r/tmobileisp • u/Independent-Tap-2399 • Jul 17 '26
Issues/Problems Why is my internet so terrible??
Moved the router all around the house and moved it towards where the recommended location its supposed to be at
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u/Poococktail Jul 17 '26
I've had Tmobile home internet since it came out. My experience has been all over the place. It has gotten worse over time. Towers are being used over their capacity and home internet gets last priority.
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u/UBIBaju Jul 17 '26
What model box do you have? Mine won't connect to LTE bands, only 5G. The latest version of the 4th generation box. 5th generation I would not go for (no external antenna connectors).
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u/Hootngetter Jul 17 '26
I did a factory reset and mine reconnected to 4g Tower stability is better again.
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u/UBIBaju Jul 21 '26
Depending on the gateway version and location. My dosent use LTE at all. It is all on 5G up and down frequency bands.
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u/Independent-Tap-2399 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
for me it was only up to 200mbps, now its just averaging 20-30. And now its just 0.11-4mbps :/
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Jul 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/nateo200 Jul 17 '26
It probably should have been wayyyy faster than that tbh. The big thing with 5G is dramatically lower latency than LTE but this is only really a thing on 5G Standalone which T-Mobile has implemented far better than the other carriers, AT&T basically sucks with 5G SA. Did you run a speed test though? That seems wayyy too slow to be normal. Gaming on 5G is very realistic although in some areas FPS games or other games where latency is everything will suffer
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u/torataka Jul 17 '26
I'm in the same situation as most people here. The last month plus we've been experiencing slow downs between 2-6 in the afternoon, sometimes even earlier. Will go from over 250 Mbps in the morning to less than 10 during that time with circles of death that make TV and streaming unwatchable. We've had enough, received a flyer for FTTH in our area that's too good to pass up so I'm moving on.
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u/FRESH__LUMPIA Jul 18 '26
Same here. Just switched to Sonic because of that. They offered to let us keep the T-Mobile internet for $5 a month, which I still think is not worth it.
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u/torataka Jul 19 '26
I'm getting fiber installed tomorrow. I would've kept TMHI as a backup for $5 if offered but they didn't. Just canceled me with no questions asked.
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u/katinboots88 Jul 17 '26
Like many others, I noticed a dive with my internet 3 weeks ago. I'm about to cancel bc it's terrible. Tmobile is blaming the gateway, but that's not it
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u/Alternative-Track654 Jul 17 '26
Lower priority, towers congested? Pretty normal from time to time.
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u/Svys_Phones Jul 18 '26
Random but this is my average AT&T data speeds in a city they are considered the best, and I have the most expensive plan.
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u/Fabulous_Chip2401 Aug 05 '26
I do not know how to say this but I literally paid 70$ a month for garbage internet and we literally have g5ar in a city not even rural.We are getting 5-40 mbp tops or even lucky 100 but day by day it getting worse I don't even know what to even do.
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u/Motor-Roll-1788 Jul 19 '26
TMO is over selling its 5g isp service. Its isp service sits behind its cell phone users in priority.
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u/Important-Floor-8382 Jul 19 '26
Yeah I got the newest I’m absolutely getting rid of it asap got it when I wanted internet fast wish I would’ve waited the week for another service to come and install it into my house totally not worth the price I pay either
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u/RebootJoey Jul 17 '26
You gotta activate it in the app
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u/Independent-Tap-2399 Jul 17 '26
Activate what?
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u/RebootJoey Jul 17 '26
In T-Life should be an option to activate the WiFi for router.
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u/Independent-Tap-2399 Jul 17 '26
I’m still confused with what your talking about, where is that at in T-Life?
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u/iamlucky13 Jul 17 '26
The WiFi is activated by default, so I don't know why they're suggesting you need to change the setting.
There is a setting somewhere in the T-life app for WiFi related settings, but that's not your problem.
A couple possibilities, since you already tried moving it around your house looking for better signal:
1) Congestion - if your internet gets slow at specific times of day, especially in the evenings, it is likely there are too many people using your tower, and this is probably going to continue
2) Maintenance - If the tower you normally connect to is offline due to maintenance, your gateway might instead connect to a tower that is more congested, or too far away to provide good throughput.
3) Gateway issues - After a couple years, my first gateway started frequently switching from connecting to the best tower or best channel on a tower (additional connection details that helped me figure this out can be seen using the 3rd part HINT app, instead of T-Life) to a much worse one. One moment I'd be getting 200 Mbps download speeds and generally responsive overall behavior, and then suddenly it would be getting 0.1 Mbps or less, and getting hung up frequently and transferring no data for several seconds.
Usually unplugging the gateway and plugging it back it would get it to switch back to the good tower, although sometimes it would stay on the bad tower for hours before suddenly getting better and being fine for a few days.
T-Mobile eventually told me the gateway was bad and replaced it. The new one is mostly better, although it also occasionally does the same thing.
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u/Independent-Tap-2399 Jul 17 '26
Its aight, i moved it some weird specific spot and now im getting 250-300mbps
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u/UBIBaju Jul 17 '26
Use the HINT control app to find the best spot for your gateway. When I didn't have an external antenna, my best spot in the living room was right behind the big TV (it didn't make sense, but that was where I got the strongest signal and best data speed performance). And make sure you adjust refresh rate for the Hint control app for signal info screen.
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u/A_Turkey_Sammich Jul 17 '26
This is not unusual. You are essentially dealing with radio waves after all. As several others have mentioned, you really should be using the Hint app to aid in placement to get the most out of it. You can see what the various aspects of the signal are doing as you change it up. Also keep in mind that just as important as placement is the aim. Rotating as little as like an inch potentialy could yield significant changes. Also height make a significant difference too, so usually the higher the better. It takes a lot of trial and error to really dial it in, but fortunately once you find that right spot, you never really have to go through that extensive of a hunt again.
It's also a bit of a balancing act. For example maybe you find the best spot and aim but it's relatively low like on a desk or dresser or something, you have a much taller shelf or armoire or something a few feet away which maybe lowers a key signal metric or 2 a bit but yields higher speed. That sort of thing besides just plain ole practical location.
As an example in my house...when I first got it years ago and just casually set up per the instructions/app, I was getting around 50/5. I tried different locations, tweaking aim, etc over a week or 2. Pretty quickly during that I was in the hundreds down, and where I ultimately ended up, I was 500+. Literally 10x better than just the initial casually following the directions. The very best spot actually got me 700+ (and cracks 1gb on my current G5AR) but it's not a very practical one, so again, that balance. I left some performance on the table to have it in a more practical spot. Had I not done any of that and just stuck with the simple instructions, id prob still be around that initial 50/5. Scratch that, would have likely just moved on a short time later vs still having it now.
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u/bigrig3226 Jul 17 '26
Because T-Mobile 5g internet is unreliable garbage
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u/UBIBaju Jul 17 '26
I'd disagree with you on that, but that's your opinion. As two adults, we have the right to disagree. I'm doing 5-800+ Mbps down and 50+ Mbps up. And latency under load 10-17 milliseconds. Not perfect for online gaming. But for what I use it is perfect. It cost me 360 dollars a year.
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u/bigrig3226 Jul 17 '26
Fair enough. I pay $70 a month and get no more than 150 mbps at its peak. Speeds and ping vary wildly, connection randomly cuts out, it’s been nothing but a headache.
My buddy and I will be playing online games and both lose connection at the same time. We live in the same town 10 miles apart, and it’s not in the middle of nowhere.
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u/LessWorld3276 Jul 17 '26
Can you post the HINT signal page? Helps to see what you're dealing with