We switched to T-Mobile internet last week. Spectrum raised my monthly rate AGAIN by another $5 so it was now $74.99. T-Mobile is $50 per month with no data cap. Spectrum (Charter) had no data cap but I assumed that was coming soon. The setup was a bit painful but the signal has been adequate and reliable even though I only have 3 out of 5 bars lit on my gateway.
T-Mobile sent a NOKIA gateway that I set up. I didn't realize how many things we had connected to the internet. Light bulbs controlled by voice via Alexa (11), Alexa devices (Taps, Show, multiple Echo's), thermostats (2), Ring door bell, Ring Floodlight cam, Ring security system, tablets, Sonos speakers, chromebook, TV's, and phones. The light bulbs only do 2.4 GHz which is why it was important that I be able to identify and label the 2.4GHz channel as such.
Actually, I had to do the setup twice because there is something funky going on with the T-Mobile internet setup app. We (tech support and I) thought it was a gateway issue so they sent me a new one but it wasn't an issue with the gateway. They recommend you set up the gateway with the app but it really isn't possible to do it right without a laptop and a cat 5 cable.
I now have a 2.4 GHz channel and two 5 GHz channels with the gateway. All 3 initially start with the same name and there is no way to properly rename them on the app. T-Mobile tech support thinks I should only have one 5GHz channel but I can see two. The gateway I received just began shipping on Jan 6th so T-Mobile internet tech support isn't really up to speed on the new device. The gateway I received seems much nicer than their initial one but it's a little painful right now because the reps I spoke to have never seen one. I worked with the tech support guy for about 2 hours setting up the second gateway and making it do weird things on purpose, such as the system renaming all 3 channels when I was only attempting to rename one. He and I both learned a lot about the system and he said he would be passing along the info to the other support folks.
It was really quite a goat rope to get everything set up (twice) but it's worth going through the setup pain because I despise Spectrum. When I called to cancel, the guy said he would get me a better price. I mentioned he should be able to see my prior complaining calls which he said he did. I said it's too late and I wouldn't stay with them even if he gave me internet service for free! I told him this latest price increase was not going to be generating any additional revenue for Spectrum. I am so done with them. I definitely did the happy dance in the Spectrum lobby when I dropped off my modem (and got my receipt to prove it had been dropped off when they later try to charge me for it).
I just did a speed test at speedtest.net and my ping was 33 ms, 75 Mbs download and 34 Mbps upload. I haven't done a test for a few days but I think it was about half those upload/download speeds during the day. Plenty for our uses!
