T-Mobile Launches Unlimited 5G Home Internet for $60/Month

[jlocker]

It is nice if you do not have options fiber, cable or ADSL services. The only thing that concerns me is wireless network congestion. This is why I still use ADSL services. My copper wires go to a vault and I am the only ones on that copper. Then it is picked up and sent over fiber to the Communications Office. Over 12 years using ADSL I have never had network congestion. I get 81 mbps down and 20 mbps up. I have talked to AT@T and they are planning to replace the copper with fiber over the next 3 years where I live, so That will be my next network upgrade.

I have had friends on cable over the years and being a shared media in their neighborhoods they have seen congestion during different parts of the day and night.

But If you have no other choice cell can at least give you broadband speed, of course there is the iridium network but not sure how this would do in hard rains or heavy snow fall, so I still like hard lines, so if morpheus should try to call me

 

[philrock]

funny, t-mobile sent me these signal boosters when i complained enough about horrible service in our soho shop. they(boosters) didn't do s**t and apparently our space was TOO SMALL for them to work. what?.. i suppose i could've used them at home, but with wi-fi calling i really had no reason to.

thanks — i'll watch out for them, but i'm pretty sure this will be a hard pass

T-Mobile insisted on the same for me before letting me out of a contract. We moved and ZERO signal inside and lucky to have one bar outside. They claimed the signal would be multiplied by a factor of 8-10. I asked the rep if they knew what 0x10 or 0x8 equals... they didn't understand

 

[alexandr]

T-Mobile insisted on the same for me before letting me out of a contract. We moved and ZERO signal inside and lucky to have one bar outside. They claimed the signal would be multiplied by a factor of 8-10. I asked the rep if they knew what 0x10 or 0x8 equals... they didn't understand

love that))) what a s**tshow. it's sad — they have the best perks out there for sure. wish they would just up their service a bit...

 

[Taz Mangus]

Always avoid Autopay when possible. Once you let a corporation into your bank account, it's difficult to get them out. They can take your money (i.e. after service cancellation or in the event of disputes) and the burden is on you to try and get it back. When you pay through traditional invoice/payment, YOU are always in control - if there is a dispute, you don't pay and they have to try and get it.

I auto pay T-Mobile using a credit card.

 

[A.L.F.]

I would get that Home Internet deal in a minute, if I could. T-Mobile has been advertising 5G Home Internet for several months now, but when I ask to sign up, they tell me that it is unavailable where I live. I am on their wait list, but so far, no go. I signed up for the somewhat-equivalent service from Sprint (which is not yet quite fully part of T-Mobile), and it works great, but is limited to 100 GB of data per month, which only lasts my family about half a month. And, there's no way to increase that cap, or pay for more.

 

[crawfish963]

Price seems good as long as they don't throttle you.

If it’s anything like their LTE modem, they do. You are lowest priority on the network. I got a consistent 150 Mbps down and 60 up when I had the service. After we hit about 500GB, we started to see 10-15 Mbps down. In the fine print it tells you that you are prioritized behind voice and other data services. We had to ditch it.

 

[consumerDan]

Always avoid Autopay when possible. Once you let a corporation into your bank account, it's difficult to get them out. They can take your money (i.e. after service cancellation or in the event of disputes) and the burden is on you to try and get it back. When you pay through traditional invoice/payment, YOU are always in control - if there is a dispute, you don't pay and they have to try and get it.

I think the key is to use Autopay with a credit card. You still retain the right to dispute and you don't hand over your banking info. The best of both worlds: You get the discount and you retain control.

 

[Scoob Redux]

Pretty easy. Call the bank and remove them from auto payment. Not difficult at all.

Not easy at all. Once the money is gone, it's gone.

Some Tesla Buyers Say They Were Charged Twice When Buying a Car

Several new Tesla owners complained to CNBC that the company charged their bank accounts twice but won't help fix it.

www.caranddriver.com

 

[Scoob Redux]

Anyone with half a brain doesn't allow direct access to a checking/savings account with or without autopay. There are these devices called debit and credit cards, or PayPal.

True. Some merchants don't allow credit card autopay and require checking or savings EFT for autopay. That is what I was referring to. Of course, credit card gives you more protection.

 

[gammamonk]

This is $20 cheaper than I pay for 200/10 Spectrum, and my only other option is ATT "up to 50" at $65 a month with a 1TB data cap (so a non-option).


As I expected, it's not available at my address. Wisconsin sucks.

 

[cronn]

This is where I've been saying the industry is headed and is exactly why Apple discontinued their AirPort.

As 5G infrastructure spreads, eventually every device that needs connectivity will have it built in. Everything from a laptop to a smart watch to a connected lightbulb to a smart dog collar will have a 5G chip that accesses your 5G plan and is always online.

The days of WiFi networking will give way to always connected devices networking via the cloud, not a local router.

Let me disagree here. I’m sorry for the incoming rant:

Don’t get me wrong. Mobile broadband is a fantastic technology and it gets better with every generation, but if we want those awesome speeds while on the go we need to keep using residental internet connections. This is to keep as much load as possible off of the cellular networks.

There’s a finite amount of bandwidth in the air, and the way they’ve managed to cram more users and more devices into the available airspace over the years is to add more cell towers closer to one another and crank the frequency up. Higher frequency means more bandwidth but less range, especially if you don’t have line of sight. This requires, as I said, more towers.

“More towers” makes financial sense in densely populated metropolitan areas, but rural towns and villages are still going to be serviced by that single cell tower next to the school and church. The tower will run on a lower frequency band to reach as far as possible, but that means a significant drop in bandwidth. Let’s hope the residents in this town has access to good quality residential internet because your kids will need that bandwidth for their in-car netflix as you’re passing by on the interstate. As will the sales rep as he’s having a Zoom meeting while pulled over on a rest stop.

 

[Lee_Bo]

Maybe as a backup option should my main internet drop, but I’m getting 600 up/down for $60/mo.

 

[scuac]

Notice: the following applies to my location only, where Comcast has a monopoly on cable internet.

I received my T-Mobile device today and was able to run side by side test against my existing Comcast connection. I also tested latency against a common target (used amazon.com as the target)

Comcast: $85/mo, down 78.5 Mbps, up 4.5 Mbps, latency ~40ms
T-Mobile: $60/mo, down 110 Mbps, up 40 Mbps, latency ~80ms

So, unless you really care about latency (gamers I guess), at least in my area this is a slam dunk for T-Mobile, especially the upload speeds kill it compared to Comcast.

 

[RC Mike]

I’ve had this for a month or so. Pretty good so far. 300+ down, about 40 up. My cost is $50/mo. Far better than Charter at $75 for 100 down.

 

[hatchettjack]

T-Mobile is knocking it out of the park!

 

[smaffei]

Just for once, save your money. Spend it on your loved ones instead.

Thanks for the advice Dr. Phil.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

For the speed, $60 is a lot.

Soon I'll have 1Gbit Up/Down fiber at the house for $69. Pass.

That was my first thought, you can get gig internet for $10 - 15 more. I'm paying $60 for quadruple the speed.

"How does the industry intend to secure" my phone "if it is directly connecting to a 5g network?"

You clearly don't live in a rural area. I pay $87 for 100Mb and am glad for the privilege.
edit: Sorry iPedro, I accidently multi-quoted you.

My Lord! How are there this many people that have no idea what it is like to live in an area with no cable or fiber? Starlink is what most people are really waiting for and it will change the world. However, this is good too! Thank you T-Mobile! Not to mention, it will also force Verizon and others to do the same.

But all of you that have great internet and so this post doesn't apply to you at all? Thanks for bragging about your great internet.

 

[ericinboston]

It has been eight years on Charter/Spectrum for me and my experience has been the exact opposite for me. They are lousy at tech/performance. In my eight years the speed has remained the same, the price has steadily increased, they send out notices about how their service is going to improve for free but it never does, and I receive almost weekly mail offers on how they can 'save me money' if I add services I don't want or need and pay more to do so.

I've contacted service many times over the years and the conversations have always been civil but fruitless. The always end up saying that while 200 Mbps is advertised for my area that not all locations in the area get that speed but they can 'save me money' if I add services and add TV and cell service (I get all the TV I want free over the air and have Consumer Cellular so their money 'saving' offers don't work for me). The coax to their system from modem to street was installed when I got service so it is new. I specifically asked about the modem I have and they said it supports the faster speed. I was just one of the unlucky few according to Charter. Charter is a business that knows it is a monopoly in my area and acts like it.

I tried plugging my computer directly into the cable modem. That is a no go. My main computer (the one I get the speed numbers from) is wired with Cat 7 cable to a 10 Gbps router. I have a network drive on the router and get the full speed from that so the network is not the bottleneck, Charter is the bottleneck. As for wifi speed, again, high speed over wifi to the network drive. Charter's speed is a bit less than the wired speed. Most of my household connections are wired so the wifi devices have available bandwidth.

Hi Dave. I certainly do not love any cable company. Call the Charter headquarters (MO I think) and talk. That's what I did when I moved here in 2007 and the connection was terrible (and so was the local service staff that came to my house)...I could prove the problem but nobody could fix it. I called Corporate and talked professionally and had all my data and visits to the house and demanded someone fix it or I was calling X newspapers and the State to complain. They came out 2-3 days later with service managers and trucks and had it fixed within 24 hours. It was the line to the outside of my house. Since 2007 it has been phenomenal.

In 2019 they moved their local office (which used to be like a warehouse) to a new location and how it's like a Verizon store...extremely helpful but I still need to call Charter for problems.

Call Corporate...314-965-0555. I think you ask for the "Customer Escalation Team". You will get results if you are professional but stern.

 

[qoop]

Thanks for the advice Dr. Phil.

You're welcome Dr Crippen

 

[31 Flavas]

SpaceX's Starlink vs T-Mobile's 5G Home Internet....who is going to come out on top in the battle for rural connectivity? Only time will tell...

Why does there need to be a battle? Rural america will finally multiple choices that don't consist of dialup, ISDN, huges net, or 3 meg DSL.

 

[jameslgleason]

I came home from a trip and saw the T-Mobile box sitting there and decided to set it up. It was actually a nice and easy process. The iPhone app worked and even though I only had 3 out of 5 bars this is what I'm getting:
Download: 146Mbps
Upload: 16.6Mbps
Ping: 26ms
Jitter: 4.8ms
Loss: 0%
There are numbers from the Speedtest app.
To put it in perspective, I live on a farm south of our town and can only get DSL through copper. At most I was getting 6Mbps and have been paying just over $50 for that. For $10 more dollars a month I'm more than pleased with the result.
I have 30 days, so I'll keep testing it to see. If it stays this good I'll cancel my Ziply and commit!

 

[canned_tuna_og]

This sounds great, unfortunately not in my area yet. We currently pay $50 for 1.2 TB of data (we often go over) at 25 Mbps on contract, so basically everything is better and well worth the $10 increase. It started at $35 and then goes up about $15 a year. We only have two providers in our area, so they both just keep the prices quite high since there are no other options

Same. AT&T is gouging my family because it's slim pickings in farm country. Their service reps straight up lie now. I was stunned by the falsehoods shoveled my way via two phone calls. Here's one: Them: "Your unlimited grandfathered data package is outdated and expensive; you definitely want to switch to our new 100GB plan for only $20 more per month." Me: "That sounds more expensive and with less data..." Them: "No, sorry, in fact, you're wrong ma'am. Unlimited data isn't really unlimited."

 

[CitizenEstate]

This is marketed towards rural areas where cellular is about the only option.

WRONG! It's more than that ... it's finally a viable option to kill the Comcast/ Cablevision/ Xfinity monopoly that's holding suburban American homes hostage. "MeH, i cAn gEt bEtTer iN MY aRea." That neglects that there's millions of communities that are held captive by Comcast through bribes to local politicians and city councils (like mine) to keep Verizon, AT&T and others out. This new technology makes Comcast's legacy landline monopoly obsolete, allowing new competitors to access these communities wirelessly at comparable speeds/ prices. This is YUGE!

... most of us would really, really rather NOT have ANY dealings with Comcast!

 

[CitizenEstate]

This sounds great, unfortunately not in my area yet. We currently pay $50 for 1.2 TB of data (we often go over) at 25 Mbps on contract, so basically everything is better and well worth the $10 increase. It started at $35 and then goes up about $15 a year. We only have two providers in our area, so they both just keep the prices quite high since there are no other options

This tech is going to finally BREAK these kinds of landline-based monopolies! I wouldn't be surprised if Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and Cox throw money at state legislatures to give them monopolies over the airwaves in those areas to keep competing cell towers out. Both Republican AND Democrat legislators have told me to my face, "jUst StArt YoUR OwN isp iF You dOn't liKE tHeir sErVice!" How do you do that if you're not allowed to lay new cable? How do you do that if you're forced to lease bandwidth from the Robber Barons?

Either our "leaders" are that ignorant or they're on the payroll. Either way, "life finds a way" and so does the market!

 

[lyngo]

WRONG! It's more than that ... it's finally a viable option to kill the Comcast/ Cablevision/ Xfinity monopoly that's holding suburban American homes hostage. "MeH, i cAn gEt bEtTer iN MY aRea." That neglects that there's millions of communities that are held captive by Comcast through bribes to local politicians and city councils (like mine) to keep Verizon, AT&T and others out. This new technology makes Comcast's legacy landline monopoly obsolete, allowing new competitors to access these communities wirelessly at comparable speeds/ prices. This is YUGE!

... most of us would really, really rather NOT have ANY dealings with Comcast!

Funny, because I felt the same about Spectrum and I bounced from them about 4 months ago. They’re trying to win me back. No way!