T-Mobile Launches Test Drive Program for Home Internet

[freedomlinux]

At 60/month (just $10 more), I am getting 500-1000 Mbps down from ATT Fiber with close to 5ms latency.

TMo Home Internet just can't compete.

I doubt T-Mobile is intending to compete with people who have fiber internet. Think about all the places limited to DSL (or worse).

By comparison, I have "options" of ~45Mbps DSL or maybe ~500Mbps cablemodem. My ~150Mbps service for $80+ could see some competition from mobile internet.

 

[suns93]

I'd like it if they would offer a loaner handset so I could check out their wireless strength at home to decide if I switch phone carriers.

Download the T-Mobile Network Test Drive app. They give you 30 days/30gb of data on your current phone. I’m currently trying it out to see if I should make the jump.

 

[bbplayer5]

The "router" they give you doesn't support port forwarding or any other basic routing feature. Keep that in mind if you have any type of server or need to use a VPN etc.

 

[Mojohanna32]

I had the exact same thing happen to me at first, the first few months the connection would suddenly stop completely and had to restart the modem to get things going again (happened a few times a week). Then at some point it stopped happening and haven't had any issues in half a year (knock on wood).

I wish this were the case. I have had the modem for about a year, even swapped it with a new one and continue to have the issue. Another reason why I think its and issue with the tower hardware. I couldn't get the modem closer to the tower without putting it outside, so its not somehting in my house impeding the signal.

 

[Mojohanna32]

I have been using it for a year and have no issue using Hulu (or are you talking about HuluTV?), in any case, that sounds like a Hulu issue not a TMobile issue.

never had an issue with Hulu or any other streaming service when using Tmobile device.

 

[jgleigh]

Yeah I'll stick with my gigabit fiber.

If only that was an option for everyone, but it's clearly not.

 

[deific]

I'd like it if they would offer a loaner handset so I could check out their wireless strength at home to decide if I switch phone carriers.

Just try out a Mint Mobile 7 day sim trial kit for $2 at Target - they're an MVNO (prepaid) service that uses T-Mobile - it may not be quite as fast as the straight Tmobile service especially if your area is heavily accessed, however it's a good test for signal strength and general ideas about the speeds: https://www.target.com/p/mint-mobile-7-day-trial-kit/-/A-54444205#lnk=sametab

EDIT: Also others have mentioned T-Mobile has a test drive service where you can get an app for your phone and test it out: https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/free-trial

 

[RevTEG]

Saw this article and headed over to one of the local T-mobile stores and picked it up. setup was easy. I live in San Jose, Ca and have 5G all around me. Unfortunately I’m in the next level down in speed coverage. When I set up the device at 5:30 this evening the app was saying weak signal. I was getting 25-27 down and 3-6 up. Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed. However, at around 7:30 this evening I started getting 100-119 down and 5-7 up. So Maybe it was the timing? I haven’t turned the kids lose gaming on it yet.

 

[Kar98]

BE WARNED IF YOU WANT TO USE THIS SERVICE WITH A VPN: I was given the opportunity to try T-Mobile home internet over a year ago as a beta participant. The speed was okay and nothing special. However, whenever I used it for work it slowed down to a crawl equivalent to dial-up speeds. No joke! It turned out using my work-required Cisco VPN for secure login interfered with the with this service. I contacted T-Mobile to see if they could help and they pointed the finger at my work VPN, but when I asked work to help they pointed the finger right back to T-Mobile. It was a frustrating two weeks. Not being a network engineer and not wanting to be one, I returned their hardware and canceled the service. Maybe they've resolved the issues but if T-Mobile is calling this a "Test Drive" then I don't think they've fixed it.

I tried both hardware and software VPNs and they worked just fine.

 

[DDuggin]

I have had the service for 1.5 years now my wife play game on switch online all the time with no issues.

Switch and PS4 here. Not many issues.

 

[aajeevlin]

I tried both hardware and software VPNs and they worked just fine.

Same here, I have used VPN for work, and my own VPN service (purchased) and never had issues with them.

 

[el-John-o]

I'd sign up today if they didn't limit it to home only.

I realize people "get away" with it, but I don't want to sign up only to find out they finally start enforcing that part of the TOS (similar to how AT&T has selectively enforced things). At home I'm lucky to have 1gbps up/down FTTH but I would love something like this for the RV.

 

[MacBH928]

Port forwarding is used so that you can access services running inside your network from outside.

For example, say you have a linux box that you want to be able to log into from outside. You would forward, say, port 222 to 22 on the Linux box. Then you can SSH into your Linux box from anywhere.

Same deal with running a web server or other type of service so you can access things on your home network. I had a temperature probe recently that I could hit from outside to see a graph of the temperature in that room. I also have a Zoneminder security camera server that I access with port forwarding too.

As soon as a provider uses CGNAT you lose the ability to do a lot of this stuff, unless you can use IPv6 which isn't everywhere yet.

ah I see, thanks for the information. Isn't that dangerous as outsiders can access your data?

 

[MacBH928]

For online gaming, there is a general rule, anything less than 20ms is ok, less than 10ms is better, 5ms is best. Pings in the 50ms or higher range tend to be not ok or subpar.

There is a crazy pings, under 20ms, has to be same city

 

[jav6454]

There is a crazy pings, under 20ms, has to be same city

Which is why online competitions are usually held in same networks (heck same room if possible) and not across the country.

I remember an article that the owner for MegaUpload had a dedicated fiber connection direct to the Internet main node installed to get a sub-6ms ping. He knew that the FBI (or some government agency) was tapping him when the latency for that dedicated connection went from an average of 4ms to 40-30ms.

 

[Jodeo]

I just did an apples to orange bake off with SpeedOf.Me:

MacBook Pro on Xfinity Ultrafast: 309Mbps up / 20 down
iPhone 12 ProMax on T-Mobile 5G: 46Mbps up / 8 down

Not a fair comparison, but not far off from what others seem to get for T-Mobile 5G.
YMMV.

BTW, T-Mobile Tuesdays is a decent perk, esp. when they give free or discounted movie tix, discounted or free food, etc.

 

[tgi]

At 60/month (just $10 more), I am getting 500-1000 Mbps down from ATT Fiber with close to 5ms latency.

TMo Home Internet just can't compete.

What plan do you have? I see these options on the website.

Up to 1 GIG speed - $80
500Mbps speed - $65
300Mbps speed - $55

 

[anshuvorty]

What plan do you have? I see these options on the website.

Up to 1 GIG speed - $80
500Mbps speed - $65
300Mbps speed - $55

I got a discount for being a “loyal” customer on the 500 Mbps plan and for whatever reason, my speeds fluctuate between 500 - 1000 Mbps on a wired connection on that 500 Mbps plan…

 

[kramerdude]

He is actually correct. The issues with certain Hulu service (same for YouTubeTV) is that they need to you know approximate physical location to air local channels. It’s rights issues I believe. So when Hulu live can’t figure out where you are at it won’t work.

This is why for example if say you sign up for YouTube tv say in NY and you take a long trip to LA it will continue to work for a while but eventually it will ask you to go back to your “home” location and run the app to “refresh”. This also prevent people from sharing such kind of service.

I have YouTubeTV with the T-Mobile home internet service and it works great, never a hiccup.

 

[Christiandflores]

I’m only interested for the higher upload speed. It’s about 2-3 times faster on my phone than on my computer. Plus 50% of what I currently pay. Heavy YouTube uploader, don’t care much about download speed.

My only concern is their policies, they claim no “unattended use” which is very vague and can describe most computer situations.

I’d also recommend looking up Starry Internet. Similar to 5G internet, but Wi-Fi based. Cheaper, faster, and seems more promising.

Starry | How We Deliver Next Gen Wireless Internet

Starry delivers high-speed internet through revolutionary wireless technology. Learn more about how we deploy our super reliable internet faster and more affordably.

starry.com

 

[aajeevlin]

I have YouTubeTV with the T-Mobile home internet service and it works great, never a hiccup.

Yes YouTube Tv apparently doesn’t have this issue. The complain was more on Hulu, I was just using YouTube as an example.

So for anyone get T-Mobile and YouTube tv and they are set.

 

[davisadm]

At 60/month (just $10 more), I am getting 500-1000 Mbps down from ATT Fiber with close to 5ms latency.

TMo Home Internet just can't compete.

AT&T fiber is available in limited areas, so this deal is great if you have the cellular coverage. I am at least 450 down and 25 up. Sometimes it goes as high as 570 and 46.

 

[davisadm]

One question I have...T-Mobile says it is for home use only. What happens if you take the modem with you and turn it on elsewhere?

 

[liberte1776]

The trouble is that for a 2022 device, it does not have WiFi 6E. Wake me up when this feature gets added, then I might bite...

 

[jdb8167]

The trouble is that for a 2022 device, it does not have WiFi 6E. Wake me up when this feature gets added, then I might bite...

It’s WiFi 6 just not 6E. It’s plenty fast enough for T-Mobile’s mid-band 5G.