Home Internet Gateway Needs Reboot Multiple Times Daily, Internet Access Dropping

To provide an update, I believe I’ve resolved the issue and want to share in case it’s this simple for others as well.  I moved my trash can to a window in my home that is OPPOSITE the direction the cell tower is at.  Ever since doing that I’ve not had to reset the device in over a week and the connection quality usually shows “Good”.  Speeds are consistently 200-300 Mbps down and 10-20 Mbps up.

I suggest others who are also having this issue don’t give up yet and keep trying different locations, even if those locations are not in the direction of the cell tower.  I have the device in a second story window directly up against the glass (window gets no direct sun so overheating not an issue).  Device is also connected to an APC 450VA UPS (no idea if the UPS helps, but it can’t hurt).

I disconnect when my connection is dropping for about an hour to get rid of tower or or device bugs that I believe triggers a net recycle and has worked unfortunately it happens daily but I'm glad to disconnect for an hour play with the dog and get back to a stable connection.

I’m experiencing the same issue as others here.  Got the service in January.  Worked perfectly for a month or two.  Then the trash can (Nokia 5G Gateway N1) started needing to be reset on a weekly basis.  Then a couple times a week.  Now daily...Recently multiple times a day.  Signal always comes back immediately upon reset (reset takes 2-3 minutes).  If not home, no ability to reset device which makes Nest thermostat/cameras inaccessible.

I keep my device in my 2nd story window facing where I believe cell tower is (info online for 5G towers is sparse).  Also have the window covered to avoid direct sun/overheating.  Have tried with and without secondary routers connected.  Have tried plugging device directly into outlet, connecting to a surge protector, and connecting to an APS Backup-UPS.  Makes no difference, signal still drops.  Time of droppage is sporadic, but I have noticed an increased frequency shortly after 5pm which I find curious.  If I had to guess, the issue is a software glitch when the device switches between primary and secondary towers.

The current frequency of dropping signal will unfortunately force my wife and I to switch back to a more stable internet provider if cannot resolve (both working remotely and attending frequent video calls).

I called T-Mobile today to try to request the new device that others have mentioned, but was instead told that there were cell towers being serviced in the area over the last few days and the issue should be now resolved [eyes rolling].  This of course would not explain why the issue has been occurring for months on end…

They will be following up in a few days so I will report back how that conversation goes.  Seems like they issue new devices only as a last resort so unfortunately the only way to get one is to keep complaining again and again.

After a call into The Philippines -:)

I was issued a new router Modem.

The previous gray can only gave me two bars this one has three or four . I still have it connected to the keep connect to reboot automatically if it goes out  / had one reboot a few minutes after I did it but have not had one for 24 hours will report back in a few days

N4WWL wrote:

I was experiencing multiple drops daily, sometimes multiple drops over a 2-hour period. However, this problem seems to have been resolved. My gateway has held a connection without dropping for 19d 1h 31m. Perhaps there was a firmware upgrade that fixed the repeated dropouts or maybe the “tower maintenance” argument was legit. The current firmware I show is 1.2103.00.0338. Anybody else experience a similar result?

I’ve experienced the opposite result. I’m just back up from my 4th gateway reboot of the day, same firmware version as yours. This service has gone from amazing to garbage in only 4 months. Never thought I’d be on the verge of going back to Comcast, but this many network and/or equipment failures per day is not something I can accept on a daily basis.

I have tried everything on all three different threads I have the latest gray can.

you can call customer service all you want and talk to people in the Philippines they give the same answers say they’ll call back they don’t you’re wasting your time with that anyways

I have split the unit to produce 2.4 and 5 GHz putting cameras on the 2.4 televisions phones on the 5 GHz even cut down my nest cameras to off to see if that would make a difference for band with nothing works with this new can in my location towers are all complete

This small device is the only thing that’s made my life happy when it comes to T-Mobile home 5G Internet

Thats an interesting device. If I had the same issue here I would prefer to push for the newer router T-Mobile is pushing out to see if the newer router has better performance. It would be interesting to be able to compare the operation of the two. I have not had heat related issues with the Nokia I have and it runs for an extended period of time without issues. There have been a couple of episodes where TMO was working on the tower equipment and that led to repeated disruptions but for the most part we have a really solid connection here. I would like to add an external 4X4 MIMO antenna so I could improve the local WIFI delivery with a more central location but the cost is a bit hard to justify. 

As others have stated multiple resets in a day sometimes not for a couple of days this doesn’t resolve the internal problem of the modem router but it will certainly make your life a lot easier.

I purchased a keep assist which was easy to set up I changed  the advanced settings to reboot the power in one minute when it deciphers there’s no longer an Internet connection it works like a champ you still may lose your Internet but you don’t have to get up and reset it you can just do whatever for 60 seconds 

I have been on the T-Mobile home internet solution since January of 2021 at what appears to have been toward the end of the BETA period. The Nokia router I have is hardware revision 3TG00739AAAA and it is currently on the 1.2103.00.0338 software version. I have seen at least 3-4 software updates; all appear to take place upon a reboot if it is available. I could not get a download image or push it myself so I believe that is just the T-Mobile control factor. 

I have not observed heat issues with mine. I stated the hardware revision as is could be important. I worked in the industry for 22 years and I know manufacturing runs can have issues. A build manufacturer might use components that are not to the original specifications and a whole release of product is compromised. I have suspected the heat issues might be with the improper bonding of the heat sinks on the chips or not present at all. The insides are pretty obscure so you would have to dig in deep to investigate. Nokia would know how/why the hardware revisions are determined but if it is due to cost cutting for manufacturing, well, not likely they will fess up to that.

In the early 2-3 weeks after obtaining the router we did experience some repeated cellular disruptions. Then the router ran pretty great till June when there were repeated disruptions for 7-10 days. After three calls to T-Mobile support they stated there was work on the tower equipment as upgrades were necessary. It would be nice IF T-Mobile would notify customers in advance of doing work in given locations. This would prevent customers from wasting a bunch of time chasing after issues that are not present. Taking a more proactive support mode makes sense to gain customer loyalty. I don’t think they quite get that or the powers that control matters don’t want to invest in the support initiative.

I believe is could be a very good thing if there is a new improved router to be released. That is if it is truly better for the customer base and not just a tighter control element for T-Mobile visibility to traffic. Nokia has been in the industry a long time now but over time things change so how they may have done things in the early days vs. how they operate now could be very different. 

Even with the current router the web management interface could use some improvements. The features present with the Nokia router are pretty limited. A more robust router with more local controls would be a welcome addition. The current management options are not impressive. The mobile application is a waste of time and i have found it to be so useless that I removed it from my phone as it would usually hang up and I would have to reboot my iPhone 12 Pro just to get the thing shut down. 

The cellular signal bouncing is a very frustrating issue. The inconsistent service delivery for speeds and quality of signal is another. Local WIFI seem to work well enough but lacks controls. I have used wireless scanners and I used cellmapper.net to identify the towers. CellMapper is only 70-80% accurate for data but is one of the best tools for tower location. The 4G LTE is more complete and I have found the 5G NR PCI values not present on some towers. A call to T-Mobile support and asking them for coordinates to the tower is possible and I recommend it. If the tower is too far away and/or the topology of the landscape between the tower and router is suspect this is important to know. In some locations it is just not possible to obtain a strong, clean signal from the tower. With wireless transmissions there can be external factors that are difficult to resolve. In some cases using an external antenna can improve the solution and make it work. Waveform.com is a vendor that has antenna solutions and they have clear documentation on making the antenna setup and placement. They have engineers that will talk to you and answer questions. 

There are multiple ways to resolve some of the issues and understand what is going on. I found it took a bit of research online and testing here and just trying multiple different locations and positions with the router before I found the optimal location. You can’t optimize the router location with the LED on the top of the router. Making a wired connection to the router and using the web interface is pretty important. Understanding the various RF connectivity factors is also necessary. There is a great deal of information online and a quick search of something you observe in the web interface that you don’t understand can help resolve problems. When posting to the community more information is better than just a one line obscure statement. 

I spent considerable time getting the solution optimized so I do know it can be frustrating. The T-Mobile solution is maybe not the best for every location but for many users, like us, it has been the most economical and works pretty solid now. The community is a good place to start and on Reddit there are some good conversations. Some are bash sessions and others actually have good information and are worth reading. 

Mine is at the same version, and my can never drops below 4 bars.  I'm at 5 bars now and had to restart twice in a row to go from no connection.  I have to restart several times a day, and here lately, 2 or 3 times in a row to get a connection.  Always at 4 or 5 bars.