Anyone try to replace their home internet broadband with a 5G router from AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon?

[Bill7]

Hi. My local wired broad band internet is about $90+ a month.
I've seen deals from all 3 big mobile phone carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon) for the $50 a month 5G routers.

Has anyone switched to them and have either a good or bad review of the service.

Are they stable where you could use them reliably as a "Work from Home" internet connection connecting to your office?

Another issue I can think of would be streaming, like watching Netflix movies. Wondering if after a certain point the speed will be throttled and the mobile compaies will slow down your speeds, making watching streaming movies difficult?

Please reply with your experiences on this. Thanks.

 

[Torrid]

I've thought about it. There's a lot of online gaming that happens in my house so I haven't attempted it. I don't do much of that these days, but I don't want to detract from the rest of the house's experience and I have a feeling they wouldn't be too pleased with me if it didn't work well.

 

[dogememe]

I tried Verizon 5G Home Internet.

It was mostly great. Speeds were solid even during peak times. Gaming was no problem.

I use a lot of data, sometimes several TB a month. They never throttled me.

However, their gateway/router was trash and required several reboots a day. They refused to replace it. So I cancelled.

 

[missingcurlybracket]

Make sure it’s available at your specific location, they control the home internet population in an area tightly depending on how much bandwidth they have, I’ve gotten ads before but I don’t qualify putting my address in.

You’ll have to look at the fine print of each for your streaming concern.

But i’d say it’s worth a shot, maybe don’t cancel your current internet yet

 

[Bill7]

Make sure it’s available at your specific location, they control the home internet population in an area tightly depending on how much bandwidth they have, I’ve gotten ads before but I don’t qualify putting my address in.

You’ll have to look at the fine print of each for your streaming concern.

But i’d say it’s worth a shot, maybe don’t cancel your current internet yet

Yes, I've found a carrier with 4 out of 5 bars in my home and 5G (AT&T).
Verizon has only 2 bars (with their 5G going in and out), and T-Mobile is close to a dead zone.
I'm thinking of getting the AT&T router, and keeping the redundant broadband wired internet for the first month.
If the AT&T router doesn't work out, can still failover to the wired internet.

But was asking if anyone has tried this and ran into router dropping connections or needing constant reboots,
or if cell service for internet was unstable in general for home internet.

 

[missingcurlybracket]

Yes, I've found a carrier with 4 out of 5 bars in my house and 5G (AT&T).
Verizon has only 2 bars, and T-Mobile is close to a dead zone.

I mean that you won’t know whether you’ll truly be able to sign up until you put in your address in their website!

I lived in a suburb last year with solid coverage from all three, got a flier in the mail advertising it, but T-Mobile turned me down, seemingly due to a relative lack of unused bandwidth

 

[Bill7]

I mean that you won’t know whether you’ll truly be able to sign up until you put in your address in their website!

I lived in a suburb last year with solid coverage from all three, got a flier in the mail advertising it, but T-Mobile turned me down, seemingly due to a relative lack of unused bandwidth

Thanks - I live in a small town a long drive from the nearest city, so hopefully there will be plenty of bandwidth on the tower.

 

[DwightFrye]

I'm now paying $100 a month to Spectrum for high speed internet and a land line. The land line is necessary in my rural area. I was interested in saving money and looked into those other services. They work by placing a small dish on your house that receives the signal from a repeater tower. Which may or may not be within range of your home. Only one provider had coverage in my area. They wanted about $70 a month, wanted to charge an installation fee, and the download speed was nowhere even close to what I am getting from Spectrum.

I called Spectrum and asked if they had a download speed that was slightly slower. Nope. I asked if they had a senior citizen discount. Nope. I asked if they had a discount for long term customers or a discount if I committed to a one year plan. Nope.

So any hope of real competition was a pipe dream. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Escape08]

I have TMobile/Sprint mi-fi hotspot for 3 years now $50 plus tax/misc

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

The problem I’ve seen is that hotspot routers ALL have a data limit. I tried this on Sprint and T-Mobile both, and ended up with dead zones at the end of every month because I exceeded even the max data cap (150GB) on the highest plan. After that, almost every carrier throttles you to something like 3G speeds, which is untenable. So I ended up moving to a local carrier who uses fiber to local cell towers, then RF between the tower and my house. I currently pay for 50Mbps, but due to proximity I almost always run 55-57. If there’s ever a time where I get less than 80% of the rated speed, they come fix it at no cost. And it’s totallly, completely unlimited. It’s $107/mo (high, I know) but includes all service calls and the equipment.

I’m over data caps and stupid restrictions now that we’re ~30 years into this broadband at every house ordeal. Just say no!

 

[Creekside]

We had a Verizon jet pack and it was unreliable. The speed was only acceptable but I wouldn’t say “good”. Upgraded to Starlink and never looked back. This is by far the best internet we’ve ever had. I’ll be putting it in my shop at the other end of the farm too.

 

[Furious]

Just so you are aware Straight Talk offers the Unlimited Home internet for $45/m and $99 one time for the router/modem, it is identical to the Verizon option and runs on the Verizon towers. (Verizon owns Straight Talk) and it is no contract.

So if you have good Verizon signal in the area you may want to see if it is an option by you because why risk a contract for something that may not work when you can get it without a contract.

I also believe T-Mobile offers theirs with no contract as well through Metro-PCS.

 

[CKN]

We had a Verizon jet pack and it was unreliable. The speed was only acceptable but I wouldn’t say “good”. Upgraded to Starlink and never looked back. This is by far the best internet we’ve ever had. I’ll be putting it in my shop at the other end of the farm too.

I had a jet pack and traveled all over the country with it and got about 90% up time. Granted-it was seven years ago and things may have changed.

 

[Furious]

The problem I’ve seen is that hotspot routers ALL have a data limit. I tried this on Sprint and T-Mobile both, and ended up with dead zones at the end of every month because I exceeded even the max data cap (150GB) on the highest plan. After that, almost every carrier throttles you to something like 3G speeds, which is untenable. So I ended up moving to a local carrier who uses fiber to local cell towers, then RF between the tower and my house. I currently pay for 50Mbps, but due to proximity I almost always run 55-57. If there’s ever a time where I get less than 80% of the rated speed, they come fix it at no cost. And it’s totallly, completely unlimited. It’s $107/mo (high, I know) but includes all service calls and the equipment.

I’m over data caps and stupid restrictions now that we’re ~30 years into this broadband at every house ordeal. Just say no!

The new home internet options are unlimited data, these are big modems/boxes now as well not those little hotspot ridiculous priced bs they had just a few years back.

 

[Pew]

I have users with 2 TMO FX2000e and 2 Verizon MiFi X Pro 5G. The Verizon one has better and more consistent connection than the TMO one but we also tend to work in rural/industrial areas inside a construction trailer. AFAIK, all carriers put 5G home internet on the lowest priority but there's no data cap. However, congestion times means you will be at the lowest priority when it comes to speed - probably not an issue though unless you're on multiple devices.

There are also other 5G devices like external antennas that can help the signal from the tower to your home but I haven't had the chance to order one to test yet.

To add; we also do need to restart the Wavemaker FX2000e at least once a week but without further testing I'm assuming that's more because of the Inseego router. Because of my company's uses, I would use the VZ over the TMO but I keep both for a backup.

 

[Zee09]

TMobile from the beginning
Went through the bad times of very slow speed for over a few years like 12-30 Mbps...

Never a data cap here...Now I am at an average of 400 Mbps for $50 inclusive of all fees...
Thrilled....

 

[dogememe]

Half of the posts in this thread are regarding mobile hotspots which are NOT anywhere near the same thing...

 

[fantastic]

I've been using an AT&T unlimited data plan for my house internet for 5 years now. One thing I've learned is that if you have the need for a reliable connection IOT (Camera's, Weather Stations, etc) they can & will be "unhooked" from your SSID because of bandwidth issues. The tower's being bogged down on any given Sunday is no different than the old DSL connection these days with Cell carriers getting in on the Home Internet services.
My weather station & basement camera get disconnected frequently. They'll come back online in a week, a month,? Otherwise you have to restart your box for them to hook back online. Even T Mobile home internet & the others claim their service is not for IOT. If you absolutely need certain things connected all the time get Fiber if it's available. It's the only service that is dead on reliable connection in today's world.
If all you need is to get on your laptop everyday & connect your smart TV then cellular service may work very well for you. I wish you well on the adventure!

 

[Pew]

Half of the posts in this thread are regarding mobile hotspots which are NOT anywhere near the same thing...

5G home internet gateways are just a beefed up version of a 5G hotspot; with larger antenna and support for more connections because they're meant to stay in one place. The plans differ as well with the hotspot plans costing more because of higher data prioritization until the data throttle limit.

 

[dogememe]

5G home internet gateways are just a beefed up version of a 5G hotspot; with larger antenna and support for more connections because they're meant to stay in one place. The plans differ as well with the hotspot plans costing more because of higher data prioritization until the data throttle limit.

Different plans, different throttling, different hardware. So an experience with a hotspot is not comparable. That's the point I was trying to make, sorry if I was unclear.