My Primary Signal is 4 bars / B66 and my Secondary Signal is 3 bars / n71. My download speeds are less than 100 Mbps. Does that mean I’m operating over 4G LTE instead of 5G?
Home Internet - 4G LTE vs 5G
Userlevel 4
+4
Page 1 / 2
Note: The primary signal will be for your 4G control connection. The secondary signal id for your data and will be 5G if it is available. If your secondary signal Band is “n41”, then you are on 5G.
Note: The primary signal will be for your 4G control connection. The secondary signal id for your data and will be 5G if it is available. If your secondary signal Band is “n41”, then you are on 5G.
T-Mobile uses several 5G bands. In my area the n71 600 Mhz band is used. The n41 band obtained in the Sprint merger is being deployed in areas where T-Mobile does not have 600 Mhz coverage
- Frequencies that can provide 5G:
- Band n71 (600 MHz)
- Band n41 (2.5 GHz)
- Band n260 (39 GHz)
- Band n261 (28 GHz)
- With 5G, high amounts of data can be transmitted more efficiently than 4G LTE.
- One of the ways T-Mobile is rapidly deploying 5G is integrating mid-band 2.5 GHz spectrum from Sprint.
It’s your secondary signal connection that determines how fast your download speeds will be.
My Primary Signal is 4 bars / B66 and my Secondary Signal is 3 bars / n71. My download speeds are less than 100 Mbps. Does that mean I’m operating over 4G LTE instead of 5G?
I have a similar situation. My secondary is often not connected. I get speeds in the single digits when that happens. Really sucks.
And if the secondary signal is using band n71 then it's a 5G signal, right?
anything with n in front is 5G if it has b in front it’s LTE
My signals are the reverse. My Primary Signal is 4 bars / B2 and my Secondary Signal is 5 bars / n71. Guess it helps to be less than a mile from a tower. I regularly get 400-600 Mbps download speed.
If your PC, laptop, or other device does not support Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax you likely will be limited to speeds in the 100-200 range with Wi-Fi 5 802.11ac or even less with older devices, even if the T-Mobile gateway is connected to 5G.
I have both a Wi-Fi 6 laptop and a Wi-Fi 5 laptop. I never get more than 200 Mbps download with the Wi-Fi 5 laptop, but 400-600 download is the norm with the Wi-Fi 6 laptop.
My situation is that band 41 signal is not as strong as band 71. Data rate I get on 41 is useless so device reverts to the B66 4g signal. When I can stay on 71 I get 3 bars and between 100 and 150 Mbs. At all other times everything is at 2 bars with data rates ranging from 5 to 25 Mbs.
I wish there was some way to lock on to the band 71 signal.
Ditto. My device always has primary of B2, secondary of N41 and I barely get 30Mbs with lots of drop outs (waiting for Youtube to buffer). At times, speedtest shows less than 1Mbs while the same test in the same room as the gateway gets over 300Mbs on 5g phone. I’ve gotten used to just doing a screen cast from my 5G phone since the latest Chromecast (ten feet away) can’t connect to the gateway/internet at reliable speeds. In other words, my 5g phone gets great 5g speeds but the Internet gateway - not so much.
Phone traffic gets priority over home internet service.
N71 is the 600 MHz 5G band, also known as Low Band. Its peak speed can be up to 225 Mbps, but more likely to be in the 100-150 Mbps range. It provides the furthest signal coverage.
N41 is the 2.5 GHz 5G band, also known as Mid Band that T-Mobile acquired in the Sprint merger. My T-Mobile gateway is connected to the N41 band and I get up to 600 Mbps download. The tower is about 1 mile from my home.
My gateway originally connected to the N71 band, but the tower must have been upgraded as it now connects to the faster n41 band. I didn’t even notice the band change until recently, but did notice the faster speed.
So my earlier posts about band 71 were incorrect as my gateway connects to n41. Can’t update those older posts.
Userlevel 4
+4
My situation is that band 41 signal is not as strong as band 71. Data rate I get on 41 is useless so device reverts to the B66 4g signal. When I can stay on 71 I get 3 bars and between 100 and 150 Mbs. At all other times everything is at 2 bars with data rates ranging from 5 to 25 Mbs.
I wish there was some way to lock on to the band 71 signal.
Same here. When my can is on n71, I get satisfactory down/up speeds. But when it switches to n41, all internet traffic stops. Zilch. I’m on a first name basis with several T-Mobile reps. Have several engineering trouble tickets open. I won’t go back to cable but about to look at Verizon’s 5G Home internet product
I’ve had no secondary signal for a couple weeks now so I’m totally confused.
My primary is B66 with 2 bars and my secondary is N41 with 3 bars. Download speeds are fantastic. The lowest I have seen is 200 megabits. It is 310 megabits many times. The upload speed is between 7-10 megabits.
Why aren’t primary and secondary the other way around? Should I be getting faster upload speeds? I am less than 1,000 feet from a T-Mobile tower. The elevations are about the same but there are a couple buildings in between.
10 days and it has been very good. Xfinity is now cancelled.
You are getting good speed. enjoy it.
I think concept of primary and secondary is confusing but I feel when secondary is available, it is always using secondary and speed on secondary is changing based on the throttling logic and it is based on load on tower. For me primary is B2 and secondary mostly N71. Sometimes I get N41 which gives me 200 mbps but it does not stay of N41 and most of time falls back to N71. Now at night time , I get 80-110 mbps but at day time it falls 11-18 mbps on N71. I don’t need much speed but what I don’t like that the day time throttling is giving less then what is promised (min 25 mbps) and I know it is throttling because at night time without changing any position of device, it starts giving 80-110 mbps.
My sentiments exactly! I will say that performance is improving. I don't have to call quite as often and now many times it's only to let them know it happened again. Most times I can get back to the good bands myself by powering off, unplugging and letting it sit for a couple of minutes. The time between failures is increasing.
Like you, there's no way on God's green earth I'm going back to Spectrum. I'd rather suffer some than deal with them.
I’d like to know the answer to this, too. My primary is B41 and secondary, which I only have occasionally, is N71. Download speeds are usually around 75-80 mps. Sometimes the download speeds reach into the 200mps range but only for short periods.
I understand older devices won’t be as fast but if I test with my new phone when connected to the gateway I get the 75-80 range. If I turn wifi off and connect to 5G it is faster but never close to the speeds you’re getting. The tower is line of sight on my front porch less than a mile away and only get 3-4 bars.
Userlevel 4
+4
I don’t have any Wi-Fi 6 devices and am okay with Wi-Fi 5 speeds. I was able to get 200 Mbps on my previous cable modem and would be happy to get back there again. I would be happy just to have service that doesn’t cut out so often really. The 4G speeds are working fine until they completely drop out.
Yeah, I’m ok with the speeds but they are nowhere what I was promised. They put new transmitters up on the tower a few weeks ago so I anticipated an upgrade but nothing so far. It’s better than my cable which is always around 25 mps despite their ads that say 200 mps. I still can’t figure out why I’m getting 3-4 bars when I’m line of site less than a mile and I’ve tried moving the gateway around in different spots.
I have to add that there was some upgrade as my phone now picks up 5G after the new transmitters but the gateway performance is the same as before.
Userlevel 4
+4
Note: The primary signal will be for your 4G control connection. The secondary signal id for your data and will be 5G if it is available. If your secondary signal Band is “n41”, then you are on 5G.
This is good to know. My secondary signal is band n71. Is that 5G as well? Does this also mean that I should focus on getting better reception on my secondary signal to improve speeds?
You guys are lucky. My normal speeds are between less than 1 Mps to less than 10 Mbps.
Connected to b41 on the gateway, primary signal. Very rarely do I have secondary which is n71,n41. Why does my phone connect to 5g when I shut wifi off but not the gateway?
Page 1 / 2
Reply
New badge winners
Enter your username or e-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.