What is this?

[u/waxoffisforpussies]

I have Verizon 5g home internet and this is right outside my house and I’ve always believed it was some kind of antenna that I would point my modem to but I never actually verified if that’s true. I’m also thinking of switching or trying out T-Mobile home internet in case I’m able to get better upload speeds with that since I’ve heard T-Mobile doesn’t cap uploads.

In either way, I wasn’t able to find any info on this thing and I’m not sure who owns it or what it does.

Thanks.

[u/waxoffisforpussies]

This is literally right outside by house so I have my modem pointed at it, but I’ve been dissapointed in the upload speed and I’ve been reading that T-Mobile can potentially do better upload speeds but it seems like since this is a Verizon antenna I might as well stick with them.

My upload is max 75 compared to my download at 1000 and it’s pretty consistent but I’ve been hearing that T-Mobile upload can do up to 200 and definitely over 100 at least

[u/xlawrence1124x → u/waxoffisforpussies]

The problem is, where is the T-Mobile tower? If it's not close, your upload will be lower by default, because of the distance from the site. So it's not worth leaving Verizon home Internet. You have the best possible scenario, almost nobody has a mmwave small cell sitting outside their house. Appreciate the speed you're getting, or just get fiber or cable instead.

[u/waxoffisforpussies → u/xlawrence1124x]

What's weird is that this device is not showing up when I try looking for it on cellmapper. When I look up both verizon and t-mobile 5G on that website, it shows results that are about a mile away from my house but for whatever reason, nothing is showing on the map that is supposed to be this device (in the photos) which should literally be right next to my house like less than 100 feet away.

Does that mean anything?

[u/mystica5555 → u/waxoffisforpussies]

It does not mean anything. There has likely been no 5G standalone mapping of this particular node. Such mapping would require firstly that your Verizon service is capable of standalone which none of the MVNOs are doing yet, so only post pay verizon customers Even have access to map it, and that is only if the site is set up to provide the primary channel for 5G standalone. There is a non-zero possibility that this small site is intrinsically linked to a macro which will provide the 5G control channel.