Anybody here tried or trying TMobile home internet?
- Thread starter akaukswoosh
- Start date
A few things that jump out to me on their page... for starters, you really should use your own equipment and not the providers. You can get a really good mesh network for $100 that practically sets it self up. Second, that $49.99/fee for Spectrum to install things.. idk. I don't recall ever having to pay anything for this and I've used Spectrum on several occasions. So I don't trust their comparison chart.
They also don't offer tiered service, so it's one plan or nothing. Don't like that. Most ISPs will have several tiers of service.
And the big one.. it seems they offer "speeds in excess of 100mbs".. uhh what? lmfao. Is this 2009? Sure, it's cool that you don't need any cable wiring, and that it's technical a whole home internet "hotspot" and it MAY work in a rural area.. but for those speeds? Pass.
Spectrum offers 400mb for $45/month on a 2-year contract. I'm sure you have a similar cable company that offers the same. Stick with that, IMO.
They also don't offer tiered service, so it's one plan or nothing. Don't like that. Most ISPs will have several tiers of service.
And the big one.. it seems they offer "speeds in excess of 100mbs".. uhh what? lmfao. Is this 2009? Sure, it's cool that you don't need any cable wiring, and that it's technical a whole home internet "hotspot" and it MAY work in a rural area.. but for those speeds? Pass.
Spectrum offers 400mb for $45/month on a 2-year contract. I'm sure you have a similar cable company that offers the same. Stick with that, IMO.
This is basically like getting a cell phone with unlimited internet access. They don't offer a tiered service because all they could provide would be throttling like they use for phones that exceed monthly allotments.
As for equipment, you can use a mesh network as a router if you want. But you are going to need the 5G Gateway that they include in order to connect to the service. It is essentially a 5G modem, and there aren't any third party options for this at this time. Fortunately there aren't any charges for the gateway, so that is a positive. The Gateway can be connected to any external router to improve coverage.
If you have a modern 5G phone and you are getting good up and down speeds at your house then then this can be a pretty good deal. Especially if there aren't good high speed broadband alternatives in your area. It is a flat $50 a month. Some areas charge a lot more than that. My parents are getting terrible service from Windstream and paying more. I am considering ordering one of these and trying it at their house for a month to see how it does.
As for equipment, you can use a mesh network as a router if you want. But you are going to need the 5G Gateway that they include in order to connect to the service. It is essentially a 5G modem, and there aren't any third party options for this at this time. Fortunately there aren't any charges for the gateway, so that is a positive. The Gateway can be connected to any external router to improve coverage.
If you have a modern 5G phone and you are getting good up and down speeds at your house then then this can be a pretty good deal. Especially if there aren't good high speed broadband alternatives in your area. It is a flat $50 a month. Some areas charge a lot more than that. My parents are getting terrible service from Windstream and paying more. I am considering ordering one of these and trying it at their house for a month to see how it does.
I never have any problems with my phone service, but I have been told that the home Internet service isn't very good if you are doing a lot of streaming or gaming.
This won’t make sense for a while. Most places that have 5g also have way better options for fiber. If/when we get more rural coverage it could be great if you didn’t have the fiber options or needed it for mobile. I’ve got an average of 650mb download and 155 mb uploads and when I try to use my phone as a hotspot even on 5g it is pathetic in comparison. Especially the uploads.
100mb speeds just won't cut it. Maybe if you live on your own.. but every additional person comes with another 5-6 devices connected to the internet. Factor in any smart home devices, and that 100mb pipe gets carved up pretty quick.
for reference: my 400mb pipe gets cut down to about 150-250mb on my desktop, which is connected to the secondary mesh node.. My Xbox also runs off of this node wirelessly.. and I routinely run into lag for some games.
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Here's an example of what I'm getting. Spectrum on the left and TMobile on the right.
Don't think I'm ready to make the switch yet but I might one of these days with these numbers.
Don't think I'm ready to make the switch yet but I might one of these days with these numbers.
350 down and 20 up fo
97 down and 15 up for AT&T.
I can’t imagine “surviving” on 97-100 down for the whole house.
97 down and 15 up for AT&T.
I can’t imagine “surviving” on 97-100 down for the whole house.
That would make an effective ad.Here's an example of what I'm getting. Spectrum on the left and TMobile on the right.
Don't think I'm ready to make the switch yet but I might one of these days with these numbers.
Good video here. With several tips like using an external antenna and Cat 6 cable. KyCatFan might especially like this.
I think most of the negatives wouldn't really apply to me. The only one that would is the 2.4g not being supported but that is easily fixed by just using it as a modem and hooking my Netgear Nighthawk router up to it. It supports both bands.
The main issue I have to worry about is for gaming. I play a little but my son plays a lot and wouldn't want to mess up his gaming experience. According to this guy, they aren't having any issues with that. I might do a little more research and then possibly look into it.
This would save me like $30 a month and only have one bill instead of 2 to deal with. The downside is there would be no backup system if one of them goes down. Rarely happens with cellular but cable does go down a few times here and there.
There's a limit on how much you really "need." My service runs from ~120-~200 down depending on the time of day, and with 2 people working from home and 2 kids, I never have lag or failed connections. Even with 2 people on zoom, 1 on netflix, 1 on Xbox...never an issue. If you have a good wireless router and your devices aren't 10 years old, 150mb is plenty.
How are you pulling the TMobile numbers without their service? Or are you using mobile? I just find it weird that Tmobile is offering "upwards of 100mbs" and you're getting nearly 400.. I feel like they'd advertise that.
Not a bad video. Surprised he got to 1gig. Maybe with the Antenna modifications? Not sure. But just for reference, Cat6 cables are for your LAN.. they do nothing in terms of your ISP/Circuit. No one should be using Cat5 (non e), it's been deprecated for like 20 years.
There's also a floor though, and I do think 100mb is a floor. Do you or your kids do any online gaming? That's where I've seen hits even with a 400mb pipe. Granted, I'm in a pretty populated area where the lines for our block can get hit, so sometimes thats a factor. But I am running the Deco 5 mesh system, which is pretty solid.
Upgrading to the Deco x20 this week.. pretty excited to see how it works. I think my devices are starting to hamper my current setup, which is about 30 for just two nodes.
My little girl is normally playing Roblox. Son plays lots of games on XBox live. Agree that 100MB is the floor - I live in a suburban neighborhood but the houses are pretty spread out.
Using 5G on my phone to get the numbers. The same 5G that the service uses. The signal going out to customers shouldn't be any different for the modem and my phone if they are both built to run on the 5G network I wouldn't think. Maybe my numbers aren't typical though.
I have multiple cell towers within a mile of where I live. Not sure which company owns them. I also have a TMobile store a little over a mile from me. So I don't know if something fishy is going on or it's just a perfect storm to get these numbers.
