This is the story of my experience of ordering T-Mobile Zakelijk Premium Internet. I hope it's OK to write in english here, by all means respond in dutch, which I can mostly read, but please don't judge me for wanting to write such a long piece in my own tongue.
When I began ordering the T-Mobile Zakelijk Fixed Internet service in mid-July I had no idea how many unexpected roadblocks I'd come across.
Firstly, the T-Mobile website does not allow placing an order with a foreign IBAN. My company is based in NL but does not have an NL bank account. My company banks with Revolut who operate in the whole of the EU, but only provide Lithuanian IBANs. They have recently started providing local IBANs for personal customers, but for business customers this is still the case. The DNB requires that european IBANs not be discriminated based on country of origin, that is, if you accept NL IBANs you must also accept LT IBANs for payments and direct debits.
You can read more about IBAN discrimination here: https://www.dnb.nl/betale...pa-en-iban-discriminatie/
I proceeded to call T-Mobile to attempt to make an order with my non-dutch IBAN. Initially I was faced with "no, you cannot do that, we only accept dutch IBANs", I got this from multiple customer/sales representatives over the phone. The website actually says to visit one of the stores, but none of the customer/sales representatives confirmed this, instead repeating the line "you cannot do that".
After failing to get anywhere over the phone, I sent a complaint via the website. A few hours later I received an email about a new order, this time with a strange IBAN for the direct debit: NL13TEST0123456789. I had received no other communication from T-Mobile about the process, only automated emails. The date on this order was unfortunately correct, and my old provider was notified of it, at which point I requested the order be cancelled.
I was told at the time, but due to the level of incompetence I'd experienced so far, I didn't trust whoever told me: at T-Mobile you don't make an order with a start date, instead you make an order which starts as soon as possible, which also notifies your old provider of the switch, and then you call T-Mobile's installation partner to change the installation date; you must also call your old provider to ensure that they don't stop your service on the wrong date. This, apparently, is normal, however bizarre.
/f/image/qhPP9ItvpxT1uoE2vKadaD8K.png?f=fotoalbum_large)
Fast forward to the installation date, everything seems to be going well. The installation partner arrives 2 hours early, installs the new service and leaves me with the wifi credentials. I plan to use my own hardware with T-Mobile's ONT, but first I was curious and wanted to have a look around T-Mobile's router, perhaps I could get the critical services up and running quicker.
T-Mobile's router can only be configured if it's connected to the Internet and with the https://t-mobile-nl.force.com/ login credentials. That is, you can visit http://192.168.0.1 but you cannot log in to configure it. This presents a problem because immediately after installation the online portal does not show a router which can be configured. You must wait for the router to appear in the online portal. How long? T-Mobile could not tell me, maybe in a few hours, maybe tomorrow! This is a business offering, where the customer pays more money, usually, in exchange for more customisable / raw configuration options. Incoming connections must be a part of the service, yet you can only configure them after several hours. Any business which relies on incoming connections will be... just waiting refreshing the portal page.
It seems this is a business-only quirk, where the T-Mobile Thuis service is configured locally on http://192.168.1.1 (yes .1.1 rather than .0.1), the Zakelijk offering is configured remotely. Why bother with this portal-driven configuration? What's wrong with configuring the router locally? Is it worth the added downtime after installation? Is it worth the inability to configure the router while the fibre optic line is down (more on this further down)?
Onto using my own hardware, T-Mobile's knowledgebase says that to use your own hardware you must call customer service. https://www.t-mobile.nl/z...vice/internet/installeren
The technical support representative who I spoke to is clearly very inexperienced. They say that I must plug my own hardware into the ONT and then the credentials will automatically be emailed to me. I'm suspicious, but I plug it in. After some awkward discussions, I finally get him to "send it manually to speed up the process", it took a few minutes to receive the email. Why not do that first?
I now have the credentials and they're a bit ambiguous. They look like this:
Persoonlijke inloggegevens
Gebruikersnaam: **********@IPAccess.net
Wachtwoord: ********************
Netwerkgegevens Zakelijk Internet
Mode: Routing
Encapsulation: PPPoE
IPv4/IPv6 Mode: Ipv4
VLAN: 32 ‘internet’
MTU: 1500
NAT: ✔
IGMP Proxy: ✔
I asked the technical support representative a simple question: Are the Personlijke Inloggegevens for PPPoE? First he starts with a rant about not being able to provide support for own hardware, then moves onto explaining that they should be put into my own hardware's portal, but is unable to answer the question. I don't think he knew what PPPoE is, I think the technical support representatives' training at T-Mobile is very narrow. The answer is yes, these are the PPPoE credentials, but I just determined that by trying them.
Moving onto the 4G backup, which is included in the service (and was the part I was most excited about!). I was supplied with an Alcatel IK41VE1 and a SIM. This USB stick normally plugs into the side of T-Mobile's Zyxel T-54. I tried putting this SIM into my own hardware, but it requires a PIN. I tried putting the USB stick into my hardware, and it does not seem happy. When I called T-Mobile about this, I was told that the 4G backup can only be used in conjunction with the T-Mobile provided router. That is, if you want to use your own hardware, you forfeit the possibility to use the 4G backup directly.
With it being the law in NL that providers must allow their customers to use their own hardware, I asked T-Mobile customer service how I could have known this restriction from their marketing material or terms and conditions. I still do not have an answer. You wouldn't buy a mobile phone contract only to find out that the SIM cannot be used in another phone. I think this practice of T-Mobile's is not legal.
From T-Mobile's website:
/f/image/o6CZYWDkp4Rwl100GXPkjdF2.png?f=fotoalbum_large)
One option is to put the Alcatel IK41VE1 USB stick into T-Mobile's Zyxel T-54 router and then connect this to my own hardware via the Zyxel's LAN ports, so that T-Mobile's hardware will be permanently in 4G backup mode and my hardware will perform the switch once the fibre optic connection goes down. But what a waste! To have to supply power for this router and to introduce a NAT mangling hop when it could be so much simpler.
And here's another problem: while in 4G backup mode, the router appears as offline in the T-Mobile configuration portal, so you cannot change any settings. You can only change settings on the Zyxel T-54 by interrupting your fibre optic connection, connecting the Zyxel T-54 to it, and then making the change. Again, what's wrong with a local configuration portal?
/f/image/CWZ2gTngMharXqtWnF6rh2AS.png?f=fotoalbum_large)
When I began ordering the T-Mobile Zakelijk Fixed Internet service in mid-July I had no idea how many unexpected roadblocks I'd come across.
Firstly, the T-Mobile website does not allow placing an order with a foreign IBAN. My company is based in NL but does not have an NL bank account. My company banks with Revolut who operate in the whole of the EU, but only provide Lithuanian IBANs. They have recently started providing local IBANs for personal customers, but for business customers this is still the case. The DNB requires that european IBANs not be discriminated based on country of origin, that is, if you accept NL IBANs you must also accept LT IBANs for payments and direct debits.
You can read more about IBAN discrimination here: https://www.dnb.nl/betale...pa-en-iban-discriminatie/
I proceeded to call T-Mobile to attempt to make an order with my non-dutch IBAN. Initially I was faced with "no, you cannot do that, we only accept dutch IBANs", I got this from multiple customer/sales representatives over the phone. The website actually says to visit one of the stores, but none of the customer/sales representatives confirmed this, instead repeating the line "you cannot do that".
After failing to get anywhere over the phone, I sent a complaint via the website. A few hours later I received an email about a new order, this time with a strange IBAN for the direct debit: NL13TEST0123456789. I had received no other communication from T-Mobile about the process, only automated emails. The date on this order was unfortunately correct, and my old provider was notified of it, at which point I requested the order be cancelled.
I was told at the time, but due to the level of incompetence I'd experienced so far, I didn't trust whoever told me: at T-Mobile you don't make an order with a start date, instead you make an order which starts as soon as possible, which also notifies your old provider of the switch, and then you call T-Mobile's installation partner to change the installation date; you must also call your old provider to ensure that they don't stop your service on the wrong date. This, apparently, is normal, however bizarre.
:fill(white):strip_exif()/f/image/qhPP9ItvpxT1uoE2vKadaD8K.png?f=user_large)
Two weeks, countless phone calls and 12 rejected orders later, I managed to get an order created and have it pass the "credit check" with the fake NL IBAN, later to be changed to the real LT IBAN. I then called my old provider and told them to ignore the switch and called T-Mobile's installation partner to change the installation date.
Fast forward to the installation date, everything seems to be going well. The installation partner arrives 2 hours early, installs the new service and leaves me with the wifi credentials. I plan to use my own hardware with T-Mobile's ONT, but first I was curious and wanted to have a look around T-Mobile's router, perhaps I could get the critical services up and running quicker.
T-Mobile's router can only be configured if it's connected to the Internet and with the https://t-mobile-nl.force.com/ login credentials. That is, you can visit http://192.168.0.1 but you cannot log in to configure it. This presents a problem because immediately after installation the online portal does not show a router which can be configured. You must wait for the router to appear in the online portal. How long? T-Mobile could not tell me, maybe in a few hours, maybe tomorrow! This is a business offering, where the customer pays more money, usually, in exchange for more customisable / raw configuration options. Incoming connections must be a part of the service, yet you can only configure them after several hours. Any business which relies on incoming connections will be... just waiting refreshing the portal page.
It seems this is a business-only quirk, where the T-Mobile Thuis service is configured locally on http://192.168.1.1 (yes .1.1 rather than .0.1), the Zakelijk offering is configured remotely. Why bother with this portal-driven configuration? What's wrong with configuring the router locally? Is it worth the added downtime after installation? Is it worth the inability to configure the router while the fibre optic line is down (more on this further down)?
Onto using my own hardware, T-Mobile's knowledgebase says that to use your own hardware you must call customer service. https://www.t-mobile.nl/z...vice/internet/installeren
The technical support representative who I spoke to is clearly very inexperienced. They say that I must plug my own hardware into the ONT and then the credentials will automatically be emailed to me. I'm suspicious, but I plug it in. After some awkward discussions, I finally get him to "send it manually to speed up the process", it took a few minutes to receive the email. Why not do that first?
I now have the credentials and they're a bit ambiguous. They look like this:
Persoonlijke inloggegevens
Gebruikersnaam: **********@IPAccess.net
Wachtwoord: ********************
Netwerkgegevens Zakelijk Internet
Mode: Routing
Encapsulation: PPPoE
IPv4/IPv6 Mode: Ipv4
VLAN: 32 ‘internet’
MTU: 1500
NAT: ✔
IGMP Proxy: ✔
I asked the technical support representative a simple question: Are the Personlijke Inloggegevens for PPPoE? First he starts with a rant about not being able to provide support for own hardware, then moves onto explaining that they should be put into my own hardware's portal, but is unable to answer the question. I don't think he knew what PPPoE is, I think the technical support representatives' training at T-Mobile is very narrow. The answer is yes, these are the PPPoE credentials, but I just determined that by trying them.
Moving onto the 4G backup, which is included in the service (and was the part I was most excited about!). I was supplied with an Alcatel IK41VE1 and a SIM. This USB stick normally plugs into the side of T-Mobile's Zyxel T-54. I tried putting this SIM into my own hardware, but it requires a PIN. I tried putting the USB stick into my hardware, and it does not seem happy. When I called T-Mobile about this, I was told that the 4G backup can only be used in conjunction with the T-Mobile provided router. That is, if you want to use your own hardware, you forfeit the possibility to use the 4G backup directly.
With it being the law in NL that providers must allow their customers to use their own hardware, I asked T-Mobile customer service how I could have known this restriction from their marketing material or terms and conditions. I still do not have an answer. You wouldn't buy a mobile phone contract only to find out that the SIM cannot be used in another phone. I think this practice of T-Mobile's is not legal.
From T-Mobile's website:
:fill(white):strip_exif()/f/image/o6CZYWDkp4Rwl100GXPkjdF2.png?f=user_large)
...not in the back of T-Mobile's modem only - your modem, and the law says that you can choose your modem.
One option is to put the Alcatel IK41VE1 USB stick into T-Mobile's Zyxel T-54 router and then connect this to my own hardware via the Zyxel's LAN ports, so that T-Mobile's hardware will be permanently in 4G backup mode and my hardware will perform the switch once the fibre optic connection goes down. But what a waste! To have to supply power for this router and to introduce a NAT mangling hop when it could be so much simpler.
And here's another problem: while in 4G backup mode, the router appears as offline in the T-Mobile configuration portal, so you cannot change any settings. You can only change settings on the Zyxel T-54 by interrupting your fibre optic connection, connecting the Zyxel T-54 to it, and then making the change. Again, what's wrong with a local configuration portal?
:fill(white):strip_exif()/f/image/CWZ2gTngMharXqtWnF6rh2AS.png?f=user_large)
I'm annoyed at T-Mobile for their awful customer service, unexpected conditions, and generally not being very forthcoming or helpful. I hope this write up of my experience helps someone to make the right decision about ordering from T-Mobile and encourages someone from T-Mobile to make better decisions for their customers.
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/333229/Logo%2520RFixIT%2520Tweakers.jpg?f=community)
Dit topic is gesloten.