Question

Why is it my 5G Internet Gateway can't work using 5G?

L
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As I understand the connections for bands, a B connection is 4G (LTE) and the N connection would be 5G.  Whether bands using B12, B2 or B66 that primary signal is a 4G signal, right? Also, from the instructions (and T-mobile website) that primary connection ‘must’ be 4G (LTE) and only the secondary connection is 5G. 

As is in my case, where you get no secondary connection, you are not receiving 5G. Period.

And where (again as I understand the product correctly) secondary is not primary - you are using that primary 4G signal as your main connection – the gateway will not be providing you with 5G nor 5G speeds. Hmm.

Makes sense really, as the 600mHz signal only travels about 1,500 feet on average (three football fields) and low-lying trees and buildings can easily block the signal.

Heck, the closest 4G tower is less than ½ mile away, and I can barely keep the Gateway connected. Again, 2 -digits in their teens at best. At 4G.

The most disappointing aspect of this service has been the repeated calls to T-Mobile. Over a period of three months, I have logged upwards of 20+ hours in calls, looking for a resolution.  I have received repeated promises, am told that ‘engineers will be contacted’, and ‘service will be restored’ (?), but to no avail.

Q: Was there ever any 5G in the neighborhood to begin with?  I think not.

I think it’s one thing to speak to problems rolling out the service that may (as yet) work in the area over 4G, but it’s really insulting to have you speak to the availability of services in 5G where there are none.

Congrats to you T-Mobile – you finally jumped the shark.

 

PS: Props to call center Salem, OR- at least you are trying!

11 replies

C
Userlevel 4
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The 600 MHz 5G band is not limited to 1500 feet.  You are thinking of mmwave.  I believe that T-Mobile uses the n260 39 GHz band for mmwave.

N71 is the 600 MHz 5G band, also known as Low Band.  Its peak speed can be up to 225 Mbps.  It provides the furthest signal coverage and is deployed primarily in rural areas.

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.

L
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The 600 MHz 5G band is not limited to 1500 feet. 

Your reply is correct in many ways.  UHF (TV broadcasting @ 400 - 700mHz) is capable of travelling many, many miles.  But that is not the nature of the 5G cellular setup here, where I live.  Sadly, the frequencies you receive and the peak speeds you enjoy are not, in all cases, universal. 

Cell towers with 5G are largely ‘freeway adjacent’ in this portion of the country. And whether they are at 5 miles or 500ft away makes little difference if the product cannot connect, or looses connection over the course of the day. Sadder still, is the inability to connect above 4G, particularly on a device that was sold on the singular merits of unlimited 5G connectivity.

I appreciate the input- but the problem lies elsewhere.

 

Kind regards

 

 

J

New Home Internet user at the intersection of two major freeways and I can see four towers from my six floor apartment that according to opensignal are T-Mobile.  My primary seems to always be B66 and secondary with “good” signal is N41.  So as I understand this thread, I’m on 4G even though there are other 5G towers in line of sight.  The strange part is that when I go to “What’s my IP”, it says I’m 400 miles away in the mountains of New Mexico (I’m in Denver).  And, my Chromecast uses my IP location to get the weather and it always shows the temps for Taos NM.    Verizon is lighting up this area now (with $50 promo so less than TMobile) so we’ll see what shakes out.  About 2 out of 3 times, I can’t even watch a YouTube without the signal dropping out.  :(

L
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@jbj I guess they have it right, here on their own interwebs, so depending on where you are and what you can access ... that’s what you get!  B66 is 4G/LTE @TMobile.

Don’t know if anyone has reached out to your issues - I get exactly nada from Customer Support - but they do take my money!

...

I did not know that Band 71 @600mHz could be either 5G or LTE,  if or when you can connect to it.

https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/t-mobile-network

5G

  • 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.
  • Check out What is 5G? to learn how it works!

Extended Range 4G LTE

  • Frequencies that can provide Extended Range LTE
    • Band 12 (700 MHz)
    • Band 71 (600 MHz)
  • Our Extended Range LTE signal reaches 2X as far and penetrates walls for 4X better coverage in-buildings than ever before.

4G LTE

  • Frequencies that can provide LTE:
    • Band 2 (1900 MHz)
    • Band 5 (850 MHz)
    • Band 4 (1700/2100 MHz)
    • Band 66 (Extension of band 4 on 1700/2100 MHz).
  • 4G LTE offers fast download speeds, up to 50% faster speeds than 3G. See Data speeds.
  • Voice and data services only work at the same time when on you have VoLTE enabled on your device. Otherwise, LTE only provides data.
J

I’ve had two gateway devices - both had problems.  I get great 4-5 bars but terrible network.  Have sent both back and using Comcrap again.

Here’s what I was told by tech support (note: since the story seems to change with every call, YMMV):

  1.  The radios work great to the towers, but all 4 towers in my area are having network problems with no date for resolution.
  2. When asked why I get good 5g on my phones, was told:  “we prioritize phone traffic” during times of congestion.  Since the towers stay congested due to our network problems, you will not get good internet until we fix it.  No ETA for that.
  3. I asked why I could not stream a movie or even listen to a song over the internet without having the signal drop out.  They checked and said that I was being throttled - I suppose because I was, well, using the internet.  I was surprised that they throttle (which means zero Internet) when the problem is theirs.

My takeaways,  TMO is great for phone but terrible (for now) for Internet.  Verizon is offering 5g on their network with up to 1GBs for less cost than TMO - so trying them next is a no brainer.  Maybe the “carrier” will do a better job than the “un carrier”

J
Userlevel 3
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I really thought my service was going downhill or was being reprioritized, and it was barely usable for over a month. Was decent before. The tower upgrades in my area seemed to have fixed the service issues and started connecting to b41 most of the time on my phone and home internet. For some reason, the router has never connected to a secondary signal, my phone shows 5g though. Speeds on my home internet have been super fast and seem better than on my phone

L
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@jbj  I think you may have captured the non-sense of it all ...”YMMV”.

@justintyme2 I cannot speak for your equip.  I have the ‘new’ tower (3TG00936AAAA). It literally says in the manual that the primary signal MUST be 4G.  It is not even apparent how the 5G (secondary) would even work in that case. If it works as it says ( and primary is not secondary ), then it’s no wonder.

J
Userlevel 3
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@jbj  I think you may have captured the non-sense of it all ...”YMMV”.

@justintyme2 I cannot speak for your equip.  I have the ‘new’ tower (3TG00936AAAA). It literally says in the manual that the primary signal MUST be 4G.  It is not even apparent how the 5G (secondary) would even work in that case. If it works as it says ( and primary is not secondary ), then it’s no wonder.

I have the new 5g router on the latest firmware. Ever since I got it 3 months ago, it has never shown a secondary signal, only primary usually b66. After they worked on towers, it used b12 a lot then switched to primarily b41 and that’s when I noticed speeds over 100 mbps. Used to always get 10-50 at most. My 5g phone usually says 5g but connected to b66 and after the tower upgrades, it stays more on 4g but the speeds are matching the router and also uses b41 a lot, sometimes b25

F

I'm not a cellular expert,  but I think the gateway uses a signal aggregation method where it combines the 4G and 5G signals to take advantage of the best properties of both. If your gateway is connected to a 4g and 5g tower like mine is, you should get decent results.   I get 600 mbps down and 30 mbps up. I'm connected to B2 and N41, so you can see that while the 4G is the primary signal,  the 5g is pulling its weight too...

iTinkeralot
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Userlevel 7
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XR 5G:  Band n71 (600 MHz) I did some research and found an article that suggest that the n71 600 MHz is an extension of the 4G LTE 71 which is also in the 600 MHz range.

Band n41 (2.5 GHz) is the mid band 5G frequency often when on my phone in JC my iPhone will  show the icon 5G%20UC%20icon%20horizontal.png or Apple%205G%20UC%20Icon.png so it appears the n41 is up in some places in the trip-city areas. 

We are too far out in the sticks for the higher bands. Not likely to ever get on one of these. 

  • Band n258 (24 GHz)
  • Band n260 (39 GHz)
  • Band n261 (28 GHz)

The higher mm wavelength bands are going to be more of a larger city and businesses with deep pockets. T-Mobile has this on online pages. 

L
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@iTinkeralot Great post!

In my naivete a year ago, there was no understanding that 4G / LTE / 5G were all MHz-based communication speeds, and that  mmwave (GHz-based) technology would soon replace it, for phones and devices capable of utilizing that ‘higher’ spectrum. 

Mmwave really should be called “G” (or 6G for that matter), but alas, not to offend the 11/12/13x iPhone early adopters who traded up from 4 to 5G.  Mmmmm...marketing.

Seems almost comical now, my repeated inquiries about 5g towers and connection problems then - no  point really in putting up more Mhz technology money where it would be outdated before the years end.  LOL

Also funny to note the new iPhone SE3 (2022) will not use the new spectrum.

It would be interesting to see if the TMHI tower (now only 9months old technology) will connect with 5GUC moving forward, or, if that too will remain in Mhz only mode.

 

Thank you for for your post !

 

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