g tower is....well....of horrible design to say the least. My tower stays in a location that is dry and 65°F at ALL times. This happens on my 2 wired lines out of the router so no wifi is a part of this. Never ANY errors on cellular or lan logs just a complete drop in gateway connection then 10 secs later back in business. EXTREMELY irritating when playing online games because of the obvious disconnect and then PC telling me no internet. I worked as a repairman for network operations at Birch Telecom for yearsssss but that was before 4th gen wireless rolled out. All of my signals and noise ratios are actually nice. For some reason it acts like authentication is lost for a moment and then re-auths the network. All in all from logs and watching signals, everything looks great but it's not...lol.

W

I’m having a problem with T-Mobile 5g home internet that has not been resolved despite many calls in to the help line.  I’ve had T-Mobile 5g home internet for almost a month now, and the short version is that every so often the gateway drops the network.  When I say “drop the network,” I mean to say it throws everything off of the Wifi that it’s broadcasting, and anything plugged in via ethernet says “no network found.  (To elaborate this point, cell phones switch to cellular data because wifi is gone for them, and computers hardwired into the gateway think that they are no longer plugged into anything.)  Turning off the gateway and turning it back on resolves the issue, but doesn’t prevent it from happening again.  Whatever is happening doesn’t seem to affect our connection speed/strength when the gateway IS providing signal to devices in the home, but due to the nature of our work, we need a connection that won’t just disconnect randomly.  

 

To address this, T-mobile has so far run a bunch of tests on their end, and seem to have ruled out a tower issue (which makes sense, as the tower shouldn’t have anything to do with whether or not the devices on the gateway’s wifi or ethernet connection get thrown off of the network.)  They’ve sent me a replacement gateway, which is experiencing the exact same problem (3 times in the last 36 hours, in fact).   I’ve noticed that the device gets pretty warm, so I set up a computer case fan as a cooler to force air through the device, thinking that perhaps it’s an issue with the device overheating.  However, while the gateway is notably cooler than it was without the fan, it has not prevented the issue from persisting.  The last thing that I can think to do (and my most recent attempt at resolving this issue) is to plug a router into the gateway via ethernet, and allow the router to handle the wifi/connections w/ devices in the house, and to disable wifi from the gateway all together.  Maybe the gateway is simply too overburdened with connections and gets somehow overwhelmed and shuts down, and having the router handle the “heavy lifting” of taking care of all of the individual device connections will resolve it?  I don’t have a great deal of faith that this will fix the issue (as the gateway also kicks ethernet things off of the network when it experiences this problem), but I’m running out of options/ideas of what to do in order to just get a stable, constant internet service.   

 

Is anybody else having this issue, has anybody resolved this issue, or does anybody have any advice or feedback regarding how I might get this resolved so that I can get back to having stable internet?

I am also having this issue.  I am on my third 5g Gateway, tried switching SIM cards, use a cooling fan and off-loaded the WiFi duties to a Netgear Nighthawk.  I get two to three bars and drop a few times a day.  I finally bought connection monitoring software and it reports that, when the network fails, “URL domain names are not being resolved but IP based traffic is still flowing over the connection”. It seems that, after a minute or two in this state, the box resets the connection resulting in a new IP address. Just figured I’d share that!

Ya it's definitely not wifi related. There is some kind of backend authentication that seems like it's periodically hiccuping and loosing auth for about 5-10 secs

N
Userlevel 2
Badge

Well, I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised that my internet dropping problem seems to have been resolved. My gateway has held a connection without dropping for 19d 1h 31m. Perhaps there was a firmware upgrade that fixed the repeated dropouts or maybe the “tower maintenance” argument was legit. The current firmware I show is 1.2103.00.0338. Anybody else experience a similar result?

B

I have the Nokia GW running 1.2103.00.0338, HW Version: 3TG00739AABB.

I started graphing the  signal strength of the LTE and 5G radios.

Starting a couple weeks ago the 5G channel drops and comes back randomly throughout the day, causing packet loss and latency.

My T-Mobile 5G phone shows no issues.

I also noticed that the GW is running hot even though it is not in direct sunlight.

Have also tried disabling the on-board WiFi and just using my mesh wifi connected via ethernet to no avail.

I have it sitting in a window with virtually direct line-of-site to the nearest tower half a mile away.

Super frustrating as it was working fine until recently, other than the 5G channel would drop occasionally and only come back with a hard reboot.  I have not tracked SW updates so I’m not sure if maybe a recent one caused this issue.

 

F

RESOLUTION FOUND; NOT GOOD. SO, I was experiencing network drop issues and saw how some callers had reached out to tech chat. Tech chat advised them to put a fan to cool the gateway down. I ran a test to see if it's a heating issue. And IT IS. I have a small fan I used (picture attached) for the test. Without it, the gateway would drop signal down to 1gb or below and cause me to lose connection to my work calls which is a BIG NONO if I want to stay Work-From-Home. With it, I maintain speeds of 300+mb/s. With that said, I really hope this new router they are coming out with addresses this issue. The trash(can) gateway right now can't handle the data coming in and the heat produced by the data flow causes it to overheat. The gateway does have vents at the top and bottom so I can push the heat out of the gateway with a fan. However, now I'm using extra electricity to cool the gateway down and now I don't enjoy the extra air blowing on me. It's still winterish (54°F) , so I don't know if this trick will work in the summertime where it can get 70°+ in my room. Hopefully, the new router will be a good exchange (FOR FREE) AND they release it soon; otherwise, I will have to go back to exp Verizon.

 

 

 

 

B

Similar to others, I am having dropped internet on my Gateway. When it’s connected, I’m very happy with my service. The problem is that it drops during important Zoom calls.

My computer is hard wired to the Gateway via ethernet and during Zoom calls I disable the computer’s wifi. When it disconnects, I quickly turn my Gateway off and back on. Can rejoin the Zoom call within 2 minutes. The disconnects are inconsistent. Sometimes I won’t have any. Sometimes I’ve had it happen once per hour.

Here is a screenshot of my signal info:

I’ve read most of the responses on this thread regarding over heating and also using Cellmapper. How can I use this information to zero in on the problem and what can I do about it?

J

My service drops out multiple times a day.  In each instance, there is a message on the gateway that the modem chip is down.  I’m already on my second device after the first one also displayed the same message.  The gateway is on a timer so it reboots once a day at 3am.  It makes no difference.  Is any one else getting the “modem chip down” critical message?

J
Userlevel 1
Badge

We had the same issues with our 5G gateway device. We had only 2 bars which was supposed to be enough for a signal, however, when we had a signal our service was extremely slow and it was constantly dropping completely. We contacted customer support, went through all the troubleshooting with engineering (checking the signal, switching towers, moving the device around, etc). Finally, requested T-Mobile reactivate our previous device (the 4G LTE small white box).  Solved the problem instantly, strong signal, good speed, no drops, no problem streaming. After reactivating and connecting the 4G LTE Gateway the tech essentially admitted that the new 5G service is essentially a work in progress and isn’t up and running smoothly.  He said they are working on it and would contact us to upgrade our hardware to 5G when it was functioning properly in our area. Hope this is helpful.

 

B

It appears there are many people who commiserate with your issue but nobody has a resolution.  Even T-Mobile has no resolution.  I’ve been a phone user for more than 5 years and have been very pleased with the service.  I finally made the decision to “cut the cord” and dropped my cable in favor of the new internet gateway.  We do not have 5G service in my area but I don’t blame that for the CONSTANT loss of signal.  I’ve had to reboot my gateway tower three times within the last 24 hours.  I’ve added “wifi extenders” throughout my house but I’m convinced the problem does not exist within the walls of my home.  I’m normally a patient person but they’re pressing the limits.  I would like to try Ziply fiber but it’s not in our neighborhood yet and I’m reluctant to go back to cable simply for the costs.  

J
Userlevel 1
Badge

I spoke with a T-Mobile tech this afternoon and was able to switch back to our 4G LTE gateway. That solved the problem, our signal was restored without any problems.  Apparently T-Mobile is in the process of upgrading their towers so they are compatible with the new 5G gateways but they haven’t completed the process in all areas.  As it was explained to me the new 5G gateways are supposed to receive either the old 4G LTE signal or the newer 5G signal but for whatever reason our unit didn’t receive either very well.  

B

So there’s no way to force the 5G Gateway to only connect to 4G?

Reply


New badge winners

  • Curious George
    Mrguez10has earned the badge Curious George
  • Curious George
    jjpethas earned the badge Curious George
  • Curious George
    netjake1has earned the badge Curious George
  • Curious George
    sfe2299has earned the badge Curious George
  • Curious George
    messymobilehas earned the badge Curious George
Show all badges
Terms & Conditions