Forum Discussion
Roving ISP
New customer using YouTube TV to stream shows. About once a week Youtube does not allow access because the app says I am located in Minneapolis, which is a few hundred miles away from my home in Iowa. I can change it back but an unnecessary hassle. Customer service has been completely unhelpful I am about to change Internet providers. Thoughts?
I’m assuming by app you mean the YouTube TV app for your Smart TV on TMO Home Internet. It’s pretty much the nature of the beast since YouTube TV uses geolocation services that rely on IP address to determine your location and the Smart TV doesn’t have GPS services (at least I’m not aware of any that do yet).. There is nothing with IP address that really identifies your location accurately other than country - they rely upon geolocation databases that are inaccurate for wireless providers due to the infrastructure of wireless carriers since your TV doesn’t provide GPS services.
In my case, I’ve resorted to using my PC browsers to stream YouTube TV to my TV via an HDMI cable to the TV. Both Firefox and have an extension called LocationGuard that allows establishing your fixed GPS location. It appears YouTube TV utilizes the browse’s location services to determine location and it’s always resulted in my location’s proper channels being available.
On occasion I’ll also use an app on my phone to stream to my TV via casting (or via HDMI cable since my phone supports HDMI also) - the app on the phone is granted location permissions to rely on GPS and access channels available to that precise location.
In general, success really depends on what method the content provider uses to determine your location. Those that rely on geolocation databases where IP address is”guessed” will typically have issues with wireless carriers.
VPN is also a solution but probably not a free one and you’d nee to select one that has a server in your general location or allows establishing your location. Even then some content providers don’t allow VPN connections if detected.
Putting the “why” aside for a moment, can you use a VPN and locate the choice of server near you, and does that solve the problem? It sounds like you're switching towers or it's a routing issue on T-Mobile’s side.
You just have to laugh at how screwed up “everything” is these days. Google and other media sites always think I am in Puerto Rico, I am 3,000 miles from Puerto Rico. Once I was even in Mainland China, no idea on that one. Of course, the T-Mobile CSRs in the Philippines, that I had no clue what they were saying didn’t see either as an issue and asked if there was anything else I wanted? ☹
