P8P / Tmo - really tired of full bars but no service
Had similar problems with my P6P. There are multiple areas in my town where I show full / nearly full bars, but my service is terrible or non-existent (!). If I toggle Airplane Mode, I'll get great speeds until it drops out again. Sometimes this is 30 seconds, sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes hours/days. But at some point it will drop out again. Ugh...
Google has been using a bad modem ever since the Pixel 6, resulting in poor cellular connectivity. Although given how strong the connection looks, this is likely at least partially due to congestion on T-Mobile’s network as well.
That'd be your carrier being bad, not the Pixel. You could be right next to the tower, but depending on congestion and your plan you could be limited. You're driving a car that can go fast, but getting stuck in traffic.
Do phones still need tower info updates? Or maybe OP flashed a custom ROM so they're not getting radio firmware updates OTA or something. There's really not enough info here to go on.
My advice to OP: perform a factory reset if you're on stock firmware, or flash the latest stock firmware if you aren't. Cell phones are complex devices; there are quite a few components involved in cellular data.
My wife has a Pixel 8, I have a Pixel 6 Pro, and my daughter has a Motorola Moto G 5G, all on Google Fi and I am the only one having this issue. We can all be in the same place and suddenly my phone gets a '!' by the signal. This never happens to their phones.
I think the pixel 6 pro had a shitty 5g modem. I’m using one on a verizon mvno and it works fine but definitely has a shitty signal compared to my iPhone.
I don't think the problem is TMO or any other service provider; it's the way Android handles wifi and data. Whenever I have this problem, I turn off the Wi-Fi and suddenly everything works. Same when I am on wifi and shit isn't working, I turn off the phone antenna to just have wifi and it starts working again.
There's just an issue with it not switching over to the thing that actually has a connection and instead keeps trying to use the service that isn't.
It could also just be that the tower you have full signal to is oversaturated by other customers and why you see slowdown or connection problems.