Since 2021, T-Mobile has offered Home Internet services via their 5G network. The company has released multiple internet gateways over the years, with the latest and greatest being the G4AR.
Typically, T-Mobile will reserve the G4AR to customers on the highest two tiers of service—Amplified and All-In, with customers on the lower Rely plan receiving one of the older models.
Up until now, T-Mobile’s 5G gateways all used 5G for download, but an “anchor” connection of LTE typically for the upload. This means that areas with no LTE signal at all were typically unable to use the Home Internet service. Now, though, a new firmware update aims to change that.
Firmware 1.00.13
According to T-Mobile’s support page for the G4AR, a recent firmware update has enabled 5G Standalone on the unit. The update, with version number 1.00.13, allows the gateway to connect to 5G exclusively for both download and upload, and without the need for an LTE anchor.
In addition, the usually vague “bug fixes” and “stability improvements” are also included in the update.
It’s not entirely clear when the update began, but customers first began noticing it over this past weekend, with a user in the r/tmobileisp subreddit posting about it.
It’s also worth noting that the firmware, so far, is exclusive to the G4AR. Older gateways like the KVD21, the 5688W, and even the near-identical G4SE (a variant made by a different manufacturer) have not been updated to support 5G SA. It’s not clear if or when T-Mobile will push an update enabling the feature on these devices.
5G SA enables high speeds and low latency
5G Standalone is a feature of both 5G devices and networks that enables a fully modern 5G connection all the way through. This allows for 5G-specific features like ultra low latency and much faster speeds (especially upload) compared to when LTE anchors are used. It operates separately from existing LTE infrastructure entirely.
5G SA also enables features like network slicing. T-Mobile recently deployed network slicing back in September as part of a new first responder service called “T-Priority” that allows for the network to dedicate a “slice” of provisioning to specific customers.
It’s entirely feasible that T-Mobile could implement network slicing for Home Internet customers in the future, perhaps as a premium option for priority access in congested areas.
5G SA is also the first step in enabling Carrier Aggregation, a feature that combines multiple 5G signals into a single speedy connection. T-Mobile has recently bragged about this particular feature, with tests hitting speeds of up to 6 Gbps. Such insane speeds are not quite possible with current gateways, including the G4AR, but 5G SA will allow for some modest increases in speeds regardless.
Other notes
In addition to the firmware update, one source has told us that an update to the T-Life app will soon roll out to include some sort of compatibility with 5G SA. The app currently has the ability to display connected bands on Home Internet gateways, so presumably an update may make that information more detailed when the unit is in 5G SA mode versus 5G NSA mode.
5G Standalone is a huge milestone for T-Mobile’s Home Internet. It’s actually been possible before now for users that use “unsupported” gateways to fine-tune their connections and force a 5G SA connection, and it’s often praised as the superior connection. Now that T-Mobile has enabled it on their own hardware, even more customers will be able to take advantage of the improved speeds and reliability.
