Albuquerque, New Mexico. Home of green chilies, 310 days of sunshine, an international balloon fiesta and painfully slow internet. Home internet was a two-horse race in the Albuquerque for years: CenturyLink DSL and Xfinity cable. I spent decades on DSL, watching mine internet speed tests they march slowly to a maximum of 20 megabits per second. Friends with the faster Xfinity complained about the customer service, data caps, and cable company prices, so I stubbornly stuck with CenturyLink. One day towards the end of 2022, A T-Mobile Home Internet the gate arrived at my house. After that I finally called to cancel CenturyLink.
Why did I switch to T-Mobile Home Internet?
I went with T-Mobile for several reasons. DSL was too slow. My next door neighbor got T-Mobile Home Internet and was happy about it. Coincidentally, CenturyLink wanted to charge me $200 to replace my old router with a newer one. I said, “No,” and changed into 5G home internet.
My home internet life has improved in my post-DSL world, but it's not all roses and happy dances. If you're looking for a TL;DR, here it is: I'm still on T-Mobile Home Internet and will probably stick with it until I can give Verizon 5G Home Internet attempt or until the fiber finally appears on my block. My experience with 5G home internet is specific to my circumstances, so your journey with the same service may vary. Here are the things I like about my 5G home internet and the elements it might push me to switch to another internet service provider sometime.
Here's what I love about T-Mobile Home Internet
I will sing the praises of T-Mobile Home Internet before airing my complaints. The service's best features are its simplicity and ease of use, and it's an upgrade over the aging DSL.
The price is right
With CenturyLink, I was paying $45 a month for downloads up to 20 Mbps. With T-Mobile, my monthly bill is $50 straight. That's the sweet spot for me in terms of home internet pricing. I was willing to pay a little more than CenturyLink for a higher standard of service, but my bargain-hunting mindset will turn away from anything higher. I would consider Verizon 5G Home Internet for the same price, but the rival service is unavailable at my address.
I expect the fibers to arrive one day, but will look into pricing before making the switch. The two providers most likely to service my address are Ezee Fiber ($69/month gig) and Vexus Fiber ($40/month for 500Mbps or $50/month gig). Vexus increases rates after the first year. I will measure my ingrained frugality against fiber performance when the time comes.
It's faster than DSL
That may seem like faint praise, but T-Mobile provides me with much better speeds than I was getting from DSL. My best speed test results net download tops out at 200 Mbps, 10x what I got on a good day with DSL. Speeds may vary due to network congestion and gateway device setup. I have some complaints about the speed, but we'll talk about that later.
The conditions are simple
I don't like the complexity when it comes to broadband plans. I don't want to calculate equipment rental fees or find out overage penalties for exceeding a data cap. I especially don't want to be bound by contract. I only want home internet and feel free to try another ISP. T-Mobile checks the box for simplicity. No equipment fees, data caps or contracts.
It is mother approved
My mother lives six blocks away from me. She also had CenturyLink DSL. I ran a speed test on her desktop computer and the best she could get was about 12 Mbps. That's not a typo. That's the reality for some DSL users. She was paying over $60 a month and was frustrated every time she tried to call to discuss her bill. No problem, mom. We canceled her DSL and had her sign up to T-Mobile. She found a nice perch for the front window gate near her computer. With a strong signal, she can regularly drop speeds of 100-200 Mbps, which is very good for her low-key browsing and streaming needs. The only downside is that she gets text messages about school closings to her portal, a holdover from the one who used her portal's phone number before her. It's a minor annoyance, and I don't have the same problem.
The gates are easy
T-Mobile provides a free gateway that combines the features of a modem and a router. I have a Nokia silver port that is semi-affectionately referred to as the “trash can”. The top-mounted display is a bit annoying due to its awkward location and gets hot, but it works. T-Mobile now has newer models. My mother has a Sagemcom device with a front display that looks like a more refined wastebasket. The latest port is sleeker and looks like an Apple product. I had no problems setting up my Nokia gateway and my mother's Sagemcom. We were online within minutes and found the ports to be stable with no crashes or other hiccups to report. Wi-Fi works well, reaching the corners of our old homes at respectable speeds.
Here are the not-so-good things about T-Mobile Home Internet
T-Mobile Home Internet has a lot going for it, but it's not my dream broadband service. Here are some areas where it stumbles.
It's not faster than cable or fiber
Xfinity offers cable speeds of up to 1,200 Mbps in my home. Vexus Fiber, Quantum fibers and Ezee Fiber is slowly rolling out across Albuquerque, but not yet in my historic neighborhood. Fiber customers can access symmetrical gig speeds, which I am extremely envious of. T-Mobile Home Internet offers typical speeds of 72-245Mbps, which is significantly below the offerings from local cable and fiber ISPs. The good news is that I'm not a gamer (let's ignore my Nintendo Wii obsession), so I only need enough brains to surf and stream. I wouldn't mind point-to-point downloads and uploads when moving large music, video, and image files around.
Strong signals may be elusive
Are two lights better than none?
T-Mobile's 5G Internet service is subject to the same pitfalls you face with phone service. Sometimes, you are in a place with a weak signal. Sometimes, that place is your own home. My neighbor, the first person I knew to get on 5G home internet, gets a strong signal on the west side of her house. Next door, the best I can get is a fair signal, which works out to a two out of five on the gate scale. That means I'm missing out on the top speeds the service is capable of.
Speeds can vary widely
My T-Mobile Home Internet speed is like the weather in Albuquerque. Wait five minutes and it will change. I just ran an internet speed test and got 16.7 Mbps. It's slow enough to give me unwanted flashbacks to my DSL days. A few minutes later, I'm at 94.6 Mbps. Sometimes, I get over 100 Mbps. Usually, I'm sitting around 80 Mbps. My speed tests are all over the map. Some of this may be due to the building materials of my 1939 home and my inability to dial in a good spot for the gateway to get a better signal. My CNET colleague Eli Blumenthal also encountered speed issues when testing the service in 2022. When CNET's Joe Supan tried AT&T Internet Airit also struggled with maintaining decent speeds, so the problem may be more endemic to fixed wireless service than specific to T-Mobile Home Internet.
The window placement is awkward
Sometimes getting a strong signal can require balancing.
T-Mobile recommends placing your gate “close to a window or high up on an upstairs or bookshelf.” When I had DSL, my router sat in my home office on a nice little shelf of its own. It was unobtrusive and out of the way. My T-Mobile gateway visited every window in my house in my search for a strong signal. It is now in my living room with the silver “trash can” mounted on the windowsill. I still get solid Wi-Fi coverage throughout my home, but a piece of internet equipment sitting in my window is not my ideal home decor.
Final thoughts on my online experience with T-Mobile Home
Thinking of dipping your toes into T-Mobile Home Internet? Consider whether it is an upgrade to your current service. If you're crawling along with DSL, it could be a smart move. If you need consistent and super-fast speeds, especially for gaming, then look at cable or fiber. I'm not a T-Mobile phone customer, but mobile customers can bundle affordable phone plans to get extra savings on home internet. That could be enough to sway price-conscious shoppers to 5G service online.
There is an element of experimentation with 5G home internet. You don't know how well it will work for you until you try it, so take advantage of T-Mobile's 15-day money-back trial. I'm not in love with my home internet, but at least I like it, and it's a better relationship than I had with DSL.