New to TMobile home internet, couldn’t wait to receive the new tower. It’s a NOK 5g21 HW Ver 3TG00739B.After initial set-up it seemed to work OK, and was fast compared to our cell phone hot spot.Now not so much….Was on the phone with customer support for over an hour yesterday trying to get the tower back up to speed.download speed as tested on “test my speed” a paltry 6.08 Mbpsupload speed: 35.26customer support had us reboot several times, then reset to factory specs.Primary SignalPCI 412Band B2EARFCN 675 Secondary SignalPCI 6Band n71NR-ARFCN 125290The cell tower is approximately 1 mile away from the house with a clear line of sight no obstructions. The NOK 5G is sitting next to a window with no obstructions and bounces between 4 and 5 bars signal strength.I am not “tech” smart being an old dinosaur, and would appreciate some insight as to what the heck is going on? We are in a remote desert location and thought this was the answer to our internet dreams LOL Any help is most appreciated. Thanks Bill

Hi Bill, you gave all the information I wish more people would give when seeking help with their slow speeds.It is really strange getting that low a download speed compared to your upload speed. I would have called the service people also. And with your 1 mile clear sight lines from the tower, if you were getting the n41 5G band instead of n71, you should be getting speeds in excess of 100Mpbs on the download, and perhaps as high as 200. That’s something you might inquire further about with T mobile, if they have any plans to upgrade your tower to the n41 band.I have gotten as high as 190 download and 30 upload and I am 5 miles away from the tower. My average download speed is about 90 though, and lowest I get now is 35 or so. I’m very happy with this, after the slow DSL speeds I was on.The bands with the prefix of B are the 4G bands, like the B2 you listed, and the 5G band is your n71. And 5G works in a “non stand-alone” relationship with 4G. So you are getting 5G, and that’s the good news. (If you were getting only 4G, you would get a Primary signal alone, with no Secondary “n” signal.)The bad news is that the newer n41 mid-frequency 5G band is the one you want in your signal pair, rather than the low-frequency n71, because n71 yields a lower range of speeds to begin with, and the fast speed you can get within a block of the tower tends to decrease rapidly with distance, in some cases anyway.T mobile is gradually replacing the n71 equipment with the faster n41 in many areas. The mid-frequency rights are the ones they acquired from their merger with Sprint and the ones they want to use to spearhead their rollout of 5G. But, yes, they are using n71, too.So it’s possible you might be stuck with the n71 for a while. I’ve read of a few instances where it happened to people though, just in the last three or four months. That is, their speed increased dramatically one day, and noticed they were getting a Secondary on the n41 band.As far as I know, they do not put the n71 on the same tower as an n41.But there are some things you can try now. First, be sure your gateway is within 15 feet of the computer or phone (set on wifi) you are doing the speed testing on, all in the same room. (I used to keep my DSL modem/router about 25 feet away, two rooms away, and it worked fine, but that apparently doesn’t work at all with this gateway. It needs to be close.)Second, try the gateway in all sorts of locations, doing multiple speed tests at each location. Try puting the gateway below the window sill level, instead of in the window.I even took my gateway outside, and on the roof (speed was bad), using a portable power supply, but you can also use an extension cord. This is just to see if there is ANYWHERE where you can get a faster speed on a speed test. I know of one person who made a video where he got 20Mbps in his house, max, but on a pole above his roof he got 140Mbps. Being handy, he knew how to cover and insulate it, ventilate it with a fan, and ground it properly. Even so, to anyone going this extreme, you might end up owning the $400 gateway. You don’t have to get on the roof, but try it outside if you can, just to see. Or, if you’re getting 5 bars in the window, try opening the window. I don’t know, maybe you have triple pane windows with a coating that blocks the signal. Then again, you’re getting a pretty good upload speed. What is up with that? Does anyone reading this have an idea or experience with what that means?Also, what you want to do when testing and maybe finding a fast speed location for your gateway, check what bands you are on. You were on the B2/n71 5G combo and maybe another time you get the B66/n71.Also, you can experiment with trying to connect to different bands by turning the gateway on and off, via the button on the gateway. That reboots it. However, sometimes you just connect to the same bands over and over. The gateway takes a full 2 minutes to reset, but the connection will come on by itself, connecting any devices you may have also. In other words, no need to click on your wifi name and enter a password or anything like that. It knows your wifi name and password after the first time you did it.On the off chance you have a microwave in operation anywhere near the gateway, this can slow the speed considerably, but less so if you are on a newer computer with the 5Ghz wifi instead of the older 2.4. Still, just thought I mention it. I do a crazy amount of microwaving and noticed that early on. Had to move that farther away when an older computer was being used. Well, see if any of this changes anything. It’s worth a try.Do you have a 5G phone by any chance, or perhaps a friend who is on T mobile with their 5G phone and could test that out at your house, using the cellular signal of course, not the wifi from your gateway? If they got really good speeds from their 5G phone on a T mobile tower, then you would know you might have a problem with your gateway. That might be good to know.I have only a 4G phone. It can still do tower mapping through the wifi signal on the gateway, telling me what tower I’m connecting to using a tower mapping app.So try some of this stuff if you can, and get back to us. This might be a mystery that can be solved. Even with the n71, that is still a very slow download speed and something is wrong. Could be a bad modem/router.I’m editing this because I thought of one more thing. Reading your reply to Jlillard, the hot gateway guy, you got a 20 download at 5am, which is when I tend to get the highest speeds also.But try doing a test on fast.com, because there’s a weird thing about the gateway that it connects to servers sometimes that are way out of state for the speed test, not that that gives an incorrect speed always, but it might be a good idea to try a different test, just in case. I like alternating between tests anyway.. The Fast.com test only give you the upload speed if you click on the box after doing the download speed for the first time.

You might try adding a fan to see if cooling it down keeps your speeds up.https://community.t-mobile.com/tv-home-internet-7/weekly-reboot-35365

The tower is sitting under an a/c vent, so heat is not a problem.This morining at 0500 the download is at 21.13and the upload is 40.74 as tested on speedtest.net

BouseBill wrote: The tower is sitting under an a/c vent, so heat is not a problem. This morining at 0500 the download is at 21.13 and the upload is 40.74 as tested on speedtest.net I had mine sitting on top of an A/C vent that ran 24 / 7 and I still had issues. I now have a fan on the bottom and top of the device and am setting at a 13 day uptime right now which is almost my longest time. We may be fighting separate issues since I’m only going over a 4G signal.

I was doing some reading this afternoon on how cell towers work, as I’m just learning about all this stuff starting last month. I stumbled across some pieces of information which might conceivably account for someone a mile away from a tower not receiving good speed, although since Bill receives between 4 and 5 bars signal strength, and that’s probably a better indicator of cell tower reach to his house than internet speed, then these two things probably don’t apply to his situation.High signal strength with poor speed usually means interference, either from obstructions or another tower’s signal, or from something like a nearby electrical power station.Some towers have “directional characteristics,” rather than being completely omnidirectional and transmitting equally in every degree of 360 degrees. So a person’s house might be located in a sort of dead spot, because in that direction there is mostly nothing for miles.Another possibility is a tower’s power being turned down, so it doesn’t have nearly as much reach as the average tower. This is very common in cities, that a tower gets turned down, when it interferes with the signal from a neighboring tower’s cell (area of coverage). But it can also happen in rural areas for the same reason.More than a few people who were in the rollout of this T mobile home internet, said they got good speed for a few weeks, or a few months, and then suddenly it dropped off and was really slow. One recent post from a guy in Brooklyn reported that on the second day of use, he got double the speed range of his first day of use. And I’ve read where some people’s speeds got faster through their first weeks or months.The Nokia gateway that T mobile uses has a maximum power draw of 36 watts. I’ve measured it only up to 25 watts, when it is busy streaming. It idles at 12 watts, like when you are surfing web pages and not using great volumes of data. This gives the gateway an advantage in signal strength over a cell phone, including the best $1000+ 5G phone you can buy. When a phone is very low on battery, it can have trouble reaching a tower that is far away. This gateway shouldn’t have that problem it is plugged into the wall and has 36 watts at its disposal.Wireless technology is advancing at a feverish pace though.It’s only a matter of time before we all have very fast internet speeds through improved 5G technology. It is only just beginning.

TMobile Home internet | T-Mobile Community

iTinkeralot
Bandwidth Buff
3 years ago
If you need more info, here are ways to reach T-Mobile.
Sales 1-844-573-0912
Support 1-844-711-0660
Online Support
If the gateway just does not power up or function at all and there is a T-Mobile store close by call them or go by the store and see if they can help you out.
If you post more details about your home internet gateway and the specific problem(s) with it more responses can be productive. I will try to provide some answers if you can post more details.
Jevonjohnson
Network Novice
3 years ago
Really
Jevonjohnson
Network Novice
3 years ago
My internet is off and I'm pissed just paid my bill this is not exceptable and I can't get support teally
Lexus_Esperanza
Network Novice
3 years ago
Need help finding my Administrator password. Where is it located at?
Robert_Randall
Network Novice
3 years ago
You will definitely need help in maintaining your mental health. It would be better to get calmerry counseling and it would be online. Which in my opinion is very convenient and you don't have to leave the house.
Alex8842
Roaming Rookie
4 years ago
I have a similar problem. I have a legacy Pay As You Good account which I use for 2FA only. I’ve had the account for years. Once a year I purchase a phone minutes card and load it with whatever amount required to maintain 100 minutes. Last week I purchase the T-Mobile 5G Home Internet which is working just fine. My issue is establishing a second account for this product. I have all the required numbers, account, PIN, subscriber and phone. Every time I try the setup a new ID their system responds with, I already have an ID. Their system is trying to place this product into an account that has a different account number.
I was fortunate enough to speak with a tech rep at the 844-275-9310 who toke the time to duplicate what I experienced and confirmed after hours of trying that the issue requires an engineering solution. She created a ticket # 58752623, documented the issue and submitted to the engineering support group; that was three business days ago. She did say it would take 3 to 5 business days to resolve and she would get back to me.
Yesterday I received my first bill by gateway tower message, no email; that was a surprise along with an included a $1.16 fee on my billed amount. I’ll wait the 2 more business days for them to resolve my account ID issue; if they don’t, I’ll request an RMA for the hardware and end this issue.
Jennyu1974
Network Novice
4 years ago
This will definitely sound paranoid, but I think T-Mobile is trying to break down my mental health. My gateway device suddenly stopped working on Sep 9th. I was told it was a firmware update that made it so my unit was no longer compatible with the tower. Unfortunately, the agent didn’t confirm my mailing address and they sent the replacement to my old address where I hadn’t lived for a few months. Someone in customer service didn’t update my billing and service address accurately. When I received a second replacement unit, it arrived without a SIM card. I was asked to take the SIM card from the old tower. I have a lot of talents, but this isn’t one of them. I ended up jamming the SIM card and it didn’t work. I received another device, again without a SIM card. I was told to go into a store and get a SIM card. I did that and again, the device still didn’t work.
If you can believe it, my “customer service experience” and the T-Mobile marketing slogan about caring about their customers has been the opposite of what they advertise as 20 days later I’m still going through this. I went into a local store and the store did a warranty check for the third device I received. The manager concluded I should have a fourth device shipped to the store and I would be notified when it arrived. I received a text from T-Mobile saying they were charging me for the hotspot usage they said they would provide for free given I need internet in order to work. I went to the store for a meeting I thought I had with the manager this morning to discuss billing and alas, they were not there. Too boot, apparently the device arrived and I was not notified.
I’ve been on the phone with T-Mobile for 30-45 minutes everyday since Sep 9th. They’re trying to charge me for hotspot usage they said they were giving me to remedy the situation, and yesterday I found myself in tears over this because I am so genuinely frustrated by all this. Anyone that has asked me since yesterday how I’m doing learns this story. My work colleague let me know that Verizon might have a better solution with their Jet Pack? I’m going to investigate later today. Any advice? Thoughts? Is anyone else experiencing this insanity?
pashvin
Network Novice
4 years ago
This is a new technology so it has a new challenge. I got my device week before and I was getting just 25-30mbps. I started digging into it and found that it is connecting B2 on primary but n71 on secondary. I used cellmapper.net and found that I am actually on intersection of two towers, one with n71 and second with n41 and noticed that it is switching two towers time by time and when it is connected to n41 , then I get 120 - 130 mbps download speed which is really good.
I tried to position gateway. At the same spot , if I place , then I get only n71 only but if I rotate 180 degree at the same spot, then I get n71 and n41 and it stays on n41 but once a while it switch back to n71 and then I have to reboot the device (without changing position) to switch back to n41. I wish it stays on n41 forever.
so looks like if you are on n41, then will get good speed. n71 will give low speed but still within t-mobile promise of average speed.
Also advice to new users that right after first startup , you may get very low speed (like I had 14mbps) and that is because after first startup, it takes ~2 hours (as per tech support) to fully provision to get higher speed.
BouseBill
Roaming Rookie
4 years ago
Hi Fred, I’ve moved it all over the house and the present location is the best it’s going to get.
At 5:00 a.m. this morning the ping and jitter were both very low and down and up speeds were
25 Mbps +. I would be happy with those speeds if they were consistent. But if you’ve read my previous posts…….by the afternoon things go to hell in a handbasket :(
I’ll wait to speak with tech support when and if they call, but if things don’t improve,then it’s going back,can’t see paying for something that does not work.
Fredreed
Transmission Trainee
4 years ago
Bill I would also try moving the device to different locations to see If that works. Try to make sure that there is no obstacles in the way like microwave or furniture and try to put the device like near a window. Also some people said that the equipment needs to be much better as they think that could be the problem.