T-Mobile Home Internet Connectivity Issues

[VisionsDivine]

Finally got my in-laws some decent Internet set up at their rural address, or so I thought. I just got their T-Mobile Home Internet unit (the black, square unit) set up last week, but it's been running into this issue where it'll just drop to no signal all the time. The only way to get it back up and running is to power cycle the device. It *shouldn't* be a connectivity issue because T-Mobile cell phones have a strong signal throughout the property. Speed tests generally are around 100mbps down / 30mbps up with a 50ms latency.

Doing a bit of digging online, some older posts seem to suggest that these T-Mobile Home Internet units have a thermal design flaw and overheat after a certain amount of time, but all the posts I'm seeing are from last year mostly on the older "trash can" units.

Does anyone else possibly know how to fix a gateway that seems to drop to No Service at random? This is with the Sagemcom unit.

It should be noted that it's being used at an address that technically doesn't qualify for the Home Internet service. I wouldn't think this would cause the gateway to constantly drop service when cell phone signal is otherwise strong, but this may or may not have something to do with the problem we're running into.

[VisionsDivine]

Best answer I can find scraping online is that these home internet units will show no service unless they're getting a good simultaneous 4G and 5G signal. I had them put a fan to it that more or less rules out thermal issues. I'll have to find a spot with a good SNR for the unit to hopefully either fix the issue or rule out the bad signal possibility.

[rjack22]

I was one of those whose was having connection problems last year with T-Mobile home internet. Mine would keep dropping the connection every few minutes! I am in a a qualifying area and I do have a good signal. My son, who lives just a mile and a half away has no problems at all! Even T-Mobile said that I was getting a good signal and couldn't figure out the issue. In the end I returned the modem and gave up. Good luck to you.

[bmtvaquero]

I, too, am one of those who tried it for 2 months and then gave up. I even bought the cooling fan which some guy designed to build on his printer. At first, speeds were great, then they would go to nothing. Time of day or night had nothing to do with it.

I was/am disappointed because that forced me back to using the Mobley account for my home internet again. Not much better, but cheaper and reliable.

Did you read this thread? https://www.howardforums.com/showthr...-Home-Internet

[VisionsDivine]

Most of what I'm finding on other boards are saying the same thing. It's an inherent design flaw in these home internet units, which T-Mobile gets made as cheaply as possible between several different vendors. That being said, I'm not finding any fix that seems to actually work for most people, and most everyone experiencing these issues ends up just returning the units. They still have a Verizon aircard luckily.

[formercanuck]

I've had the original 4g lte when it came out for trial, and it worked well. Note: I have good 4G lte at home, 5g.tower is a mile away. I tried the newer 5g home internet. it was mostly 4g lte, and speeds were similar to lte. The main downside was that the WiFi on the unit would often cycle (device reboot?) making it unusable during vpn/ssh/zoom sessions. as a result, I returned it in the free 2 week trial.

Sent from my SM-G991U using HoFo mobile app

[Andy84094]

Finally got my in-laws some decent Internet set up at their rural address, or so I thought. I just got their T-Mobile Home Internet unit (the black, square unit) set up last week, but it's been running into this issue where it'll just drop to no signal all the time. The only way to get it back up and running is to power cycle the device. It *shouldn't* be a connectivity issue because T-Mobile cell phones have a strong signal throughout the property. Speed tests generally are around 100mbps down / 30mbps up with a 50ms latency.

Doing a bit of digging online, some older posts seem to suggest that these T-Mobile Home Internet units have a thermal design flaw and overheat after a certain amount of time, but all the posts I'm seeing are from last year mostly on the older "trash can" units.

Does anyone else possibly know how to fix a gateway that seems to drop to No Service at random? This is with the Sagemcom unit.

It should be noted that it's being used at an address that technically doesn't qualify for the Home Internet service. I wouldn't think this would cause the gateway to constantly drop service when cell phone signal is otherwise strong, but this may or may not have something to do with the problem we're running into.

Have you considered that the unit may be defective ? I would call support and request a replacement device.

[VisionsDivine]

Have you considered that the unit may be defective ? I would call support and request a replacement device.

It's likely. I was just wanting to get feedback from others, especially since I've read a lot of people getting multiple replacements and still having the same issue.

[Railsplitter92]

I got my parents T-Mobile home internet last year. They have a T-mobile site on the hill at the back of their property and we get full coverage at their house. They started out with the gray cylinder modem and it worked solidly for about 7 months. After a while the modem gave out to where it would no longer power on. Called T-mobile and they replaced it with the new black square modem with no questions asked. Worked good for about 3 hours and then started cycling to the no service issue that you have described. After several rounds of being on the phone with support and having the modem replaced in total 4 times over a 2 month period, we ditched T-mobile home internet and went back to Spectrum. It’s truly a shame they could not get their cheaply made modems to function properly. When it actually did work, we were easily able to pull 400-500 mbps.

[formercanuck]

I would actually use the old LTE only one (even came with battery backup) if it still existed. LTE performance in my area was good for 120Mbps at the worst of times, and over 200Mbps at best. I suspect they're looking for light casual users (which could effectively be using a hotspot) vs. those that want a true home internet usage. What's sad is that Spectrum is $80 for 300Mbps, and AT&T is $50 (plus tax/fees) for 50Mbps.

Sent from my SM-G991U using HoFo mobile app

[bmtvaquero]

What's sad is that Spectrum is $80 for 300Mbps, and AT&T is $50 (plus tax/fees) for 50Mbps.

HoFo mobile app

No, what's sad is not having those choices.

[formercanuck]

No, what's sad is not having those choices.

I'll have to assume that you don't live in an urban/suburban area. Of course, that's a choice, and most - even smaller communities have cable/xDSL of some sort. I know of a few people, in the mountains of Colorado that use WiSP. So for most, there are options.

[VisionsDivine]

They ended up deciding to just send it back. I ordered an LTE router that allows certain modifications to bypass tethering restrictions. Kind of excited to see if it actually works. This has been an interesting journey down the rabbit hole of networking.

[Orlimar1]

They ended up deciding to just send it back. I ordered an LTE router that allows certain modifications to bypass tethering restrictions. Kind of excited to see if it actually works. This has been an interesting journey down the rabbit hole of networking.

We’ve been using AT&T since the Mobley plan came out. Some of the new capabilities on these new cellular routers are quite handy for better speeds. Thanks to new options we’re testing out T-Mobile service at home.