5G Wireless Home Internet is now available from most of the major carriers here in the US and abroad. It’s fast and cost effective – but does it really stand up to the hype?
In this video, I discuss my experience with T-Mobile Home Internet 5G wireless service. This is NOT a paid ad or sponsored video – I have zero affiliation with T-Mobile. Just my own personal experience buying, installing, and testing this 5G wireless broadband Internet service.
Blog Post:
Timecodes:
00:00 Intro
00:33 T-Mobile Home Internet overview and Pricing
02:34 T-Mobile Gateway hardware overview
05:05 5G Wireless Speed Testing
09:01 Final Thoughts
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You're getting screwed on the Comcast connection. Paying about $130/mo for a Comcast business 1.25/35 connection here. At the same time I've had a total of 9 days of.downtime for 2023 with Comcast so far. That $130/mo doesn't include any credits for the downtime, btw.
I have had it for a month and I am running 24 devices with no lag or buffering. I am with T-mobile cell phone service and I get unlimited data for 2 phones for 70 a month. They give me the internet for 25 a month. I get speeds consistently between 175-350 depending on the time of day. These prices are locked in and won't go up unless I cancel service and come back. On top of that they give me Youtubetv 10 dollars off a month for a year… Netflix free for a year and Paramount plus free for one year. I love T-Mobile and it was a joyous day when I gave the finger to X-finity and their contract for service!
I’ve had it for about a year, I use it connected to WAN2 on my DreamMachine Pro, as a backup for my Comcast connection, since I work from home.. hard to beat for $50/month, had StarLink and it was horrible, sent it back within the 30 days, not to mention the equipment cost of $600 and monthly more than double at $110.. and I’m a TSLA shareholder, 2012 Model S owner, and Elon fan, but had a bad experience with StarLink (tons of short outages making it unusable)
I just cancelled my T-Mobile Home internet after having it for well over a year. It was ok but increasingly erratic. I found setting a timer to automatically reboot the router daily helped a bit. A USB 120mm cooling fan blowing up from the bottom also helped somewhat. It never worked well enough to rely on as my only provider. Also some devices don't work properly for some reason (as T-Mobile support confirms). Not terrible if you live very close to a 5G tower. I kept hoping it would get better, but it didn't. Also, T-Mobile is a nightmare to work with.
I totally spit out my crackers when I saw the photos. I even rewound and did it again. ROTFL
Where are the connections for external antennas? I have been using mobile internet (in more remote areas) since the 3G days. Well placed good external antennas make or break any of these services.
You also forget that the T-Mobile 5G router probably has a WiFi 6 radio in it. The UniFi AC Pro is limited to WiFi 5. That will also reduce your wireless speeds.
I don't know what's worse… being double NAT'd or having IPv6. I've heard people with T-Mobile 5G home internet can't watch Hulu or Disney… I forget which one, but basically it thinks they're using a VPN and it blocks their traffic.
I went from 3.5 Mbps with Century Link DSL to 250 Mbps with T-Mobile Internet.
I live in an area with no Cable or Fiber. My development was built in the 70's and all the utilities including copper lines for landlines are underground. Slow DSL was my only option. I was paying $75 per month; $25 for phone and $50 for data in a bundled package. I dropped Century Kink data and kept voice long enough to get Ooma VOIP package. No bundle on voice alone and Century Link charged me over $50.
My total bill with T-Mobile internet ($50) and Ooma VOIP ($20) is less than $75. I pay less and get 100 times more speed. Got my phones hooked up and love Ooma. I have 2 lines for cost of 1. Got line to use while personal phone number was ported over to new telephone carrier. They let me pick my number. I picked an easy one to remember. My personal line is now with Ooma. Anyone dialing my old number gets connected to new service.
My T-Mobile device is in temporary location. I only have 1 bar in current location. But I get over 200 Mbps even with 1 bar. The location it is going to was getting 300 – 500 Mbps. I need to do some cabling before device is moved over. I can live with 250 Mbps for the time being. It is 100 times faster than the old DSL.
I highly recommend T-Mobile for Home and Small Businesses – they won't be sorry.
Thanks for the demo and info I'm in the same situation and have almost the same setup but have not considered to use the Verizon home Internet. I have frontier 1Gb, maybe I'll look into Verizon with the setup that you performed, thanks Chris
CGNAT is a huge no no for gaming and other more high performance uses. Will cause issues if you are not just browsing the web
Great video! For me it’s the only option for my area and it has been the best thing I could have asked for. You can get a static ip you just have to prove you are a business and they will get you setup with a static on a Cradlepoint router. I plan on getting one when 5G unlimited is available in my area.
Are you running a static IP for from comcast for a Biz? Why pay so much?
Hi Chris, you mention that double NAT isn't usable or ideal for VoIP, but does using T-Mobile 5G as a failover only change or remove the concern? I'm assuming the TM5G would get plugged into the WAN2 port on the UDMP and only kick in if WAN1 fails. Thanks in advance!
Comcast suuuuuuuucks!!! It has always sucked as a company constantly raising rates and you pay what😳 where I live in Cincinnati we finally got gig internet from ulta fiber and all for around $70 a month! I pay for 1 gig down and 500 megs up. Over 5ghz Wi-Fi I consistently get over 500 mbps down and 500 up. Sounds like your in an area where you have crap cable internet choices but where I’m at t mobile would be crushed by other options.
Great Video I have been wanted a good review of this product. I have been interested in it for a backup WAN connection. Think I will pull the trigger!! thanks again
I just ordered it today. As I'm already have phone service with the, Cost was $30.00 a month with auto bill pay. $50.00 Master Card gift card. we shall see what the results are.. As they said I was in the Ultra 5G area of Service..
I have the UDM pro and switched to t-modile home interent about 2 months ago. I have the same slowdown between the ethernet speed from the t-mobile modem then after double NAT with the UDM pro. Any explanations of, or even better, a way to fix the slowdown? I'm only about 1000' from a 5G tower. Out of the box the t-mobile (arcadin unit) i'm getting great (consistent) performance 700 to 900MB down, 120MB up (all day every day for past 2 months). But once it's connect through the WAN of the UDM pro, my speeds are only around 500 down but the up is still about 100. I'd be thrilled to get the full performance and even happier to get rid of double NAT. I hear switching to the business plan offers a different receiver with controls to bypass, DMZ, or port forward and static IP for a few more $$$. Chris, please continue to report more on this as it evolves, Especially with Unifi equipment.
Great review but folks need to know this is not a hotspot and you can't roam around with it. I was told it "bonds" with the tower, whatever that means. As you said, it is all about being in a coverage area. I was surprised to find that my lake cabin was just inside the 5G coverage area and jumped on buying one. I was paying Elon $110 a month for Starlink and now that we don't live there full-time, I was hoping for a cheap alternative to using our iPhones as a hotspot. I also wanted to keep the Ring doorbell/security system and thermostat online. This was perfect and turned out to be so much faster than Starlink. I certainly wasn't expecting to UPGRADE our rural Internet. I'm seriously considering switching to T-Mobile just because of my customer service experience with them, as compared to AT&T.
not really you can be anywhere cause the 5G Home router will switch to 4G (during the speed tests its uses 4G+5G mode cause 5G Non Standalone needs 4G as a 5G anchor for 5G to work)
I've been running it for the past couple months after Cox hit me with a 30% price increase that they wouldn't budge on. Fiber is currently being laid on my neighborhood by another company, so I gave this a try to bridge the gap.
I have excellent signal, but top out at about 150/35. At peak times, I've seen it drop to about 50/10. Still enough for day to day usage. It held up fine during the superbowl with everyone streaming.
Downsides, as mentioned, no public IP which made my site to site VPN not work. Regular VPN works fine. The DHCP IP range is not changeable (192.168.12.x). Router has to remained enabled, so double NAT to my existing network.
Other questions I've seen asked here. No caps (I've only used about 500g per month, so I don't know what happens if you use a lot more). Speed does fluctuate throughout the day. Occasional video buffering, but I wouldn't say excessive. Hardwired ports and wireless both work well. About the only settings you can change on the modem is the network name. Everything else is locked down.
I do plan on taking it for a road trip to see how it is. They have to check your area before signing you up to make sure there is capacity, but after that, you are free to travel with it.
In short, good for basic home users. Very easy to set up. Has limitations for more advanced users.
Are there taxes and fees or is it $50 total? My Spectrum is almost $20 more than that for about the same download speed but only 10Meg up. We dumped TMobile for cell phones a few years ago because coverage where we traveled wasn't very good, but I think signal at my own house was pretty good. Hmmm. Are there any data caps? I use lots of data. Maybe I missed that part.
Did you try getting a public IPv6 / does it pass that through to your UDM?
Awesome review. Ty.
This was a great video. Learned a lot from you and the comment section even more! I have had this "granny service" [as someone called it perfectly ;- ] for family HI about two months. For us it is working. Two separate gateways in two different buildings across town from each other. Daughter and granddaughter have HI for first time ever. It does get flaky on the roku run tvs occasionally and runs a bit slow at times where she lives – but all in all, for home use it has saved us money and she has connection. It always runs well on our cell phones and my Fire tablet. Special price deal [if you can catch it] is $55 a month, whereas for one connection with spectrum I was paying $80. If TMO irons out their buffering and conflicts with roku, I will be happier.
I began with 4G and upgraded a while back to 5G. We have had limited options for internet service for years for an old wine country house. I recently added a switch to backhaul 5 Google Wifi pucks on this system, trying to cover 7.500 square feet of living space. It has been such a great system with minimal issues, maintaining 200-300 mbps and allowing everyone to stream to their hearts content on tons of devices. I agree, perfect for home use for most, especially when there are limited options for internet available. Now I have to figure out how to add a TP-Link CPE PTP to a secondary router to add a separate network for the other house without screwing things up! 😬
Basic Browsing is fine but where the service really falls short is gaming. Its fluctuating connection makes games like Overwatch and Super Smash Brothers a real pain to play. A lot of the time it just won’t even let me play online for Super Smash Brothers. Overwatch is a roll of the dice as to whether the connection will be stable enough to let me hit my shots. Overall not bad for basic internet use, but online gaming is a nightmare
Any issues gaming???
I've been using it for 3 months and am mostly satisfied. I typically get around 250Mbps which is nice for the price. Only knock is the software is fairly locked down, no pass through mode.