Poor Internet speed and not reliabity

  • 2 September 2021
  • 23 replies
  • 7719 views
R
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I have had home internet for 30+ days.  The speed and reliability has not been consistent.  I have seen speed from 80 ~ 100 mbs and then have seen speed from 1 ~ 5 mbs.  Also while streaming Netflix and Prime we have seen buffering and sometimes the movie locks up and I have to restart the movie.  My Sonos One device keep disconnecting due to slow internet speed (speed test was less than 1 mbs).

I have spent hours  and days on the phone with support and non of the issues have been resolved.  Support personnel have been professional and we run through general reboot scenarios but  it does not fix the problem.  The problem issues have been turned over to the engineers but still no resolution.

I would like to keep the home internet solution but it has been a very frustrating experience.  I may be forced to go back to my previous internet provider as there were no speed and reliability issues with them.

If there is anybody from t-mobile reading these posts…….please resolve these issues before you loose customers.

 

23 replies

iTinkeralot
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roninaz You are not alone in your quest for internet nirvana. It would help to know details as to what your  gateway router reports in the web UI interface. I will assume you have been over this with the T-Mo support engineers but it is hard to help without data. 

The LED display on the top of the router can provide some idea but not much detail about what is going on with the communication to the tower. The web UI at 192.168.12.1 will help much more.

Suggestions:

Record the reporting of the primary & secondary signals from the Overview>Internet Connection

Record the reporting of the primary & secondary signals from the Status>Cellular network section

Confirm if there are packet drops or errors from the Statistics>Cellular information

Do you know where the tower is; how far away it is...?

Snips of information from the web page are sufficient. It is pretty easy and helpful to make screen clips of data from the Overview, Status, & Statistics pages in the web UI and make a quick document with that info and then attach the info to the post. With more info I would be happy to make some additionalsuggestions.

R
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I’m told that there are towers very close to my residence.  I will try your suggestions when experiencing problems.  Today my speed test reveals less than 10 mbs on the 2.4 ghz and less than 5 mbs on the 5 ghz connection.   Thanks for your response.

iTinkeralot
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So with only 10mbs and 5mbs you don’t see that as a problem? From what I get here that is totally lame. You should be able to run a speed test and obtain download and upload speeds way better than that. You can know where the towers are using cellmapper.net. If you match the PCI info for each of the primary and secondary signals to the PCI info the tower(s) report you will know. This would help you optimize your router placement to do much better than that. 

I am fortunate to have a pretty solid connection. I commonly get 120 Mbs down and 40-50 Mbs upload. The solution can and should do way better than that.

If the problem is local WIFI then well that is yet another problem to resolve. If you have the time and want to post some data great. It does help to get more eyes on the problems. Good luck

T
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I have had home internet for 30+ days.  The speed and reliability has not been consistent.  I have seen speed from 80 ~ 100 mbs and then have seen speed from 1 ~ 5 mbs.  Also while streaming Netflix and Prime we have seen buffering and sometimes the movie locks up and I have to restart the movie.  My Sonos One device keep disconnecting due to slow internet speed (speed test was less than 1 mbs).

The disparity between getting a connection speed of 80 to 100 at times and 1 to 5 at others is probably too great to be congestion/traffic. It’s possible when you are stuck on the slow speed (which often means frequent internet disconnection) it could be that you are connecting to 4G only, instead of the 4G/5G non-standalone signal pair that constitutes 5G, with the 5G signal being an n71 or an n41, depending on what is on your tower.

The essential thing to try is finding a gateway placement in your house that helps you connect at the fastest speed range possible. If you don’t know where your tower is, that’s okay, but then try placing the gateway in various windows, or as high as  you can, like in the attic, and include various rotation angles. Each time a position change is made with the gateway you restart the gateway via the button on the side, wait two minutes for it to reconnect automatically and do a speed test. You’re looking for a location/position of the gateway that will maintain the highest speed range, which usually, but not always, goes along with the highest number of bars of signal strength available in your house.

What I mean by rotation angle is the gateway can be rotated in place, and because it has 4 little antennas inside, their orientation can make a significant difference in what signal bands you are connecting to. That can make a speed difference.

The nature of this beast called 5G cellular is a neighbor three houses away up a hill near you may get a great connection while your geographic position and elevation, just behind a hill between you and the tower, means your connection is bad. 

I live in a rural area 5 miles from the tower, and get an average of 150 download, often over 200, whereas on DSL I was in the single digit speeds, with a 1 for an upload, and paying $45 for that. I understand what it would be like for you, hoping for the 100 that “most customers,” or “some customers” get, or however it is worded in their ads.

Besides distance to tower and number of obstructions, other factors can come into play in how good the reception is at your particular house. Even if 30% of their customers are a fail, it just doesn’t work well at all for them, turn back their equipment, T mobile will still be raking in huge profits.I stuck with stupid CenturyLink for 12 years,having to call them every year or so to negotiate a more reasonable price for the slow connection I was getting, and so Tmobile’s flat $50 forever price, and the way I’ve already had one significant speed boost in the last three months, it has been unbelievable, almost.

I’m just a customer, and It’s not that I mind people airing their frustrations against Tmobile -- this is probably as good a place as any to air your frustrations -- but I think sometimes people are causing themselves excess frustration by demanding to communicate directly  with the CEO -- not that you did that  -- or thinking a massive corporation actually cares about the plight of individual customers and their internet problems. Tmobile often has the highest customer satisfaction among cellular providers.

In fact, I kind of sympathize with your particular problem, of getting good speed sometimes, and then it just being horrible at other times. Therefore, I posted this and hope something I suggested helps you.

iTinkeralot
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Timsw - It is actually good to hear others feel the same way about the excessive nags about the solution. Communicate to the CEO, law suits, yada, yada… move on. It is an internet solution and there are MANY bigger issues out there vs getting all twisted up about an internet solution that is newer cutting edge tech that is having growing pains. T-Mobile has fought as the underdog for years and is pushing hard to take a bite out of AT&T and Verizion. I for one am glad they are. I have had a pretty positive experience with the home internet solution here and only in July did it go wonkey but that was NOT the router it was equipment on the tower. Sometimes things are not spot on and need a tune up. The T-Mobile engineers worked on the tower equipment and it improved and became stable again. Even with only the n71 bands it is a big improvement over DSL with a contract and what not. This was our only real option here. Satellite internet  was not going to happen for me. I know better. Starlink was too much investment and not available here so the T-Mobile solution is a win. It is not perfect but noting on this earth ever will be.

K
Userlevel 1
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I have had home internet for 30+ days.  The speed and reliability has not been consistent.  I have seen speed from 80 ~ 100 mbs and then have seen speed from 1 ~ 5 mbs.  Also while streaming Netflix and Prime we have seen buffering and sometimes the movie locks up and I have to restart the movie.  My Sonos One device keep disconnecting due to slow internet speed (speed test was less than 1 mbs).

The disparity between getting a connection speed of 80 to 100 at times and 1 to 5 at others is probably too great to be congestion/traffic. It’s possible when you are stuck on the slow speed (which often means frequent internet disconnection) it could be that you are connecting to 4G only, instead of the 4G/5G non-standalone signal pair that constitutes 5G, with the 5G signal being an n71 or an n41, depending on what is on your tower.

The essential thing to try is finding a gateway placement in your house that helps you connect at the fastest speed range possible. If you don’t know where your tower is, that’s okay, but then try placing the gateway in various windows, or as high as  you can, like in the attic, and include various rotation angles. Each time a position change is made with the gateway you restart the gateway via the button on the side, wait two minutes for it to reconnect automatically and do a speed test. You’re looking for a location/position of the gateway that will maintain the highest speed range, which usually, but not always, goes along with the highest number of bars of signal strength available in your house.

What I mean by rotation angle is the gateway can be rotated in place, and because it has 4 little antennas inside, their orientation can make a significant difference in what signal bands you are connecting to. That can make a speed difference.

The nature of this beast called 5G cellular is a neighbor three houses away up a hill near you may get a great connection while your geographic position and elevation, just behind a hill between you and the tower, means your connection is bad. 

I live in a rural area 5 miles from the tower, and get an average of 150 download, often over 200, whereas on DSL I was in the single digit speeds, with a 1 for an upload, and paying $45 for that. I understand what it would be like for you, hoping for the 100 that “most customers,” or “some customers” get, or however it is worded in their ads.

Besides distance to tower and number of obstructions, other factors can come into play in how good the reception is at your particular house. Even if 30% of their customers are a fail, it just doesn’t work well at all for them, turn back their equipment, T mobile will still be raking in huge profits.I stuck with stupid CenturyLink for 12 years,having to call them every year or so to negotiate a more reasonable price for the slow connection I was getting, and so Tmobile’s flat $50 forever price, and the way I’ve already had one significant speed boost in the last three months, it has been unbelievable, almost.

I’m just a customer, and It’s not that I mind people airing their frustrations against Tmobile -- this is probably as good a place as any to air your frustrations -- but I think sometimes people are causing themselves excess frustration by demanding to communicate directly  with the CEO -- not that you did that  -- or thinking a massive corporation actually cares about the plight of individual customers and their internet problems. Tmobile often has the highest customer satisfaction among cellular providers.

In fact, I kind of sympathize with your particular problem, of getting good speed sometimes, and then it just being horrible at other times. Therefore, I posted this and hope something I suggested helps you.

In some ways, T-mobile is their own worst enemy. I have been with them for phone service for years. When I called in about Home Internet availability (after looking on the map and seeing my area was all 5g extended) I was told I could expect at least 25mbps…...so I ordered the package.

I get nowhere near that and, like others, get the “our engineers are working on it” answer from support. They are all pleasant and thorough, but there is nothing they can really do, and it isn’t their fault.

Maybe T-mobile should adjust their maps to reflect reality and maybe consider setting a lower expectation for customers….especially in rural areas. I am 2 miles from the tower and cannot get a 5g signal on the router. ...plus, I only get 2 bars. 

I had one of the T-mobile personal cell spots hooked up to my Frontier Router because the signal was weak here. I thought maybe they had corrected the issue so I took the chance. Perhaps I should have known better, but I do think T-mobile is being overly optimistic with their promotion of this home internet solution. It is likely much more stable in urban areas.

iTinkeralot
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ka79535 - In some rural locations it does appear to be a bit questionable for some customers. I have seen postings in the community that seem to reflect even customers closer into large cities experience unpredictable results. Sometimes it is spot on and other times it is unpredictable.

T-Mobile must have projections and plans/schedules laid out for the 5G expansion which should be used in coordination with the confirmation for new customers to make an informed decision. For such a huge undertaking the planning, provisioning and equipment final installs would require significant advance efforts. It would be very helpful if the customer decision process would include “realistic expectations” from the start. If the tower upgrades in a given location for a new customer is a month out they should provide proper notification as such and give a new prospective customer a more qualified response for 5G delivery. Project managers need to work with marketing better and deliver ongoing updates so marketing can adjust their efforts to provide more accurate expectations. The churn and burn is only resulting in negative publicity. We all know bad news travels faster and wider than good news most of the time.

If you have some of the metrics data from your router solution you can share maybe with hard data members on the community can help with direct suggestions. I get the frustrations but if there are bits of data you have to share from the router operations maybe the solution can be improved enough to get an acceptable level of performance until the 5G goes full bore where you are. I had at least 4 calls with T-Mobile support engineers in July when this location went crazy. The disconnects and random 5G signal drops were due to some issue on the tower. After two weeks or so they got it figured out and afterward it was actually a bit better for the 5G delivery. The signal was stronger and better quality. It was not huge but enough to make a nice difference.

If you know 100% the tower your router connects to with the PCI information that is a good start. The location of the router, as you may have seen in several posts, is sometimes a real challenge and the end result for the best location of the router does not always seem logical. If you are not 100% on the tower location you can call T-Mobile support and get the coordinates of the tower(s) and also use cellmapper.net to confirm or gain clarity. I used my iPhone 12 in field test mode to confirm the PCI information with the router reporting. I know the phone might latch onto another tower but if there is really only one good option they will probably reach the same destination. With knowledge of the tower location vs reliance upon the generic bars on the LED display on top of the router it is possible to dial it in much better. There are lots of things others have done to get the solutions improved or stable. Post some data and maybe you will get some directed recommendations that help. If you are familiar with the web UI of the router and the metrics that is great. If not maybe you will find the attachment helpful.

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Maybe T-mobile should adjust their maps to reflect reality and maybe consider setting a lower expectation for customers….especially in rural areas. I am 2 miles from the tower and cannot get a 5g signal on the router. ...plus, I only get 2 bars.

Except for a few people who were on the white 4G router/modem and asked to be grandfathered to the 5G gray cylinder, to be eligible for the 5G gray cylinder there is supposed to be 5G service in your area, and I believe you when you say it is on your map as such, but that you aren’t getting it.

I found the 4G map to be wrong about my brother’s house, in that it said it was a level or two better service than  the 4G speed at my house, but I tested it on my phone and it was much slower speed, including when I was outside his house in an open park. I suspect the issue at my brother’s house is there is a large electrical power station between his house and the tower.

Two bars is not the whole issue as far as speed goes or the ability to connect to 5G, as it is possible to get speeds over 200 on two bars of signal strength on the n41 5G band. If your tower has the longer range n71, and are two miles away, the highest speeds on that at 2 miles away might be in the 100 to 150 range at best, and probably under 100, since the max speed (50 feet away from the tower) on that is 225 whereas n41 max speed is like 700 or more.

Tmobile says they have availability of 5G home internet to 80 million households in the US, and the initial rollout of the 5G home internet was to 100,000 people. I’d guess they are up to 300,000 users by now, the vast majority who are happy enough with it to keep it. How could I make such a ridiculous claim when it seems like so many people here have problems?

Because over the three months I’ve had this, on this message board, sometimes there are only like 5 new messages about Tmobile home internet in a day, and not all about slow speed. So if it’s really a serious problem for a significant number of people, why don’t more people post here to complain or ask questions about their problem? After all, calling in for help results in a wait of hours, or waiting for a call back at times. To me, that means the vast majority must have an adequate experience with it.

Although you said you had Tmobile phone for years, you didn’t say how long you’ve had the home internet service. If it is only a week or two, it might be worth it to wait a little longer before you ditch it, to see if they have been working on the equipment at your tower. I know for a fact they are swapping out some of the n71 transceivers for the faster n41, or adding the n41 to towers, so they’ve been very busy in their expansion, equipment tuning, erecting new towers etc.

When new equipment is installed, they sometimes start it on a lower power, to test signal conflicts or other issues, before they ramp it up to a point where it might work well at your house. There is also tuning that is done. So these are things which might leave you stuck on the old 4G until they get it going.

K
Userlevel 1
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Here are the stats on my system. I am going to try hooking up an antenna later today and hoping that will help.

1 Attachment
B

Seems like too much work to chase down why buffering is constant. 30 plus days on the system and I am ready to go back to Comcast. That is how bad the service is. I am getting to the point of dropping the phone as well (17 years )  They said it was great, not so much. You get the rest of my month and without improvement I’ll drop you just like my connection during a football game,  Thanks for nothing.

 

Feels so good to say as much,

 

PS I am pissed that I have to peck around and call people for something I am not getting.

 

Over and out

D
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$50 a month is too much for such an unreliable internet service. Spectrum cable just lowered monthly price to $49.95 for 1,000 gb of internet. Just approaching one month of Tmob home and am tired of dropouts while watching the tube and less than 1 mbps download speeds between 4pm and midnight. T-Mobile is not delivering what they are advertising. 

A

I have had home internet for 30+ days.  The speed and reliability has not been consistent.  I have seen speed from 80 ~ 100 mbs and then have seen speed from 1 ~ 5 mbs.  Also while streaming Netflix and Prime we have seen buffering and sometimes the movie locks up and I have to restart the movie.  My Sonos One device keep disconnecting due to slow internet speed (speed test was less than 1 mbs).

I have spent hours  and days on the phone with support and non of the issues have been resolved.  Support personnel have been professional and we run through general reboot scenarios but  it does not fix the problem.  The problem issues have been turned over to the engineers but still no resolution.

I would like to keep the home internet solution but it has been a very frustrating experience.  I may be forced to go back to my previous internet provider as there were no speed and reliability issues with them.

If there is anybody from t-mobile reading these posts…….please resolve these issues before you loose customers.

 

Same for me. Speeds nowhere near what I was promised. May have to go back to Comcast (ugh)

L

roninaz You are not alone in your quest for internet nirvana. It would help to know details as to what your  gateway router reports in the web UI interface. I will assume you have been over this with the T-Mo support engineers but it is hard to help without data. 

The LED display on the top of the router can provide some idea but not much detail about what is going on with the communication to the tower. The web UI at 192.168.12.1 will help much more.

Suggestions:

Record the reporting of the primary & secondary signals from the Overview>Internet Connection

Record the reporting of the primary & secondary signals from the Status>Cellular network section

Confirm if there are packet drops or errors from the Statistics>Cellular information

Do you know where the tower is; how far away it is...?

Snips of information from the web page are sufficient. It is pretty easy and helpful to make screen clips of data from the Overview, Status, & Statistics pages in the web UI and make a quick document with that info and then attach the info to the post. With more info I would be happy to make some additionalsuggestions.

ITinkeralot...  Even without an Overview, Status or Stastical info... throw some ideas out anyway.  I hate to sound harsh, but there's not alot that even the outside techie can do, other than to assist in optimal location placement.

 

The problem lies in both the gateway unit itself (over-heating) which may have some merrit, as ive tossed mine out in 30 degree weather for 30 mins, then powered back up and get better than it was, not great service, but did function better... after it being on for a solid 10 days.  Additionally, its not a congestion issue as TMobile tech may claim.  I performed an onsite (last mile near tower) test with a seperate hotspot device, also on the TMobile network, and pulled near 80Mbps speeds.

 

Bottom line... the issue is the gateway and transmission penetration.  Whats the solution....  getting TMobile to provide its customers with repeaters, as does Verizon for those customers who pushed hard enough in numbers to get its signal out beyond 10 miles, and through simple terrain obstruction s (ie. Hills and mild timber).  And, to replace the gateway intirely with a different unit all together.

 

That said, Im interested to hear what you got to say... without stats provided.

J
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Switched to T-Mobile because maps showed good coverage and a better price.  Was wrong about the coverage.  When talking to customer service was told it was an issue with the towers near me.  That was in October.  In February still having the same issues.  Now they tell me they the problem will be resolved when they put in a new tower nearer our location.  Will see how that works.

M

I reported to FCC T-mobile told them they are fixing the services. they lied to them. T-Mobile is the worst. don't trust them. 

 

great service yea

6 Attachments
M

they said the same ting was rerouting to a new tower and upgrade will take 6 months. been like over a year still crap.

M
Userlevel 1

Everyone should file an FCC Complaint - https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/

 

T

Your issues sound as bad as mine. I have had as many as 7 outages/Hr. I am very lucky to get a whole hour without being dropped. My file is up to about 2 months now. The service was fantastic when I got it around the beginning of July. Then October came and the disconnecting is now unbearable. I don’t think I have gone 1 day without multiple disconnects. Customer service says its a tower issue, the tower is getting upgraded, cycle power to the router, reset the router. Even this does not get me back on-line most of the time now. It’s mostly until I call them and get passed on to an “expert technician” who can get me on-line by doing something on his end and it is very temporary at best.

 There is never a notification or a completion date for any “tower repairs” or “upgrades”. I called them 3 times yesterday evening. The router always has 3 bars, WI-FI devices are connected but there is no internet. We both need the service for some of our work and it is less and less reliable. Heck I have not seen a full 30 minute news cast since I don’t know when.

I know there are people at T-Mobile who know the reasons for this and also the solutions for this. Will we get the answers and resolutions? So far it is the same old same old going on nearly 2 months. This would be a great time time to hear from a T-Mobile engineer on this issue.

O
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Here’s my problem the fluctuations are really starting to make me cranky. Everyday it seems to be getting worse. Our record low of 0.44mbps our record hi is 245mbps and this has happened all in less than a hours time, and at anytime of the day.

 

I
Userlevel 5
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Do poor internet speed and not reliability need to be repaired or fixed?

I like Apple iPhones, Apple iPads, and Apple Watches.
C
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I too get horrible speeds and as low as 18mbps! How's that for the most reliable 5g service? I don't even get 5g readings and this constant buffering is getting worse by the day and I have numerous towers around me. I get better speeds when I have only 2 bars on the gateway than when I get 5 which was once and just briefly. I have had the gateway for a year now, have bought an expensive booster which did help some but should not have to spend that kind of money to get the service promised. I had AT & T previously and never had these issues and I wish I had never left them because I can no longer get that service at my location now. T-Mobile in my opinion has lost its customers a lot of good service with the promise of faster speeds and better service. Liars!!! I work from home occasionally and can not get on the sites needed now with t-mobile due to the constant buffering. And I am tired of having to constantly call them for solutions. My time is worth money and they should reimburse me for all my time spent, messages and phone calls that I never receive or receive hours later. End of rant. Thanks for listening. 

J
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I'm about a month in with T-Mobile home Internet and my service is terrible, I was on the wait-list for a couple of years and finally got an email stating service was available for my address. I can't get any 5G signal, stays on B12 and the highest speed I've seen is 25 mbs but usually 15-2 is normal. I've wasted 300.00 on an external antenna which has amazing reviews but didn't work out for me. The crazy part is I have AT&T phone service my phone is always on 5G with a RSRP -112 and always get 25 mbs  and higher. I do have the gateway with the external antenna ports, get very good signal but just not reliable service. I don't need much just a reliable signal to ditch DirecTV. 

 

A

I too get horrible speeds and as low as 18mbps! How's that for the most reliable 5g service? I don't even get 5g readings and this constant buffering is getting worse by the day and I have numerous towers around me. ... End of rant. Thanks for listening. 

To be fair, there are similar rants about every 5G internet service. All I can suggest is keep looking for better signal strength; if you can’t get it then switch to a different provider or a different type of service. Ookla (Speedtest) has independent coverage maps showing what their customers’ tests have found.

Don’t fall into the trap of “the company lied to me!” No, they didn’t. Lots of folks, me included, get service better than promised. One reason T-Mo offers their 15-day free trial, I’m sure, is that what looks viable on paper can turn out to be a bust for reasons nobody could have predicted. The customer can back out without incurring any cost and move on, which is fair.

In the early days of automobiles, you had to know something about how they worked and be willing to fix basic things on your own (especially punctured tires). And you had to drive in an area where the roads were in decent shape. If none of those things were true, you were better off with a horse. We’re in the early days of 5G internet. You have to be willing to get your digital hands dirty, be knowledgeable enough to fix basic things, and live where the “roads” are in decent shape.

Expecting that every new service using this new technology will work perfectly out of the box in every situation is not realistic. Any marketer worth their salt is optimistic about their product. That’s their job. If you’re a savvy consumer, you understand that and do your own due diligence.

My experience with T-Mo’s 5G internet has been way better than expected, both where I live now (Florida), and a few years ago when I lived in a notoriously bad cell-signal area of LA (the foothills of the Angeles Crest mountains) and 5G Home Internet was still very new. In LA, I had 400-ish Mbps down, 30-ish up. Three years later, on the opposite coast, there are probably 50x the number of customers on the service, and speeds are more variable—250 to 800 Mbps down (400 typical), 40-110 up (60 typical)—but more than adequate.

T-Mo Home Internet tech support wasn’t good in the beginning. The service was brand new, you could tell that they really didn’t have things figured out organizationally, and as a customer you couldn’t talk to an internet TSR directly. Three-plus years makes a difference, however. We switched from Spectrum here to T-Mo a few months ago, and my interactions with the internet folks have been excellent, even with the occasional wait times you run into with every ISP. I have no complaints.

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