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KKN
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Joined 2 years ago
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Horrible Speed. Contradictory Explanations.
Another post mentioned this is a place to give Tmobile feedback. Ok. Here goes. Have been a Wireless home internet customer nearly 4 years. 2 bar service the entire time. Tmobile’s website on home internet says two bars okay and speeds won’t improve if you have at least two bars. Started service with about 25 Mbps down and 7 up. Latest test a couple minutes ago (and about my average the last couple weeks) was 3.45 down and 1.5 up. I did see 13/4 immediately after a gateway reset and also once in the middle of the night, but that speed only lasted a short time. It was so low this morning that web pages wouldn’t load and Windows gave an error message. Unacceptable. Worked with several polite and a apparently helpful Customer Service reps, but not satisfied with the overall experience. The first representative reported Tmobile’s side of the connection was about 7 Mbps down and thought the 4 on my end was about the normal difference between what the customer and Tmobile’s values usually are. He said that wasn’t good enough (I agreed) and we tried several things. He mentioned the tower had a lot of traffic and that he was moving me to another cell tower. Eventually he decided maybe the gateway was bad and should be replaced. Checking, he was surprised mine was so old Tmobile didn’t have them anymore. But said he would replace it anyway. The “new” arrived. Same make/model they didn’t carry anymore. Dust on top. Power switch works intermittently. Scuff marks on the bottom. Missing parts and directions. Obviously used. Called for help getting it connected. That representative put new IMEI(?) number in their system and reset the modem from their end. She mentioned tower was a bit busy. Things worked at 13 Mbps for a couple hours. Not great but I’m okay with that. A bit later it was slow again. One of those two representatives said we don’t have 5G in my area (I am on the fringe), but I mentioned my Tmobile cell phone connects using 5G so that wasn’t entirely true. Called the third (fourth?) representative after a speed test that showed 2 Mbps down and 0.08 up. She said the tower showed heavy traffic – which is consistent with my erratic speed results. She apologized, but said although she wanted to help there really wasn’t anything she could do from her end. The solution was to increase capacity in my area and that was beyond her control. My comment was even if Tmobile decided to increase capacity it would takes months or years. She didn’t disagree. I had been half-expecting to someday receive such an answer since I was an initial adopter of Tmobile in this area when things weren’t crowded, so I wasn’t surprised. A couple hours later I decided to ask if I could be put back on the tower I was on when I first contacted Tmobile because at least then I had 4-4 Mbps down. The final representative said the other representatives did not give “correct information.” There wasn’t any congestion and there is only one tower in my area so she couldn’t transfer me back. She wanted to reboot (reset?) the gateway from her end. Since I had already been down that route two or three times in the last few days I declined to waste my time again. Our conversation ended – as did my chances of Tmobile remaining my internet provider. Tmobile has some type of partnership with Ooma, a third party VOIP phone service provider. Working with both Tmobile and Ooma Customer Service representatives during the same period the slow internet talks above were going on it came to light Tmobile had just made changes to its service and Ooma devices are no longer accepting or receiving calls through Tmobile internet. I wonder if Ooma should talk with the Tmobile Customer Service representatives and get their gateways reset? Maybe that will solve the problem. I doubt the two software communication issues, mine and Ooma’s, could possibly be related though. Nor does it seem likely a device Tmobile provided over three years ago that they no longer have would be incompatible with Tmobiles current internet software configuration. I’m now a longtime Tmobile customer reaching out to other internet providers to see what they have to offer. KKN496Views0likes1Comment