5 things I like about my experience with T-Mobile 5G Home Internet (and some vanmers too)

Albuquerque, New Mexico – Home to Green Chile, 300 days of sunshine, international balloon fiesta… and painful internet. Home Internet It was a race with two horses Albuquerque For years: CenturyLink DSL and Xfinity cable. I spent decades in DSL and watched me Internet Speed ​​Test You will march slowly up to 20 megabits. Faster Xfinity friends stubbornly stuck with CenturyLink, lamenting the company’s customer service, data caps and prices. One day in the second half of 2022, T-Mobile 5G Home Internet The gateway arrived at my house. After that, I finally called to cancel my CenturyLink.

Why I switched to T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

I used T-Mobile for several reasons. The DSL was too late. My neighbor got the T-Mobile 5G Home internet and rave about it. Coincidentally, CenturyLink wanted to charge $200 to replace my old router with a new one. I said “No” and changed 5G Home Internet.

My home internet life has improved in my post-DSL world, but it’s not all roses and happy dance. If you’re looking for TL, DR, go here: I’m still on the T-Mobile 5G home internet and probably will stick to it until I can give Verizon 5G Home Internet I’ll try it Fiber finally appears in my block. My experience with 5G Home Internet is unique to my situation, so journeys with the same service may vary. This is what I like about my 5G home internet and the elements that might drive me Switch to another Internet Service Provider someday.

What I like about T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

Before letting go of your frustration, sing the praises of T-Mobile 5G Home Internet. The best features of the service are its simplicity and ease of use, representing an upgrade over the outdated DSL.

The price is correct

With CenturyLink, I paid $45 a month for downloads up to 20Mbps. With T-Mobile, my monthly bill is straight $50. It’s a sweet spot for me about home internet pricing. I was happy to pay more than CenturyLink for a higher standard of service, but my bargain hunting mindset would be all. I think Verizon 5G Home Internet is the same price, but rival services are not available at my address.

I hope that the fiber will arrive one day, but I will scrutinise the pricing before changing it. The two providers that are most likely to serve my address are Ezee Fiber ($69 per month for a gig) and Vexus Fiber ($40 per month for 500mbps and $50 per month for a gig). Vexus will raise the fees after the first year. When the time comes, I will weigh my soaked frugality against the performance of the fiber.

It’s faster than DSL

While that may seem like a faint praise, T-Mobile offers far better speed than you get from the DSL. My best speed test results of 200mbps nettop download speed, 10 times more than what I got on a good day with DSL. Speeds vary depending on network congestion and gateway device placement. There are a few speed complaints, but we’ll explain them later.

The terminology is simple

When it comes to broadband plans, I don’t like complexity. I don’t want to calculate equipment rent or calculate excessive penalties for exceeding the following Data Cap. I don’t want to be special It was concluded with a contract. I just want a home internet and I’m free to try another ISP. T-Mobile checks the Simplicity box. There are no gear fees, data caps, or contracts.

Mom has approved

My mother lives six blocks away from me. She also had a CenturyLink DSL. I ran a speed test on her desktop computer and the best she could get was about 12Mbps. That’s not a typo. That’s the reality for some DSL customers. She paid over $60 a month and was frustrated every time she tried to call to discuss her bill. No problem, mom. I canceled her DSL and signed up with T-Mobile. She spotted a lovely perch at the gateway in the front window near her computer. With a strong signal, she can regularly slow down from 100-200Mbps. This is suitable for understated browsing and streaming needs. The only downside is that I receive a text message about the school closure to her gateway, which is leftover from someone who used the gateway’s phone number before her. It’s a slight nuisance and I don’t have the same problem.

The gateway is easy

T-Mobile offers a free gateway device that combines modem and router functionality. I have a semi-affected silver Nokia Gateway called the “trash can.” The top-mounted display works although it’s a mild nuisance due to its troublesome location and gets hot. T-Mobile has a new model. My mother has a Sagemcom device with a front-mounted display that resembles a more refined trash can. The latest gateways are refined and look like Apple products. I had no issues setting up my Nokia Gateway and my mother’s Sagemcom. We got online within minutes and found the gateway to be stable without any crashes or other hiccups to report. Wi-Fi works well and reaches the corner of a vintage home at a fairly fast speed.

Not very good with T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

There’s a lot to do with T-Mobile 5G Home Internet, but it’s not my dream broadband service. There are some areas where you can stumble.

Not faster than cables or fibers

Xfinity offers cable speeds up to 1,200Mbps in my area. Vexus fiber fiber, How much fiber And although the edgy fibers slowly spread across Albuquerque, it’s not yet in my historic neighborhood. Fiber customers have access to symmetric gig speeds, which is very envious of them. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet offers typical speeds of 87-415Mbps, significantly below the offerings from local cable and fiber ISPs. The good news is that I’m not a gamer (ignoring Nintendo’s Wii obsession), so I need enough energy to surf and stream. Don’t worry about downloading or uploading Zippy for when you’re running big music, videos, and image files.

A strong signal may be elusive

T-Mobile’s 5G Internet services are subject to the same pitfalls as encountering telephone services. Sometimes you’re in a place where the traffic lights are weak. Sometimes the place is your own home. My neighbor, the first to board the 5G Home Internet, gets a strong signal on the west side of her house. Next to me is the best signal I can get. This will be two of the five bars on the gateway scale. In other words, I’m missing the top speed that can serve.

Speeds vary widely

My T-Mobile 5G home internet speed is like the weather in Albuquerque. Wait 5 minutes to change. When I started writing, I ran an internet speed test and got 16.7Mbps. It’s slow enough to give an unwelcome flashback to my DSL era. A few minutes later, I was 94.6mbps. Sometimes it exceeds 100Mbps. Usually I sit at about 80 mbps. My speed test is on the entire map. Some of this could be due to my home’s 1939 construction materials and the inability to dial a good placement of the gateway to get a better signal. My CNET colleague Eli Blumenthal also ran into a speed issue when testing the service in 2022.. when CNET’s Joe Supan tried AT&T Internet Airhe also struggles to maintain decent speeds, so the problem can be endemic with fixed wireless services than what’s unique to T-Mobile 5G Home Internet.

The layout of the windows is troublesome

T-Mobile I recommend it Place the gateway “near the window, or on the upper floor or on the bookcase.” When I had the DSL, my router was sitting on a nifty little custom shelf in my home office. It was inconspicuous and not intrusive. My T-Mobile Gateway visited every window in my house looking for a strong signal. Now it’s in my living room with a silver “trash can” that perched above the window. I still get solid Wi-Fi coverage around my home, but some of the internet equipment sitting in my window is not my ideal home decoration.

My farewell thoughts on T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

Are you thinking about dipping your toes into the T-Mobile 5G home internet? Consider whether it’s an upgrade to your current service. If you’re crawling with DSL, it could be a wise move. Check out cables or fibers if you want consistent speed and super fast speeds, especially for gaming. I’m not a T-Mobile phone customer, but mobile users can bundle eligible phone plans to get extra savings on the internet at home. It may be sufficient to tip price-conscious shoppers towards 5G internet services.

There are elements of experiments using 5G Home Internet. You won’t know how well it will work until you try it, so take advantage of T-Mobile’s 15-day refund test. I’m not in love with the internet at home, but at least I like it. That’s a better relationship than DSL.