Question

Pre-testing 5G internet speed...

  • 29 May 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 1884 views
S
Badge

Hello,

I’ve been a Tmobile customer for close to 20 years, with no issues. My cell is iPhone 12 Pro and get good speed test results for 5G:

Speedtest app, 5G

Even the LTE (4G) test shows faster download speed, than my current cable service:

Speedtest app, 4G test

The limited upload result is due to the current cell plan.

Tmobile 5G home internet is available in my area and prior to going for it, couple of questions…

Is this speed test result any indication for the future home internet performance?

Is there any limitation for the upload speed with home internet, or will it match the download speed?

How’s the telephone service with this service and can a current phone number with the cable service transferred to Tmobile home internet?

How does this service perform in adverse weather conditions, like heavy rain, snow, wind, etc., did anyone experienced these conditions?

After reading lot of posts about issues with the NOK 5G21 Gateway device, I am still somewhat hesitant to go for this service. Tmobile really should distribute a better router, instead of the seemingly bottom of the barrel cheap device.

Despite having a seemingly fast 4 and 5G connection with my iPhone, will the same issues, such as loosing wifi connections, reboot number of times during a 24-hours period, etc., exist with my planned Tmobile home internet service?

TIA...

 

2 replies

C
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

I live a mile from a T-Mobile tower in an outer ring suburban area.   I get 500-600 Mbit down using my iPhone 12 Pro Max on 5G and 60-75 Mbit upload.

My T-Mobile Home Internet has been stable for the entire month I have had the service.   Device speed depends on the Wi-Fi level implemented on the device.   With a Wi-Fi 5 802.11ac laptop I get 200 Mbit down.  But with a Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax laptop I get 400-500 Mbit down.   Upload is 50-75 Mbit.  So upload speed is not symmetrical to download.  Both connect to the 5Ghz SSID.

I am not aware that a phone service is offered.

There was a heavy rain storm with high winds recently.  Service was not impacted.   I have not needed to restart the Gateway and I have not experienced any dropped connections; either the Gateway or Wi-Fi.  The Gateway seems to have a stable 5G connection as I have never noticed speed drops to LTE levels using my Wi-Fi 6 laptop.  

I was going to keep my Mediacom cable internet service active for a month while I evaluated the T-Mobile service.   I canceled Mediacom after just a week.

I can’t say why others report so many issues.   I am very pleased.  My Gateway did arrive with the latest firmware loaded.

I agree that the Gateway device could use additional features that are available on most other routers.  I don’t use a private VPN but the Pulse Secure VPN that I use for work does not have any issues with the T-Mobile service.

I connected my existing Orbi Router to the Gateway in Access Point mode.  I also have 2 Orbi satellites. I have a rather large home so I use the Orbi satellites for Wi-Fi in areas furthest from the Gateway. And I have an 8-port switch connected to the Orbi Router.  The switch did seem to degrade Wi-Fi speed when I had it connected directly to the T-Mobile Gateway instead.  I left Wi-Fi active in both the Orbi and the T-Mobile Gateway.   They seem to avoid collisions.  By checking the Wi-Fi properties of each they seem to have avoided using the same band for either 2.4 or 5 Ghz.

 

Results from the Speedtest App on my Windows 10 laptop with Wi-Fi 6 connection to the T-Mobile Gateway.   The test server used is a T-Mobile server 45 miles from my home.

 

 

For comparison, Speedtest from my iPhone with T-Mobile 5G connection:

 

S
Badge

Thanks for your reply @cjake….

The lack of phone service is a bummer, but probably can work around it. The asymmetrical download speed is not an issue either.

The stable, consistent connection on the other had will be an issue for my SOHO business. Couple of tests at different times and places today, raining outside, worries me for the 5G connection:

The LTE (4G) tests are highlighted in yellow

The 4G download speed is still higher than my current cable service’s, including some upload speed, but not happy about the wildly fluctuating 5G speeds, rather the different type of 5G connections:

  1. NR = Stand alone 5G cell network, no 4G on tower
  2. NRNSA = Non-Stand Alone 5G cell network, 4G on tower

Seemingly, there isn’t many NR 5G tower around me, that would explain the low transfer speeds. On the other hand, the NTNSA 5G towers are either closer or there are more of them around me.

Is there a way to manually set the connection type to NRNSA? That’s plenty of speed for me until the NR 5G connection stabalizes at higher speeds…

TIA...

 

Reply


New badge winners

Show all badges
Terms & Conditions