Short Version
T-Mobile 5G Home Internet
T-Mobile is by far the most straightforward home internet provider I’ve ever dealt with in terms of billing and the usual “fine print” that other carriers often include. The price is exactly what they say it is, the billing is consistent, they notify you well in advance of any changes, there’s no data cap, and there’s no contract.
The flexibility of placing the device anywhere in your home with good service is a plus. However, if service isn’t strong in your area, your options for where to place the gateway are limited.
While the price was unbeatable, the service itself was just “better than nothing” in my experience. It was slightly better than my previous provider, but not by much, likely due to the best signal in my home only being three bars.
Detailed Version
Why I Tried T-Mobile 5G Home Internet
Switching to T-Mobile was a bit of a gamble for me. I was fed up with my previous provider, CenturyLink, which had consistent billing issues. Despite their promise of a $55 “Price for life,” I found myself on the phone with them almost every billing cycle. Additionally, my CenturyLink modem required hourly reboots, which was particularly frustrating as I was working from home and needed a reliable VPN connection. The frequent internet interruptions forced me to reboot the modem, wait for it to restart, and then reconnect to the VPN about once every hour. There had to be a better option, right?
Well, not really. When my wife and I bought our first home in the Phoenix metro area, I was eager to switch providers, but we only had one other option: Cox. However, Cox needed to run a line across the street and obtain a permit, which could take 2–3 months. It felt like we were living in a remote area, despite being in a suburb of the fifth-largest city in the US.
The Challenge of Finding Reliable Home Internet
I couldn’t afford to wait for Cox to get their service up and running, so I started desperately searching the internet for alternatives. The options were limited to satellite internet—traditional satellite, not Starlink—and T-Mobile. The choices were sparse, so I decided to give T-Mobile a shot.
To be precise, what really appealed to me about T-Mobile was transparent billing.
One of the more appealing things about T-Mobile 5G Home Internet was the simple pricing: $50 a month for me, rising to $55 after the autopay discount for credit cards went away—if you pay with a debit card, it’s still $50, and if you have a T-Mobile wireless plan, it’s $30 with autopay on specific plans. Better still, there were no contracts and no data caps. While there won’t be any throttling, home internet traffic may be deprioritized for mobile customers if network congestion arises.
Slick and Seamless Pricing
T-Mobile’s transparent pricing reminded me of one big reason I love Mint Mobile, a prepaid wireless carrier offering low-price plans with no contracts. Mint Mobile’s clear pricing and bottom line, plans as low as $15/month, made me a very happy customer for more than five years now.
Order Process
Ordering T-Mobile 5G Home Internet was a problem because the 5G gateways were just released in 2021, and demand was high. I called to order, and of course, the sales representative let me know that 5G wasn’t available yet in my area. I went ahead and ordered a 4G gateway out of pure desperation to leave CenturyLink behind—who tried to upsell to me as I canceled.
A Small Glitch
The gateway had its own phone number, which when you think about it, makes sense since it’s a mobile device, but they didn’t explain that up front. This caused a little confusion when I called for service the first time, as my personal phone number wasn’t associated with the account.
Switching to T-Mobile 5G Home Internet wasn’t perfect, but transparent pricing and no contracts made it a move worth making.
The Setup Process
Setting up T-Mobile’s home internet was nearly plug-and-play. The 4G device, and then the 5G device I received shortly after, came with a built-in battery. Because of this, I was able to walk around my house with the device to find the spot that received the best signal. I simply plugged it in and connected it to my existing router there. Boom. Just like that, I was online. In case you don’t have a separate router, you’d have to get the network name and password from the device and connect your phone, laptop, etc. Now, with location permissions, the T-Mobile Internet app can guide you to the best spot in your home, based on the location of the closest tower.
Network and Device Experience
I don’t remember the exact download speeds on the 4G gateway from T-Mobile, but I think they were in the range of 100–200 Mbps, with uploads of about 30 Mbps. The upgrade path to 5G wasn’t too bad, but I did have to be very proactive. As nice as the sales representative said it would happen, I never got the call when 5G devices became available. Now, a year later, I called T-Mobile again, and they sent me the Nokia “trash can” silver cylinder. I swapped the SIM card from the 4G device, returned the old device, and was all set. This same process had to be applied every time when I had to replace the Nokia device a couple of times.
Battery and Firmware Update
With a battery that had, once and for all, overcome problems with Ring home security setups—whereby it wouldn’t drop in case there is a power cut—the Nokia 5G device came onboard. Later on, T-Mobile pushed a firmware update that mysteriously killed the battery.
Setting up and using their home internet was not that difficult for T-Mobile; although there are some complications during the upgrade of devices and the change of their firmware.
Mock-Up and Performance of Network
An artist’s impression of T-Mobile’s 5G Home Internet gateway, manufactured by Nokia. Credit: T-Mobile.
Advanced network settings were conspicuously minimal in the Home Internet app. Even logging into the gateway using an internet browser revealed a number of limitations.
Network performance: I was actually surprised by the download speed of the 5G gateways. They often hit 400 Mbps under good conditions. The ping rate, though, is a bit high, so it’s probably not suitable for gaming.
Despite living in the large metropolitan area of Phoenix, I could only ever get three bars of service anywhere in my home. This inconsistent service likely was the root cause for the download speeds that varied so wildly, sometimes as low as 50 Mbps. Part of this inconsistency originates from T-Mobile deprioritizing, as has been widely complained about on the T-Mobile forums and on Reddit, their Home Internet customers in favor of their mobile users.
About the VPN / Work-from-Home Experience
We had problems with VPN use, such as Cisco AnyConnect, over T-Mobile 5G Home Internet. The connection would bounce around, and speeds were really slow when connected to VPN. Interestingly, connecting to the same VPN outside of my home presented no issues. My workplace IT and T-Mobile blame each other, so if you rely on VPN for work, it’s best to look for another ISP.
Why I Canceled T-Mobile 5G Home Internet
Well, I used to begin each day with good speed on the internet, but somehow, my speed kept on dropping all day. I changed jobs, and that improved things a bit because the new employer was using different safety measures, so they rarely used VPN. This new job required video on during meetings, and my connection really couldn’t handle that. The video and audio quality continued to get worse every day, with some coworkers responding with, “Are you on AOL?” and “You look like an 8-bit video game character!”
Even three different Nokia “trashcan” cylinders – each a replacement for similar issues – didn’t affect the performance. T-Mobile has tried several different 5G gateway models but, to date, none have resolved the ongoing issues. What really did it was when I got complaints from people at work about poor video quality that week. So I went with Cox. After some delays, Cox installed a new line with reliable high speeds. I kept T-Mobile only until the Cox installation was complete, and then I canceled the T-Mobile 5G Home Internet.
The Process of Cancellation
Canceling T-Mobile 5G Home Internet was the easiest cancellation I’ve ever done. I called to cancel, described what issues I was having, and the rep just said, “We respect your decision; let’s get that cancellation started.” No long holds, no transfers to supervisors, and no upsells. That was pretty straightforward and respectful.
The only slight drawback was that I didn’t actually get any confirmation that it had been cancelled. When I rang back, he said that it would actually shut at the end of the billing period rather than now, which wasn’t ideal but OK.
Toward the back end of the billing cycle, I received an email for cancellation with an attached return label. There was no return label attached, so I stopped by the closest T-Mobile store, which was very convenient as it’s right down the street from my house. The in-store equipment return was very painless, quite painless. The rep verified that service was canceled and printed off some return confirmation—that’s all.
This was far ahead of the frustrating cancellation processes of both CenturyLink and other providers I have used. For sure, T-Mobile’s reputation for clear and straightforward billing and account management was certainly upheld in this case.
TL;DR / Summary
The home internet service of T-Mobile is no-frills, much like the price. While the speeds can be impressive for the cost, my experience was marked with volatility, likely due to only having three bars of signal and T-Mobile’s network giving priority to mobile users during congestion.
Key Highlights
Price: $50 a month for non-T-Mobile wireless customers; $30 if you already use T-Mobile for wireless.
No Data Cap, No Contract.
According to other online users, Work VPN worked very little with T-Mobile 5G Home Internet. What started out as a promising starting position quickly turned into a cancellation of the service due to the dropping speeds throughout the day, requiring a daily restart of the gateway—the issue persists across three different devices.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: OXO MAGAZINE
