Is anyone using T-Mobile Rural with good results?

[Springer]

I was looking at my towers nearby my house (Rural Southern Maryland) and I have a couple
that seem to have good coverage from my house.

Does anyone have experience using T-Mobile in a fixed Rural location and if so how is the throughput?

Thanks!

[JimHelms]

T-Mobile does seem to work well in a lot of locations. The throughput can vary depending on signal quality and strength--which is generally influenced by tower distance and surrounding terrain--the bands utilized by the tower and modem compatibility, and tower congestion (which is the difficult variable to overcome).

We use T-Mobile on a WE826-T2 with the Sierra Wireless MC7455 that is hardwired into our security system and cameras. Our signal strength is far from being optimal, and we use only the Omni antennas that came on the router. Depending on time of day, we can generally get between 15 and 25 Mbps down/up.

We do have customers using T-Mobile paired with the EM7565 CAT12 modem that get consistent speeds in the 100 to 175 Mbps range. Others are not so lucky due to an overly congested tower.

[xdavidx]

@JimHelms: I have t-mobile for my phone service. I've never tried to push the data usage on my "unlimited" plan (50 GB soft cap).

Do you know if they handle it like AT&T, where they deprioritize you, and you are only affected if the tower is congested, or is it flat throttling after you've reached a limit? I know they use the word "deprioritization", but the things I've read online seem to indicate it is really throttling, or at best, deprioritizing in a very severe way, where you are giving very little access if anyone else is on the tower.

[JimHelms]

@JimHelms: I have t-mobile for my phone service. I've never tried to push the data usage on my "unlimited" plan (50 GB soft cap).

Do you know if they handle it like AT&T, where the deprioritize you, and you are only affected if the tower is congested, or is it flat throttling after you've reached a limit? I know they use the word "deprioritization", but the things I've read online seem to indicate it is really throttling, or at best, deprioritizing in a very severe way, where you are giving very little access if anyone else is on the tower.

No, not really. I do not know that we have ever used 50GB on the setup.

[xdavidx]

If I try it with my phone SIM in the LTE router, I'll report back on the results.

[Springer]

Thank you David I’ll be standing by to find out what kind of results you have I am thinking about getting an 826 router and a 7455 modem for it as well here in southern Maryland and regardless I will be pulling the trigger on the modem and router I’m just trying to decide which service or some that I’m going to purchase.
I will be following this thread to see how you make out and if you would like feel free to instant message me your results!
-Springer

[Springer]

Hi Jim thanks for your response! What I’m gonna do is buy an 826 router and a 7455 modem and it looks like to me other than Verizon I have a T-Mobile tower that is about 3 miles away(to the north of me) and I plan to use two of the log periodic outside antennas pointed at the tower.
I also have a Verizon tower that is close to Maryland international Raceway (to my south)and gives me a good signal with a Novatel 6620L hot spot of about -100 but to me it looks like Verizon throttles back your usage sooner and it looks like there are no true unlimited Verizon plans without caps or throttling.

BTW I plan to use this system with an alarm system and to stream digital content and email etc to replace HughesNet satellite internet.

What I am wondering is if T-Mobile business legacy plans actually really exist where I could use 100 to 200 gigs of data off of the T-Mobile tower without throttling or de-prioritizing?
Maybe somebody can answer that question for me but in any case I will be testing out my Verizon Sim in the modem and I am going to go ahead and acquire one of these T-Mobile Sim’s to test out from my location as well. I did fill out a survey on the site to send to the carriers yesterday and I will let you know what they say from my particular location but my ZIP Code is 20622 in Charlotte Hall Maryland and I am about 1 mile from Maryland international raceway Bud’s creek I am on the north side of that race track so I am about a half mile closer to Route 301 from the track.
I will get back to you guys as to what I find out fortunately I have a amateur radio background so I am pretty good at setting up antennas and radios and basically that’s what we have here!
Digital radios with antennas!
-Springer

@JimHelms: I have t-mobile for my phone service. I've never tried to push the data usage on my "unlimited" plan (50 GB soft cap).

Do you know if they handle it like AT&T, where they deprioritize you, and you are only affected if the tower is congested, or is it flat throttling after you've reached a limit? I know they use the word "deprioritization", but the things I've read online seem to indicate it is really throttling, or at best, deprioritizing in a very severe way, where you are giving very little access if anyone else is on the tower.

[xdavidx]

I did fill out a survey on the site to send to the carriers yesterday and I will let you know what they say from my particular location

Can you elaborate more on what type of survey you filled out and on which site?

As for my testing, unfortunately, it won't be really soon. I have a car transmission that has been occupying all my free time and then, after that, I have to figure out why my router no longer sees my LTE modem.

What I can say is that I received a new booster from T-mobile 2 days ago. The old one supported bands 2 and 4. The new one also supports band 12. The new version of the booster even has an android app that works with it and shows the carrier information. I found out that the band 12 on the tower it picked up is a horrible 5 MHz band that, although gets 3/5 bars on the booster placed in the upstairs window, performs very poorly. And my old HSPA+ phone (doesn't support LTE) won't connect to the booster when I have band 12 enabled for some reason, even though it is a totally different frequency and protocol that phone is using vs the LTE phones in the house.

The app allows me to disable/enable any of the 3 bands. I disabled band 12 and I think it picked up band 4 and LTE worked fairly well, but not very fast. HSPA+ worked on my phone too, but again, not very fast. I need to do more testing with the old booster vs the new one, because I have to return the old one soon.

All that is to say that I'm in a t-mobile deadzone and it has always been that way an continues to be that way. I plan on taking the booster apart and putting it in an outdoor enclosure and putting it on the roof for better signal strength for our phones. This booster doesn't support external antennas either, although I do wonder if it might be possible to hook them up to the circuit board, since the manufacturer does have the same models available outside the USA and those do support external antennas.

[Springer]

Hey David sorry to hear about your transmission hope you get that squared away. As far as the survey is concerned it was here and it was one of the main threads on coverage and providers.
I will try to pull that link and post it up for you. I also hope your new amplifier works well for you and it certainly is an advantage that you have the ability to select certain bands that work better for you. I haven’t ordered the hardware yet I think I will do that tomorrow afternoon evening when I have more Internet time.
This weekend is pretty busy for us we are running around visiting my mother who is in a retirement home but doing really well and we have a picnic with a group of our friends tomorrow but I’ll have more time to hit the boards here tomorrow night.
I’ll be working night shift and I will pull that information out for you and post it. Thanks for all your good feedback I really appreciate it.
-Springer

[Springer]

ATTN: xdavidx I sent you a PM for the link to the internet survey but in case anyone
is interested here it it.....

https://thewirelesshaven.com/internet-service/

-Springer

[HereComesTheRooter]

@Springer I'm also in MD, but closer to the PA line. We ditched ADSL earlier this year to go with a MOFI-4500* on T-Mobile's $75/month "unlimited" One plan. It's working OK for us. Where we were only getting 1.5 Mbps on the ADSL line, we're now getting 15-25 Mbps with two 6' Yagi antennas mounted on the roof of the garage. By default, T-Mobile throttles streaming video back to 1.5 Mbps. That means one device connected to the router gets 1.5 Mpbs when streaming, and 2 devices have to split the 1.5 Mbps. However, this is easy 'nuff to get around by using a VPN, or potentially setting the HD option as I just read here:

[url]http://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=579&sid=97ffbf6d546ab36989188b45429cb117[/url]

To get to your question about the data caps though, we live in a very rural area, and we don't seem to be throttled in any way. I'm assuming that may be due to relatively uncongested towers in the area. My household regularly downloads XBox and PC games and updates that are tens of GB, and now we stream video in 1080p often and on multiple devices. Monthly we regularly blow through 300 to 500 GB.

*- I know I made a mistake on the MOFI. I recently discovered this site and the error of my ways. Preparations and research is ongoing now to fix it.

[gscheb]

Hello,
Been using T-mobile Myself. Wasn't able to get the best streaming picture. Found a fix in my T-mobile account Settings.
Don't know if this is your issue but could be.
Here is a link to the post written about it.

https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=32 ... 3499#p3499

[BillA]

Nowadays, there's really no need paying $79 for unlimited un-throttled service, the same exact Tmobile service can be had for less than $45 or less. For those interested in a rundown of the various less expensive options, check out this post > https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=4592#p4592

[gscheb]

Well I am paying $95 for T-Mobile plan unlimited hotspot and HD video streaming. TV picture looks great!
When I look at simple mobile this is what i see.

Simple Mobile.PNG

How do you get around the 480p streaming?

[BillA]

Well I am paying $95 for T-Mobile plan unlimited hotspot and HD video streaming. TV picture looks great!
When I look at simple mobile this is what i see.
How do you get around the 480p streaming?

Normally most prepaid plans do not work for tethering (it's blocked once the hotspot data has been used up), but using an OpenWRT flashable router with the TTL set to 65, makes it work perfectly. SimpleMobile uses the Tmobile network, and at my location I get an average speed of around 150Mbps down, 50Mbps up, course your mileage may vary due to the modem's CAT#, antennas used, location, congestion, and other factors, like the phase of the moon. (jk!)

There are a couple of methods to bypass the 480p video restriction.
One is by using a regular proxy which works perfectly at high speeds.
Here's more info about the proxy method > https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=4706#p4706
Another method is by using a VPN, but unlike a simple proxy it slows down the overall connection significantly, to less than half of normal speeds. I can also disable it on the account via my dealer portal at the time of a new activation only, without having to use a proxy or VPN.

You can buy a sim card activation kit at your local Walmart, Target, BestBuy, Dollar General, or a SimpleMobile dealer (https://www.simplemobile.com/findastore). The $45 auto-pay price after they add a bunch of taxes and fees, comes out to be about $50 bucks/month total, which is one of the cheapest high speed data plans out there.

[joeyf]

First post. Thread looks relative and old enough to jump in on...T-Mobile is my best option for any chance at good speed where I am at in rural Maine. I ordered a T-Mobile Test Drive kit off eBay to evaluate. I currently have Google Fi mobile service and showing -86/-88 dBm signal from a (new) tower about a mile away. I also have a Wilson 460103 DB Pro booster kit that was used to improve my former Verizon service that I can resurrect to perhaps improve this signal.

Anyhow, if all goes well and I proceed with obtaining the appropriate gear I will most likely start out trying the Simple Mobile plan reference by BillA above. I see one seller on eBay offering 90 days for something like $47 to start. Just curious, I also see there is a Simple Mobile $75 2-line plan - is it possible to bond these if greater speed is desired?

[BillA]

First post. Thread looks relative and old enough to jump in on...T-Mobile is my best option for any chance at good speed where I am at in rural Maine. I ordered a T-Mobile Test Drive kit off eBay to evaluate. I currently have Google Fi mobile service and showing -86/-88 dBm signal from a (new) tower about a mile away. I also have a Wilson 460103 DB Pro booster kit that was used to improve my former Verizon service that I can resurrect to perhaps improve this signal.

Anyhow, if all goes well and I proceed with obtaining the appropriate gear I will most likely start out trying the Simple Mobile plan reference by BillA above. I see one seller on eBay offering 90 days for something like $47 to start. Just curious, I also see there is a Simple Mobile $75 2-line plan - is it possible to bond these if greater speed is desired?

I've tried that share line option and they cut me off after about 200gigs of usage since it's a shared plan:( It's best to go with two $50 truly unlimited lines, or for the second line just tether your existing phone to the router's usb port and bond the two channels together in settings using Modem Manager, better yet using OpenMPTCP
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1078