T-5G Mobile’s home internet offering has to be giving them a lot of satisfaction, in my opinion. Recent findings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index survey, which ranked the upstart T-Mobile Home Online second among all national ISPs, helped the company make a stir.
It just launched an aggressive “Internet Freedom” campaign with the slogan “Free yourself from internet BS.” Not bad at all.
Early in 2021, T-Mobile Home Internet began to be offered as a pilot service, and one of my (now ex-) CNET colleagues, Rick Broida, was among the first to test it out. T-Mobile stated in April 2021 that its home broadband service has been made available countrywide.
A few months later, it announced that it had increased its availability to 40 million homes, and another member of my CNET team decided to give it a shot.
T-Mobile has long been interested in using 5G to compete in the home internet market. But what does that mean for you now that the company’s home broadband product is established? What additional features does 5G home internet offer? Is switching to T-Mobile Home Internet a good idea if your existing internet service provider isn’t up to par?
First off, T-monthly Mobile’s fee of $50 (which is reduced to $30 for qualified Magenta MAX mobile customers) is reasonable. You also don’t have to be concerned about data restrictions or long-term contracts. Pretty awesome, no?
Undoubtedly, but it’s still early. Approximately 40 million houses in the US currently have access to T-Mobile Home Internet, however many other places and addresses cannot.
While 5G is the main attraction of this proposal, T-Mobile depends on 4G LTE to increase the reach of its home internet service. This indicates that T-Mobile will give the weakest average speeds among 5G home internet service providers. But let’s examine the specifics.
Where Is T-Mobile Home Internet Available?
Is this service available to me? should always be the first question we address when discussing any ISP. Over 40 million homes in more than 40 states today have access to T-Mobile Home Internet. As a result, it is the 5G home internet service that is most accessible in the US.
Comparatively, Verizon’s 5G Home Internet service has reached over 30 million homes but has only recently begun to roll out in about 900 locations. T-Mobile is currently accepting signups in over 600 cities, but there are also more households, many of which are located in rural areas.
Consult this T-Mobile Home Internet PDF for a full list of the cities and municipalities that are offered.
When Will My Neighbourhood Finally Get T-Mobile Home Internet?
With 40 million households served, T-Mobile is the provider of 5G home internet that is the most accessible. However, with over 122 million houses across the country according to US Census data, over 67 percent of households are still ineligible for T-Mobile Home Internet.
Although a T-Mobile spokesman was unable to provide exact information on expansion plans, she did note that more than 10 million of the current footprint’s households are located in rural America.
Additionally, improving access for rural areas and communities is a priority. The T-Mobile website invites interested people to add their names to a list for future availability and states that expansion may take six months or longer for individuals outside the current availability timeframe.
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What Pricing and Plans Are Available from T-Mobile Home Internet?
One of the first things that struck me as I started to investigate T-Mobile Home Internet was simplicity. Because there is only one plan, there aren’t many tiers or alternatives from which to choose:
T-Mobile Home Internet Plans and Pricing
| Plan | Max speeds | Monthly price | Equipment fee | Data cap | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T-Mobile Home Internet | 33-182Mbps download, 6-23Mbps upload | $50 ($30 for eligible Magenta MAX mobile customers) | None | None | None |
A Performance Test
I ran a Speedtest after connecting only my iPhone through Wi-Fi to the 5G gateway. To my surprise, I measured download speeds of more than 470 Mbps and upload speeds of around 72 Mbps.
For comparison, the upload speed on my Spectrum internet connection is limited to about 21 Mbps and ranges from 430 to 450 Mbps.
The 5G gateway reportedly reached peak download rates of 557.37 Mbps from my MacBook Pro, which was connected directly to the 5G gateway, around 3 p.m., which is unheard of for residential internet out here in the suburbs.
When I retested at about 9:00 p.m. ET, the 5G gateway’s download and upload speeds were about 400 Mbps and 40 Mbps, respectively. Even though there is a sharp drop-off, we still have more than enough throughput.
I then repeated the testing using one of the two Ethernet ports on the 5G gateway to connect my Orbi router. I stayed with that configuration because it had no effect on the download or upload speeds.
Since I don’t play many games, having a fast and reliable internet connection every single day of the year is what I care about most. The Home Internet service from T-Mobile has been faultless over the days that I’ve been trying it.
No service outages or major speed drops have occurred for me. Compared to the hot Arris Surfboard SB6183 cable modem I’ve been using for years, the 5G gateway has remained just barely warm to the touch.
The 5G hotspot can handle everything I put at it, including simultaneous streaming from numerous Smart TVs, my daily conference calls, my massive file downloads, and pretty much anything else.
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Wrap-Up
I had some reservations about adopting a cellular-based internet service for my home internet before this test, but those reservations were unfounded. T-Mobile Home Internet was simple to sign up for, the app setup procedure was quick and error-free, and the actual internet service has been rock-solid.
The change has been a no-brainer for our family when you consider the fact that I am saving $20 each month ($240 annually).
Making the phone call to Spectrum’s customer retention department to inform them that I’m canceling my current account will probably be the most difficult aspect of the entire process.