I am glad I did not depend on this community forum for my decision to try T mobile home internet. I live in a suburb of Cincinnati and have been using T mobile for 6 weeks now. The first gateway picked up 3 bars signal strength but would not stay connected. T mobile concluded the gateway was defective and promptly sent a replacement gateway which I use with a Netgear Nighthawk router (30 connected devices). I am using a small USB powered fan to keep the gateway cool. I have consistently had download speeds between 200 and 300 mbps with a rare drop to around 100. Spectrum was 200 max. Upload speeds range from 10 to 30. Spectrum was 10 max. The gateway is sensitive. Rotating the cylinder about 30 degrees increased download speed by 50 mbps. Only one internet drop for about 5 minutes late one night which was traced to work on the nearby cell tower.
It’s good to read a post from someone like myself, happy with T mobile home internet and in your case, you even had to put up with some adversity with the gateway problem, but got through it, and reading a post like yours helps others with problems consider that maybe it might be worth it to see some of the problems they experience in perspective.
The forum is naturally weighted toward people with problems, and others sharing tips on how to improve performance or get something working that won’t work, like an external router or other device, or a service like a VPN.
Before I got this, because it wasn’t available where I live when I first checked availability, I binged on YouTube videos about it, watching people setting it up and using it -- people who got 500+ speeds right away, a tech guy who couldn’t even connect to the internet because T mobile hadn’t activated his account, and everything between.
I understand how people with frustrating experiences like to vent here, but I think there is a way to vent that can be helpful to others, and one which is a little absurd, my personal favorite being the people who want to contact the CEO.
Some of the most helpful posts are from people who had problems, and share ways they resolved them. But it’s also helpful when the people who have problems write about the things they tried that didn’t work, including when they need to ditch the service and go back to their former provider.
Trying 5G home internet is a risk/reward proposition, an adventure, because it is so new, because it is developing so fast, and because you might be in a dead zone. I’m guessing that is less than 5% of people who try T mobile. And who knows what is going to happen when more and more people sign up for this service. But I’m staying for the ride.
It's nice to see someone having a positive experience. I'm hoping that will soon be me. I looked at T-Mobile for internet and was told it was available in my area but the equipment was on back order. I received it and my experience has been rather negative. Today in fact my test speed was 1.88 mbps download and 6.07 mbps upload. I have my fingers crossed it will get better they keep telling me they are upgrading my tower. So far it's been less than satisfactory. To their credit they have given me two months bill credit and that is the only reason I have not left. What's frustrating is every time I call they have the miracle fix and it is exactly the same when they are done. I cut the cable when I switched so this is most frustrating when it comes to our TV experience.
I have the same situation no problems great speed and not the problems indicated by the forum. I have had the service for a month now and am pleased with it.
I started using T-Mobile internet in mid-August, was getting 3 bars, but was getting 600-700 down and 20-30 up. Loved it, way better than dealing with Comcast. Last Thursday I went down to 2 bars and my speeds dropped to 1mbps down and 0.8 mbps up. Unfortunately I had to go back to Comcast, I need something that’s reliable.
I called T-Mobile to return the gateway. They let me know upgrades were going on in my area which were causing the issues. I agreed to suspend my service for 2 months for free, as opposed to returning the gateway. This way I can continue to monitor to see if the signal strength returns or gets better over the next couple of months. Honestly I feel they are just telling everyone that their area is being serviced as an excuse and to keep them as internet customers. I guess we’ll see over the next couple of months. I was impressed over the first 6 weeks and I’d rather give my money to anyone rather than Comcast. But, if it isn’t reliable, than it’s not worth it.
No complaints here! I’m about a mile away from a suspected tower.
3 strong bars of service which sometimes goes to 4. Wired in mesh setup hardwired to an Asus wifi 6 router (setup as an AP).
I hooked up this week and it works way better than my Comcast account for less money. I average over 200Mb on Ethernet and Wi-Fi. The curious thing is that I only get two bars connection but such awesome speeds. Some YouTubers commented that you can still get great connection speeds with just two bars. I will experiment for two weeks before deciding to keep it or not.
I’m a bit of an outlier in the forum so far. Service was not good, then became very good. Initial service (in Tulsa) in early August was pretty spotty. Speeds all over the place, and daily (or more frequent) restarts were needed to regain internet connectivity. Support was unable to help much, other than to say there was a lot of work going on with nearby towers that was scheduled to be completed by the end of October. On good days, speeds were 200+ Mbps when I caught an N41 band from a tower a couple of miles away, 30-90 when I caught an N71 band. When speeds dropped, they were <10 down, sometimes <1. The firmware upgrade to the .1609 version helped a little with loss of internet. Only dropped out 2-3 times a week.
In late September, the daily loss of internet stopped, and speeds stabilized, at noticeably higher rates. N41 band speeds average 300+, and the N71 band averages 150+. Overall average speeds over the last three weeks is 250 Mbps. No loss of internet in more than three weeks. Given that I’m limited in where I can place the can in my house, with no direct line of sight and lots of trees and buildings between my house and the towers, these speeds are more than acceptable for me.
I’ll admit I was skeptical when I got the “we’re working on the towers” reason for my earlier problems, as many on the forum seemed to think that was just an excuse that T-Mo trotted out when they couldn’t find a fix. I’m glad I stuck with them instead of going back to the 30 Mbps ADSL service for which I was paying $70. Time will tell if service continues to be good, but it does appear that T-Mo is indeed working to upgrade service. I hope that T-Mo upgrades the towers soon in the areas where others are struggling to get acceptable service.
We’ll I did it! I dropped Comcast and sticking with t mobile. Still getting 200 to 300 speeds. Never drops below 100.
I have now been with T-Mobile home internet 3½ months and I’m very satisfied with the service given what they charge verses Spectrum and the local Ma Bell. I live in what is described as 5G extended area by T-Mobile. It started bumpy, with the first two 5G gateways didn’t work, the first was the on-off button wouldn’t stay on. The second just quit after two days. The third one has been working fine. I regularly have download speeds of 150 - 190 MBPS and 35 to 50 up. I have experienced one time a loss of internet connection and after I rebooted the gateway i haven’t experienced a loss of connection again. My gateway sits in the middle of the house, as no matter I put it, the signal was the same. 2 to 3 bars for primary ( B2 and sometimes B66) and 3 to 4 bars for the secondary signal (N71). The 1609 firmware upgrade fixed the Cisco anywhere VPN issue I was experiencing on my company laptop. It is true that making small turns to the gateway way affects your signal reception. I’m using the wireless router without additional routers because I have really good signal throughout the house and my property( I’m on an acre). I only had one device that wouldn’t initially connect to the router and that was my Sonos sound bar. It’s only 2.4GHZ, I had to change the ax designation in the 2.4GHZ setting and it connected immediately, once connected I changed it back to ax and it has stayed connected since. I only have one WiFi 6 capable device, a new laptop and it wouldn’t even see the routers wireless signal until I updated the laptop, after that it connected easily. So it is nice to read others with good experiences, there are always going to be issues in different areas and with different people as sometimes I believe their expectations exceed the actual service, i. e. Port forwarding, configuring the gateway for bridge mode, etc. those things someday may come as the service grows. As for me I love to see them disrupting all the big boys to force them to be more competitive. Go T-Mobile!
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