30 million households are eligible; signups available "until capacity runs out."
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T-Mobile 5G home Internet: $60 a month, 100Mbps speeds, and no data cap
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I’m guessing this is not really for rural access like Starlink since these consistently high speeds would probably require being close to a 5G base station.
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Im dubious to the end result, and end product. Sounds almost too good. If it turns out well maybe my stink eye will go away.
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I'm not particularly close to the nearest tower and their 5G works plenty good on my phone.
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Mixed feelings, but T-Mobile is a household name with enormous brand recognition. If they added this to a family plan, I could see them improve Average Revenue Per User on cross-sell. It should also improve their churn metrics (ISP customers are significantly stickier than cell phone customers).
[Edit]
Thinking about this some more, I am now convinced this is a brilliant business move. It is effectively free money, since they can cherry pick their customers to those who are in excess capacity zones. There is no movement, so they can optimize monetizing their bandwidth on a per-station basis. Customers should be happy as well, since their service will usually be great.
[Edit]
Thinking about this some more, I am now convinced this is a brilliant business move. It is effectively free money, since they can cherry pick their customers to those who are in excess capacity zones. There is no movement, so they can optimize monetizing their bandwidth on a per-station basis. Customers should be happy as well, since their service will usually be great.
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Some phones/carriers label certain iterations of LTE as "5G" even though they are not.
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I think you misread. The service has no data caps. The author was comparing "heavy users", who have a data cap, to this plan with no data cap, but the same type of throttling.
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The 50GB is for "heavy" mobile users, not home Internet. I'll try to make that more clear in case anyone else was confused.
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Their own wifi, managed by an app, so probably cloud based? Ugh. How about a modem with a single ethernet port?
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"T-Mobile Home Internet is just $60 all in with AutoPay for customers who already have (or switch to) a tax included plan, or $60 with AutoPay plus taxes and fees for customers already on a tax exclusive wireless plan."
I find this confusing. So is it $60 if I'm already a TMobile Customer, and 60+ if I'm not?
I find this confusing. So is it $60 if I'm already a TMobile Customer, and 60+ if I'm not?
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Assuming there are no weird issues that pop up with the service, I will jump at the chance to toss Comcast to the curb as soon as this is available in my area. T-Mobile 5G (via Google Fi on my phone) is pretty good around here, especially with them converting all of the Sprint towers. The cost is essentially $20/less a month than Comcast for approx the same DL speed and about 3-5x the upload speed. And I don't have to deal with Comcast tech support.
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Easy enough to have a router in client mode on a virtual wlan (aka, 'repeater' mode).
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This sounds like it will be great until lots of people start using it. I don't believe they will resist the urge to oversubscribe.
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The gateway does have two Ethernet ports, so you could disable the WiFi and use your own kit.
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So I have this. Not exactly in the boonies but outside of Fiber/Cable.
It doesn't work with Global Protect VPN - there was an update but they appeared to have pulled it. Speeds are good - excess of 50 down - Pings between 20-40
I don't game a lot but it is better than our local WISP - 25/3 speeds. I am keeping that for work due to the issues with VPN
It doesn't work with Global Protect VPN - there was an update but they appeared to have pulled it. Speeds are good - excess of 50 down - Pings between 20-40
I don't game a lot but it is better than our local WISP - 25/3 speeds. I am keeping that for work due to the issues with VPN
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I think I need another clarification after reading the article:
If I am reading what you are saying right, then home internet users are potentially in a worse situation than the mobile heavy users.
I'm reading this as: home internet is deprioritized always, from the very first byte, while mobile plans get 50GB before being deprioritized?
So if there happens to be congestion, you will be slowed down regardless of how little data you've actually used?
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I've been using it as part of a trial for T-Mobile for maybe six months now. It really is too good to be true, especially in this area. I don't usually fawn over ISPs, but I've had nothing but a great experience and it was a lifesaver.
None yet...
None yet...
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They have some additional information on estimated speeds including latency here (scroll down about half way). 21-35 ms isn't bad. Sadly not available at my address.
I like the idea of this, but it really depends on how the service is at a specific location and how many neighbors get in on it. I use google fi, which runs on t-mobile (among others), and I get terrible cell coverage at my house so presumably this won't be an option any time soon. I still wonder who has bandwidth on the microcell tower they put up a couple hundred feet away a few years ago, but T-mobile clearly isn't one of them. It sure would be nice to tap into the backhaul since it is so close, and it's clear AT&T has no interest in improving home internet service in the area.
I like the idea of this, but it really depends on how the service is at a specific location and how many neighbors get in on it. I use google fi, which runs on t-mobile (among others), and I get terrible cell coverage at my house so presumably this won't be an option any time soon. I still wonder who has bandwidth on the microcell tower they put up a couple hundred feet away a few years ago, but T-mobile clearly isn't one of them. It sure would be nice to tap into the backhaul since it is so close, and it's clear AT&T has no interest in improving home internet service in the area.
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Yeah that's correct. But also note this part of the article: T-Mobile said that home Internet "customers receive the same network prioritization as Heavy Data Users, but should be less likely to experience congestion because the equipment is stationary and available in limited areas."
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Ahah. There's "always" a data cap.
Not a "heavy" user and I used a couple of Tb last month at home. Why? Cord cutter, so TV consists of Netflix (4K) and equivalents, as well as streaming some local channels (HD). Don't even watch that much TV.
I live in EU, and have symmetrical 100mbps FTTH for 25€/month. So that's great, and no caps.
But no single wireless operator offers the same without caps. It's all "unlimited" until you hit a hidden cap under an acceptable usage policy, then you can't even stream HD.
So, yeah, I'm sure it could maybe exist, but it's not like the most common thing in the world and the US is missing out.
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I have this service in addition to our meager DSL (18/3). Century Link has been so problematic for us (and expensive!) we needed an alternative and the T-Mo link is indeed faster. I was getting what seemed to be a symmetrical 50/50 when I tested it during non-peak hours. I am sure during rush hour it would not be as speedy. It has had one or two blips where the internet seemed down, but I was not available to troubleshoot it at the time. The GUI interface does not give you a lot of power to fiddle or change much and you are locked in to the baked-in router settings.
I wondered about the Terms and Conditions to see if there were any usage restrictions and at the time I appeared to get routed to their standard mobile usage terms that seemed to restrict usage for video streaming and large data downloads. I am still confused there.
By the way, your billing starts the day you order it. Mine took a solid month to get to me (weather impeded the shipment) and I had to ask them to remove part of the charges. The rep had the gall to mention that I should ask UPS for the refund, but eventually he dropped the charges for the period that I waited for delivery.
We both have the opportunity to work from home a lot, so we end up paying more for copper and mobile internet here despite being within a couple of miles of fiber on either side of us (CLink said never for us). T-Mobile has provided an alternative that I think we can live with for a while. Starlink was an option too, but I do some on-line gaming and the latency is a killer. Anyhow, just thought I'd share my experience.
I wondered about the Terms and Conditions to see if there were any usage restrictions and at the time I appeared to get routed to their standard mobile usage terms that seemed to restrict usage for video streaming and large data downloads. I am still confused there.
By the way, your billing starts the day you order it. Mine took a solid month to get to me (weather impeded the shipment) and I had to ask them to remove part of the charges. The rep had the gall to mention that I should ask UPS for the refund, but eventually he dropped the charges for the period that I waited for delivery.
We both have the opportunity to work from home a lot, so we end up paying more for copper and mobile internet here despite being within a couple of miles of fiber on either side of us (CLink said never for us). T-Mobile has provided an alternative that I think we can live with for a while. Starlink was an option too, but I do some on-line gaming and the latency is a killer. Anyhow, just thought I'd share my experience.
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I have a Comcast 200 mbps plan. However, I rarely get speeds up to 30 mbps. Zoom calls drop most of times, and I am forced to switch to making the zoom call from phone. I am tempted.
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Um... I think you don't quite get what Starlink can and can't do.
Starlink will never be able to service a high density region (well, it CAN, but dial-up speeds due to trying to squeeze hundreds of simultaneous users through one satellite at a time will probably piss off users). It's designed primarily for low user-population density regions like rural America, which is grossly underserved by high-speed Internet.
It's also the same regions grossly under-served by cell phone service of any kind, let alone the limited range of fast 5G (which IIRC is measured by completely unobstructed yards rather than miles for best experience). So those out in the country with no 4G yet (let alone 5G) won't be able to even use this service. It's definitely NOT intended for them.
The offered service is actually somewhat better up/down and for less than I pay for cable, and I live in a relatively built up area where 5G is likely available (they're still putting in the additions to the towers around here, and by "they" it's everyone who has a cell phone company) so this service is modestly attractive.
But the throttling would be really annoying, even if I get why they'd do it. It's a potential option sometime in the future when my current cable company becomes an asshat (which they haven't done for several years). I like the reliability of physical connections and dislike the variability of wireless. But if push comes to shove... That's a trigger I may pull in the future - assuming T-Mobile continues to offer it.
And that's the flip side to the idea. I don't want to go crawling back to the cable company if that's a trigger I DO pull, so I'd like to make sure the offer has legs without any shenanigans before pulling it.
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Not just call, robocall too unless you untick the box, and they require your email address too.
"For new customers only. I'm not a current T-Mobile customer but it's still okay for a T-Mobile representative to contact me about purchasing T-Mobile Home Internet Service via an autodialed call or text to the number I provided. I understand my agreement is not a condition of purchase and that I can also call T-Mobile at 1-844-839-5057 to purchase."
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You definitely will.
It's a good program for me, but T-Mobile Home Internet gets rock bottom, dead last priority, even after MVNO cell customers.
https://www.t-mobile.com/responsibility ... et-service
The bit about it being less likely to happen because of being available in limited areas might have been true during the initial roll out, but as they open the program more as with this latest push it's going to happen to more and more T-Mobile ISP customers.
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