T-Mobile Home Internet

[braumeister]

I recently received an invitation to get home internet service from T-Mobile.

The idea is that in areas where they have excess capacity, they can offer LTE internet speed (expected to be around 50 mbps) to home customers. They provide a "gateway" which is essentially just a router and you place it in your home wherever you get a good T-Mobile signal. They you can connect your devices to it via WiFi.

The cost is a flat $50/month, which sure beats the $86 I pay the cable company now.

I've ordered it, and plan to try it out side-by-side with the cable internet for a couple of months. If it's good and stable, I'll cancel the cable subscription.

Only limited areas right now, so you have to use their website to see if your location is available. Here's the scoop:
Home Internet done right

 

[Sunset]

Interesting, but annoying how one cannot simply see on the map if it's available, requires contacting them.

 

[Scrapr]

Interesting, but annoying how one cannot simply see on the map if it's available, requires contacting them.

Yep. I backed out after that. I wonder if this is an attempt to get in front of the 5G rollout

 

[Gotadimple]

Yep. I backed out after that. I wonder if this is an attempt to get in front of the 5G rollout

They have been doing this for awhile in small increments. 5G has nothing to do with it. The issue I have is that there is no ethernet port for connecting a computer.

 

[bloom2708]

https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/free-trial

"Test Drive" is free for 30 days/30gb.

I am testing currently. We don't have good T-Mobile coverage here. SpeedTest showed 2mb/s download and .5 mb/s upload.

You get a little device and SIM card. It creates a wireless network on the T-Mobile network.

I don't think it can replace your cable internet, but if you just browse it might be fine.

This may be different from full time internet. Not sure. It does allow you to test the signal strength in your area.

 

[braumeister]

https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/free-trial

"Test Drive" is free for 30 days/30gb.

I am testing currently. We don't have good T-Mobile coverage here. SpeedTest showed 2mb/s download and .5 mb/s upload.

You get a little device and SIM card. It creates a wireless network on the T-Mobile network.

I don't think it can replace your cable internet, but if you just browse it might be fine.

This may be different from full time internet. Not sure. It does allow you to test the signal strength in your area.

You're talking about something different.

 

[braumeister]

Interesting, but annoying how one cannot simply see on the map if it's available, requires contacting them.

I did the location check entirely on their website, drilling down to a map showing my neighborhood and then clicking on my house.

 

[Sojourner]

The idea is that in areas where they have excess capacity, they can offer LTE internet speed (expected to be around 50 mbps) to home customers.

I would be quite surprised if you get anything remotely like 50 mbps, even if you have a strong T-Mobile signal at your location. And even if you have a T-Mobile cell tower nearby, the signal strength/quality/speed likely would vary a lot due to environmental factors. Maybe it would be good enough for your needs, but I think a wired connection would provide a more reliable, consistent signal. The question, as always, is how much more (if anything) is that added reliability worth to you?

 

[ncbill]

You're talking about something different.

What's different?

Both are using cellular signals (LTE)

Better test it out first...I'm signed up for their "test drive" and T-Mobile's performance so far has been well behind AT&T's unlimited $35/month "tablet" LTE plan that I use on an unlocked WiFi hotspot.

 

[upupandaway]

If a lack of ethernet ports is an issue you could always use a dedicated wireless bridge or setup a router in bridge mode. You could limit environmental variables by keeping them in close proximity to each other.

 

[braumeister]

Well, T-Mobile was amazingly responsive. Shipped the gateway unit out as soon as I ordered it and it arrived the next day. They also gave me a $50 credit for trying it.

It's a nice router, and it does have an ethernet port if you want to use it that way.

Unfortunately, the cell signal in my house just isn't strong enough to support a robust connection, even though their nearest tower is less than a mile away. I think the fact that there is a hill and some thick woods between us is a big factor.

I tried all sorts of locations in the house but was only able to get a "fair" signal in the best spots. The router worked very well when it got enough signal, but kept dropping out so I returned it. T-Mobile was most apologetic, and thanked me for trying it. Since it's still just a pilot program in a few areas, I guess it will get better over time.

 

[Sunset]

I did the location check entirely on their website, drilling down to a map showing my neighborhood and then clicking on my house.

When I did that, it then wanted a contact number, etc..

I'm not sure the map is limited to only places where they are doing this, so I didn't take seeing my house as a sign it's available.

 

[ERD50]

When I did that, it then wanted a contact number, etc..

I'm not sure the map is limited to only places where they are doing this, so I didn't take seeing my house as a sign it's available.

That's how I saw it too, the map is just a map, I didn't see any feedback on coverage. I zoomed out to check, I didn't see anything to indicate coverage.

I'm on Ting which uses T-Mobile, and my phone is reporting ~ - 110 dBm. Looks like ~ 3 bars? I wonder if that's enough?

-ERD50

 

[steelyman]

That's how I saw it too, the map is just a map, I didn't see any feedback on coverage. I zoomed out to check, I didn't see anything to indicate coverage.

I'm on Ting which uses T-Mobile, and my phone is reporting ~ - 110 dBm. Looks like ~ 3 bars? I wonder if that's enough?

-ERD50

I seem to learn something new here almost daily, either directly or a search after reading someone else’s post.

I didn’t know of any way except the bar indicators to check cell signal strength. I found an iOS-specific feature called Field Test that worked but this site has more complete information and rough guidelines for mapping signal to bar indicators:

https://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/blog/how-to-read-cell-phone-signal-strength-the-right-way/

 

[njhowie]

That's how I saw it too, the map is just a map, I didn't see any feedback on coverage. I zoomed out to check, I didn't see anything to indicate coverage.

I'm on Ting which uses T-Mobile, and my phone is reporting ~ - 110 dBm. Looks like ~ 3 bars? I wonder if that's enough?

-ERD50

There is a button right under the image that says "Confirm PIN Location" and when you click that it opens up a form to complete so they can contact you. Like others, I stopped there.

We have MetroPCS (now "Metro by T-Mobile") and when we're lucky we get one bar in the house, so it's doubtful this would work for us.