T-Mobile

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JOhnH

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Right Seater
Thinking about switching from AT&T mobile and a local fiber optic company for home internet to T-Mobile.

I suspect that the mobile services will be somewhat similar. Currently there are places where I get little to no cell service with AT&T. I suspect the same will be true with T-Mobile. Just different places.

Home internet is a little different. I have fiber optic service now that claims 10GB capability, even though none of my devices can do more than 1GB, and that is pretty much theoretical. T-Mobile has a 5G router that you put near a window and get wireless home internet. They claim it is plenty fast enough to stream HD TV, but I'm skeptical. Does anyone have experience with this and are you happy? Often my wife will watch a movie on the 65inch TV using wireless streaming to ROKU while I might be watching a movie on my PC, or perhaps perusing POA or something. Will this work?

Any general comments on T-Mobile service nationally? I might be anywhere in the US or Canada at any time in the next few years. Will I be more disappointed with T-Mobile than with AT&T?
 
We (my 3 person family) have T-Mobile cell service and use one their services for an office space we rent. We don’t stream TV, but have been satisfied with the services we use.
 
Hang 4 said:
Why are you considering ditching the fiber? In general T-mobile has less coverage in rural areas than ATT. Difference is getting less over time.
Here's a decent comparison article https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/t-mobile-vs-att-wireless-unlimited-plans
Click to expand...
Good question that I'm still trying to nail down my answer to.

For one, the fiber costs twice as much and when the promotional period is over it will be quadruple. Still not a huge amount in total, but right now fiber is $70 and T-Mobile 5g service is $35. Next year fiber goes to $140.
And the fiber service, while very good when it works tends to go down frequently.

But other than price, I don't know how to compare it with T-Mobile. That is why I am asking here.

I'll checkout that link. Thanks.
 
I'm guessing you think you're going to save a couple bucks by ditching your most likely rock-solid & fast fiber internet connection and moving to a cellular internet provider (T-Mobile Home Internet). What you might not realize is you're taking a chance on a lesser quality option. You may be able to get great speeds w/ T-Mobile Home Internet but what you'll sacrifice is quality and stability.

Your T-Mobile Home Internet traffic will be deprioritized, compared to the cell service on your phone. Cell phones gets priority and your home internet connection will be 2nd class. Will you notice? Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on what kind of a T-Mobile signal you can get at your house. And in my experience that signal can go to **** at any time. Maybe it's increased traffic on the tower your modem usually connects to at particular times of day, maybe it's maintenance on the tower. You'll never know and it will happen at inopportune times. I live it every day, only because it's one of the only options for internet at my address.
If your signal is less than ideal there are 3rd party antennas that can make the service better in terms of quality and locking onto better towers/bands, but it requires opening up & modifying the modem/router. If you ever return the modem/router (which you most likely don't own) there's a chance they charge you for the damage.
Same experience with Verizon Home Internet.

IMHO it makes no sense for folks that have a wired internet connection option available at their residence to switch to any of the Cellular home internet options. I see people on Reddit switching from fiber/cable modem options all the time because it's cheaper. They don't realize it's nowhere near as stable and with lots of other people switching it's becoming oversubscribed, and quality keeps going down, in my personal experience and from keeping up with the topic online.

Starlink is a different story. Everyday that goes by I'm close and closer to ditching my cellular internet plans and switching to Starlink, which could still be a crapshoot for me.
Wireless internet options are highly dependent on your location.
 
baboss said:
Starlink is a different story. Everyday that goes by I'm close and closer to ditching my cellular internet plans and switching to Starlink, which could still be a crapshoot for me.
Wireless internet options are highly dependent on your location.
Click to expand...
Is Starlink an option for a plane?
 
StraightnLevel said:
Is Starlink an option for a plane?
Click to expand...
I've read about folks playing around with it in the air, Trent Palmer has done it in one of his videos. And I think I read there was a potential deal w/ Starlink and an airline recently??

My comments in my post above were about wireless home internet services at a specific location. T-Mobile and Verizon want an address for your home internet service (to make sure the service is available there) and while you may be able to move the service from one address to another (for instance if you move to a new house) it's not intended for in-motion use. Supposedly T-Mobile has either started to or has threatened to start checking GPS location of your modem to make sure it's at the correct service address. So supposedly I can't pack up my T-Mobile modem and take it 40 miles to my in-laws and use it. Well, I might be able to actually do it but I might get a nasty gram from them that it needs to be used at my service location only, and they could terminate my service.
 
Previously the best option on our mountain was DSL that at most gave us 27 Mbps. As such, we were early adopters of T-Mobile Home Internet as we can see the cell tower 100 yds away. We typically see Hundreds of Mbps. It easily handles multiple streaming devices at the same time. But, our tower has a real problem in the winter maintaining a signal whenever we have a storm. So we do Wi-Fi sharing with our neighbor who has maintained DSL. I religiously and relentlessly reported cell outages last year, I am hoping they have done some hardware upgrades to the tower, we shall see (the first notable storm is due to roll through this weekend).
 
My wife is using those T-Mobile home medoems at a couple of office locations...well one anyway, I think she might have gotten cable at one location because of speed/bandwidth issues. It seems that they can be a little sketchy if signals are marginal. Good signal works though. Not streaming movies exactly but she might have a few zoom calls going at the same time and it works in places where the signal is good

The other thing she ran into was the function of the router that's built into the box. She's had some issues getting the printer to connect, but I was able to eventually get it going for her.

I'd call to verify where their closest tower is to verify your signal
 
We have T-Mobile home net. It works great at the house despite T-Mobile showing the house as a non- serviceable address.
Streaming YouTube clips is about all the streaming we do but it doesn't falter. The device doesn't randomly go offline as our DSL did. We like it in our location, but it may perform different in yours.
 
We had DSL for a long time but switched to cable for internet when we dropped our landline. Cable has been solid, and my wife teaches online so it's important for her job. We do not use it for TV... use Hulu and Netflix and Prime, all together less expensive than Charter cable.

We have T-Mobile cell phones (originally Sprint) and though it started with problems, it has been very good lately. I may try T-Mobile for internet, but not until she retires because I can't afford the divorce if there are any problems.
 
JOhnH said:
Thinking about switching from AT&T mobile and a local fiber optic company for home internet to T-Mobile.

I suspect that the mobile services will be somewhat similar. Currently there are places where I get little to no cell service with AT&T. I suspect the same will be true with T-Mobile. Just different places.

Home internet is a little different. I have fiber optic service now that claims 10GB capability, even though none of my devices can do more than 1GB, and that is pretty much theoretical. T-Mobile has a 5G router that you put near a window and get wireless home internet. They claim it is plenty fast enough to stream HD TV, but I'm skeptical. Does anyone have experience with this and are you happy? Often my wife will watch a movie on the 65inch TV using wireless streaming to ROKU while I might be watching a movie on my PC, or perhaps perusing POA or something. Will this work?

Any general comments on T-Mobile service nationally? I might be anywhere in the US or Canada at any time in the next few years. Will I be more disappointed with T-Mobile than with AT&T?
Click to expand...
I got it just about a month ago. Works great. Can watch TV and be working on my laptop uploading and downloading while the wife is on her phone looking at videos all at the same time without missing a beat.
 
I switched to the T-Mobile home internet at both of my houses. Bandwidth has not been a problem in either location, one of which is in a densely populated area and the other being a pretty rural setting. The same could not be said about either service that I replaced, both of which would have predictable problems at high usage times. I've had service at my primary residence for about 3 years now and service at my other house for about 1.5 years. I'm a heavy user and I have zero complaints about the service so far.
 
baboss said:
I'm guessing you think you're going to save a couple bucks by ditching your most likely rock-solid & fast fiber internet connection and moving to a cellular internet provider (T-Mobile Home Internet). What you might not realize is you're taking a chance on a lesser quality option. You may be able to get great speeds w/ T-Mobile Home Internet but what you'll sacrifice is quality and stability.

Your T-Mobile Home Internet traffic will be deprioritized, compared to the cell service on your phone. Cell phones gets priority and your home internet connection will be 2nd class. Will you notice? Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on what kind of a T-Mobile signal you can get at your house. And in my experience that signal can go to **** at any time. Maybe it's increased traffic on the tower your modem usually connects to at particular times of day, maybe it's maintenance on the tower. You'll never know and it will happen at inopportune times. I live it every day, only because it's one of the only options for internet at my address.
If your signal is less than ideal there are 3rd party antennas that can make the service better in terms of quality and locking onto better towers/bands, but it requires opening up & modifying the modem/router. If you ever return the modem/router (which you most likely don't own) there's a chance they charge you for the damage.
Same experience with Verizon Home Internet.

IMHO it makes no sense for folks that have a wired internet connection option available at their residence to switch to any of the Cellular home internet options. I see people on Reddit switching from fiber/cable modem options all the time because it's cheaper. They don't realize it's nowhere near as stable and with lots of other people switching it's becoming oversubscribed, and quality keeps going down, in my personal experience and from keeping up with the topic online.

Starlink is a different story. Everyday that goes by I'm close and closer to ditching my cellular internet plans and switching to Starlink, which could still be a crapshoot for me.
Wireless internet options are highly dependent on your location.
Click to expand...
What he said I concur with. I have been a TMobile wireless customer for a number of years, and am generally satisfied with the service - and find it just about anywhere I go. I have one of their International plans, and really appreciate the fact that it just works almost anyplace in the world (with no futzing around with sim cards or foreign carriers). On the other hand, closer to home their service is oversubscribed where I live, so failure to connect or lengthy waits for service are fairly common. I have noticed that the service is generally much better when visiting other places so your experience will be location dependent.
As for the 5G Internet Service, I have had it for one year - and like the wireless service, am generally satisfied. It works quite well for surfing the internet or streaming TV early morning or late afternoon/evening.
During the day (weekdays) it slows down dramatically - sometimes to the point of being unusable. Weekends are better. Signal strengths are indifferent at best where I live, and moving the modem around doesn't
make much difference. I am debating whether or not to invest in an outdoor replacement modem that may improve matters. But even if that does not work out the device fulfills most of my needs - and the cost for Internet and U Tube TV is about half what I was paying for cable before cutting the cord.

Here is a tip - if you decide to spring for one, don't mess around with their online eligibility nonsense. Just go to your local TMobile store and tell them you want one. Chances are you will walk out with it!

Dave.
 
I use tmobile for personal phones, and verizon for my work phone and a 5g home Internet. Around here I generally find the tmobile coverage to be better.

That said, if I had fiber Internet I wouldn't drop it if you're getting 500+MB downloads out of it. I actually have 2 Internet providers, spectrum via cable and 5g from verizon. That may sound nuts, but the cost of the two combined, for Internet, is less than the cost of just spectrum if I also had their cable TV package. I ended up with two because the reliability of spectrum was so poor that I wanted a backup. I needed Internet for work, so I decided to try verizon 5g while keeping the spectrum copper. Turns out the verizon 200GB 5G is faster AND more reliable than the "300GB" spectrum...but also that I like having 2, because at least now one of them always works.

Bottom line up front? Internet providers are terrible. To misquote a Slim Pickens character, they're about as reliable as a $20 w***re. In 2024 money.
 
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