T-Mobile HOME Internet Service

[alarmguy]

Very cool, Ill check that out one day ^^^ thanks for posting it. With that said, T-Mobile informed me of my tower and where it was, told me what road which is right near us, I can see the top of the tower through the trees from an area in my community.
Told me the position to place the router which lines up with what road they told me.
But this can allow me to confirm it and wonder if the B2 signal is from the same tower or not because its always slower.
Will check out the reddit forum too.

 

[Touring5]

Yeah. That info the link uses to determine tower location is for the primary signal (mine is B66, I believe). I don't think the secondary is shown - that is my 5G, n71 signal which in my case is not on the same (nearby) tower. I really hope when the new tower near me gets populated with antennas, it includes T-Mo 5G. All I know is it's a huge standalone tower and it's owned by a company named "Diamond" something or another.

 

[alarmguy]

^^^ Im still waiting, everyday, for that magical N71 5g secondary signal to show up in the GUI. *L* It really is almost funny at this point.

We have options, more then some people, with just one phone call (or internet sign up) I can give them my Modems Mac ID (if they didnt save it) be signed up and running with Spectrum and have a 115+ MBPS speed @ a one year price lock of $49.95 which is what I am paying T-Mobile anyway.
Literally as soon as I get off the phone with them I will be connected, up and running.
After that year it will be $75+ but that doesnt matter I can do the whole cycle all over again with TMobile, by that time, I am sure everything with TMobile will be working just fine.
Whats more, the longer I give TMobile the chance to get up to speed, the better the offer will get from Spectrum. Im not sure if its 90 days or 6 months after cancelling they will then make one last offer and that is $49.95 for two years and 400 Mbps service. *L*

With that said, I do expect TMobile N71 to come back to my tower soon, meaning within a week or two or an hour or two based on what I have read in some forums. I also expect it to be very reliable once they are done doing whatever they are doing. We still have no issues with connection reliability itself. Works perfectly. I actually surprised how reliable minus the super speeds I had when I first plugged it in.
TMobile is now offering COMMERICAL 5G service in two commercial areas near me one 7 miles and one 20. I was surprised to see that so soon, so that must mean they have a handle on things if they are offering it commercially. One area is huge shopping/dining area of the state.

Either way, burning myself out on this, if it comes back, great, will work with it and see how it goes, I prefer to stay with TMobile, I dont like doing business with companies like Spectrum (they suck) that raise my rate 70% over a few year period then offer me that 70% reduction for one year after I cancel them. Right now I have the satisfaction of denying them my money as a penalty, I wish all consumers did things like this to bad companies.
But, we will see how it goes. I dont see myself deactivating an account for a fee. So it will be all in or out. I suspect in two weeks if N71 is not back I will cancel and go back to Spectrum for one year, then retry TMobile on that year because at that one year mark Spectrum will go up that outrageous 70% again.

This mornings LTE speed is just about 50 Mbps, evenings it dives to 10 to 25 but has seemed a bit better lately and most times around 20 as the low. But no where near acceptable compared to how it was working when I first got it nor acceptable to Spectrum at $49. special one year price.

 

[alarmguy]

Final Update - Friday, Feb 12th, 2021 )

I will try to keep this short, anyone interested can read the whole thread.

1. I canceled T Mobile Home Internet and went back to Spectrum (for now) I tried like heck to make TMobile work but there is a current issue with our local tower and 5g at the present time, speeds slowed down to 40 Mbps as a high to as low as 10 Mbps at times.

I expect its just a matter of a couple weeks before its corrected but I dont have to wait, so I canceled since I get exactly the same speed from Spectrum (100 Mbps) for 1 year for $49. a month as a promotion for becoming a customer again. In one years time Spectrum which I hate with all my heart will then bump the price back up to the $80 range, at that time, I know TMobile will have my tower and its entire system perfected, then I can once again switch back @49 for the same speed that Spectrum will charge me $80 for.
It took me literally MAYBE 15 minutes to switch back to Spectrum, all I had to do was enter my payment info online, then call Spectrum and give the Mac Id of my modem.

2. I would without hesitation recommend T-Mobile home internet to anyone stuck with a slow connection or retarded expensive internet service.
Keep in mind in record time TMobile Home Internet has blanketed the USA with 5G service. Verizon and ATT are literally in the dust.
They are still tidying things up and perfecting their system. It cost you nothing to try out except the monthly $50 fee, if you are lucky, you will have a local cell tower that has and it properly working, even if it isnt, some of the speeds that I have got still surpass some of what people in here get with DSL. Anyway, nothing to lose, no taxes, no fees, no equipment charges, no shipping costs even to return the unit is paid for by T Mobile.

3. T-Mobile Home internet is for the plug and play family. Its not for the intermediate internet hobbyist who wants to go into router settings and port, passthrough, ya da ya da. Its for the plug and play family that wants to take something out of the box, plug it in and be done. I suspect that covers about 90% of American families.
The only settings you can choose is to change your network name and passwords if you wish.
The modem/router combination is most likely the best in the industry as far as the WiFi power and range of the unit. I am quite amazed how powerful it is in broadcasting your wifi signal.
The software is buggy but kind of funny, after using it extensively for litterally hours on end day after day, in some retarded way it was making sense to me and actually had no problems over time but again, plug and play family is key.

4. Ooma, cant blame TMobile if Ooma is a pain to set up with TMobile that is Ooma issue, after all they make the equipment but it can be done, it just takes time and effort.
Ooma connects much more easy with my Spectrum service but as I commented in the past, a handful of times over 5 years I did have to restart the system for Ooma. Ooma is a device I HIGHLY recommend if you want a home landline, cost $6 a month for taxes ect, that is it. Quality meets and beats the best of any landline service at 8 times the price.

FInal =
Thank you T-Mobile for your efforts. I kind of look forward to coming back next year and subscribing to your service. I am impressed.
Furthermore, thank you for letting me put Spectrum/Charter communications in their place. No longer do I and countless other Americans have to put up with their OUTRAGEOUS price increases. 70% (or 80%) increase over a 5 year period is disgusting.
We now have choices that do not require a wire to the home to connect to the internet. Very cool.

So Mr Spectrum/Charter when you raise my rate again next Feb by 80% after my 1 year $49 a month deal, or heck, because I hate you so much, I could cancel in 6 months if I want but either way, I will sign up with TMobile again unless I am promised the 100 Mbps speed without price increases.
Yay! Very cool! This is REALLY going to shake up the home internet industry. Just like T Mobile shook up the cell industry.

 

[alarmguy]

Ps, even though I went back to spectrum for up to the next year I have the satisfaction of knowing it cost them $350 of my after tax income which is now in my pocket.

 

[mk378]

There is a dance that people do with cable companies-- basically threaten to cancel, hope that they counter with another year at the promotional price.

 

[Touring5]

Final Update - Friday, Feb 12th, 2021 )

I will try to keep this short, anyone interested can read the whole thread.

1. I canceled T Mobile Home Internet and went back to Spectrum (for now) I tried like heck to make TMobile work but there is a current issue with our local tower and 5g at the present time, speeds slowed down to 40 Mbps as a high to as low as 10 Mbps at times.

I expect its just a matter of a couple weeks before its corrected but I dont have to wait, so I canceled since I get exactly the same speed from Spectrum (100 Mbps) for 1 year for $49. a month as a promotion for becoming a customer again. In one years time Spectrum which I hate with all my heart will then bump the price back up to the $80 range, at that time, I know TMobile will have my tower and its entire system perfected, then I can once again switch back @49 for the same speed that Spectrum will charge me $80 for.
It took me literally MAYBE 15 minutes to switch back to Spectrum, all I had to do was enter my payment info online, then call Spectrum and give the Mac Id of my modem.

2. I would without hesitation recommend T-Mobile home internet to anyone stuck with a slow connection or retarded expensive internet service.
Keep in mind in record time TMobile Home Internet has blanketed the USA with 5G service. Verizon and ATT are literally in the dust.
They are still tidying things up and perfecting their system. It cost you nothing to try out except the monthly $50 fee, if you are lucky, you will have a local cell tower that has and it properly working, even if it isnt, some of the speeds that I have got still surpass some of what people in here get with DSL. Anyway, nothing to lose, no taxes, no fees, no equipment charges, no shipping costs even to return the unit is paid for by T Mobile.

3. T-Mobile Home internet is for the plug and play family. Its not for the intermediate internet hobbyist who wants to go into router settings and port, passthrough, ya da ya da. Its for the plug and play family that wants to take something out of the box, plug it in and be done. I suspect that covers about 90% of American families.
The only settings you can choose is to change your network name and passwords if you wish.
The modem/router combination is most likely the best in the industry as far as the WiFi power and range of the unit. I am quite amazed how powerful it is in broadcasting your wifi signal.
The software is buggy but kind of funny, after using it extensively for litterally hours on end day after day, in some retarded way it was making sense to me and actually had no problems over time but again, plug and play family is key.

4. Ooma, cant blame TMobile if Ooma is a pain to set up with TMobile that is Ooma issue, after all they make the equipment but it can be done, it just takes time and effort.
Ooma connects much more easy with my Spectrum service but as I commented in the past, a handful of times over 5 years I did have to restart the system for Ooma. Ooma is a device I HIGHLY recommend if you want a home landline, cost $6 a month for taxes ect, that is it. Quality meets and beats the best of any landline service at 8 times the price.

FInal =
Thank you T-Mobile for your efforts. I kind of look forward to coming back next year and subscribing to your service. I am impressed.
Furthermore, thank you for letting me put Spectrum/Charter communications in their place. No longer do I and countless other Americans have to put up with their OUTRAGEOUS price increases. 70% (or 80%) increase over a 5 year period is disgusting.
We now have choices that do not require a wire to the home to connect to the internet. Very cool.

So Mr Spectrum/Charter when you raise my rate again next Feb by 80% after my 1 year $49 a month deal, or heck, because I hate you so much, I could cancel in 6 months if I want but either way, I will sign up with TMobile again unless I am promised the 100 Mbps speed without price increases.
Yay! Very cool! This is REALLY going to shake up the home internet industry. Just like T Mobile shook up the cell industry.

Sort of a shame, but I think I'm going to be following you out that door. The Ooma issue was the backbreaker for me - I ran into the same calls in OK, with no outbound calling two times in 5 days. Once I had to do the Nokia reset, the most recent it must have occurred by itself. I really don't remember having this problem on my ATT connection. It's one thing if the thing causes Telo to not work (red light), but to display the OK indicator (blue light) but be crippled is unacceptable. If I have an urgent need to call or even an emergency, I don't want to jack around for 10 minutes waiting for resets, etc.

My speeds are generally good, but I also have seen similar slow downs, even when I was connected to n71 (by all indications, I always connect to the same 5G tower).

It is indeed a "dance" you have to perform with internet providers. Why they can't just have a set price for a given service format/level is just ridiculous IMHO. Honestly, while speeds on T-Mo have at times been pretty impressive, the fact that they only guarantee 25/12 (I think that's the upload minimum) is concerning. If they get lots of subscribers and their capabilities start getting stretched, I have no doubt they'll be forced to throttle users to save bandwidth. Only time will tell - everything is always fluid and subject to negotiation...

 

[Touring5]

As a final comment, I did a few speed tests just now - both upload and download were under 10 Mbps. Still connected to n71 secondary signal, but now on B2 primary.

 

[alarmguy]

There is a dance that people do with cable companies-- basically threaten to cancel, hope that they counter with another year at the promotional price.

Yeah, used to do that dance, it used to be much easier and honestly if I can find another company without promotional pricing I will go with that company. The one with the real low price wins for me.
Just so I dont have to call, a year goes by fast. We did call them 2 months ago and try to get the price knocked down before we switched to TMobile.
Now I have TMobile in the wings and looking forward to trying it out next year when my rate goes higher.

 

[alarmguy]

Sort of a shame, but I think I'm going to be following you out that door. The Ooma issue was the backbreaker for me - I ran into the same calls in OK, with no outbound calling two times in 5 days. Once I had to do the Nokia reset, the most recent it must have occurred by itself. I really don't remember having this problem on my ATT connection. It's one thing if the thing causes Telo to not work (red light), but to display the OK indicator (blue light) but be crippled is unacceptable. If I have an urgent need to call or even an emergency, I don't want to jack around for 10 minutes waiting for resets, etc.

My speeds are generally good, but I also have seen similar slow downs, even when I was connected to n71 (by all indications, I always connect to the same 5G tower).

It is indeed a "dance" you have to perform with internet providers. Why they can't just have a set price for a given service format/level is just ridiculous IMHO. Honestly, while speeds on T-Mo have at times been pretty impressive, the fact that they only guarantee 25/12 (I think that's the upload minimum) is concerning. If they get lots of subscribers and their capabilities start getting stretched, I have no doubt they'll be forced to throttle users to save bandwidth. Only time will tell - everything is always fluid and subject to negotiation...

Yeah, nice to give playing with the TMobile set up a rest. Dropping the equipment off at UPS today and back to TMobile.
Too many things to overcome at this point.
Your issue seems even more strange. My 5g signal just dropped off, never to reappear after almost 3 weeks. Your unit is showing 5g but you have LTE speeds.
The 5g for you is almost like a wifi router running in your home but no connection to the internet.
Yes, they have issues to fix, I sort of expected so but was so blown away by the high speed when we first got the unit I thought I hit a grand slam.
They will get it right but will take months to a year.

 

[alarmguy]

As a final comment, I did a few speed tests just now - both upload and download were under 10 Mbps. Still connected to n71 secondary signal, but now on B2 primary.

oh... that dreaded B2 band, I know it well! I reset until I get the B12 back.
I noticed late afternoons sometimes, I think when they need to shed some bandwidth it automatically switches you over to B2 *LOL*

As I posted above, almost sounds like your N71 band isnt connected to the internet at the tower.
Yup, lots of bugs.
One thing I loved about the router section of the Nokia Tower (and the only thing you could do with the settings) was the power of the wifi AND the fact that its a 3 band tower with the ability to use wifi channels here in the USA that typically are not used but used overseas.
I could set the 5ghz up on channels no one else in my community was on.

It was very cool, are other routers in this country sold that way?
Meaning my Motorola 2600 doesnt allow me to use channels 64 to (I forgot) in fact when I was using the Nokia some of my devices, I think it was my new 4kRoku player or my kind of expensive Sony Tv, could not find the 5 MHz band I was using! *L* Most of my desktops and notebooks could. I see here in the USA its reserved for weather/radar and Military(?) anyway, that was cool.

 

[alarmguy]

Update- 2-16-21
I received the following response from TMobile a couple days ago, spoke to him last evening. Good conversation and even though I am back with Spectrum for now, without hesitation if your unhappy with your internet service I would certainly give them a try. Some people have had very good experiences even more so if you do not have great service now.
They are still getting kinks out of the "system" with their new 5g Home Internet Service. However your experience will boil down to the cell tower near you.
I most likely will revisit trying T Mobile when Spectrums $49 internet price expires Next Jan/Feb 2022.
5G is going to change the world. I think?
______________________________________________

My name is Chris, and I am a Senior Specialist with T-Mobile’s Office of the President. I am reaching out to you about your recent correspondence to the Federal Communications Commission regarding your home internet service. I would like to speak with you about your concerns so we can find a resolution for you. Please give me a call at the number below at your earliest convenience. I will be available on Monday, February 15, 2021 from 8:00 AM until 6:30 PM Pacific Time.

Thank you,


Chris (redacted) (He/Him/His)
Sr. Specialist, Executive Response
Office of the President
Direct (redacted)

(Im sure you know I do the "redacted" thing for fun, learned it from politicians *L*)

 

[Touring5]

deleted

 

[alarmguy]

Update - last one,
Ive been back to Spectrum for now, as past posts have said Spectrum reduced the price for 1 year to $49, after the year it goes to $79 for 100 Mbps service. Ill re-visit Tmobile then.
Interestingly, when I got spectrum back, I wasnt getting the full 100 Mbps as advertised, a simple online complaint to the FCC cured that, now I have 233 Mbps on my 100 Mbps plan.

Tmobile just announced their 5G Home Internet this week of April 2021/ I truly was at the test stage when I got it and it would have been nice if I could tolerate it until the bugs were worked out because I would've had a "lifetime" (whatever that means) price of $49.
Now that its official, the price is $60 (forever price) still not a bad deal, all free equipment, as long as your cell tower near you is trouble free you will be lucky. Someday in the future it all will be trouble free.

Anyway, next FEB in 2022 my $49 Spectrum price will be expired and go all the way up to $80. I will revisit TMobile then. UNLESS our local electric co-op gets their fiber into my community, which is only $49. Been taking forever for them to get my way.

(I'm curious what touring did, haven't heard, also someone else in here)

 

[Skippy722]

Still not available in my area... would love to ditch Comcrap, especially after my last bill of $115 because of $70 worth of BS overage charges.

 

[alarmguy]

Still not available in my area... would love to ditch Comcrap, especially after my last bill of $115 because of $70 worth of BS overage charges.

Wow, I cant image the whole "overage" thing. Never had an experience like that with a company. Maybe decades ago on a cell phone...

 

[GON]

Wow, I cant image the whole "overage" thing. Never had an experience like that with a company. Maybe decades ago on a cell phone...

That is a coming ... and coming big. With the consolidation of cable companies.

Don't forget THE VERY FIRST stop the President made after he announces his candidacy for the 2020 presidential campaign was to the home of a Comcast executive who is also their chief lobbyist. Don't see this ending well for the American consumer of home internet services.

I am very hopeful that Elon Musk's satellite internet will work. Not really any competition for ISPs for over 95% of the USA.

 

[alarmguy]

There is now. TMobile home Internet. All the others will be involved soon too simply with the expansion of 5G.
$60 a month actual payment

 

[Skippy722]

Wow, I cant image the whole "overage" thing. Never had an experience like that with a company. Maybe decades ago on a cell phone...

Comcast has a 1.2Tb data cap... which for the average person is fine. But if you don’t have cable/satellite/OTA TV and you stream EVERYTHING you will very quickly chew through that.

Currently my only options for internet service is Comcast, Frontier which is a pathetic 6mbps connection for $40/month, or Starlink. Waiting and hoping for T-Mobile out here.