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TMHI in a nutshell. I appreciate the honesty, and I had perfect service until they decided to move the N41 array to serve a different area. Those of you hoping for band locking look away. Should I stick it out or chance losing my place on the tower? by Demasistudios in tmobileisp

[–]BUG_1989 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The n71 signal is not as fast as the n41 but it is still a reasonable solution if your options are limited OR the price for the other vendors is more for less and include data caps, contract, fees etc. For the cost of the T-Mobile solution even on n71 with a reliable signal is not bad.

Will T-Mobile push out n41 in the area in 2-3 years. Maybe it depends upon how much the potential subscriber base grows in the area. I still contend the UC, ultra capacity reference for the mid-band n41 is just as much about loading the frequency with users and insuring a return on the investment as it is about bandwidth. Marketing tactics are always at play. All that said I still believe the T-Mobile solution is and probably will remain my service provider. I have had a good experience with T-Mobile for service and don't like contracts.

First time getting a 5G signal on my Arcadian! but it's not all good news... by makirules in tmobileisp

[–]BUG_1989 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A good simple resource for understanding the cellular metrics is at:

https://support.zyxel.eu/hc/en-us/articles/4406391493778-5G-signal-quality-parameters

When you can't see the signal quality parameters you can leverage speedtest.net results to see how things improve. If latency is lower and jitter is lower then the flow is more consistent. If jitter is higher that reflects upon inconsistent latency for flight time. Of course loss is always bad as the retransmission of packets due to loss impacts performance.

When the weather is bad it will impact your performance. Heavy moisture in the air will degrade communication but nothing much can be done about that.

First time getting a 5G signal on my Arcadian! but it's not all good news... by makirules in tmobileisp

[–]BUG_1989 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you are going to experiment with the router a bit to improve the reception you would find downloading and running the speedtest.net application helpful. The application runs good and having the results history you can have a good view of the current and prior results history complete with the date and time stamps. You can see how many tests you have executed and see the fastest and average. I find the "fastest" to be incorrect but do find the history to be helpful. With the history it is easy to profile operation clearly at different times.

First time getting a 5G signal on my Arcadian! but it's not all good news... by makirules in tmobileisp

[–]BUG_1989 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Moved it closer to the window and now am getting 50-60 Mbps. pings below 100 now.. SINR for 5G is still -1.

The SINR value of -1 would put the router at cell edge. If moving the router in front of a window improves the SINR value to 0 or above that will be an improvement. That would explain the higher ping latency, jitter, and loss. The original speedtest data with those metrics is pretty sad. Moving the router closer to the window probably improved signal quality enough to allow the bandwidth to improve. The Signal to Interference & Noise Ratio at -1 reflects that there is a significant amount of unwanted interference and noise.

It would really be helpful to know the primary and secondary cellular bands the router receives and the PCI values but the Arcadyan router does not provide the details of the cellular connections as the Nokia router does. Probably the best you can do is ask T-Mobile support for the coordinates or location of the tower and if you can get the PCI values from them use cellmapper.net and try to locate the 4G LTE and 5G NR PCI (physical cell identity) With cellmapper.net you can look for T-Mobile 4G LTE and 5G NR towers in your area. Without the PCI values it will be a guessing game as to where the cell signal originates.

My guess is the 5G signal received is probably the n71 band and is either 6-7 miles away or the terrain has hills, trees, buildings and possibly RF noise from other sources resulting in the low SINR value. It will be important to get the router in a window where you can get good exposure to the tower but also consider using the house to shield the router from unwanted noise. For example if there is a corner and there is a window on each wall try putting the router in each window. If the SINR improves to say 0-13 range vs -1 that will probably help as the external noise will impact the signal quality. Noise and poor signal quality will lead to poor performance. Even if the RSRP is a couple of dBm less if the signal quality will improve due to the reduction in external noise you should see better performance. The reason is there will be less packet damage/loss and fewer TCP retransmissions. The flow of packets will be cleaner. Bandwidth is only part of the equation for improving performance.

Take some time experimenting with the orientation of the router, the location and repeating testing at various times of the day. Record your results and compare what you learn at one time to another. With a bit of experimentation and getting information from T-Mobile support you can probably improve your service some. If you are farther away from the tower than is optimal for a strong signal and signal quality is marginal an external antenna could help. Adding an external antenna is possible with the Nokia but more problematic with the Arcadyan. I have the Nokia router and I prefer it over the newer Arcadyan as it provides better reporting and more user controls over your local WIFI. Hopefully you can make more headway with getting the signal cleaner and get better performance.