Welcome to the T-Mobile Home Internet service. Below you will find answers to some commonly asked questions. Whether you are new to the service or are looking for how to best position your gateway in a new area. You’ve come to the right place.
Q: what type of coverage can I expect?
A: Put your address into the search (magnifying glass icon) on this site. You should be good if the car, house, or building icons are lit on at least one band.
Q: the website https://t-mobile.com/isp says the service is not available at my address. Can I still get the service?
A: Possibly. If you have looked at the coverage map linked in question 1 or have T-Mobile service and get decent signal on your phone you can try calling customer service at 844-275-9310 or visit a store. This has worked for others. If you cant get your address to work find an address that does like “100 Main Street” in your local town or city. Go into a store and sign up with that address and walk out with the modem. Then change your address online as detailed in the moving section below.
Q: How do I find out what cell tower I am connecting to?
A: On the T-Mobile Home Internet app > More > cell tower connection metrics is an item called CGI. Take that number and strip the first 6 digits off (usually 310260). Take the resulting number and devide by 256. The number before the decimal point is the cell tower. You can put that number into cellmapper to get an idea of where the tower is and what bands are on it.
Q: what is “deprioritization” and how does it effect me?
A: T-Mobile is first and foremost a cellular network for mobile devices. Since the network is a shared resource some things get first dibs. As an example, you would not want your call to your family member to drop because somebody decided to watch a cat video in 4K next door. So your call takes priority. In this case mobile users on their phones always have first dibs. This results in your home internet having variable speed as users join or leave your local tower. This usually is not a problem unless you live in a very crowded area or near a sports stadium, airport, etc.
Q: Will my 5G phone give me a good feel for what speeds to expect?
A: Short answer is yes (mostly). Longer answer is that since home internet is lowest priority on the network (see deprioritization question above) the home internet gateway speeds may fluctuate widely depending on tower congestion. It may be best to take several speedtests at different times of day to see how your phone performs. Once done figure on getting about half to three fourths of what you get on your phone.
Q: Can I travel with T-Mobile Home Internet?
A: According to the Terms of Service, no. The answer to the question is really right in the “Home” part of the name. However, with that said, users have been able to travel with it and not been cut off for it. Here is where we say that “we at tmobileisp do not endorse any action that goes against the T-Mobile Terms of Service and you do so at your own risk”.
Q: Should I use a fan with the Nokia gateway?
A: That is hard to say. Some say it helps while others say it does not. If you desire extra cooling you will need a 120mm USB fan and possibly a USB-C to USB-A adapter if the fan doesn’t have USB-C by default. 3D printed stands also exist and can be found with a quick online search.
Q: What bands does T-Mobile Home Internet use and what should i try to get my gateway to connect to?
A: The home internet gateway uses all of T-Mobile’s lowband (band 71 at 600mhz and band 12 at 700mhz) and midband (band 66 at 1700/2100mhz, band 2 at 1900mhz, and band 41 at 2500mhz). As a general rule midband will have higher speeds than lowband but midband covers less physical distance and is blocked by objects easier. A weak midband signal in most cases will outperform even a strong lowband signal. It is best to try to get the gateway to connect to a midband signal
Q: What kind of latency can I expect?
A: That is really hard to say for sure. Some users report latency as low as 20ms while others seem to get 150ms. A good average would likely be around 70ms.
Q: I have a mesh wifi system or external router already at home. Can I continue to use it?
A: Absolutely. Just plug the router into the gateways Ethernet port and optionally disable the gateway wifi from the web interface.
Q: I am moving. Can i take the service with me?
A: Yes. Check the coverage at your new address with the map from question 1. Log in to your T-Mobile account and update your billing address, E911 address, and primary place of use address.
Q: I can’t connect to the gateway with WIFI or Ethernet! What’s going on?
A: The gateway has an internal battery that is only used to help you find the best signal strength. If it is on battery then you will not be able to use Ethernet or WIFI. this is most likely what is going on. Make sure the adapter is connected, any surge protectors are turned on, and the end is properly connected to the gateway. If these steps do not fix it you may have a bad outlet, surge protector or gateway electrical adapter. Try plugging it into a different outlet. If that does not help it is most likely the gateways electrical adapter. Call customer service or take it into a store and they should be able to get a new adapter.
Q: Where do i view my data usage?
A: Log in to your T-mobile account and select usage on the menubar.
A Rant About Bars
BARS DO NOT MATTER. in case you missed it let me repeat, BARS, DO, NOT, MATTER! As noted in the question above about what you want your gateway to connect to. A midband signal will be a weaker signal than a lowband in the vast majority of cases. I see so many people say “i only get 2 bars”. That doesn’t matter! What matters is RSRP and SINR (SNR). Even with an RSRP of -117 on b2 or b66 your gateway will still connect to 5G. The bars are a quick visual indication but are NOT the final authority. A 2 bar signal on these gateways spans from -120dbm all the way up to -100dbm. That is a huge signal strength range. Like those backup batteries with 4 lights. 2 lights lit means the battery in this example has between 25% and 50% left. That is a large range and 49% is not nearly the same as 25%. Same thing on these stupid bars.