RM500Q-AE / 5G / ANTENNAS / T-MOBILE

[mtl26637]

Okay, so I've been working on a 5G setup for some time and thought I would put together what information I have obtained on the topic along with some questions.

Here is my latest setup:
Modem: RM500Q-AE
Antenna: 700-3800MHz Cellular 8dBi Directional 4×4 MIMO Antenna (The Wireless Haven: AD4M 1DP738X8 NF)
Router: RPI4
Modem Enclosure: USB3 (The Wireless Haven version)
Provider: Simplemobile (T-Mobile)

Verizon doesn't have 5G service in my area and AT&T's 5G service is nothing more than a joke (you get to see a 5G symbol on your phone with slower speeds than 4G). This leaves me with T-Mobile. Looking on cellmapper and seeing several posts on here, it looks like speeds can hit pretty high (200+). Right now I can only hit those speeds with my "OMR" setup and 4-6 combined LTE connections so if I could do that with 1 setup it would be a dream.

Here is where I'm running into problems and questions. In my area and from what I gather in most areas, the Tmo 5G bands are 2, 12, 66, n71. I do not have band 2 so this leaves me with bands 12, 66 and n71. Band 12 is a lower ~700mhz and band 66 is mid to upper ~1700mhz. 5G band n71 is a lower band of ~600mhz also. With that being said, the RM500Q-AE offers 4 ports, ports 1+2 being the lower band primary ports and 0+3 being the secondary mimo ports. From what I can tell that presents a problem for me with Tmo as when I connect I can only pick up bands 66 and n71 and speeds are lower than my 4G connections. I assume this is because ports 1+2 mimo are latching on to n71 600mhz bands and leaving ports 0+3 to latch on to mid to higher signals such as band 66.

Call me crazy but I just don't see that it is possible that I can even latch on to bands 12 and n71 at the same time with the RM500Q-AE. Is it even possible? I recently found an image of the band information for each port (don't have access here at work) but it shows the only ports that can pull in the "Lower" bands are ports 1+2. I doubt if those 2 ports (1+2) can pull in 12 and n71 at the same time, at least not with the 4x4 mimo antenna im using. From cellmapper, band 12 is where the goods are it seems. I thought about forgetting the 4x4 MIMO antenna I have (big unfortunate) and going with a couple single yagi's to try to get both of those lower bands? Any recommendations on how to pull in best signal on n71? At 600mhz, it seems just out of reach for most 'LTE' products.

What am I missing here? For those that have the RM500Q-AE and have Tmo and have kick-ass speeds, what bands are you latching on to? Do you guys live within spitting distance of the tower or what, LOL? I'm stumped, I've been messing with this for quite some time now...

[Josephur]

I'm getting ready to do a similar setup, and looking forward to someone answering this. I really hope I have better luck than you.

[mtl26637]

I'm still fighting this problem and still don't have any solid answers to the above unfortunately. I've spent so much time/money fiddling with this setup it's unreal. I can tell you what additional I have tried and my opinion of what is going on though:

What bands do you have access to? 2, 12, 66, 71? If no 41 then I have a feeling you will be disappointed in the speeds. Even with the perfect antenna arrangement. If no band 41 then you probably be close to 4G speeds. They recently added 41 and thats when it made a little more sense as the bandwidth of band 41 was 100 compared to 10 or 20 on all others.

I was never able to get B12. I assume because its signal is so close to the 5G n71 and the lower frequencies are only available on 2 of the 4 modem ports but who knows. My setup always snapped to B66/n71 combo. Even went to the extent of 2-12dbi low band 'white space' antennas in parallel with 2-12dbi LTE yagis connected to the 2 low band ports (1 and 2) via combiner/splitter and 2 normal yagi's on ports 0 and 3. Signal was terrific but still maxed out at ~150 mbps. I havn't climbed the tower to swap out the low band antennas to some high band antenna for band 41 yet. They activated 41 just a month or so ago. I'm anxious to see what I can pull now that I have access to the 100Mhz on n41. Looks promising using my phone though.

[gscheb]

Hello,
So what data plan is this? Is this T-Mobile home internet or this a phone plan data? What are you connection stats? I have the T-Mobile home internet and using the Nokia trash can modem and connecting to band 2 & N71.

This is my stats Band 2 on top Band N71 on Bottom

T-mobile Stats.PNG

This is the speed with those stats

T-mobile Speed.PNG

This is my antenna set up below

Antenna Pic.PNG

At times get better connection and speeds. Say the max ever got is like maybe 190 down and 40 up.

[Josephur]

Are you only using 3 of the antenna connectors?

[gscheb]

Are you only using 3 of the antenna connectors?

No using four antenna ports. The lower antenna on the grid is a mimo antenna with two wires coming off of it. So it is a total of 4 wires to 4 ports on the modem.